debate is mainly focused on NFTs as collectibles and does not include the role and potential of

the blockchain itself as a profound part of artistic practice. In my dissertation, I argue that

blockchain represents a new medium for art which, like every other art medium, influences

how its art is constituted, produced, perceived, and consumed. In concordance with its medium,

blockchain art is, as I will demonstrate, inherently programmable and decentralised. Firstly, I

will expound the idea and basic concepts of blockchain technology. Secondly, blockchain art

will be placed in an art-historical context, revealing the continuation and resumption of certain

pre-existing issues and questions of twentieth-century and contemporary artistic practice.

Thirdly, I will distinguish between examples where blockchain technology is used as a means

for dissemination, and artworks where the blockchain is specifically addressed, applied, and

Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 40

Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 44

to the financial system, shifting power from singular instances to a decentralised network of

peers. The blockchain is also a medium for art. Since the beginning of 2021, the profusion of

practice. In my dissertation, I argue that blockchain represents a medium for the novel art form

blockchain art. I focus attention on the constitution of this art form which, as I will demonstrate,

reflects on and, is determined by, the intrinsically programmable and decentralised nature of

its medium.

touching upon aesthetic, conceptual, or philosophical considerations, has not yet been

comprehensively conducted.

introduction to blockchain art, and to blockchain as a medium for art. I have identified four

main questions, covering different perspectives on how these phenomena can be assessed.

meaning. Examples of blockchain art throughout this dissertation help to illustrate such

considerations and reveal how the envisioned change of blockchain technology is reflected by

the art itself.

innovation and the hope for (global) democracy, to financial freedom, investment speculation,

and cyber criminality. NFTs and blockchain art are closely related to this discussion given their

dependence on the technology. Any appreciation of blockchain art requires an understanding

of its constituents, in particular, the structures and functions of blockchains, non-fungible

and, as a consequence, might appear untrustworthy. While the technology and its vision can

take on an immense complexity, it is not my intention, and also out of my scope, to describe

and analyse the multi-layered relation between all the parts of this system. Instead, I attempt to

convey its fundamental concepts, and the potential it offers to individual humans and societies.

Looking at the art that uses and thematises blockchains will make the technology itself more

accessible and show one example of how it can be used. In the following, I will explain some

of the basic technical principles and then transition to a first example of blockchain art which

combines technical premises with conceptual and aesthetic considerations.

means the shift of power from one instance to a multitude of peers, which is, within the context

creates a network to store data in a (3) trustworthy way. Firstly, a distributed ledger system

means that, instead of relying on a centralised instance that holds all decisive power, a network

is introduced where this power is distributed among a multitude of actors where, consequently,

no single instance possesses the majority of votes or shares. A centralised instance can be a

single person, like a judge, or institutions, such as universities or banks, whereas these bodies

are entitled to declare a certain matter as valid. Then, a ledger, for instance a record-keeping

book, is where verified records are stored. The most prominent example is offered by the

finance industry. Banks and financial services (centralised ledgers), for example HSBC or Visa,

verify account balances and transactions. Alternative models, in turn, rely on a distributed

ledger system where a consensus needs to be achieved in order to enact changes. In short,

traditional models require a middleman, or a trusted third party, whereas alternative models

skip this position and distribute the power over many peers. Secondly, a blockchain is nothing

else but a digital archive where data is stored. In the first instance, the technology was

developed to record transactions. However, it is arbitrary what kind of data it contains. Other

immensely powerful, model. Yet comprehending its potential, especially considering the

involved risks, requires a brief comparison between decentralised and centralised models.

There are instances where centralised approaches undoubtedly offer the best solutions. For

when it comes to elections as, for instance, the recent political climate in Venezuela over the

last several years has shown. Banks are among those institutions often criticised for their lack

of transparency. The art market, likewise, is dominated by price and value-determining

instances. In short, for many of these cases we have no other option than to simply trust certain

bodies and services, even if they may not be trustworthy. Such reliance on centralised entities

may even work to reinforce defective systems.

more resistant against fraud. Compared to a one-party model, where the entire unit is spoiled

in cases where the centralised party becomes malicious, a democratically organised model

(mining), 17,800 times less energy.

Also, Cardano has been developed on the basis of

scientific research in the areas of cryptography, game theory, and more, which provides a

technically sustainable foundation.

It is essential to acknowledge that blockchain technology

does not equal blockchain or cryptocurrency. Introducing DendroRithms, an example of

blockchain art, will allow me to disentangle the relation between these entities, and expand on

other aspects, such as block production and in what terms the blockchain serves as a medium

for art.

and May 2022 by the artist duo MICK + WOUT. The term NFT is misleading and oftentimes

cryptocurrency; Ethereum’s token is called Ether, whereas Bitcoin is eponymous for both the

blockchain and currency. Singular units of a certain currency are called ‘fungible tokens’, as

opposed to ‘non-fungible tokens’. By analogy, a one-pound coin is a fungible token of the

currency British Pounds; it is interchangeable (fungible) with another Pound, or equally two

fifty-pence coins. Picasso’s Guernica, for example, is unique (non-fungible) as no identical

unit exists. Non-fungible entities, indeed, can be traded against a certain number of fungible

tokens. NFTs and cryptocurrencies are both digital assets while only NFTs are unique. It is

possible to store transaction data from fungible and non-fungible tokens on a blockchain, as

blockchain. ‘Collection’, in the specific context of blockchain art, refers to the entirety of pieces

that belong to and constitute one work of art. Thus, the artwork consists of 839 individual

pieces, which are collectively owned by a multitude of people, as it is often the case for

blockchain art. The following link will open a webpage that shows multiple NFTs, each of

them containing one Dendro. Due to their digital nature, it is possible to present original works

of art, rather than facsimiles.

does not follow a one-to-many broadcasting pattern. Instead, and this is, in fact, what separates

NFTs to some extent from other mass media, blockchain technology relies on a peer-to-peer

network where potentially everyone with access to a computer and is well-versed with the

technology can communicate with everyone. This difference sustainably influences the

dynamics of the art market as artists have the chance to take on the entire responsibility for

their sales process. Nevertheless, having access to a global audience, instead of a local

community mostly dependant on galleries, brings other challenges, such as the requirement of

a certain technological and economic expertise.

computer-based programming, as is the case within this context. In fact, generative art can

cover digital and analogue works. The complexity and extent of the basic principles is

presumably the reason why no synoptic work, neither on the entirety of generative art, nor on

generative art based on programming, has been published.

a more specific taxonomy, covering sub-categories such as computer art, computer-generated

interaction as the influence on the operational system, and, lastly, sensory outcomes as the

comprises, on one hand, an input (entities) and an algorithm (process), written by a human and

executed by a computer (!), and, on the other hand, the product of that algorithm (sensory

outcome) which can include, for instance, an image, audio, or text file. This simplified

definition is intended to specifically serve the purpose of this dissertation. I will use the term

‘programmatic art’ instead of ‘generative art’, as, for example, Galanter does, to emphasise the

programmability of the input, as well as the importance of the computing process itself. This,

in turn, reflects the characteristics of blockchains. In contrast, ‘generative art’ highlights the

(static) nature of the output.

it is, as the artist emphasises, the input and the algorithm which constitute the ‘actual

artwork’.

responsible for the aesthetics of every piece. Simultaneously to the launch of the collection,

Watanabe published a documentation that explains how unsigs are generated.

It was compiled

especially for people who are not capable of reading code and, therefore, able to retrieve this

idea becomes a machine that makes the art’.

metadata of the NFT. In fact, this approach itself is an artistic statement. The metadata is meant

to store information about the asset that is contained. As this information eventually will be

stored in a block, the character space available in the metadata is highly limited to 16 kB. Every

artwork stored in the metadata, a so-called ‘on-chain’ works, has to comply with this limitation.

This restricts the possibilities of the artwork but it also leads to a conceptual interaction with

the medium. Watanabe was the first one on the Cardano blockchain who stored his artwork on-

chain.

To emphasise the relevance of this method, it must be mentioned that most works

recreate the sensory representation of these instructions. The same applies to unsigs; it is

possible to recreate every image by individually executing the code.

Watanabe alludes to the

immutability of blockchains because, as long as Cardano exists, unsigned_algorithms is