Seunghee You

                                                                                                                           




Robbie Barrat (born 1999), an artist who used AI as an artistic tool, works not only through AI but also through various media and fields such as painting, design, and video sculpture. Robbie is also famous for his young age and his work experience with Stanford University's research team, but is especially famous for his AI-generated work as a student, which was sold at Christie's New York auction house for $432,500, the highest price among AI art. Perhaps the reason why the public first encountered NFTart is mostly through articles on enormous prices. As such, "money" is at the center of today's hot issue, and modern man pay attention to "money.".This social atmosphere can also be guessed in Fire moment (those who want to raise retirement funds by minimizing consumption from their 20s to achieve early retirement) caused by the craze investment techniques among the MZ generation.
The reason why modern man pay attention to "money" is a society where the worship of efficiency and scientific omnipotence are prevalent. This is because the scope of freedom is determined by the degree of property, and the convenience and efficiency of science technology are regarded as the price received after payment. The culture of idolizing science as the god of knowledge, technology as the god of action, and money as the god of all things is collectively shown at the global level by the characteristics of today's technology to maximize interoperability. 
As a result, this culture maximized the being speculative of the NFT market and confined the scarcity of artworks to it. Therefore, the characteristics of the infinity of artworks in NFT art are currently alienated by speculation. In an interview with the online magazine , Robbie once said, "I wasn't trying to create scarcity, I was trying to create abundance.". The true value of art is expressed when someone found the meaning inherent in the work of art. We feel that it is a good work when there are abundant elements such as impression, empathy, comfort, joy, and pleasure that found at this time. Therefore, Robbie was disappointed with the reality of the NFT market, where his work was focused only on scarcity and did not fully appreciate it. The artist's process of making work is in some ways similar to a mother's having a child in her stomach for 10 months. This is because in the process of creating a work, the artist interacts with the work and shares various things, such as personal feelings and thoughts derived from it and is immersed in creation. However, if the work is judged by the viewer with universal standard (price, number, popularity, etc.), the value of various meanings contained in the creation process will be reduced. Robbie is no longer active here, pointing out the problems of the NFT market. However, I think that Robbie, who consistently expresses its critical view of the NFT market, is truly a person who wishes for a better future for the NFT market.
On the other hand, the currently active NFT collector Karatekid has a different stance from Robbie, but ultimately it is common in that it pays attention to the good direction of NFT. When asked why she was paying for free images, she replied: In summary, first, art reminds us of the specificity of human that possible feeling and interpreting various emotions. Second, it makes possible to having a eternity that human cannot be overcome through the collecting. Third, to contribute to the democratization of the art ecosystem that gives creators more ownership and control by materially supporting their works. Fourth, she answered that it is because art needs a community. due to the nature of art that creates the value of existence through interaction. The role and value of art she thinks contain more than money. "Artistic imagination is the ability to feel one's own life.". This sentence is a compilation of my view of art. The artistic imagination that takes place when creating or appreciating art comes from their experience such as emotions, character, taste, knowledge etc. As a result, the artwork makes you feel yourself in it. In addition, while encountering individuality in artistic imagination, it also too serve a opportunity that be led to the common category, providing a moment of harmony. As such, art serves a place to lead human life in a better direction. If the value of such art will be amplified in the NFT market, NFT could be an art.  
Artists who have entered the NFT market must take a critical attitude on the speculativeness, scarcity, exponential prices of the NFT market, and the reduction of the value of artworks due to indiscriminate works. At the same time, it is necessary to have an optimistic attitude to find opportunities by paying attention to the potential of the NFT market based on an understanding of the nature of art.