NFT Art: Beyond JPEGs

The article argues that NFTs are a medium for making art in their own right, not just a way to sell digital images, and it sets aside markets, prices and speculation to focus on on-chain NFT art. It explains that most NFTs are still pictures or animations, so the buyer owns a URL, while generative NFTs let artists define rules rather than select outputs. Examples include Autoglyphs by Larva Labs, where the look comes from randomness at purchase, and Chaos Roads by Chainleft, which changes over time toward higher entropy. The piece also cites The Mesh by Takenstheorem, which reads owner data from the blockchain, and Gold by James Bloom, which repaints itself based on its trading history.