featured
Wed
28
Sep
2022
Link

Event

ConferenceExhibition

A Token Gesture @ the Oxford Blockchain Art & Technology Conference (OxBAT 2022)

Dr. Evan Morgan, Martin Disley, Dr. Chris Elsden, Prof. Chris Speed

Institute for Design Informatics, University of Edinburgh

 

A Token Gesture was an exhibition and research project to introduce, explore and critique new public interactions and ownership of digital art via ‘non-fungible tokens’ – more commonly known as NFTs.

On display throughout March 2022, members of the public in Edinburgh were able to:

  • Generate unique pieces of digital art through a street-level, walk-up interaction
  • Register their artwork for display in the exhibition via the InSpace City Screen
  • Mint, claim and own a non-transferable NFT, representing their piece of art

You can see the original exhibition, in the video below:

 

As a critical research project, the project aims were to offer hands-on opportunities for the public to learn about, experience and reflect critically on generative art and NFTs; to study users’ experiences, practices and understanding of creating and managing NFTs; and to explore how NFTs can (or cannot) offer audiences new ways to connect with and ‘own’ digital art and content.

We’re now presenting this work at OxBAT 2022, the Oxford Blockchain Art & Technology Conference, and we’ve redesigned the exhibition to take it on tour! With new artwork from Sasha Belitskaja, a Token Gesture is now presented as a mobile kiosk. As well as reaching new audiences at the OxBAT conference, this will allow us to explore how the exhibition and minting experience can be embedded in different times and places.

 

For more details about A Token Gesture, please visit: https://nft.inspace.ed.ac.uk/

OxBAT 2022