BrandBox: Art, Design and NFTs—WTF?

PRINTCast: The PRINT Podcast Studio is a curated collection of cutting-edge podcasts we love about design, creativity, branding, books, and further subjects afield. Soon, we’ll have a dedicated digital listening room. In the meantime, we present the latest episode of BrandBox, “a (playful and thoughtful) podcast on the strategies and effects of brands.”

With Beeple’s Christie’s auction—the first-ever art offering of completely digital work—the burnt-up Banksy and the upcoming Kings of Leon record, NFTs are suddenly everywhere. And you might even think they’re new.

But as this episode of BrandBox breaks down, they’ve actually been around for years—and NFTs, short for non-fungible tokens, essentially represent the digital world catching up with the physical art realm, which has naturally favored originals vs. copies, and has had a means of proving provenance via certificates of authenticity and other methods. When it comes to NFTs, it’s just the notion of a true digital original, verified via a blockchain, that can at first perplex.

“As technology has developed, the notion of the copy has become problematic,” co-host Tom Guarriello says. “And now, that ability to certify something as the real thing, even if it’s the real digital thing—which we kind of have a hard time wrapping our minds around because of the immateriality of it—adds all kinds of layers of psychological interest, philosophical interest and economic interest.”

For a breakdown of all things NFTs, give the episode a listen below—and then log into Clubhouse tonight at 8 p.m. ET to hear the hosts riff on the subject live.

Show Notes

• Beeple is Mike Winkelmann.

• Christies: Beeple | The First 5,000 Days.

• Beeple’s Opus.

• We Regret to Inform You That Grimes Just Sold $5.8 Million Worth of Her NFT Crypto Art in Less Than 20 Minutes.

• Nike Now Holds Patent for Blockchain-Based Sneakers Called ‘CryptoKicks.’

• NBA Top Shot.

• Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects.

• Facebook Usernames are LIVE: 200,000 Usernames in 3 Minutes.

• Lawrence Weiner, Statements.

• Robert C. Morgan.

• Ethereum.

• Bitcoin’s Wild Ride Renews Worries About its Massive Carbon Footprint.

• Nevada Enacts New Blockchain Laws.

• In Nevada Desert, Blockchains LLC Aims to Be its Own Municipal Government.

• Facebook’s Libra Currency to Launch Next Year in Limited Format.

• Understanding China's Digital Yuan.

• The Controversy Over Cut-Out Records in the 1960s.

• Blitzchung Controversy.

• Blizzard Reinstates Hong Kong Gamer’s Prize but Reaffirms Censure of His Speech.

• The Raging Controversy Over the NBA, China and the Hong Kong protests, Explained.

• Metaverse.

• Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious.

• “If I made potato chips and put them in a can, people would say I was ripping off Pringles,” he said. “But what if I put them in a bag?”

SVA Masters in Branding program // Music courtesy of Mikel Rouse // Dr. Tom Guarriello // Mark Kingsley