The Boca Bauhaus Marcel Breuer, BRiC and Lynn University’s NFT museum

ABSTRACT

‘Art and Technology – A New Unity.’ This was a slogan of the Bauhaus art school, but it could also be a slogan for digital artworks that have been minted as NFTs. We trace the lineage of the idea of the unity of art and technology from: the Bauhaus art school, which operated from 1919–1933; to buildings in Boca Raton that were co-designed in the late 1960s by a former Bauhaus teacher, Marcel Breuer; to an exhibit of the Lynn University NFT museum that, as of July 2023, is displayed in a building that was co-designed by Breuer and is now part of the Boca Raton Innovation Campus (BRiC). We juxtapose the Bauhaus’s approach to the unity of art and technology, understood by reflecting on Breuer’s architecture, with the unity of art and technology exemplified by NFT artworks. We argue that while audiences do not experience NFT artworks with the same ‘aura’ that audiences experienced when viewing artworks in the past, audiences can experience NFT artworks with what we call the ‘simulacrum’ of aura. Audiences can experience the simulacrum of aura because an NFT can be understood as original and authentic and cannot be identically reproduced.

KEYWORDS:

• NFT
• Digital art
• Marcel Breuer
• Bauhaus
• Aura

Acknowledgements

We are thankful for the feedback offered to us by Gianni D’Alerta, and Nava Dushi. We also appreciate the help of Amy An, who assisted with research and formatting.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Some NFTs store the digital file of an artwork directly in the NFT’s metadata, making it part of the token’s code. But storing the digital file like this is typically cost-prohibitive.

2 This section draws from several of our earlier projects: #BocaBauhaus 2022A; 2022B.

3 For a discussion of the spreading of media, see: Jenkins, Ford, and Green 2013.

4 Many artists of non-digital artworks such as paintings and sculptures have also had their artworks stolen, re-signed, or copied in ways that make maintaining an accurate provenance or accurately establishing authenticity impossible.

5 When an NFT stores in its metadata information about where an artwork is stored online rather than the artwork’s digital file, it could be that over time the information in an NFT might cease to direct those who view its information to an artwork or might direct them to different artworks, provided the artwork is deleted from where it is stored or replaced (cf. Liddell, 2022, 119). Nonetheless, the NFT itself remains the same and persists through time.

6 For a discussion of the spreading of media, see: Jenkins, Ford, and Green 2013.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cesar Santalo

Cesar Santalo is founder of Lynn University’s NFT Museum and the Dean of the College of Communication and Design at Lynn University, 3601 N Military Trl, Boca Raton, FL 33431 ([email protected]). Santalo held several roles at Univision and also worked for Telemundo/NBC Universal on Quibi. Santalo has illustrated, designed and animated live performances for shows such as the Latin Grammy's and Premio Lo Nuestro and for artists such as Cirque du Soleil, Juan Luis Guerra and Marc Anthony. He is currently pursuing a doctorate at St. Thomas University in Leadership and Innovation.

Andrew J. Corsa

Andrew J. Corsa holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and is an Associate Professor in Lynn University’s College of Arts and Sciences. He has written papers reflecting on digital art and philosophy that have been published in The British Journal of Aesthetics and Hyperrhiz. He has also written papers on the philosophy of literature, on philosophy in relation to theatre, on ethics, and on the history of philosophy.

Alex Duque

Alex Duque is a Professor in the College of Communication and Design at Lynn University. Duque teaches courses which focus on the development of photorealistic 3D computer graphics and visual effects. His work has been published in national and worldwide advertisement campaigns for Nissan, Toyota, Renault, Ford, Energizer and Citibank amongst many others. His experience in the visual effects and 3d computer graphics field has aided some of the most significant advertisement agencies worldwide such as Young & Rubicam, Ogilvy and Mather, McCann Erickson, J. Walter Thompson, Leo Burnett, and Zimmerman advertising.

Ariel Baron-Robbins

Ariel Baron-Robbins is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Florida International University, and is also the founder and director of Loop Art Critique, an experimental residency programme in partnership with The MUD Foundation. She has an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of South Florida and taught Digital Art for 12 years throughout South Florida. Throughout this time, she has exhibited her artwork and organized and participated in multiple panels at national and international art conferences. She currently lives in Miami Florida and New York City and works with The MUD Foundation and Lynn University