Art Is The Utility
Art can exist for its own sake
gm, I’m Michael. And this is Crypto Creatives. The best newsletter about the Crypto Creator Economy. If you’re new here, consider subscribing. 1-2 free emails a week.
People love criticizing the NFT market.
“wen utility”
The truth is NFTs don’t need utility. Art is as old as time. And it’s OK to just appreciate it.
The Traditional Art World
Imagine showing up to a fancy museum. You see a Vincent van Gogh painting on display. You start screaming at everyone for being stupid.
“What utility does this stupid painting have?!”
When you frame it like that, there is none. But does that mean it has no use?
Wealthy people spend millions of dollars on art. Some people claim it’s advanced tax evasion. There is some truth to that.
But there are 2 reasons people invest in art:
Investing - whether you like it or not, art has cultural power. This means it has investment value too. And it might seem crazy to spend millions on a painting. But not if that painting will outperform the stock market.
Skin in the game - we only care about things that impact us in some way. Owning a piece of art gives you a mental push to understand it on a deeper level. It’s like investing in the stock of a company. You’re more likely to care about and learn more about the company if you own part of it.
These two factors are why we have been collecting art for centuries.
Art Gives Life Meaning
Art is the product of imagination. It’s anything you create that didn’t exist before. Everything you see on TV, and on the Internet is art. And yet, no one asks about the utility of any of that.
Art is powerful because it gives you more context to life. Broadens your worldview. Makes you a more complete human being.
Breaking Bad had a deep & profound impact on my worldview. Thoughts I never would’ve had if it hadn’t been for that show. So did Squid Game. And 1984. And The Scream. And the Bible.
None of these had “utility” beyond increasing understanding.
As Stan Lee put it, “Entertainment is one of the most important things in people’s lives. Without it, they might go off the deep end.”
Basically, art gives meaning to life. Which is infinitely valuable in a world with no meaning.
Mechanical Monotony
I was originally going to study philosophy. Wanted to become a philosopher. But someone made a joke to me once.
“What a great idea. They’re opening up a philosophy factory down the road next week.”
Everyone around me pushed me to study something “more practical.” Whatever the hell that means.
And it’s funny looking back. Because every philosophy major I’ve ever met has become a huge success. From internet creators to big-time lawyers. I’m sure they heard the same comments. But wisely didn’t listen.
Our culture worships mechanical monotony. And it hates creativity. A holdover from the industrial revolution. Where you only had value if you clocked into a factory 50 hours a week.
This mindset is poisonous. Deadly. It’ll tell you to sacrifice your dreams and do something you hate. Because after all, that’s the practical thing to do.
Mechanical monotony hates risk. It doesn’t take a bet. Even a safe one. It’s a mouse in one of those experiments where it presses a button and expects food to pop out like a pez dispenser. But guess what?
Life doesn’t work that way.
And ironically enough, the factory owner doesn’t think this way either.
Creativity Creates Wealth
Here’s the thing. Creative thinkers blaze new trails. Entirely new ways of doing things.
Every great achievement in art, entrepreneurship, or science came from a creative thinker. And anything that fosters new ways of thinking improves society for everyone.
But it’s not linear. One great idea or thinker can change the history of civilization.
You can’t have Alexander the Great without Aristotle.
The problem is that it’s impossible to measure the impact. What specific idea did Aristotle teach that made Alexander so great? Or was it the way of thinking? Or the frequency?
The truth is, we’ll never know. But that doesn’t mean creative thinking is useless.
Final Thoughts
Utility is important. But not everything needs to be a tool. The truth is, art itself has utility:
Increases your understanding of the world
Contextualizes your life
Helps creative thinking
Successful people all use creativity. From billionaire business owners to anonymous NFT artists.
It takes courage to create something that doesn’t exist. Whether that’s a piece of writing, a business model, or art of any kind.
And that my friend, is my justification for owning speculative jpegs of cartoon animals.
This is an excellent post. This needs to be the narrative more often. Sometimes I think i'm the only one that feels this way until i see snippets of it here and there. Thank you for writing this.
I think there was poisoning by some big-name big-following loud-fast speaking supporters of NFTs by stating this "wen utility" message as being all important. They seem to have blinders on stating that there was no value in digital art unless it had utility.
When this message started circulating, i almost quit creating NFT artwork. I got into it to grow my art in this space and if utility presents itself and happens to align with the values and intent of my art, then i'll consider it. That's what i thought the beauty of the blockchain was. I could if i wanted to. In my view, a lot of these 'utility' projects are forced - the authenticity is gone and its a different world from the 'art being created for the sake of art' perspective.
This started to drown out the other side of NFTs. The pure art that exists because it just does.
We also have to take note that there are a lot of NFT art creators that simply do not have the bandwidth or resources to dedicate to making our art more than what it already is. They are a one human show and for a lot of them, with very LIMITED funds and time. For me, i'm here to create and get better at my craft. I want to dedicate my time developing my art, its meaning and ultimately, its value. Sure there are easy ways to add utility like donating a portion of the proceeds to a charity, but when you get into managing communities, discord, heavy technological applications, DAOs - i mean, i wouldn't have any time to dedicate to art - most of these products have big teams, sometimes even investors.
Art for the sake of art is where my heart is and that's where it will stay. NFTs gave me the courage to put my art into this world and that is worth more to me than any utility can offer.
Utility has its place and is the core of blockchain technology, yes, but it doesn't need to have a seat at EVERY art table in the NFT world. Its tiring.