Nfts
New SAP Exhibition Spotlights NFT Art
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, artists around the world faced a challenge. With museums, exhibitions and art forums closing, they suddenly had nowhere to present their works to the public.
At least not in analog form.
“Many artists were wondering how to sell and market their work,” says Alexandra Cozgarea, art curator at SAP. “That’s why we saw a lot of hype around digital art at the time – and especially about artwork in the form of NFTs.”
SAP’s latest exhibition titled “The Poetry of Blockchain” is the first curated exclusively for NFT art and features 47 works by 18 artists. But what exactly are NFTs?
NFT stands for non-fungible token. It is a unique, non-replaceable and non-interchangeable digital object, stored on a blockchain which serves as a certificate of authenticity and ownership of a physical or digital good, such as an image. It takes the form of a digital identifier composed of a unique string of characters.
NFTs on the art market
If you want to buy NFT artwork, you need a cryptocurrency and a crypto wallet – installed on your smartphone or other device – to store them. You are then ready to visit one of the many open platforms on the Internet, known as “NFT”. marketplaces,” where people can browse NFTs or search for works by specific artists. One of these markets is OpenSea.
“These platforms work a bit like galleries,” explains Cozgarea. “Artists wishing to offer their works for sale there upload their pieces to the underlying blockchain to create NFTs in a process known as “minting.”
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These tokens can represent a single asset or multiple copies of the same asset, in which case the image displayed on the platform will be identical but the digital identifier will be slightly different for each copy. This means that an artist can create a whole series of artworks and put them up for sale on an NFT marketplace.
“Many works in these markets are created digitally and added directly to the blockchain as NFTs,” explains Cozgarea. “But it is also possible to create NFTs from analog works of art such as oil paintings or sculptures. To do this, photograph the artwork and upload it as a JPG file.
When you have selected a work of art that you wish to purchase, you bid on the platform or, if a fixed price is specified, you make an offer. If the artist accepts your offer, the NFT is released and payment is made using the cryptocurrency deposited in your wallet. You then receive a link containing the address of the NFT and can transfer it to your wallet.
The acquired coin can be displayed at any time – as a JPG, video or other file – by clicking on a link or scanning a QR code. But the token itself remains in the buyer’s wallet.
“The artists exhibiting their NFTs at SAP in Walldorf copied their works onto a USB stick as files,” explains Cozgarea. “The original artwork remains secure on the blockchain, so if the stick is lost or stolen it makes no difference in terms of ownership.”
“Many of my works are the result of several years of research, during which I study and modify the gaps in history, the background of coding and the opaque influence of databases on the development of algorithms and the resulting image creation. At each step, I ask, “Who are we and what shapes our identity?” What makes a person? What traces do we leave in the places where we live?’ »
Johanna Reich, exhibiting artist
SAP is working on an NFT management solution
NFTs have an impact far beyond the art market. The business world has also recognized their potential. At SAP, a team across three continents is working on an NFT management solution focused on customer engagement and loyalty programs.
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To showcase the possibilities of the solution, visitors to the opening night of the SAP art exhibition were invited to access NFTs created by SAP. Sven Haiges, software developer at SAP Labs Munich, explains the background: “We work with MetaBrewSociety, based in Bavaria, Germany. It is a startup that was partly financed by selling NFTs. By scanning a QR code on one of the beer cans we ordered from them, customers and visitors to SAP events can now claim one of our own NFTs, created with our NFT management solution.
“Right now, only about 5-10% of the population understands crypto and NFTs, and those are of course younger people,” says Haiges. But he expects the level of interest and engagement to increase.
Cozgarea sees NFTs as a response to digitalization and what she describes as its promise of openness, exchange and – to some extent – democratization. “NFTs present a concept of ownership for the digital age. People are looking for something exclusive,” she says.
At the SAP training center in Walldorf, 47 works of art by 18 different artists are on display – all on monitors. The organizers decided not to broadcast the works live from the blockchain because it would have been very energy intensive.
“This exhibition contains exclusively digitally produced works,” explains Cozgarea. “But it also includes works based on traditional art forms and that play with the possibilities of digitalization, such as augmented reality.”
Reinhard Schmid, one of the exhibiting artists, says: “I created my first cryptoart in 2018 and have since been featured in numerous publications and exhibitions. “The Poetry of Blockchain” is a highlight for me. Having a global player like SAP exhibiting NFTs is a milestone both for me as an artist and for the entire Web3 community.
The exhibition runs until February 23, 2024. Discover a 360° digital tour of the exhibition.
Top image courtesy of SAP employee Juelma Guerreiro.
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