Passions: The future of creativity
Art and design are titanic forces in society today. Never before has the power of creativity had such an impact on society and maybe the word ‘selfie’ has something to do with it.
Fashion designers are now doing collections for customers who enjoy flaunting their outfits on social media. This makes the designers worry less about what the gurus at the fashion runways may want to see. Product designers, furniture and interior designers have also started shaping their design cycles around the ‘selfie philosophy’, and now the world is moving closer towards a future defined by augmented reality, based on blockchain technology, the foundation of the crypto universe.
Cryptic language
Crypto art, better known as NFTs or non-fungible tokens, is the digital representation of a design or artwork. NFTs demonstrate the convergence of culture with technology, which is having an impact on a number of mainstream industries. The ability to create concept art that exists purely in the creator’s mind is all that is required. So, this stream opens up a whole new dimension for inherently creative people. There are many instances of 12-year-olds selling their art for over $1 million, for example. Soon it will not be necessary to finish college to start work. If you have the talent and the ability to market yourself, NFTs will do the rest.
NFTs make for a level playing field. Caste, colour, race and region will become more democratised. Pure aptitude and the ability to grasp the imagination of this marketplace will be the key factors to determine success. It also is a very inclusive platform—anyone, even hoteliers, architects, doctors and scientists, can create an NFT and make waves in specialised market places such as WazirX.
Art smart
There are two nuances to NFT trade. The first is the chosen price of the artwork, which is generally shared with the marketplace. But from then on, every time the artwork sells, you can request a small percentage of the secondary sale. In other words, you are guaranteed a royalty for the rest of your life, if people buy and sell your artwork for eternity. This is a boon for luxury fashion items, because they will always have a secondary retail market value rather than lose their worth as they currently do.
As a designer brand, I plan to create collections in the future that could be sold as NFTs. If we don’t adapt, we become redundant.
Raghavendra Rathore is the first Indian designer to take his personal art and convert it to the exclusive block-chain technology via NFT making it priceless and one of its kind.
From HT Brunch, December 26, 2021
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