[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":393},["ShallowReactive",2],{"useAsyncGraphqlQuery:Article:X-leVnyeF1HnGF1lqgHDqkDsu0FAAOWSqAZlRSguAnc":3},{"data":4,"extensions":389,"errors":392},{"article":5,"homepage":328},{"createdAt":6,"updatedAt":7,"source":8,"title":9,"url":10,"body":11,"publicationDate":327,"peopleInvolved":320,"articlePage":19,"seoDescription":320,"seoImage":320},"2026-02-24T12:44:20.556624+00:00","2026-02-24T12:56:00.51267+00:00","Book","Art Worlds: A Visual Essay","art-worlds-a-visual-essay",{"json":12,"references":314},{"children":13},[14,29,35,40,44,48,52,56,60,64,68,74,78,82,94,106,122,130,138,152,156,168,176,186,190,194,198,206,234,250,278,282,286,289,293,296,299,302,305,308,311],{"type":15,"children":16},"paragraph",[17,20,27],{"text":18,"subscript":19},"* as published in ",true,{"href":21,"type":22,"title":23,"children":24,"openInNewTab":19},"https://www.phaidon.com/en-gb/products/cryptopunks-free-to-claim/","link","",[25],{"text":26,"subscript":19},"Crypto Punks, Free to Claim,",{"text":28,"subscript":19}," by Phaidon",{"type":30,"nodeId":31,"children":32,"nodeType":34},"embed","cmm0klj4295q107mk83e9u3aj",[33],{"text":23,"subscript":19},"Asset",{"type":36,"children":37},"heading-two",[38],{"text":39},"Preface",{"type":15,"children":41},[42],{"text":43},"This diagram explores two ways to organise an art world, namely, the structures we call here the “legacy art world” and the “NFT art world”. These worlds combine different ways of making, showing, trading and owning creative works, which represent the basic functions of an art world, and provide the spine of the diagram.",{"type":15,"children":45},[46],{"text":47},"The former is what was previously known as “the” art world. It has existed for around 250 years, first taking shape in Europe in the 1700s and being exported along colonial trade routes.",{"type":15,"children":49},[50],{"text":51},"The NFT art world, on the other hand, has only existed since 2016, with the development of key pieces of relevant technology. Yet it is also a global phenomena, and our wager is that it is not a trivial development. This is despite the fact that the first hype wave looked to its many cynical observers like it was speedrunning some of the worst features of the existing art world: wild financial speculation on works of dubious cultural contribution, in essence. Of course there’s a grain of truth to this, but it serves to obscure something more subtle. This is because these two art worlds embed two quite different ways of constructing value.",{"type":15,"children":53},[54],{"text":55},"We mean by this the process by which a large number of people come to the shared conclusion that artwork X is “a good one”, versus artworks Y and Z,“less so”. In the legacy art world, this is a very elaborate and in many ways unusual, which combines claims about the cultural significance of a work or body of work and its display to the public, on the one hand, with a highly illiquid rare object market, on the other. A wide variety of highly specialised professions gatekeep sections of the cycle between the two, such that we can speak of artists, collectors, curators, dealers, cultural institutions, provenance experts, art advisors, etc.",{"type":15,"children":57},[58],{"text":59},"The NFT art world, on the other hand, has developed through digital technology that has a near-real-time global reach, and also in the absence of gatekeepers who generally require years of educational investment (at a minimum) to be accepted in their role. It assigns value through processes that we consider more to be like a “collective conviction”, an ongoing, parallel, essentially multiplayer approach.",{"type":15,"children":61},[62],{"text":63},"Here, conversations at different levels (interpersonal, small group, large group, open internet…) shape the perception of value. To be sure, there are all kinds of pathologies at work—runaway volatility, shilling, etc.—but at the same time, it’s challenging to see how this could “mature” into something that looks as highly overdetermined as the legacy art world. Its power is shown, too, in its ability to foster the creation of new technologies themselves—like DAO tooling, which essentially turns processes of collective conviction into binding action.",{"type":15,"children":65},[66],{"text":67},"Our intention here isn’t to provide a comprehensive, still less dogmatic, representation of either legacy or NFT ecosystems. As such, we miss out on historically important phenomena (like “art movements”), and much of the surrounding context that reinforces the system (like universities, the press, etc.) is lacking.",{"type":15,"children":69},[70,72],{"text":71},"Instead, we hope this diagram acts as an exercise to help understand how deep infrastructures and entrenched dynamics are changing in unexpected ways, ",{"text":73,"italic":19},"giving life to the next generation of artistic production as they do so, creating new systems of value and redefining models of creation and ownership.",{"type":30,"nodeId":75,"children":76,"nodeType":34},"cmm0km9kh960a07mpy4rxdn5c",[77],{"text":23},{"type":36,"children":79},[80],{"text":81},"\nIndex",{"type":15,"children":83},[84,86,88,90,92],{"text":85},"1. LEGACY ART WORLD OVERVIEW. The ",{"text":87,"italic":19},"legacy art world ",{"text":89},"is the prevailing global structure of art production and distribution, a European invention exported along colonial trade channels. In the absence of recognised alternative arrangements operating at a similar scale, it has historically been referred to as ",{"text":91,"italic":19},"the ",{"text":93},"art world. It is a hyper-structured ecosystem, exhibiting strong divisions of labour (i.e., people, organisations, and institutions fulfil particular and largely pre-designated roles) across how art is made, shown, traded, and owned. This specialisation is such that it’s hard to publicly hold multiple roles at once (e.g., be an artist and a dealer) without arousing suspicion about one’s ability to perform core tenets of these roles.",{"type":15,"children":95},[96,98,100,102,104],{"text":97},"2. BASIC L.A.W. STRUCTURE. This can be understood as a loop between two channels: the ",{"text":99,"italic":19},"curatorial",{"text":101}," and the ",{"text":103,"italic":19},"commercial",{"text":105},". These articles broadly discuss “cultural value” & “financial value” and, together, represent a cycle in which cultural significance translates into higher sale prices. Theoretically, these are quite separate processes: there are curatorial captions for every work in a major museum, but no price tags. It is usually assumed that high commercial value bobs along in the wake of proven cultural significance, the latter being “beyond” the crass reality of prices. In reality, this relationship is more complicated.",{"type":15,"children":107},[108,110,112,114,116,118,120],{"text":109},"3. DISCOURSE. Broadly speaking, the ",{"text":111,"italic":19},"curatorial ",{"text":113},"channel involves making a claim to significance for a work or body of work, which justifies its display to the public by a ",{"text":115,"italic":19},"cultural institution",{"text":117},". In claiming that work is culturally important, these claims tend to navigate between art historical significance and contemporary, primarily political, relevance. While ideally articulating an original interpretation, they tend to lean heavily on a broader ",{"text":119,"italic":19},"discourse",{"text":121}," that mixes many contemporary sources—prior curatorial claims, critical accounts, footfall, philosophy, etc. and are generally required to use a particular vocabulary and strike a particular tone. (Search for: “International Art English”.)",{"type":15,"children":123},[124,126,128],{"text":125},"4. PHYSICAL DISPLAY. Ultimately, curatorial claims are in support of the ",{"text":127,"italic":19},"physical display",{"text":129}," of an artwork at some type of gallery, museum or event. Again in theory, this presentation must be “publicly accessible”. In prevailing Western curatorial discourse, exclusivity of access undermines basic axioms of cultural significance, i.e. culture “belongs to everybody” barriers like ticket pricing or a sense of lack of entitlement to enter a space notwithstanding. ",{"type":15,"children":131},[132,134,136],{"text":133},"5. CROWD AS AUDIENCE. The crowd to which the work is presented is primarily conceived as an",{"text":135,"italic":19}," audience",{"text":137},", configured as receptive to the work of the artist and hosting institution. Despite the decades-long efforts of some artists and (especially publicly-funded or charitable) institutions to encourage “participation”, these are localised phenomena. There are very few opportunities for members of the public to engage with other parts of the ecosystem.",{"type":15,"children":139},[140,142,143,145,146,148,150],{"text":141},"6. SHORT CIRCUITS AND OPEN SECRETS. The no-man’s land between ",{"text":99,"italic":19},{"text":144}," and ",{"text":103,"italic":19},{"text":147}," channels is densely cross-hatched with secret passageways. Examples include the assumption that so-called “super dealers” are identifying cultural value in advance of curators as expressed through their purchase decisions, or the role of curators at public institutions in exhibiting works by artists that trustees hold in their private collections, boosting the value of the latter (For a thoroughgoing discussion of these types of effect, search for Beti Zerovc, ",{"text":149,"italic":19},"When Attitudes Becomes the Norm",{"text":151},".)",{"type":15,"children":153},[154],{"text":155},"7. VIABILITY/SALE/COLLECTION. On the commercial side, artworks must pass through a series of “tests” in and around sales—their authenticity established, provenance tracked, value assessed, etc. This is the precondition for entry into market arrangements (mostly auctions or negotiated private sales) and, thence, into collections of a public or private type.",{"type":15,"children":157},[158,160,162,164,166],{"text":159},"8. OUTSIDE INTERESTS. The legacy art ecosystem is additionally structured by ",{"text":161,"italic":19},"outside interests",{"text":163},". These are exterior actors who find in the",{"text":165,"italic":19}," legacy art world ",{"text":167},"a means to pursue other financial or political agendas. We include here an incomplete list of examples, such as the effects of tax regimes structuring collections and donations, the use of the auction market to evade sanctions, and the furtherance of state soft-power (or indeed propaganda) projects by supporting particular artists, movements, etc. (Search for “The Art Industry and US Policies that Undermine Sanctions”, “The Cultural Cold War: the CIA, and the World of Arts and Letters”).",{"type":15,"children":169},[170,172,174],{"text":171},"9. NFT OVERVIEW. The",{"text":173,"italic":19}," NFT art world",{"text":175}," is the system of making, showing, trading, and owning art attached to NFT protocols, in development since 2016.",{"type":15,"children":177},[178,180,181,183,184],{"text":179},"10. NOVEL STRUCTURES: PARTICIPANTS. Where the",{"text":165,"italic":19},{"text":182},"has highly differentiated roles, in the",{"text":173,"italic":19},{"text":185}," these tend to collapse, and people are often some combination of artist, analyst, commentator, investor, etc. and simultaneously holding these roles is not generally seen to compromise them.",{"type":15,"children":187},[188],{"text":189},"11. NOVEL STRUCTURES: MARKETPLACES. Likewise, functions distributed across different actors in the legacy art world become integrated into new structures in the NFT art world, where they also expand on novel technological opportunities. Marketplaces, for example, are the main means of both displaying artworks and selling them, but also (for example) often offer minting services and wallet integration. In this way, marketplaces have few parallels in the legacy art world, straddling the “cultural” and “commercial” aspects of the latter while extending into novel areas.",{"type":15,"children":191},[192],{"text":193},"12. NOVEL STRUCTURES: THE ART STACK. Operating under very different conditions than artmaking practices in the legacy art world, “the artist” in the NFT art world often appears as a collective entity, bringing in-house a diversified set of tools for the production, distribution, and financialisation of artworks. This calls into question historical divisions of labour in the legacy art world, in particular between artist, dealer, and collector. Contemporary high-end art stacks code smart contracts, automates away questions of provenance, builds resale royalties into artworks at source, deploys its own marketplaces, accesses venture funding, and today is beginning to build museums, resetting relationships between the commercial and the curatorial. (Search for: “Future Art Ecosystems”, Volume 1, in which the term art stack is first introduced and outlined.)",{"type":15,"children":195},[196],{"text":197},"13. NOVEL STRUCTURES: DAOs. An example of the former is the catalysis of new technological development through the same social scene and mechanism of collective conviction, including, for example, tooling for DAOs. (Indeed, DAO governance mechanisms could be seen precisely as technologies that convert collective conviction into action, a phenomena described in the following sections.)",{"type":15,"children":199},[200,202,204],{"text":201},"14. DATA AND DISCOURSE. Unlike the legacy art world discourse, general claims to contemporary significance of NFT s tend to be couched in the novelty and potential of related technologies, drawing often on “non-cultural” sources like technical white papers. But these are only a small fraction of the reference points that drives the broader discourse. The digital nature of this art world architecture, and the prevalence of openly visible (if frequently pseudonymous) interactions, means a huge quantity of data is produced by the everyday operation of the NFT art world. These data sources include the shifting prices of NFT s and underlying protocols, opinions, the involvement of brands, memes, announcements of regulatory investigations by government bodies, etc. The ready availability of so many different indexes of value fuels a vast, distributed, and ongoing set of conversations. These function as the motor ",{"text":203,"italic":19},"de facto ",{"text":205},"setting the value of NFTs.",{"type":15,"children":207},[208,210,212,214,216,218,220,222,224,226,228,230,232],{"text":209},"15. COLLECTIVE CONVICTION. We can understand the process by which NFTs become valuable as one of ",{"text":211,"italic":19},"collective conviction",{"text":213},". It takes place through cycles of ",{"text":215,"italic":19},"uptalk ",{"text":217},"and ",{"text":219,"italic":19},"downtalk",{"text":221}," taking place at the ",{"text":223,"italic":19},"personal",{"text":225}," level (or indeed sub-personal, as when one persuades oneself), within broader but still limited ",{"text":227,"italic":19},"collectives",{"text":229},", and more generally, as a ",{"text":231,"italic":19},"crowd",{"text":233}," with its own sentiments. Transference across these levels ultimately shapes perceptions of value, combining the financial with the cultural. Different tech platforms have enabled these processes, and much of the lexicon that has developed around NFTs, as per the glossary in this book, is an effort to describe how it takes place.",{"type":15,"children":235},[236,238,240,242,244,246,248],{"text":237},"16. CROWD AS PLATFORM. Where the ",{"text":239,"italic":19},"legacy art world",{"text":241}," is—attempts by artists and cultural institutions to encourage deeper participation aside—largely defined by the ",{"text":243,"italic":19},"crowd as audience ",{"text":245},"for the operations of specialists, the NFT art world understands the ",{"text":247,"italic":19},"crowd as a platform,",{"text":249}," and the source of new creative projects, much more generally than “artwork”. ",{"type":15,"children":251},[252,254,256,258,260,262,264,266,268,270,272,274,276],{"text":253},"17. INTERACTION OF WORLDS. Each world is of course aware of the other, and numerous (often self-interested, more or less ",{"text":255,"italic":19},"ad hoc",{"text":257},") attempts have been made to cross between them: “name artists” creating NFT collections and attempts by ",{"text":259,"italic":19},"cultural institutions",{"text":261}," to collect and put on show NFT s within more conventional exhibition formats are two examples. A summary of these relationships would focus on the projected ",{"text":263,"italic":19},"value that each world presents to the other",{"text":265},": for the legacy art world, NFT s are a source of ",{"text":267,"italic":19},"relevance ",{"text":269},"that promises to renew its projects; for the NFT art world, the legacy art world remains a source of ",{"text":271,"italic":19},"credibility",{"text":273},": it continues, even if by titanic inertia alone, to be the primary means of asserting about some work that ",{"text":275,"italic":19},"this is what cultural is, this is what matters, right now",{"text":277},".",{"type":15,"children":279},[280],{"text":281},"\n",{"type":15,"children":283},[284],{"text":285},"\n\n",{"type":15,"children":287},[288],{"text":281},{"type":15,"children":290},[291],{"text":292},"\n\n\n\n",{"type":15,"children":294},[295],{"text":281},{"type":15,"children":297},[298],{"text":281},{"type":15,"children":300},[301],{"text":281},{"type":15,"children":303},[304],{"text":281},{"type":15,"children":306},[307],{"text":285},{"type":15,"children":309},[310],{"text":281},{"type":15,"children":312},[313],{"text":23},[315,322],{"id":31,"url":316,"width":317,"height":318,"fileName":319,"alternativeText":320,"caption":320,"mimeType":321},"https://eu-west-2.graphassets.com/cml6bym1c0c5207mi8l9pgndz/cmm0klj4295q207mk72ovm02l",1905,851,"1733752979872.jpeg",null,"image/jpeg",{"id":75,"url":323,"width":324,"height":325,"fileName":326,"alternativeText":320,"caption":320,"mimeType":321},"https://eu-west-2.graphassets.com/cml6bym1c0c5207mi8l9pgndz/cmm0km9kh960b07mpan1diq19",2048,786,"1733752982183.jpeg","2025-02-11",{"articlesTitle":329,"articles":330},"Things we’ve written ",[331,338,343,348,354,359,365,370,375,381,387],{"id":332,"articlePage":333,"title":334,"source":335,"url":336,"externalLink":337},"cmm0iq5yj76li07l7v4accmi6",false,"New ideas about how an art and design school can work ","Linkedin","new-ideas-about-how-an-art-and-design-school-can-work","https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-ideas-how-art-design-school-can-work-benedict-singleton-bqjif/?trackingId=dSxCYOUtTUmLPeamo81tFw%3D%3D",{"id":339,"articlePage":333,"title":340,"source":335,"url":341,"externalLink":342},"cmm0k9u9n96gk07l7lvv3q2fa","AI Vendors Promised Efficiency. 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