Abstract

Due to the decentralised nature of blockchain technology, NFT art has changed notions of authorship and ownership, diminished the role of art world experts, and influenced the global art market. However, the question of whether NFTs can be considered art at all remains open to debate. In order to distinguish NFTs from other digital and non-digital artworks, we will first provide an overview of what NFTs are and what kind of digital space they belong to. Secondly, we will analyse the conditions that an NFT must fulfil in order to be considered an artwork, according to its inherent characteristics. The results will show that, firstly, an NFT artwork depends on its artistic concept; secondly, its representational content has to be a visual interpretation of the NFT concept and related to data according to the concept; and finally, the concept defines the whole ecosystem and the aesthetic properties of NFT artworks.