A Checkpoint on Generative Art (in NFTs)

Kevin Esherick (Duckrabbit) critiques generative art in NFTs along technical, conceptual, and aesthetic lines, and the author largely agrees with the conceptual and aesthetic points while defending the genre as a meta-statement. Esherick argues that NFTs tie art to capital and that generative art is created only after purchase, so it "consummates" the marriage of art and money, and that its speculative, lottery-like nature can produce cheap, "assembly line art." The author calls ArtBlocks-style generative art interesting because it captures the tension between abundance and provenance, with blockchains acting as a checkpoint for art that would otherwise remain in an "adjacent possible space."