“I Don’t See NFT As a Bubble”, Sebastian Clej on NFT Art And Blockchain Technology
UK-based artist Sebastian Clej is determined to solve the image problem of crypto art through his idea of a highly curated art marketplace for contemporary art and blue-chip NFTs. His vision gave birth to ASKNIGHTS, the art-focused and tech-driven company he founded in London in 2020, and his determination has helped him to survive even the worst crypto bloodbath.
Today, ASKNIGHTS has more than two thousand followers on Discord and much more on Twitter and Instagram. And it has helped over 400 international artists and collectors to share its fast growing digital platforms. Clej recently sat down with Olayimika Oyebanji to discuss NFT art and his vision for a freer and inclusive art market.
1. ASKNIGHTS can be the launching pad for many undiscovered artists who struggle in an industry that is as heavily gated as the space industry. How do you explain your motivation behind the founding of ASKNIGHTS?
The art industry and market have been gated for a long time. It seems that things are beginning to change now, thanks to innovative technologies such as blockchain, smart contracts and NFT. I have been an artist myself so I know how difficult it is to penetrate the market and grow as an artist. Through ASKNIGHTS, my whole motivation is to help other artists and collectors as I would be helping myself.
The secret lies in mirroring — looking at others and seeing yourself, or at least a part of, in them. Since 2020, it’s been a lot of challenges, with ups and downs, but that is normal, no one said or expected that it is going to be easy. Holding on to a balanced, open-minded and agnostic approach, we mainly faced challenges from the two extremes: crypto maximalists and non-crypto maximalists. Both extremes leverage too much. Glad that the industry got rid of some in the meantime, such as FTX and partners.
2. The image problem of NFT or crypto art has divided the art audience globally. Here in the UK, you’ve got an eminent artist like David Hockney describing NFT as “silly little things’’. Do you think there is a real image problem in the NFT space?
That’s a great question and I don’t see it as a problem. It is normal to have different opinions and this is the beauty of diversity. It has always been like this throughout history. I respect David Hockney and his art, and I am not surprised to hear that from someone aged 85. Academic research in neuropsychology already pointed out that the older we get, the harder it is for the neurons in the brain to make new connections, so that they can truly understand and learn new things. Those old neuro cells prefer to label the new as something bad even without grasping new concepts.
Based on our surveys as well, usually, older people are neither interested in new technologies nor learning something new. That’s why this attitude was highly expectable but, in the end, no one can stop a positive innovation that benefits the many and it’s for the greater good; it generally just occurs, sooner or later. Thus, it is not like I am condemning such an attitude but rather that I understand it. For instance, I can’t be sad about my grandfather for only being a fan of the Moon and not Mars. During his time, the limit was the sky and Moon but now it is Mars.
What is stopping us from dreaming bigger and surpassing our actual limits as humans is only our mind; history has proved it multiple times. Or let’s simply look at a younger artist such as Damien Hirst (57-year-old), a great English artist from Bristol. He successfully launched his new art collection as NFT and it helped him reach new audiences in a more effective way than the traditional one.
3. Judging by your disposition, it’s compelling to say that you don’t subscribe to the notion that NFT is a fad or a bubble, does crypto art yet qualify to be described as contemporary art?
In a way, some believe that everything after the Big Bang or God’s Genesis is a bubble. Without going that far, of course, I don’t see NFTs as a bubble. NFT art and Web 3 have definitely more long-term potential than art on Web 2. It is mainly because this new technology is more secure and reliable, not to mention that it solves the ownership and traceability issues without breaking information privacy rules as is common in the old Web 2 space. Web 3 NFT Art also offers immutability and it is definitely here to stay for a long time; what we are seeing now is definitely just the beginning.
4. What is the value proposition of ASKNIGHTS?
Own art: Exclusive NFT Art & Artiverse’ — this is our UVP. The goal is to support immutability and art conservation, with a focus on bluechip fine art and especially the digital side of it because we believe that if thinking inthousands of years’ time, digital art is more valuable due to better art conservation standards and risk management. Basically, we are making art as long-lasting as possible while aiming for eternity and making it everlasting. And the beauty of Web 3’s new space, compared to Web 2’s, is that it generally consists of an open and creative space, where everyone is
free to get involved in multiple ways and choose the role that suits them best. And so is at ASKNIGHTS & Partners.
5. How is ASKNIGHTS in a different class of its own?
By solving key market issues in a unique and efficient way. We seem to be the only one that links artists and collectors, being blockchain agnostic, decentralised, and truly hybrid. Or, in other words, we act as an impartial medium and portal, always valuing freedom of speech and artistic expression and its ingenuity. Art is meant to be freer even than journalism and entertainment since some of it may only be addressed to a verified private list of members. Art DAOs with NFT verification are a great use case example in this sense. ASKNIGHTS also started its DAO registration on Discord .
To be more specific, no one is creating that much value and utility to the NFT art world than we do, based on our limitedly low budget as it is for now. If we would gather more funds, obviously, the situation would be better and we could have helped the users more. Perhaps everything happens at the right time so let’s not complain. At least, it proved we’ve been extremely cost-effective for what we built by now and still going a few steps upward when the whole market did it the other way around, according to recent market data.
6. The idea of building a virtual environment for the curation and exhibition of art pieces is superb. Is the art world ready for immersive technologies?
I definitely think 2020–2023 is marking only the beginning of it as both a product and market development. It is one of the most favourable times we have experienced recently for such implementation and adoption. Or let’sjust think about the time during the covid waves when everyone had to stay cautious and keep it safe at home. Virtual digital spaces definitely were a great solution as an alternative to continuing our daily life routine and even improving it in some areas. Users enter virtual universes or worlds through VR headsets, laptops or even smartphones. However, what we are seeing now is just the beginning. When talking about immersive experiences, there is still more way to go, more exciting things are ahead of us! Just keep an eye on this new economy, creative culture and art movement manifesto where the NFTs are the expressions of it.
7. What piece of advice do you have for young emerging artists that are making technology the cornerstone of their craft?
Always use your thoughts, ideas and words wisely, so it benefits you in the long run. It doesn’t mean that you can’t be more punkish, mix things in between or that you can’t go for both physical and digital art forms, called hybrid or phygital. Make the best out of your experiences and use technology as a way to make your work more effective and its outcome better. Art and technology are here to stay and help us have a better future.
8. How do you intend to solve the art industry’s problem with elitism through curation?
First of all, by offering to everyone a decentralised curation system and rankings governed by smart contracts on immutable public ledgers. In this way, hacking, corruption and elitism are at least 100 times less likely to occur. Secondly, by supporting as much diversity as possible through curation. And, of course, there shall be no intention to promote any political party.
9. What is the stack of technologies that can help fulfill ASKNIGHTS’ ambition? How do you leverage them?
Decentralised networks, blockchain, Token Gating for events attendance and exclusively private content, Dynamics NFTs, NFT Brewery Factory to change NFTs over time (breeding and transforming them into something new), proof-of-authenticity, proof-of-originality, meta-reviews, and proof-of-reserve for physical art tokenisation (collaborating with ChainLink in this regard). Everything is supported by decentralised public ledgers and smart contracts. We also use ThirdWeb and Token Factory (Rarible Protocol) for minting NFTs and their back-end functionality on our curated NFT art store and marketplace. For the metaverse within Fringe Multiverse, we use Unreal Engine and 3D creation software such as Blender and Cinema4D.
It is vital for us to connect the NFT art marketplace with the metaverse within Fringe Multiverse so that it adds up more value and creates more utility for NFTs. In this way, we make both sides happy, including the customer who is the collector and owner. Since intellectual property, terms and conditions, and ownership are our cornerstones, we encourage everyone to include as many of them as possible in the metadata before minting and selling anything. That is what ASKNIGHTS is doing together with its partners.
