Indigenous artists in remote East Arnhem land are transforming their physical works into digital NFTs or non-fungible tokens, as they look for new revenue streams — and ways to share their stories with the world.
An offer too good to refuse
The art centre's Mulka Project technical director, Joseph Brady, said it could lead to more physical work being bought by Yolngu, so it can remain in the community. "What I wanted to try and do was take a series of early career artists, and just expose them to this space and see whether there was any sort of creative spark that came," he said.From his campervan in South Australia's Kangaroo Island, software engineer Geoff Huntley has staged a rebellion against the NFT movement.
"Why would I spend a million dollars on an NFT or a couple million dollars NFTs because like, it's right there. I can see the image it's on my phone, I can just take a screenshot of it," he said."What they're purchasing is just a link or directions to some artwork. And that artwork isn't unique. It's easily duplicatable."