WHAT IS THE VALUE OF AN IMAGE? BRENDAN TADLER ON NFT

WHAT IS THE VALUE OF AN IMAGE?

In architecture and design, one image could mean everything. It’s how you see your design, but also how you want your client to see your design. It has to evoke emotion, stimulate senses and make you feel some type of way. It is a moment and opportunity in your life and career where you must deliver your ideas with enough conviction, to give your client confidence to proceed and eventually build, without hesitation.

What if your design is good, but your client does hesitate on pursuing your full vision? You try to convince them to build it, but they’re just not having it. For Architects, we produce habitable art. We have JPEGs, CAD files, 3DS files, MP4 animations to illustrate and document our design in such a way that would guide a builder to construct our work. A Metaverse known as Decentraland—a virtually inhabitable world half the size of Manhattan subdivided as individual lots for sale to be developed by the owners—would allow these projects we are never able to experience built, to be experienced virtually. This unprecedented expression allows for more exposure resulting in the art becoming an important and iconic design in history.

Within the thriving world of digital art, known as NFT’s (Non Fungible Tokens) in Crypto speak, the platform for Architects has just expanded to a new universe, and in this case a Metaverse. A recent sale by a digital artist known as Beeples, reached $69 Million for a single JPEG. The new happy owner now has an immutable record showing ownership on a public ledger, which means, there will only ever be one. It was coded by what’s known as a blockchain (decentralized public ledger that records cryptocurrency transactions) which has confirmed this purchase indefinitely.  

We are inevitably moving towards a more compressed way of living where physical and material possessions are becoming less desirable, and authentic experiences are becoming more valuable as they define our greatest asset: a moment in time. It is the experience you can only have one of, whereas physical objects, there can be multiple. Similarly, a built design could be copied over and over again until it becomes unclear as to who designed it (See: all of Instagram). However, if I develop a design for a new home, save my design files on the blockchain as an NFT, there will be one, and only one of its kind, to be owned and experienced virtually. A completely unique work that can never be claimed by another as the creator, a built in copyright authenticator to verify the first and last to exist. This may be the new authentic experience we seek. 

Today, an image has two values that are observed, real and digital. One would think a digital version of your project in the form of a file or image would be valued much less than building a real version, but the actual value could far surpass expectations such as Beeples image, JPEG. This movement has created a new generation of designers that now have a platform to display work, monetize and gain recognition without obtaining approval to physically build. The value of an image is not determined by one, but by all.

This new landscape prompts designers to question the value of our work. For every design created, do we save our files and images to the blockchain as NFTs for built in copyright protection? Should we sell our carefully developed, overly expensive designs as habitable Virtual Architecture to exist within a Metaverse such as Decentraland? The answer is yes. Because by simply designing for approval to build, we may be missing out on some of the greatest designs and artists of our time. 

Click here to view MATERIA Magazine’s first ever habitable NFT designed by Brendan Tadler. 

For further inquiries about Brendan Tadler, contact The Len Co. an agency representing a new generation in design, culture, art, hospitality and architecture.