Nobody cares about my framed NFT art
Stephen Curry wiggles his shoulders on my kitchen counter. No one cares, not even the most devoted Curry fans. Occasionally a friend asks what it is is, this endless loop of Curry successfully launching a bomb from just above half court in a Golden State game against Dallas in February 2021. Then the shoulder twists. Some movement in the hips.
It’s a framed NFT, I say. An NFT video, actually. There’s another frame next to it, a pulsating blue jellyfish that looks like a novelty bought at Spencer Gifts circa 1994. It beats on a loop, like a GIF. It is not an NFT. Between these two acrylic frames sits a third that goes through digital photos from my iPhone camera roll – just regular photos.
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What do we get when we buy NFT art, unique pieces of code that are certified through the exchange of non-functional token currencies? Do we own the art itself, or the certificate for that art, or both? I have a Steph Curry highlight on my kitchen counter and I have no idea. I have asked the question and cannot guarantee a satisfactory answer; this is not unlike the promises of NFT art. This has not stopped hardware manufacturers from capitalizing on the NFT trend, which is currently in a downturn. You might even call these frames token gadgets—sleek, solid chunks of atoms that sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars, existing only to give you a way to show off your new art.
“I think we have such a unique view in terms of approaching display technology and how the display technology is really representative of a single blockchain-backed asset,” Joe Saavedra, founder and CEO of Infinite Objects, told me in February. Infinite Objects makes the frames I’ve borrowed from the company – the ones that currently host the Curry wiggle and the trippy fish.
Saavedra acknowledged that other display makers are also getting into NFTs, such as Samsung, which announced earlier this year that certain models of its TVs would support blockchain art. What’s different about Infinite Objects frames, Saavedra said, is that the company is lifting itself videomaking it “something that is collectible, something that is valued and that can be bought and sold.”
Unlike traditional photo frames, IO’s frames are immutable. (You could even call them nonfungible.) You can place an order for a frame with an NFT video in it or one with regular ol’ non-blockchain art, but either way, that’s the art you’re always stuck with. And while you go through the process of verifying ownership of your NFT before ordering the frame, Saveedra emphasized that the image you receive is not the NFT art itself. “It’s a physical twin to that asset on the blockchain,” he said. Saveedra actually owns the Steph Curry NFT, which I confirmed by scanning a QR code on the back of the frame. He bought it through NBA Top Shot, the league’s official marketplace for digital collectibles. Then he had it inserted into an IO frame. That’s a lot of work for a little art.
Infinite Objects frames are not cheap, but compared to some other NFT frames they are cheap. Most range from $79 to $450, depending on the size and quality of the frame and how an NFT is valued. The Steph Curry video print costs $199. The most expensive item on IO’s site? A $600 video rendering, created by an artist collective called Keiken, of Elon Musk, Grimes and baby X Æ A-12. Musk is inexplicably holding a knife. They are some people, some Avatar, and all have chips implanted in their skulls. “Their glass pregnancy bellies are both a vessel and a glossy veneer displaying a variety of objects representing the inner workings of their minds and transporting consciousness, feeling and belief from one space and time to another,” the description of the art reads. . Borrowing a page, it seems, straight from WeWork’s prospectus.
If that hasn’t won you over, the pitches from other NFT frame manufacturers might. A new hardware outfit called Lago, backed in part by Master & Dynamics CEO Jonathan Levine, is selling a 33-inch display for NFTs for $4,500. For that kind of money, the display will “display NFTs in the intended quality as the artist envisioned.” For an extra $500, you can turn on a Lago motion camera, which lets you flick your wrist against the NFT frame to scroll through the art you’re showing your bemused friends. Prefer a bargain? A 32-inch Tokenframe NFT display, which connects to Wi-Fi and lets you cast your own NFTs to the display, costs just $999. Step up to a 55-inch Tokenframe and you’ll pay a very specific $2,777 (in Ethereum, of course).
