{"id":75852,"date":"2021-04-12T17:00:32","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T21:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=75852"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:37:15","slug":"nft-performance-art","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/nft-performance-art\/","title":{"rendered":"NFT performance art: Corporations could capitalize on protest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n NFT performance art: Corporations could capitalize on protest\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Russian artist Petr Davydtchenko<\/a> made what what he claims was the first performance art NFT<\/a> in February. According to an article in The Art Newspaper<\/em>, in a digital recording, Davydtchenko \u201ceats a live bat in front of the European Parliament in Brussels.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An NFT, or non-fungible token, is a digital record of the stake in ownership of a digital object (but not the copyright), often an artwork. This digital certificate says, \u201cI paid for this special thing, now it\u2019s mine!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Art Newspaper<\/em> reports Davydtchenko\u2019s \u201cperformance\u201d had received only one bid of 2.5 wrapped ethereum<\/a>, valued at $3,848<\/a> when the story was published on Feb. 26. But profits for some NFTs go into the millions<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Davydtchenko says the event was a protest<\/a> against pharmaceutical companies. Davydtchenko\u2019s performance art references vaccines and COVID-19<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a scholar of communication and performance studies, what interests me is how NFTs are redrawing parts of the art world in radical ways<\/a> by raising questions about how artists, audiences and critics understand performance, criticism or protest in a capitalist society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We should keep an ear open not only to questions about authenticity and who profits<\/a> but also about what these kinds of transactions mean for us as spectators, virtual audience members and human beings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performance check on war<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

NFT art may seem new and bizarre, but can rightly be seen as part of a longer tradition of performance art and cultural criticism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a response to the trauma of the First World War, the Dada art movement<\/a> formed in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1916, performance artist Hugo Ball drafted a Dada manifesto<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ball\u2019s work used nonsense words and costumes, as he said, to challenge \u201cthe rationalized language of modernity,\u201d emblematic of the \u201cagony and death throes\u201d of the age<\/a>.
\nInto the 1920s, performers continued to reflect on the violence<\/a> seen in Europe and the excesses of the roaring \u201820s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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