Haroon Mirza and Mat Collishaw launch NFT projects in the wake of Ethereum’s eco-upgrade

In both artistic and environmental circles, the very mention of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) often causes lips to curl. These digital entities, which use blockchain technology to record the ownership of a work of art (or other assets), are widely criticized as vehicles for financial speculation with little inherent artistic value. Then there is the environmental impact. NFTs are criticized for their heavy carbon footprint, residing as they do on the notoriously power-intensive blockchain and requiring large amounts of energy to be minted. A 2021 analysis of around 18,000 NFTs by digital artist Memo Akten found that the average footprint of a single NFT was equivalent to one month’s electricity consumption of an average EU citizen.

But now the tide seems to be turning. Many of the largest NFT marketplaces operate on the Ethereum blockchain, which cut carbon emissions by more than 99% in an upgrade known as “the Merge” in September 2022. The network switched to a different “proof of stake” system that only requires a fraction of the energy per transaction compared to the previous “proof of work” system. Other blockchains such as Tezos, Cardano and Kusama also use the “proof of stake” mechanism which looks like it is becoming the norm for minting and trading more energy efficient NFTs.

Also, the crypto crash of last year has reduced the hype around NFTs, and artists are starting to feel less squeamish about exploring the potential of blockchain as a creative space. An example of this is Haroon Mirza, an artist who works with sound, light and electricity to create kinetic sculptures, performances and immersive installations, launched his first NFT project during his recent show at London’s Lisson Gallery. Solver star released the first 200 of 1,000 minted NFTs—featuring a GIF of a red-and-white fly agaric framed by a star of eight rotating solar panels—for free to anyone who logs in to solsticestar.xyz and verse. works.

“I was immediately interested in cryptocurrencies, and I always believed that blockchain was an incredible technology that was going to revolutionize how we do things,” says Mirza. But while he was intrigued by the initial emergence of NFTs, he quickly became alarmed by the feeding frenzy surrounding the $69 million Beeple sale at Christie’s in March 2021. “It became like a Ponzi scheme within a Ponzi scheme, and I wanted nothing to do with that part of it, he says. “It just became a way to invest in often dirty crypto, and the kind of art that came with it just made you want to throw up.”

The decline of speculative interest in NFTs along with the transition to a more sustainable system encouraged Mirza – whose work often revolves around the technological pursuit of energy – to revisit the blockchain. “The merger has made Ethereum a completely different platform than what it was before,” he says, adding that for him the appeal of NFTs is conceptual rather than aesthetic.

“Nothing about NFT interests me other than the fact that the artwork is also certified and completely transparent, with everything contained in the work itself,” he states. “NFTs are completely decentralized – I like the idea of ​​a work of art being a non-hierarchical community that can engage with itself in a productive way. It’s like having a work of art that’s inherently collaborative: that’s what I do in my work anyway, and that’s what really excites me.”

For Mirza, Solver star is simply “a first step, an entry point” to a larger interactive project that will unfold over time. The next iteration will include sound, a central part of his practice. All owners of Solver star NFTers will be invited to select a frequency within the human hearing range of 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, which will then be used by the artist to create a new sound piece.

“The potential is that you can develop a project that has a feedback loop with the people who assemble it,” says the artist. “It’s a living thing, a living project that can grow and evolve into a non-hierarchical network.” The project also promises to reap environmental benefits, and Mirza promises a smart contract that will direct some of the proceeds to renewable energy research.

The communal, participatory aspect of NFTs is also a big draw for Mat Collishaw who, like Mirza, is making his first foray into the field. “I’m always looking for new media, and if there’s a new way of making a piece of art, with a new vocabulary associated with it, then I want to be there,” says Collishaw. In the past, the artist has used VR, animatronics and CGI as well as oil paint, mosaics and blown glass to create stunning and sometimes shocking artworks that explore ideas around death, decay and the darker side of human nature.

Collishaw drew parallels between the craze for NFTs and the “tulip mania” of the 17th century, when entire fortunes were made and lost speculating on tulip bulbs in the Netherlands Heterosis, an NFT project that allows users to grow custom animated digital flowers. Each of these unique NFT flowers combines computer algorithms with floral genetic coding, enabling collectors to collaborate with each other on new hybrid species. The result is an endless selection of increasingly exotic and elaborate creations. Collectors may manipulate their specimens simply for pleasure or for the financial benefits of reselling them – or both.

“It’s entirely up to the collectors what they do,” says Collishaw. “The first iteration of the flower is quite simple and the colors are quite simple. They can be much more elaborate … we wanted to give people incentive to breed.” To spice things up, the artist has introduced a series of recessive genes that will throw up new traits impossible to control or predict. “There are several secret species that will be unlocked once certain breeding patterns are completed,” he declares. How these surprise features will affect a flower’s resale value remains to be seen.

Since they were released on the OpenSea NFT platform last month, all 2,500 of these infinitely mutable flowers were snapped up at a starting price of around £120 each in cryptocurrency. Collishaw is pleased that collectors have already begun to interact with each other to hybridize their flowers. Apparently, some even make extra income by setting competitive prices for anyone who wants to breed from theirs. The more desirable the individual flower is, the higher the price.

These hybridizing transactions take place in a centralized digital space called the “greenhouse” where collectors can adopt an avatar, contact other participants and see all Heterosis flowers growing in their newest state. Here, all the characteristics of a copy can be assessed, including the market value. In keeping with Collishaw’s track record of finding beauty in entropy, this interactive environment simulates the shape of London’s National Gallery if it were left to decay. The flowers are set against a backdrop of musty old master paintings, while vegetation sprouts from the floor and the ceiling hosts a mass of dangling vines.

Looking at this ghostly setting where the great art stories are reclaimed by nature, and where nature also exists alongside manipulated digital flowers, raises all sorts of questions about value, beauty, desirability, natural and artificial selection. “It’s quite shocking to me that you have the cream of 400 years of European art, but nobody sees because the only organic life is plant life,” observes the artist.

Collishaw also draws analogies between the traditional role of the National Gallery as a network center “where citizens could gather and share intelligence” and the circulation of knowledge around natural science, art and commerce exchanged between tulip traders and speculators in 17th-century Holland. These ideas around information networks come full circle with the way Heterosis encourages its collectors to form an online community to trade data related to their holdings as they bring the project to full fruition.

Given the botanical theme of the project and its multifaceted exploration of how humanity has shaped the natural world for financial gain, it was particularly important to Collishaw to wait for the “proof of stake” blockchain system to be in place before any NFT drops. “I was paying close attention to the situation,” he confirms, adding that he is also pleased that the inherent immateriality of NFTs obviates the shipping, storage and other energy-intensive requirements of analog art.

The fact that minting NFTs is no longer an environmental hazard has allowed both Collishaw and Mirza, in their entirely distinct but also overlapping ways, to demonstrate the rich and inclusive potential of the non-fungible token as an interactive artistic endeavour. Never mind that none of the artists have yet made much money from their withdrawals to NFTs – profit was never the point.

As Collishaw puts it, “By making an NFT, I created a work of art that exists in a way that is not possible in any other context. The value has been as an experiment, and a very interesting one at that. I’ve learned a lot doing it— but I could have made more money washing windows.”

Regardless of how things play out in the crypto market, it looks like NFT art is here to stay in its new, greener form.

• Haroon Mirza: Solstice Star

• Mat Collishaw: Heterosis
• Mat Collishaw will have a solo exhibition, All things fallat the Bomb Factory Art Foundation, London, April 20-21. May