Lesson 6.3.2

02:00

Classroom Expectations

• Be kind
• Ask questions
• Raise your hand to unmute
• Have fun!

Warm Up Activity:

Lesson 6.3.2

art and sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability simply refers to meeting our needs without compromising the needs of future generations by conserving resources. Digital art is generally more sustainable, which means artists can use a resource without depleting or permanently damaging it. However, creating and maintaining digital art for online activities requires much energy. You need to address issues like energy consumption to make digital art greener and cleaner for the environment. Posting your digital artwork online can create likes, comments, and shares, but when it comes to trading, you need to use emerging technology for digital tokens tied to assets that can be bought, sold, and traded. This is where it gets unsustainable. Trading requires technology that uses an enormous amount of energy.

Cryptocurrency

In today's digital era, cryptography ensures data protection. You can have secure communication through encrypted messages that only the sender and the receiver can view. A cryptocurrency is a form of money that only exists digitally and usually uses a decentralized system to manage the units of currency. It allows for secure online payments, which has made way for non-fungible tokens. A non-fungible token, better known as an NFT, is a type of cryptocurrency in the form of a digital asset like an “original'' version of a computer file, such as digital art or a sports highlight video. The purchaser is guaranteed the ownership through a digital certificate, giving them the right to present, access, or resell it. It is like an exclusive trading card with the help of technology to track ownership of the asset.

Value of an NFT

An NFT is one way of owning an original digital image. Due to the tokenized version of the artwork, the ownership of the digital art can be sold and purchased. So, recently, artists who have tokenized their work and sold it as an NFT have made some million-dollar sales. For example, the very first NFT, “Quantum” sold at $1.47 million, and another digital art piece called “Cryptopunk 7523” sold at $11.75 million.

Environmental Concerns with NFTs

• NFTs are created using an enormous amount of raw computing power.
• Fossil fuels power server farms.
• NFT emissions are around 90 times higher than emissions resulting from printing and shipping a print artwork.
• There was and oddly high power usage at homes in central Washington State after a recent surge in NFTs. The availability of cheap electricity in Washington state helped industries use basements and sheds, packed with computers to mine NFTs through advanced mathematical calculations. These operations overloaded the local grids.

Environmental Concerns with NFTs

• NFTs hold the promise of creating wealth, but are also causing a harmful impact on our environment by polluting the planet with the use of Ethereum, (a blockchain technology) that uses 26.5 terawatt-hours of electricity.

00:30

Digital Carbon Footprint

A digital carbon footprint results from digital artwork creations, usage, and data transfer from digital devices and infrastructure.

Increase in Use of Electricity Consumption

A single cryptocurrency transaction is estimated to burn 2,292.5 kilowatt-hours of electricity, enough to power a typical U.S. household for over 78 days. For instance, the carbon footprint of a GIF of a cat in a rocket heading to the Moon, popularly known as "Space Cat,” is equivalent to an EU resident's electricity usage for two months. Memo Akten, a digital artist, analyzed 18,000 NFTs and found that the average NFT has a carbon footprint somewhat lower than Space Cat's, but is still equivalent to more than a month's worth of electricity for a person living in the EU.

Use of Expensive Minting Technology

The cost of creating or minting the NFTs files is over $100. Minting NFTs uses expensive technology, as transactions based on such technology depend on gas fee, which increases from time to time. When digital artists sell an NFT, they first have to “tokenize” their work on a blockchain. For tokenizing, they pay a procession fee to miners that cost up to a few hundred dollars to make necessary calculations on their computers. This results in an increase in cost for minting NFTs.

Use of Ethereum

Creators of NFTs use Ethereum (a blockchain secured using a proof-of-work system), which uses about 31 terawatt-hours of electricity a year, about as much as a small country would use for one year. It is difficult to calculate the exact carbon emission, the NFT industry is accountable for, as the demand for digital art is growing day by day.

Reducing Carbon Emissions

One way to reduce carbon emissions is to mint cryptocurrencies using renewable energy. Several artists have come forward with innovative ways to promote sustainability in digital art. Digital artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple (pictured to the right), believes in a more sustainable future for NFTs. His work “Everydays: The First 5000 Days“ sold for $69 million at Christie's auction house. He says that his artwork will be carbon ”neutral” or “negative.” By investing in renewable energy, conservation projects, or technology that sucks carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, he will be able to offset emissions from his NFTs completely.

Pros and Cons of Digital Art

Pros of Digital Art

• Digital art lends itself to freedom and convenience; traditional art lends itself to familiarity and visibility.
• Digital art is often more convenient as you can fix mistakes by using layers to keep elements of your painting separate, and you can zoom in and out for better visibility.

Pros and Cons of Digital Art

Cons of Digital Art

• Digital art can be stolen easily and reproduced, for example, by someone downloading it and using it against your permission.
• High-end digital art uses powerful digital devices and energy to power them, whereas traditional art uses physical mediums such as paint, brushes, canvas, and so on, saving energy.

00:30

How Artists Approach NFTs

check it out!

Video

Check out this video to learn more about how some artists feel about NFT's.

Next Time: Assignment: Art for a Cause

see you next time!

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