The art that exists only in the glow of screens
On March 11, 2021, a Christie’s auction room in New York filled with an electric silence. No painting hung on the wall, no sculpture under glass—just a giant screen displaying a mosaic of 5,000 digital images. Everydays: The First 5000 Days, Beeple’s work, had just sold for $69.3 million. In the room, some traditional collectors adjusted their glasses in disbelief. Others, younger, checked their crypto wallets on their phones. That night, digital art crossed an invisible threshold: it was no longer a technological curiosity but an investment as tangible as a Rothko—if you knew where to touch it.
By Artedusa
••10 min readBecause that’s the magic—and the anxiety—of these immaterial works. They exist only in the bluish light of screens, in the hum of servers, in the invisible ballet of blockchains. Owning an NFT means holding a digital key that points to a file somewhere in the limbo of the internet. But how do you display what has no body? How do you preserve what can vanish with a single click? And above all, how do you invest in a market where fortunes are made and lost to the rhythm of Elon Musk’s tweets?
Behind every NFT lies a story: that of an artist who traded brushes for algorithms, of a collector betting on the future, or of a hacker who nearly lost everything. Let’s dive into this universe where art is measured in pixels and gas fees, where value is negotiated in ether, and where beauty is born from code.
01When art is written in computer language
Imagine an artist’s studio in 2023. No easel, no tubes of paint—just giant screens displaying lines of code. This is where Tyler Hobbs creates his generative works, those digital paintings born from complex algorithms. His Fidenza project, sold for millions, is the fruit of a computer program that generates unique abstract compositions. Each piece is a variation on a theme, like a musical score interpreted differently with every performance.
This algorithmic approach isn’t new. As early as the 1960s, pioneers like Vera Molnár experimented with computers to create geometric drawings. But today, the tools have changed. Artists use software like Processing or TouchDesigner to bring to life works that evolve in real time. Some, like Refik Anadol, feed their algorithms with massive datasets—MoMA archives or urban camera feeds—to create hypnotic installations.
The paradox of this digital art? It is both ephemeral and eternal. A JPEG file can be copied endlessly, but the NFT that accompanies it guarantees its authenticity. It’s like owning the deed to a cloud: you can’t touch it, but you know it’s yours. This duality between the immaterial and the tangible lies at the heart of the NFT revolution.
02The invisible museum: where to exhibit art that has no body?
In a Parisian apartment, a major tech brands The Frame screen hangs above a marble fireplace. When no one is looking, it displays rotating digital artworks: a pixelated CryptoPunk, a generative animation by Dmitri Cherniak, a video by Beeple. The owner has programmed these works to appear like traditional paintings, with digital frames and timed rotations. "It’s like having a private gallery that adapts to my moods," he explains.
But exhibiting NFTs at home presents an aesthetic challenge. How do you integrate these works into an interior without them feeling out of place? Some collectors opt for specialized frames like Tokenframe, which authenticate the work via blockchain before displaying it. Others prefer high-definition projectors, turning a blank wall into a digital canvas. In Los Angeles, one gallerist has even installed an augmented reality system that overlays NFTs onto his living room walls through AR glasses.
In museums, digital art finds its place in more spectacular ways. The Centre Pompidou recently dedicated an exhibition to generative art, projecting works onto giant screens and interactive walls. At the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, a holographic display allows visitors to view 3D sculptures that seem to float in space. But the real challenge remains preservation: how do you save these works for future generations? Some museums are exploring solutions like printing on digital canvas or engraving onto M-Disc optical discs, designed to last 1,000 years.
03The blockchain, a vault that can lock forever
In 2022, a collector lived a nightmare. He had bought a rare NFT from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection for $300,000. One day, while trying to transfer it to a new wallet, he made a mistake: he sent the work to the wrong address. The NFT vanished into the blockchain’s limbo, forever inaccessible. "It’s like I threw a Picasso into a landfill," he confessed.
Stories like this underscore a fundamental truth: owning an NFT means holding a digital key, not the artwork itself. Most NFTs point to a file stored on IPFS (InterPlanetary File System), a decentralized network. But if no one "pins" that file—meaning no one pays to keep it online—it can disappear. Some projects have already met this fate: entire collections of digital artworks have become inaccessible when their creators stopped paying storage fees.
To avoid such disasters, savvy collectors adopt a three-point backup strategy: The blockchain: the NFT itself, which certifies ownership., IPFS + pinning service: to ensure the file remains accessible. et A physical hard drive: a local copy, just in case.
But even this approach has its limits. Digital formats become obsolete: who still remembers Flash or QuickTime files? Artists and collectors must regularly migrate their works to new formats to prevent them from becoming unreadable. Some opt for radical solutions, like engraving their NFTs onto M-Disc optical discs, built to withstand the ravages of time.
04Beeple and the mystery of the 5,000 days
When Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, started his Everydays project in 2007, he had no idea he would one day create the most expensive digital artwork in history. For 13 years, he produced one image per day, never missing a single day. This obsessive ritual gave birth to a mosaic of 5,000 images, sold at Christie’s for $69.3 million.
But Everydays is much more than a simple collage. It’s a visual diary, a chronicle of our era through the lens of geek culture and political satire. It includes references to Trump, the pandemic, internet memes, and even nods to classical art. Beeple hid messages in the work’s metadata: "Fuck 2020," "This is not a drill," and "The future is weird."
What fascinates about Everydays is its ability to capture the spirit of a generation. Each image is a snapshot of our relationship with technology, politics, and pop culture. And yet, the work exists only in digital form. No canvas, no pigment—just pixels. This immateriality raises a fundamental question: how do you assess the value of a work that has no physical support? For collectors, the answer lies in scarcity and traceability—two qualities the blockchain guarantees.
05The metaverse, art’s new frontier
In Decentraland, a virtual world where plots of land sell for millions of dollars, a digital art gallery draws visitors. Inside, 3D works float in space, accessible via VR headsets. One collector paid $2.4 million for an adjacent plot, hoping to build a private museum there. Welcome to the era of metaverse art.
Virtual galleries are multiplying, offering immersive experiences impossible in the physical world. At Sotheby’s, an auction in the metaverse attracted thousands of visitors, each represented by an avatar. The works are displayed like in a traditional gallery, but with one major difference: they can interact with visitors. A digital sculpture might change shape based on real-world weather, or a generative painting could evolve in real time.
But the metaverse also raises ethical questions. Who owns the rights to a work exhibited in a virtual space? How do you prevent piracy? And above all, how do you ensure these galleries survive technological evolution? Some projects, like The Sandbox, rely on blockchain to create permanent spaces. Others, like Somnium Space, explore hybrid solutions, blending virtual and physical reality.
For artists, the metaverse represents a unique opportunity. They can create works that exist only in these virtual spaces, like Krista Kim’s digital land art or Refik Anadol’s interactive installations. But they also face a daunting challenge: how do you create beauty in a world where anything is possible?
06The art that chooses you: when collecting becomes an adventure
In 2021, a young unknown artist named Fewocious sold his first NFTs for $10,000. That sum allowed him to escape an abusive home and pursue his career. Today, his works sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. His story illustrates a surprising truth: in the world of NFTs, artists and collectors choose each other.
Unlike the traditional art market, where galleries and auction houses act as intermediaries, the NFT world enables a direct relationship between creators and buyers. Collectors follow artists on Twitter or Discord, chat with them in real time, and buy their works as soon as they go live. Some projects, like World of Women, have even created communities where NFT holders have a say in the project’s evolution.
But this democratization has a dark side. The NFT market has become a playground for scammers. In 2022, OpenSea admitted that 80% of the NFTs listed on its platform were copies or stolen works. "Rug pulls"—projects where creators vanish with investors’ money—are multiplying. To avoid pitfalls, savvy collectors follow a few golden rules: Verify the project’s transparency (roadmap, team, community)., Avoid projects promising unrealistic returns. et Favor artists with a genuine creative approach over purely speculative collections.
07The future of art: between utopia and dystopia
By 2030, will museums display NFTs alongside Monets and Picassos? Will traditional galleries disappear, replaced by virtual spaces? No one can predict with certainty, but one thing is clear: digital art has changed the game.
NFTs have opened new possibilities for artists. Thanks to smart contracts, they receive automatic royalties on every resale of their works—a revolution in a field where galleries traditionally take 50% commission. DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) allow collectors to pool resources to buy artworks, democratizing access to art.
But this new world also raises ethical questions. The energy consumption of blockchains has long been controversial. Ethereum reduced its carbon footprint by 99% by switching to Proof of Stake, but other networks continue to consume astronomical amounts of electricity. And what about purely speculative projects, where artworks with no artistic value trade for millions?
Yet despite these challenges, digital art continues to fascinate. It embodies a new form of creativity, where code becomes the brush and the blockchain replaces the certificate of authenticity. In an increasingly virtual world, it offers an answer to a fundamental question: how do you create beauty in an immaterial universe?
Perhaps the answer lies in Beeple’s words: "Art is what remains when everything else is gone." Even if that remainder is just a string of zeros and ones.