Beeple Brings NFTs Into The Physical World

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:18 Everydays
01:53 Human ONE
03:48 Thanks for watching!

Beeple is taking the NFT where no NFT has gone before -- the real world. In this video, we explore the why, how, and what of Human One.

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NFTs just got real. Well, tangible, that is

All thanks to digital artist Mike Winkelmann, aka Beeple.

If you’ve been at all involved in the complex and confusing — often labyrinthine — world of NFTs, you have probably heard of Beeple.

He was catapulted into the rarefied atmos of artistic superstardom in early March of 2021, after the sale of his NFT Everydays: the First 5000 Days for 69 million at a Christie’s auction.

It was the first NFT (or non-fungible token) ever offered by major auction house.

And it set an impressive precedent — raking in more than a J.M.W. Turner, for example.

No one really knew what to expect. Bidding for Everydays started at 100 dollars

…and it just went up from there.

The idea behind Everydays: the First 5000 Days is, it’s entirely digital. Instead of owning a physical work of art (say, a sculpture or a painting), the owners (in this case, Metakovan and Twobadour) own the right to a piece of data, verified on a blockchain

But the historical significance of that piece of data could be worth well over the 69 million they paid for it.

The work itself is — essentially — a compilation of the art Beeple made every day over a 5,000 day period.

And formally, there’s a lot to talk about — there’s political satire, sci-fi and psychosexual content, and cartoons, for starters. It’s been tackled by art critics like Ben Davis and Will Gompertz (the former having painstakingly viewed all 5,000 images) much more fully than we could ever hope to do in this video, so if you’re interested in a more in-depth look at this particular work, we’ve linked their articles below.

Now, however, Beeple is pushing the boundaries of how we understand digital art and what NFTs might be even further.

On November 9th, his work is back on the action block — this time, with a “hybrid physical and digital object:” HUMAN ONE.

Standing just over 7 feet tall, this sculpture relies on 4 video screens, the content of which can (and, very likely, will) be remotely manipulated by the artist at any time. The owner will also receive a corresponding NFT.

In its current form, the work shows a human in a futuristic spacesuit — a sort of visionary astronaut — walking through various dystopian environments, which change according to the time of day.

The message is clear: HUMAN ONE, the ostensible subject of the work, is going where no (hu)man has gone before — so, too, is Beeple.

According to Christie’s:

“Both the object and its NFT display dynamically changing imagery drawn at random from a data pool of the artist’s visual creations that is accessed via the Ethereum blockchain. Over the course of his lifetime, Beeple intends to seamlessly add to and evolve this pool of imagery in response to current events.”

For Beeple, this work represents a significant art historical moment — in that it radically alters our conception of what art is. He says:

“While a traditional work of art is more akin to a finite statement, frozen in time at the moment it was completed, this artwork’s unique ability to be updated makes it more akin to an ongoing conversation.”

In other words, HUMAN ONE is something the viewer can come back to, and get something new out of each time

Because the work itself has become something new each time. The artist’s statement is subject to change — has room to evolve.

Bidding is expected to exceed 15 million U.S. dollars

But the long-term significance of this new art remains unclear.

So, what is the last word? According to Beeple, there isn’t one.

What are your thoughts on HUMAN ONE? Feel free to let us know in the comments below! And, if you’ve enjoyed this video and would like to see more like it, give us a like or hit the subscribe button now, as it really helps us out a lot.

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Works Cited

“Christie’s Announces Beeple’s HUMAN ONE: The Artist’s First-Ever Dynamic Physical Artwork
+ Video NFT.” Christie’s. 28 October 2021. https://www.christies.com/about-us/pr...
archive/details?PressReseaseID=10268.

Davis, Ben. “I Looked Through All 5,000 Images in Beeple’s $69 Million Magnum Opus. What I
Found Isn’t So Pretty.” Artnet News. 17 March 2021. https://news.artnet.com/opinion/
beeple-everydays-review-1951656.

Escalante-De Mattei, Shanti. “Beeple Returns to Christie’s with Physical Sculpture Following
$69 M. NFT Sale.” ARTnews. 28 October 2021. artnews.com/art-news/market/beeple-
human-one-christies-1234608208/.

Gompertz, Will. “Everyday: The First 5000 Days — Will Gompertz reviews Beeple’s digital
work.” BBC. 13 March 2021. bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-56368868.

“What is an NFT? (Non-Fungible Tokens Explained.” YouTube, uploaded by Whiteboard Crypto,
20 March 2021,    • What is an NFT? (Non-Fungible Tokens ...  .