Art rising from the ashes? Setting art on fire for NFT rebirth

The NFT craze is going on and strong as it expands beyond crypto circles and onto mainstream pop culture.

Gone are the days of original paintings being stored under watchful eyes in climate-controlled spaces for delicate preservation. It has been announced that today from 5PM-8PM EST, decentralized film financing company, Mogul Productions will host a live-streamed event in which an original painting will be burnt to prove that the future of art, and Wall Street, is meant to be on the blockchain.

The painting, created by world-renowned Marvel and DC Comics Artist Rob Prior, will be set on fire, following a panel of distinguished speakers from both the blockchain and film industries.

The panelists, which include Dan Crothers, the Co-Founder of ECOMI (VeVe Digital Collectibles), Jon Karas, the Co-Founder and President of Akoin, and Ted Farnsworth, the Co-Founder of ZASH Global Media and Entertainment and former Chairman of Moviepass will speak of the sudden rise and popularity of NFTs in the entertainment industry.

The new way for the arts to appreciate in value

Non-fungible tokens have made their way into the entertainment and media industry for a variety of reasons. The most prominent of reasons include the fact that the creative work of artists are protected by minimizing the issues of piracy, copyright infringement, and plagiarism.

NFTs have been seen in many applications in recent months. The NBA, for instance, is selling NFT highlights. The Kings of Leon was the first band to use the technology to sell an entire album, and the singer Halsey is holding an NFT auction to sell her art.

In the film world, the Claude Lanzmann Documentary was the first Oscar nominee to be released as an NFT. The power and potential of NFTs are still being explored, and the impact is yet to be seen.

In the Mogul Productions event, Prior’s painting, which is inspired by The Wolf of Wall Street, will only live on as a digitized ERC1155 NFT after it is burned, and will be auctioned exclusively on the Mogul platform.

The Mogul platform was launched earlier this year and has already raked in nearly 50,000 users. Prior chose to burn that particular painting, to further symbolize the addition of art and Wall Street into the blockchain realm.

During the event, Prior will also unveil his next two NFT drops, including a Marvel-inspired Deadpool rendition and a Star Wars painting of Luke Skywalker.

Anyone interested in attending the Proof of Origin Livestream Event can register here via Eventbrite.

The future of NFTs in the post-pandemic world

So what does the future hold for the intersection of blockchain, NFTs, entertainment, and Wall Street? The online event will offer insights on that, but for now, it is safe to say that in this increasingly digital world, claiming ownership over the digital arts provides (at the very least) next-level bragging rights. It’s intriguing to be able to possess original ownership of pieces that have even been copied millions of times before. 

Of course, as with any other new transformative technology, there are naysayers. In this case, they believe destroying original works of art is wasteful.

However, if there is one thing that we as a cohort have collectively learned through the course of the pandemic, it is that everything is bound to change.

As such, burning original pieces in the name of art is now a further expression of art itself—and one that breaks serious bank for the original creators who have chosen to embrace NFTs.

Thanks to blockchain technology, art ownership can now take on many forms. Like the arts themselves, ownership can now be physical, digital, and abstract.

All signs are pointing to NFTs serving as the future of digital art collection, and due to the accessibility and low barriers to entry, it won’t take long for NFTs to become mainstream.