If There Are No Questions?

An exploration of the medium of NFTs

What are the true technical and artistic possibilities of NFTs?

More specifically, what artistic possibilities can only be realised using NFTs?

Visual artist Kate Daudy has a rich history of exploring different media. Working with film makers, musicians, writers, cosmologists, doctors and even the Egyptology department of Oxford University, she considers the human condition via different ideas and materials. The Evolution Project is her collaboration with digital artist James Viggers and Nobel prize-winning scientist & artist Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov. It was a thoughtful exploration of NFTs as an artistic medium, linking the real, virtual and future worlds.

The exhibition spanned established fine art practice through to NFTs. Curator Yasmine Datnow traced a clear path through to Daudy|Viggers|Novoselov’s new digital collaboration via textile, pen and ink, ceramic, collage, cast bronze and aluminium sculpture, even film stills from Daudy + Novoselov’s ‘Alternative Random Number Generator: The Sheep of Mr. Charles Platts’ commissioned for Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Visitors to ‘If There Are No Questions?’ were invited to trace how Daudy’s ideas have been used to seed the broad and deep generative digital artwork ‘The Evolution Project’ – translating Daudy’s ideas and fine artworks into the NFT space.

This generative breeding mechanism extended Daudy’s history of artistic collaboration to include her collectors, handing them the power to shape the direction of the resulting collection. It also used some of the unique possibilities of NFTs as a medium (in this case artistic “DNA”, metadata and bespoke genetic algorithms) to encode new dimensions of conceptual meaning and emotion into the network of artworks created. The resulting technical, artistic and emotional framework can then also serve as a platform for future NFT collaborations with other digital and physical artists.

The presence of the artists at the opening reflected the real / virtual nature of their collaboration during COVID and the increased blurring of lines between the real world and the metaverse: James Viggers was present physically to talk through the digital works with guests, while Kate Daudy appeared via robotic telepresence to talk through the physical works. This was via “Irene”, the gallery’s very own robot – Kate appeared on Irene’s screen while controlling the robot’s actions to move around the space and interact with guests.

Wholly novel, conceptually interesting, beautiful, the exhibition served as a groundbreaking exploration of the true possibilities of NFTs