This article explores and challenges notions and methodologies of conservation, including the use of blockchain technologies as a means of establishing provenance of a physical BioArtwork, of the artist’s documentation encapsulating their intentions and of the conservator’s records required for the artwork’s ongoing care. The exploration is done through a case study of an art project called ‘Unruly Objects and Biological Conservation’ created by Anna Dumitriu with support from Alex May. The artwork consists of three items containing RFID tags sealed (...) in resin – which point to the location of the artist’s documentation. Therefore, the works physically include instructions for maintaining their inherent concepts and materiality for the benefit of the conservators. Such instructions can often be difficult to track down, or become disassociated from the artwork while the digital preservation of this storage method also poses its own set of questions. The works also include biological material including mud from a bacterial ecosystem known as a Winogradsky Column, living plant material and SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus) RNA from a plasmid construct. (shrink)

I put forward an analysis of Beeple's "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" (2021), a set of digital images that attracted much attention when an NFT attached to it was sold for over $69 at a Christie's auction in March 2021. I submit that, developing on the tradition of conceptual art, Beeple presented for intellectual appreciation the performance of selling for a very high price an NFT attached to a set of digital images with peculiar ontological status, rather than the images (...) themselves. In so doing, Beeple produced an artwork that can be appreciated without direct acquaintance with it, exploring, among other things, a brilliant solution for bringing art to the public during pandemic time. (shrink)

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. (shrink)

The rise of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has been astonishing, in particular for the arts and creative industries. The dominant discourse both in mainstream media and in academia today focuses predominantly on what this new technology can do for the art market rather than art itself. However, framing NFTs in art in the context of money and markets draws attention away from the more subtle and creative role of NFTs. Consequently, this article asks: What is the role of (...) NFTs in art, beyond the market? This research complements existing empirical work, by conducting a case study and interviews with members of DADA, a historic NFT art project which is particularly critical towards the role of the art market. The findings foregrounded five roles that NFTs play in art: as (1) a tool for systemic change, (2) a new way to community, (3) a ritual artefact, (4) a means for preservation and (5) a new medium. (shrink)

This text is an attempt to describe a growing interest in transferring street art into digital art in the form of NFTs. By examining several urban values associated with graffiti and street art, it is possible to see how these phenomena affect new technologies. First, however, it is important to consider some street art NFTs and distinguish between their different types. We may identify three ways of presenting street art as NFTs: transferring the character to a different (...) medium; assembling a collection of street art NFTs in a museum-like environment with each piece having its own characteristics; writing street artistry into the wider metaverse. I describe five urban values of NFTs: preservation, accessibility, illegality, money, and uniqueness. In conclusion, it is clear that NFTs change how viewers may perceive street art. NFTs are supposed to be eternal rather than ephemeral, and they lose street art’s association with spontaneity and illegality as well as its critique of commercialism. Street art as NFT is just another form of profit-making and one of its new values is money. It is possible to notice artistic values as well. NFTs are marked by diversity, and have their own rules (such as the importance of movement or looping), which are impossible to implement in traditional street art. (shrink)

Talk at the Philosophy [in:of:for:and] Digital Knowledge Infrastructures online workshop (08/09/2022).

Building on Pietz’s speculation about the construction of a “history of the fetish’ that might be related to, yet stand apart from the fetish as a historical construct, this paper asks if there might be novel yet unmarked contemporary fetish-formations. Taking the later chapters of Pietz’s volume, which focuses on capital and techno-political infrastructures, this essay suggests that non-fungible tokens, or “NFTs,” might be thought of as failed fetishes, objects that work to occlude the material infrastructure that supports blockchain, (...) yet do not cohere because due to contemporary technology, they lack the sensuous materiality required by Pietz’s phenomenologically-shaped understanding of Marxism. Regardless of the correctness of this speculative claim about NFTs, this discussion suggests that Pietz’s original, groundbreaking argument on the fetish still has relevance to, and a great deal of creative promise for, analysis in the current day. (shrink)

In 2021, an NFT of a digital artwork by the artist @beeple was sold for $69 million. This sale is the starting point for a logical-historical journey tracing the fate of the Original in the digital age. We follow the footsteps of two seminal works exploring the concept of the Original, the celebrated The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin and Nelson Goodman’s book, Languages of Art. We examine two case studies: the Lost Leonardo (...) - a recently surfaced painting claimed to be by Leonardo da Vinci, which remains highly disputed, and the grandiose saga of van Meegeren, the famous counterfeiter of Vermeer’s works from the 1930s and 1940s. Both tales are read as fascinating detective stories. We provide an analysis of our own that anchors the idea of the Original with the logic of Singular Rule - thereby giving structure to the ‘one-of-its-kind’ property that we associate with the Original. Our final remarks discuss the relevance of our analysis to the digital art of today. (shrink)

Mary learns all the physical facts that one can learn by watching lectures on black-on-white television. According to Jackson, Mary learns new facts when she leaves the room and has color experiences, and that this undermines physicalism. Physicalists have responded by denying the new facts thesis; they argue, she acquires abilities, acquaintance knowledge, or new guises. I argue that the NFT is more plausible than any of the proposed alternatives. I also argue that the NFT does not undermine physicalism unless (...) physicalism entails that all physical facts are discursively learnable, and that the latter entailment is questionable. (shrink)

This paper approaches the question of terraforming—the changing of extraterrestrial environments to be capable of harboring earth-based life—by arguing for a novel conception of moral status that accounts for extraterrestrial bodies like Mars. The paper begins by addressing pro-terraforming arguments offered by James S. J. Schwartz before offering the novel account of moral status. The account offered builds on and modifies Keekok Lee’s No External Teleology Thesis (NETT), while defending a proposed Non-Fungibility Thesis (NFT). The NETT is modified and defended (...) with specific reference to Lee’s work on artifactuality and transgenic organisms. The NFT builds on work around objectification and irreplaceability, offering an account that recognizes the importance of bearers of value above and beyond the mere value they purportedly possess. Finally, the plausibility of the account is established by an overview of its applicability to other possible candidates for moral status. (shrink)

This paper provides a new defence against the logical problem of evil, based on the naturalistic functional/teleological theory of mind (NFT). I argue that if the NFT is self-consistent then it is consistent with theism. Further, the NFT entails that it is not possible for created minds to exist in the absence of evil. It follows that if the NFT is self-consistent then the existence of God is consistent with the existence of evil.

This article aims to outline the fundamental concepts that characterize blockchain technology in order to allow for a better understanding of how it is structured within the protocols which govern the internet, but also to portray the devices which allow its re-appropriation by capitalist culture. The theoretical foundations of this article are supported by a medio-archaeological position that allows us to acquire a technical look at the blockchain, but also to weave historical and aesthetic parallels in order to understand the (...) NFT phenomenon, at the core of current economic issues and speculations. (shrink)

Inspired by Fragments of a Hologram Rose, a 1977 science fiction short story by William Gibson, this 3D narrative work explores the violent stories of standardisation embedded in 3D composite objects. The full story is accessible online at: https://beyondresolution.info/Shredded-Hologram-Rose.

The paper deals with the problem of digital restitution of art to post-colonial and postdependency countries. A new model of digital restitution composed of two elements: creation of a digital copy with a NFT attached and creation of new property right in a physical and digital object has been proposed. A system of balances between the rights and duties based on the prior user concept has been developed.

Cet article explore les enjeux des technologies blockchain dans le champ de la création (art, design, jeu vidéo, etc.) à travers le développement, depuis 2015, des « Non Fungible Tokens » ( NFT ) – à savoir la production d’un certificat numérique infalsifiable et décentralisé attaché à une entité numérique ou tangible. Mis en lumière depuis le début de l’année 2021 par une multitude de ventes aux sommes record et par le développement de places de marché spécifiques, les NFT soulèvent (...) des enjeux relatifs à la valeur, à la circulation et à l’exposition des productions artistiques et culturelles. (shrink)

The editorial introduces issue 21.1 of Technoetic Arts via a critical reflection on the artificial intelligence hype (AI hype) that emerged in 2022. Tracing the history of the critique of Large Language Models, the editorial underscores that there are substantial ethical challenges related to bias in the training data, copyright issues, as well as ecological challeges which the technology industry has consistently downplayed over the years. -/- The editorial highlights the distinction between the current AI technology’s reliance on extensive pre-existing (...) human-generated data for pattern recognition and the performative process inherent in art practice. Patterns of creative output can be replicated without a thorough understanding of underlying concepts. In contrast, the performative process of art practice, as explored through the conceptual frameworks of creativity by Noam Chomsky, Charles Sanders Peirce, and Roger T. Ames and with reference to an earlier publication of the editorial’s author, creates concepts and continually ‘strives to extend itself towards the unknown.’ -/- Following this introductory section, the editorial provides an overview of the ten articles featured in this issue of Technoetic Arts. The first four texts engage with emerging technologies from various perspectives in art and design. The subsequent six articles, part of a special section titled 'Perspectives from Chandigarh,' reflect a quest for meaningful existence within colonial, patriarchal, and biopolitical structures that frame everyday practices of exclusion and oppression. (shrink)

English title: Kant and the Right to Vote The article is a contribution to the ongoing debate in NFT about the moral responsibility of voters. Kristian Skagen Ekeli has argued that politically ignorant citizens have a duty to abstain from voting. He argues that such a duty fol- lows from Kant’s duty to respect other persons. I analyze Ekeli’s proposed duties by considering how they might fit into Kant’s system of duties. I conclude, contra Ekeli, that the Kantian duty to (...) respect persons does not give rise to a duty for politically ignorant voters to abstain from voting. -/- Denne artikkelen er et bidrag til debatten om velgeres moralske ansvar. Kristian Skagen Ekeli har i to artikler argu- mentert for at uvitende borgere har en plikt til ikke å stemme, noe han begrunner ut fra en kantiansk pliktetikk. Det er imidlertid uklart hvordan en uvitende borgers plikt til å avstå fra å stemme skulle følge av Kants plikt til å respek- tere personer, noe Cornelius og Herman Cappelen kort antyder i sin kommentar til Ekeli. I denne artikkelen foretar jeg en analyse av de pliktene som Ekeli tar til orde for, og undersøker hvordan disse eventuelt kunne passe inn i Kants system av plikttyper. Jeg konkluderer motsatt av Ekeli, med at den kantianske plikten til å respektere personer ikke gir grunnlag for en plikt for uvitende borgere til å avstå fra å stemme i valg. (shrink)

Background: Neurofeedback training has recently been proposed as a valuable technique for cognitive enhancement and psychiatric amelioration. However, effect of NFT of alpha activity on memory is controversial. The current study analyzed previous works in terms of randomized and blinded analyses, training paradigms, and participant characteristics to validate the efficacy of alpha NFT on memory in a healthy population.Objectives: A systematic meta-analysis of studies with randomized controlled trials was performed to explore the effect of alpha NFT on working memory and (...) episodic memory in a healthy population.Methods: We searched PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library from January 1, 1999, to November 30, 2019. Previous studies were evaluated with the Cochrane risk of bias. A meta-analysis calculating absolute weighted standardized mean difference using random-effects models was employed. Heterogeneity was estimated using I2 statistics. Funnel plots and Egger's test were performed to evaluate the quality of evidence.Results: Sixteen studies with 217 healthy participants in the control group and 210 participants in the alpha group met the eligibility criteria. Alpha NFT studies with WM measures presented little publication bias, and 5 of 7 domains in the Cochrane RoB exhibited a low risk of bias. The overall effect size from 14 WM studies was 0.56. Six EM studies exhibited an effect size of 0.77.Conclusion: Meta-analysis results suggest that alpha NFT seems to have a positive effect on the WM and EM of healthy participants. Future efforts should focus on the neurophysiological mechanisms of alpha NFT in memory. (shrink)

Significant variation in performance in motor imagery tasks impedes their wide adoption for brain-computer interface applications. Previous researchers have found that resting-state alpha-band power is positively correlated with MI-BCI performance. In this study, we designed a neurofeedback training protocol based on the up-regulation of the alpha band relative power to investigate its effect on MI-BCI performance. The principal finding of this study is that alpha NFT could successfully help subjects increase alpha-rhythm power and improve their MI-BCI performance. An individual difference (...) was also found in this study in that subjects who increased alpha power more had a better performance improvement. Additionally, the functional connectivity of the frontal-parietal network was found to be enhanced after alpha NFT. However, the enhancement failed to reach a significant level after multiple comparisons correction. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the neurophysiological mechanism of cognitive control through alpha regulation. (shrink)