Digital Art Now Has Equal Value to Traditional Art

During my college years, I enrolled in a course called ARTD 350 Digital Drawing. Our objective was to create 10 digital images using Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop within a 12-week period. On the first day of class, my professor made a statement that stuck with me: “There is no difference in value between the art you create on the computer and the art you create on canvas.” This comment was somewhat controversial in 2017, as the traditional art world had not fully accepted digital art as legitimate.

I agreed with my professor. It made sense to me that digital art required as much skill and technique as traditional art. At the time, Instagram was at its peak, and my explore page was flooded with digital artwork from artists like mcflyy, somehoodlum, and Beeple. These artists showcased their best work on Instagram to prove that it deserved to be viewed in the same respect as traditional art.

However, the problem with digital art was that no one knew how to sell it back in 2017. Since anyone could view it on the internet and no one could own it, it seemed to hold no value. Traditional art held value because it was exclusive and displayed in museums, whereas digital art lived on the internet for anyone to view without charge.

But with the emergence of blockchain technology, there is now a way to claim ownership over a digital asset. Non-fungible tokens allow us to create digital certificates that represent unique assets, such as photos, videos, audio recordings, or articles. We can attach these tokens to any digital file to create proofs of authenticity that can be bought, sold, and traded.

NFT art is now exploding, and it marks a monumental moment for digital art. For example, a digital artwork by Beeple sold at Christie’s auction house for $69 million. It was the first time that a purely digital, non-fungible token-based artwork was sold by a major auction house. This confirmed my professor’s statement that digital art and traditional art are equally valuable.