The NFT memento: digital thingness and NFTs in exhibition design

ABSTRACT

‘Live minting’ is an emerging trend in exhibition design which offers visitors the opportunity to mint an NFT memento in the exhibition. This paper examines three examples of this current trend in museums which include Play Record Mint (PRM), at Kunsthalle, Zurich, Life After Bob at Light Art Space (LAS) Foundation, Berlin, and Unsupervised at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. Using theories on the ‘museum experience’ drawn from scholars such as John Falk and Lynn Dierking (2011; 1992; 2008), this paper examines to what extent the NFTs in these examples contribute or challenge this idea. In doing so, this paper investigates the intersecting values associated with NFTs and argues that NFTs are a form of digital hybrid, a token that exists in a constant state of becoming a commodity, which has both potential benefits and implications for museum exhibition design.

KEYWORDS:

• NFTs
• museum experience
• glam institutions
• exhibition
• hybrid

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See www.opensea.io and www.objkt.com.

2 Note that the NFT market developed in early 2017 with the emergence of NFT platforms such as Opensea but became part of mainstream media in early 2021.

3 See https://www.ofluxo.net/proof-of-work-group-exhibition-curated-by-simon-denny-at-schinkel-pavillon/ (accessed 15 May 2023)

4 See https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/11/09/tezos-brings-artificial-intelligence-and-nfts-together-at-art-basel-miami-beach (accessed 15 May 2023)

5 See https://nxtmuseum.com/unidentified-fluid-other/ (accessed 9 May 2023)

6 Personal correspondence with artists March 23.

7 Reference from personal correspondence with LAS Foundation and WAC fellowship program, March 2023

8 Note that separate editions of the work were sold at auction using the Feral File platform and on the Ethereum blockchain, these ranged from 1,000 dollars up to 200,000 dollars in editions of 100 or 1-to-1s, these are not the focus of the paper. See https://feralfile.com/artworks/unsupervised-machine-hallucinations-moma-dreams-g-isd?fromExhibition=unsupervised-sla for further information.

Information regarding free mints including images can be found at the following links: M1 https://objkt.com/collection/KT1CPeE8YGVG16xkpoE9sviUYoEzS7hWfu39, M2: https://objkt.com/asset/memento-2-unsupervised-installation/37214540304218121786566893708923600581837527203284427749671447415338838819487 M3 https://objkt.com/asset/KT19rZLpAurqKuDXtkMcJZWvWqGJz1CwWHzr/8986278171643081902262603482228202887836750159150705508946670969684241521179M4https://objkt.com/asset/KT1KzEtNm6Bb9qip8trTsnBohoriH2g2dvc7/77374715729325556155484674659078290270136882844263888481961791807028060556492

M5: https://objkt.com/collection/KT1RWFkvQPkhjxQQzg1ZvS2EKbprbkAdPRSc

M6 https://objkt.com/collection/KT1X7i8EeQHChQ2cKGVthHrBS2jsPLSDWoEw (accessed 21 September 2023).

9 See https://objkt.com/explore/tokens/1?faContracts=KT1GBWC8L4HYXM62GDBGipnZ6Bc9sWgqhcFF&sort=timestamp:desc for examples (accessed 15 May 2023)

10 See https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjkQXFwoTKV/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D (accessed 15 May 2023)

11 Data is accurate to 21/09/23 https://objkt.com/collection/KT1CPeE8YGVG16xkpoE9sviUYoEzS7hWfu39 (accessed 21 September 2023)

12 See https://og.art/collections/liom/ (accessed 15 May 2023)

13 See https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=56087 for further details. (accessed 15 May 2023)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Frances Liddell

Frances Liddell is a post-doctoral researcher in Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. She holds a PhD in Museum Practice from the University of Manchester and an MA in Arts Management and BA(Hons) in Art History. Her research critically examines emerging technologies such as web3 as a tool to develop new ownership and participatory models in the cultural sector. She is a consultant lecturer at Sotheby's Institute of Art, London and an associate research fellow at Arts & Antiquities Blockchain Consortium, New York.