# $575m worlds most expensive art files for sale aka 'the world's most expensive human made digital-conceptual art' status: underway [$575m-worlds-most-expensive-art-files-for-sale](https://robert-what.itch.io/575m-worlds-most-expensive-art-files-for-sale) **update 1.0** raised the art price from $242m to $575 in line with current valuation of the notion of 'worth' === **goals of this absurdist project** ![[flag-of-new-void-amerika-robert-what-via-ufc.jpg|600]] to 'earn' $575m from awesome honest human (non nft & non-ai) based digital art-work in order to help fellow artists in poverty by buying itch.io and providing a decent living wage names of files (free as in beer and freedom; only the idea of such files under the poverty of ultra-rich capitalism symbolize ir 'worth') **+** a bridge to the law robert what via heat of the night **+** abstract blurry plastic kitchen bottle robert what **+** aegri somnia brexit party 2020 robert what via getty images **+** ancient japanese seascape robert what **+** another hard tech night of cyberpunk crunch robert what via reddit **+** apocalyptic new york graffiti robert what **+** archetypal moderne artistes robert what via borenzo **+** artists seeking answers robert what via charles bell **+** atlantis family portrait robert what via flickr **+** autumn leaves study robert what **+** aztec map of los angeles robert what **+** bible photo op robert what via patrick semansky ap **+** chung moi pow speaks robert what via youtube **+** cockney voodoo beaver day of the locust robert what via better than food **+** cockney voodoo beaver fangs of the cosmic serpent robert what via bluesky **+** cockney voodoo beaver user favorite colors_a robert what **+** come fly with thee robert what via flickr **+** covid lockdown acedia flowers robert what **+** crosswalks robert what via google **+** defund white reality robert what via united press international **+** doomed warpspace vessel pewpew romero robert what via id software **+** drew dober portrait robert what via ufc **+** electron dream cavern robert what **+** example color palettes robert what via color hex **+** existential tintabulation robert what **+** fancy cthulhu weird fiction bookmark robert what **+** old parking garage robert what **+** fear city 1984 robert what via abel ferrara **+** flag of new void amerika robert what via ufc **+** forced virtual reality venezuelan politician nicolás maduro moros kidnapped by naziusa robert what **+** franks menu robert what **+** german department store neon robert what **+** ghost storm on prairie hill robert what via flickr **+** hadoken smirking skatmuncher sandmann robert what via wikipedia **+** high speed japanese network robert what **+** homage to kandinsky robert what **+** hot chi glow ninja robert what via youtube **+** hunting in the mossy autumn wood robert what **+** i love your artistic representation robert what **+** i voted labor but robert what **+** in passing (scenes from a window) robert what **+** islands in the nets robert what **+** junkyard messiah robert what **+** lady sumiko transforms into an entangling tree robert what **+** lindsay lohan fursona cosmic vomit nft robert what **+** long summer march robert what **+** lord of media smiles robert what via flickr **+** lost in the crowds on market day robert what **+** many catman business robert what via garmejolt **+** marco polo gets lost robert what **+** morning ferns at riverside robert what via flickr **+** mundane dinners robert what **+** new media shark robert what via steam community screenshots **+** nonlinear urban connections robert what **+** ode to nam june paik robert what **+** oil paint and rags (the temptation of martin) robert what **+** oldshool cool beauty robert what **+** on unnecessary comments robert what via twitter **+** one universal art washing dollar robert what **+** only in your 80s vhs dreams robert what via mtv **+** optical color study robert what **+** perfectly beastly robert what via youtube **+** phobolis poster robert what via infra black **+** polaroid memories of pete robert what via virginia **+** pricing the capitalist concept of worth (digital conceptual art) robert what **+** reactionary shades of the 80s robert what via cobra **+** repo man the sadness of america robert what via alex cox **+** republic of bob map robert what (map compass by honey yanibel minaya cruz) **+** skybat teases landbeast (not shown) robert what via wikipedia **+** spectacle king taco and the tr(i)ump of the will robert what via evan vucci ap **+** super generic stock photo cupcakes robert what **+** taipei neuropink robert what via walking in rain youtube **+** the (awkward) birthday party robert what **+** the alchemist in her study robert what **+** the last incalculable monents of a total dyson nihei megasphere collapse robert what **+** the perfect postmodern image robert what seagulls via google images **+** the physical impossibility of modern corporate healthcare robert what **+** the social glance robert what **+** the whitest amerikans who evar lived robert what via drew angerer getty **+** ultra rich white freaks robert what via musk **+** undead agnotology hordes at the covid gates robert what (texture willy the wizard photo joshua a bickel usa today via reuters) **+** welgestyle dante vr online a new reckoning robert what via jason welge **+** why is this rich guy of whiteness $miling robert what via corridor crew **+** zizek brand soviet era philosopher trading cards robert what via internet this project exists in order that i robert have fun stop renting draughty flats and help new friends and for the purposed of socio-political critique and a (/toothless) satire of the anti-art of postmodern neoliberal capitalism (based not on craftsmanship or the beauty of human meaning but only a global hyperreal art-market structure designed only for investment / laundering / the vulgar cultural cache of naked wealth **on the concept of worth as it relates to ideas** > success is when the checks don't bounce > ~ asshole andy warhol **+** consider the very concept of 'the worth of ideas' as philosophically dubious - based upon the false assumption that sicking price tags to everything under the sun is a good thing for hairless potentially intelligent partially evolved space-apes living on a large anonymous rock hurtling through the/an infinite biocosmic void **+** who would ever want to label themselves 'content creators' - machines casually spewing and grinding out what sound like styrofoam packing peanuts? rather all good researchers help de.construct pithy intellectually stimulating and oddly humerus one-off think pieces and bespoke thought experiments with dark clean edges that refresh the neural palate. bueller? **+** a scenario: in which you (once again for something to do while waiting to live - as if for the first time) pretend to pretend you're a.nother amateur resident net theorist for hire regularly asked by imaginary virtual friends and strangers "how do you intend to earn enough to live from such odd art robert - what's your business model?" as a self-styled 'ideas person' who play with.in fuzzy notions conceptual approximations and shifting fields of distributed artistic possibility it's often a challenge to define one's role and what one is apparently selling; the easy to read sticky label of "philosopher" is often far too vague while "artist" too idealistic - even "postmodern cultural critic" feels somewhat predictable **+** thing is the default question imposed by wider capitalist society "what do you do?" needs strict clear definition - otherwise anyone could start being anything - or even consider question or even reject socio-culturally defined rpg concepts like 'identity' and 'job' and we couldn't have that you've repeatedly considered setting up an account for possible regular donations - but paypal sucks and ugly yellow "donate" buttons often merely signal more effort than currently worth summoning. you've also still thoroughly unconvinced about the idea of 'patronage' and 'crowd funding' generally since both are based on misunderstanding the true interrelationships between people - ideas do not 'belong' to anybody but are more like neural lightning flashes in a shared distributed cloud matrix or noosphere current models / cultural myths like "pay what you want" - "pay what you can" and even "pay what you'd like to be paid" all share the same ideology - that of filthy business; of willingly being embedded in a system of (inherently unequal) 'exchange' which (always non-freely) 'offers' the very notion of such exchange / worth as all-natural(tm) yet there's nothing natural about 'getting paid'; what you (/think you) want is often never as important as what's often truly needed - understanding help and human(e) compassion for fellow human artists even loose talk of 'giving credit where it's due' is often merely another strict cultural command - an subtle blackmailer's threat to hand over one's moral wallet in apparent free exchange for a reciprocal public reaping of perceived reputation-based profits; only fluid processes mistakenly defined as quantifiable "things" are ever 'worth' anything; it's not 'worth' people need but meaning **+** as ever (at least so far in this version of society) there are still bills to pay - raw materials happily purchased from reputable vendors of quality wholesale goods at competitive market-driven prices within the happy digital neoliberal economy of information **intellectual (non) copyright notice** on the perception of monetary value / human value of perception. the mere notions of "intellectual property" and "copyright" appear an ugly joke too often perpetrated by greed and unrestrained ego. anti-ironically it also indicates one has not 'thought it through' or intellectualized it enough all ideas and concepts from here at 'republic of bob' automatically release / escape into the 'libre public domain by-default': no copyright - no licence - maximum fun - please kopimi! as a fellow artist / researcher do not wait for someone else to say how to use any and all immaterials seen sensed or conceptually imagined here. no one person truly 'invents' anything; ideas and concepts do not spring fully complete from anyone's forehead like athena from zeus but rather seem inherently fuzzy / often contested spaces and shared socio-cultural practices it's also not for modern postmodern digital artists like robert what to say if they automatically 'deserve' money or recognition from artistic ideas; feeling righteously defensive about one's often arbitrary thought-spew seems aggressive and non-artistic robert what: "_having said that however_(tm) it sure would be nice to have enough cash to move into a decent house instead of barely existing in a frozen rented flat the size of a shoebox" (the un-extracted neoliberal brain worm par-excellence busy writhing - however seemingly fair the argument for personal payment regarding art-labor it's always ultimately only about oneself and 'getting mine' - never about wider collective social action needed to change society so nobody is forced to act ruthless and thatcherite in the first place) **+** talk of 'getting your fair share' and 'credit where credit is due' often reduces co-creative human endeavor to paltry commercial opportunity. ideas and concepts which might enhance lives and help people view the world in positive alternative ways 'belong' to nobody. it is in this open spirit of art sharing and cooperation that site and everything here exists. play well; abst0 **calculating the hyperreal financial concept of worth** given that apparently everything in capitalism's known violently circumscribed monoverse has a price tag (ie. scientism-based rational-materialist quantification) beloved alternative resident net theorist for hire 'robert what' now also laughably calculates the hyperreal financial concept of "worth" this conceptually artistic scenario symbolically portrays and signifies along with everything else on this site as free (as in cost / libre) economists bean counters and ir comfy armchair apologists often state that "idea's are worthless; only the execution counts." expanding upon this pathetic notion one might state it's the very idea of 'worth' that needs executing. theorist robert what therefore puts (/down) the notion of "worth" at precisely $57.5b - an _equally absurd and ugly calculation_ based on two key economic factors: **+** $57.5 billion: the global capitalist art market (art basel): https://www.artbasel.com/stories/the-art-basel-and-ubs-global-art-market-report-2025 **+** 0.001%: the percentage of those who have boosted ir wealth by as much as the world's poorest half - https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2025/dec/10/just-0001-hold-three-times-the-wealth-of-poorest-half-of-humanity-report-finds if the very notion of artistic worth is 'worth' $57.5b then artists flat out demanding a mere arbitrary $575m for absurdist conceptual-digital notions (in this case a bunch of digital art files) is shirley peanuts and highly reasonable by comparison.. and yet there's nothing remotely 'reasonable' about the aggressive imposition of the bad idea that the entire world be reduced and degraded to mere 'things' - and that these atomized conveniently socially-decontexualized objects somehow express 'worth' **paying for conceptual art** **+** 'paying for conceptual art' seems as patently pointless a notion as the initial anti-idea of 'money'; money doesn't even exist and yet (and precisely due to its ephemeral anti-nature) it's negative effects are felt everywhere; even an overripe banana taped to a wall or a light going on and off in an empty room can hurt degrade and enrage a society forever forced to bow before the ideological demands of capital (zeros and one's) **+** ultra rich patrons wishing to actively (symbolically) demonstrate "pricing the very notion of worth" may now exchange virtual / digital cash for what is now to be known as 'capitalism's most expensive real-human art files'. contact robert what today to discuss private cryptographically verified swiss banking money transfer details (in line with directive (eu) 2024/1640 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:L_202401640) - thereby helping him set up an alternative visionary art collective fantasy tech startup / buy itch.io and support fellow artists suffering under global capital note neither this notion of 'worth' as robert what defines it or the paintings in question represent mere monetary value but rather the commerce of relationships under capitalism; a bizarre social contract in which one 'agrees' to partake note: as robert what becomes a fully funded artist-under-capitalism ir cultural standing as an art-worker is automatically and instantly legitimized within the global art economy - thereby increasing both ir current and future 'worth' within the ideological system of bs (virtual) finance do check out other similar conceptualisms on this site; consider them carefully and - if you can afford it - exchange with robert what the 'ideal / idealized' price for ir immaterial 'art (as) work' **on art labor under neoliberal capitalism** **+** the psychedelic alien soul of art is free as in freedom and flies and any and all directions away from the notions of 'value' 'money' and 'art institutions'; yet what is called 'real work' isn't remotely real **+** there's an acute and foul-tasting irony to the notion of "art's for art's sake" which some have rightly compared to deodorized (socially-decontexutalized) white dog slop - in that the apparent (false) opposite is "pay the flocking artist!" both notions are in fact deplorable **+** while one should indeed 'pay artists' this notion too often disguises and obfuscates the fact that global neoliberal capitalism is the ideology of an insane death cult and that 'paying for things' is itself a thoroughly unnatural synthetic state; artists wouldn't have to 'get paid in full' (in the classic eric b and rakim sense) if society was based on equality and sharing rather than psychotic 'rugged dollar chasing individualism' - if it weren't so hell bent on viewing 'value' and 'money' above common (artistic) humanity **+** before art can be exhibited before it represents or refuses before it's dealt sold collected or ignored there's research planning tools ir use raw materials immaterial brain power and active engagement with complex shifting societal networks; the demystification of daily innate human creativity and supporting art-workers for services to the community is however a vital step towards redefining or destroying 'value' and 'labor' **+** as long as the remotest unlikely possibility exists for artists to become 'rich and famous'(tm) - to 'win at capitalism' they'll gladly continue in ir irrational death-cult belief that the system isn't a giant toxic shit bubble of lies and pathetic illusion. (lotteries are proof of the gullibility of people who _just don't want to_ understand the innate statistics of global capital in which the house always wins by helping them convince themselves it isn't a giant lying machine - and that they're smarter than it) **+** artistic labor has long been deliberately ignored in the appreciation of art; nobody - at least nobody that counts right - gives a two bleach white-walled gallery hoots about the 'making of the artistic sausage'; this stems from the historical cultural romanticization of art as an expression of 'genius' rather than something innately necessary pleasant welcome and healing; an everyday social commonality or common good **+** the religious connection forced on creative labor demands creativity can only occur through private pain or personal sacrifice; no creative glory without the self-debasing pain of righteous labor (rsi in my case); yet if art is in mere service of some higher divine calling (ie. the dark mad god of the 'almighty' dollar) any discussion over appropriate (minimum) financial compensation must be problematic and vulgar as "only poor people talk about money dahlink" whereas those cultural elites only able to *truly* appreciate art already float on clouds way above everyone else **+** just like the poor human souls with ir feet in the dirt who pick coffee all day for gentrifying assholes in berets waiting in starbucks for grand soy latte vanilla frappuccino enemas - artistic labor is invisible its undervalued and in opposition to its perceived 'autonomous' and 'spontaneous' nature; apparently it 'just appears' when in fact it emerges organically from a community scene; the 'scenius' as eno puts it **+** romanticization masks the grueling mundane grind that goes into creating virtually anything; the ideological myth of the creative genius (ie. male o' whiteness) on a plinth in 'western'(tm) art views art as an expression of individual spirit 'passion'(tm) and divine inspiration - not the result of hard physical intellectual and collective social labor and life-long educational study and space ape curiosity **+** creative work is commonly viewed as a mere hobby pastime or 'labor of love' driven by strong romantic emotions rather than harsh financial necessity thereby justifying low pay or expectation of free work (aka bs 'exposure dollars') **+** artwork - literally "art as work" - needs committed long term intellectual study research planning and technical skill all of which happens behind the superficial surface of the public art-scene; viewers (who usually see themselves as consumers rather than fellow human artists) often encounter only what they mistake as the final 'product' and almost never the extensive often decades long art-labor behind it **+** as art is primarily and merely 'valued' as just another sellable and collectible commodity all labor innate to it creation conveniently disappears and is rendered invisible; as just another fetishized object art's only meaning is its value in the market rather than an innate expression of humanity and humanness **+** all artistic neural activity is intense physical labor yet modern art bizarrely splits the creative process into concept ('thinking') and product ('doing'); such high-status intellectualism is privileged over the necessarily and innately physical manual labor of 'making art' - which in any case is often outsourced to (despised and uncredited) lower class 'freelance' art-workers **+** as the labor-ious process of artistic creativity is invisible it is often deliberately overlooked and systematically devalued by the commercial art market in favor of branding 'provenance' and conceptual novelty **+** in any case flock art what about some fun being nice to people for a change; in this sense suffering artists don't nearly suffer enough for the truer degree they're as willingly compromised ideologically (brain worms of neoliberal capitalism) as anyone else **+** even the phrase 'the need to make a living' forgets that what's truly worth living for is artistic not undead money; that capitalist anti-society actually hates art and loves only money means making a dollar by making art degrades human creativity to the status of a mere job when artistry is in fact one of the highest aspirations and expressions of being human. capitalism is innately destructive and dumb so wrecking it's cruel stupid giant lying machine creatively with artistic flare is cool (as in 'aesthetically ice cold') **boilerplate bs artist statement** > 'my' er 'work' explores the metaphysical relationship between space vectors x and y > with influences as diverse as wittgenstein primordial black holes and nicholas cage new artistic combinations are crafted from both explicit and implicit meanings > ever since i was born i've been fascinated by theoretical limits; what starts out as hope soon evolves into a new dialectic of distressed sheet metal leaving only a sense of raw existential nihilism and the dawn of a new understanding > as momentary derivatives become further distorted through emergent and critical practice the viewer-consumer is left with a tribute to the possibilities and wilder inaccuracies of a collective hyper-future > exploring the relationship between these new class identities and wavering replicas this mediated vision then becomes further clarified through studious and repetitive conceptual net-as-art practice > ~ resident amateur net theorist for hire robert what **remembering beeple and the blockchain** aka the shitty capitalist ideology of nft cryptoart example tags: beeple / nft / millions / flock crypto / shitcoin / scam / pump and dump / sucks / hate / lies remember beeple? pool old beeple and his innately lousy multi-million dollar nft. to consider notes towards a general critique of cryptoart - currently the inhuman corporate anti-art of capitalism bar none. wait a sec what's this - "ai (corporate-theft) art" you say? disclaimer: this article is provided for biting satirical informational purposes only. it is not offered or intended to be used as legal tax investment financial or other advice. touch gr/ass > that's the thing we're all human! i want people to like it and to see it. i'm not a monk living on a mountain > > ~ mike ‘in the same boat as you honest' winkelmann interview with allan mckay episode 285 > (..) since when has practicality possibility or basic physics gotten in the way of tech bros wall street predators and other assorted vampires literally spinning gold out of thin flocking air? (..) using the blockchain itself an environmentally destructive load of arbitrarily lucrative contrivance an nft can create a series of transactions that basically ‘prove' you own invisible nonsense. (..) nfts are bullshit > > ~ jim sterling they're just selling nothing now (jimquisition) **+** ah the nothingness of selling and buying - the hyperreal nothingness of global 0/1 capital > (..) simultaneously rebuking both the traditional bourgeois conception of the alienated urban individual and the quasi-fascistic cult of personality that continues to be celebrated wherever art is publicized > > ~ travis jeppensen bad writing (sternberg press 2019) **+** to consider in general terms what beeple's $69m nft cryptoart purchase meant for _artists who aren't_ beeple? answer: lol not a flocking thing! congratulations you schmuck! after all these years you're still an anonymous artist in poverty (recall matthew 22:14); all such mega-sales prove is that the system's twisted logic still dis-functions as intended (ie. for itself) **+** what a surprise beeple already appears handsomely well off; his total artwork value now however currently stands at $44,775,702 (nftpricefloor.com.) sporting a look half way between bill gates and mr. rogers with pearly even teeth and the personality of an art-insurance reseller lost in the undead metaverse consider what's the real surprise or story is here - "another rich white guy says he feels really great"? yeah no doubt friendo **+** so some anonymous 1%er with questionable taste cynically purchases some malignantly useless shiny bauble (a 'beeple'?) from a privileged male o' whiteness - and everyone else is meant to auto-applaud such selfless hard meritocratic effort like performing seals? welcome to the internets where mediocrity is always championed by those worms who also automatically see themselves on 'the (white) winning side' **+** every time a blockchain transaction takes place a small voice inside asks "was this a perfectly legal (some over-the-counter cyberpunk dark-hat hacker collective hired by an underground syndicate money /laundering / pump n' dump) operation? https://blog.dshr.org/2021/05/its-inequality-stupid.html "**_you never know with crypto(tm)_**" that is a perfectly legal (perfectly morally-disgusting) transaction taking place between greed-crazed assholes? 'blockchain entrepreneur' (pffft) vignesh sundaresan / metakovan with beeple nft (via-getty) - nice shirt dickhead: ![[blockchain-entrepreneur-vignesh-sundaresan-metakovan-with-beeple-nft-(via-getty).jpg |600]] > what's interesting is that beeple the creator of the artwork is actually a business partner of metakovan's. he owns 2% of all the b20 tokens. i'm sure there is no conflict of interest here > > ~ amy castor (independent reporter focused on cryptocurrencies and financial fraud) - https://amycastor.com/2021/03/14/metakovan-the-mystery-beeple-art-buyer-and-his-nft-defi-scheme/ **+** indeed truly nothing says "it's been a long hard journey as an impoverished artist living on the margins (https://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-male-the-lowest-difficulty-setting-there-is/) like filming yourself watching _your own flocking private christie's auction_ live from your comfy designer sofa in a huge house in apple-pastel-white stepford-wandavision suburbia. ("but doesn't everyone dahlink?") christie's called beeple a 'visionary' - yeah if the vision is of unforeseen potential for naked profits. what's that darkly sarcastic online phrase: 'some men die of thirst while others drown without effort?' **+** discussing his recent re-multimillionaire status upgrade with numerous mainstream news outlets beeple would often appear disturbingly at ease as if the excess that are fame and fortune were always on the electronic cards - at least for 'everyday' volks like him. as an already well-off member of an advanced technological society 'casually reacting to becoming even richer' at the very least indicates a supreme self confidence.. (but as what exactly? a mere component which vaguely senses it's loved by the soulless machine it's installed in?) **+** apparently winkelmann - whose name conjures up poor existential salesmen-schmuck willy loman - is 'one of the most celebrated digital artists in the world' whose art has been used by 'high-end brands' in ir marketing campaigns. clients include louis vuitton apple nike coca-cola as well as 'celebrities and superstars' like justin bieber and katy perry. unfortunately such a c.v smells like a dead artistic goatse - ie. the tall tale of just another willingly distended asshole for capitalism. question: how exactly can such art (tm) sell out if it was already part of the system from the outset? cola korporation cares as much about art and integrity as it does about global diabetes rates or tooth decay. louis vuitton once allegedly told an already borderline-anorexic model she looked bloated and told her to just drink water for 24 hours. just how willingly naive and aggressively indifferent does one have to act in order to pimp out one's arts for such blatant corporate evil? what level of cognitive disconnect do creatives need in order to convince themselves 'this is fine' - let's do business! vichy-esque 'collaboration' indeed - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26453970 **+** at the top of winkelmann's site it used to state "the best i can do." this could ironically mean "given the circumstances" (capitalism?) or "sorry i'm only able to be this good (within the capitalist value system.)" somewhat faux-humbly beeple terms his compulsive daily mass-art production 'beeple crap'. everyday - you mean as in 'already fully assimilated into' or 'uncritically accepted as natural and inevitable'? (unlike white tech bros real beetles and ir crap do wonders for the earth) https://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-city-life/2019/09/who-will-mourn-the-tech-bro **+** one can't be against racism and not be against capitalism because it's a core feature of that system. beeple's $69m artwork is rancid with both; how is this unsurprising? "$69m nft art piece is littered with racist and homophobic imagery" - https://districtmagazine.ie/news/some-parts-of-beeples-69-million-magnum-opus-are-a-little-dodgy/ like wts little winklemann **+** as happy creators of undoubtedly corporate-friendly content artists like beeple are hardly what you'd call 'marginal'. the notion that such a huge manly output - perhaps more akin to a blind warholesque factory line - symbolizes some inner artistic 'purity of vision' of giving it one's best shot as a spunky indie go-getter is questionable. more likely it's just the old protestant work ethic at play - the internalization of a society's ideological boundaries and goals the quietly hysterical obsession with almighty work(tm). "keep shoveling hard little beeping beetle and one day you'll enter crypt0-heaven." (or at least the billionaire's club by the back entrance next too the ac outlets.) but again - what if you were always already a fully paid up member of the gang? (in this regard beeple can hardly be called a sellout) **+** such an awful state of internal affairs certainly appears to work for modern hip morally flexible artists and ir clients - busy little beetles burrowing everywhere possible - or just flies on large bland piles of (crypt0-fasc1st) e-shit - https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2021/03/23/fascism-on-the-blockchain-the-work-of-art-in-the-age-of-nfts **+** according the nets beeple's 'boundary-pushing body of award-winning short films dynamically challenge viewers on social issues' ranging from 'the apocalyptic takeover of robots cyberwarfare computer transparency and privacy to the subprime crisis'. wow that sure seems comprehensive - all the modern concerned moral bases covered. what real evidence is there however that anyone's being remotely challenged by beeple's anything? take his "manifest destiny" pop video which at first glance genuinely seems to be sharply critical - but of what exactly? (_love_ that warren buffett quote at the beginning; permanent elective irony-gland removal in action) here's beeple's manifest destiny. powerful er stuff:  we see the senselessness of conflict in the name of greed and 'false gods' worshipped (https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2010/damien-hirst-end-of-an-era/) and one nods at how philosophically penetrating it all seems - whatever i.t is - a postmodern advert for something cool perhaps; maybe a luxury virtual boat to float as crypto-anthropogenic climate change comes flooding in? **+** now the parallax view was a 1974 american political thriller produced and directed by alan j. pakula. is beeple's "manifest destiny" video an updated form of employee indoctrination video shown to neophytes at parallax corporation? it appears on screen seemingly apropos of nothing. who posted this confusing digital shit and why? what is all this fancy electronic noise really? a contextless free floating exposition of random apolitical factoids over a generic rap beat that despite also arguably just being vacuous actually prevents genuine change? consumerist viewers feel instantly possessed of all the necessary info in an endlessly entertaining manner - naturally. "amusing ourselves to death" as sociologist neil postman famously put it. immediately after however - much like the guards at the end of the truman show movie - they immediately ask "..what else is on?" swiping up or left. what's the moral lesson being put forward or addressed by such soulless digital art - if anything? > what results is an almost hermetically sealed economy whose currencies exist only to be traded and become derivatives of themselves. if you squint it looks like an absurd art project > ~ the atlantic: nfts weren't supposed to end like this https://removepaywalls.com/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/nfts-werent-supposed-end-like/618488/ **+** nobody's no more critical of capitalism than itself; nothing's consistently more anti-capitalism than the system. the 'best' of capitalism is it's twisted alchemical marriage of buddhism feminism and environmentalism - and the blatant greed-is-good neoliberalist lizard gospel of 'the free market.' in other words just straight up corporate wokewashing 101; officially sanctioned rebellion. the dryly sarcastic titles of beeple's sold work appears to precisely mirror this pathetic non-duality of of critique + capital: "late capitalism" / "i miss people" / "mark of the beast" / "disney plus" / "the passion of the elon" - and especially (hoo-boy) "crypto is bullshit" wow that's sure deep beep; simultaneously (and probably-genuinely) criticizing er.. stuff - while privately-in-public celebrating and championing inevitable joyful runaway success within that very system. (one can only imagine the super conflicted moral quandary the existential push-me-pull-you faced with every _cough no-doubt perfectly documented_ nft mega-sale) **+** slavoj zizek has often talked about the subtle blackmail to take part in one's own moral subjugation to dominant market ideology - 'for just a few cents more on our coffee you buy we'll toss a single dirty dollar to the hardworking ingenious brown peoples of.. wherever'. zero contradiction; merely a convenient conjunction of dialectic opposites - one greasy bloody white hand washing the other. one is reminded of banksy a conservative reactionary artist born of (fully emergent from) the dynamics of the system who the easily impressed vaguely imagine 'critiques modern life under capitalism from within - man'. as if that's the point - even if it were somehow true. rather notice how laughably effortless it is for the well off few - ie. the great silent majority of the elite - to continually have ir next fat slice of the capitalist-critical cake while gleefully eating i.t **+** much like the unshakable mental prefix 'god' - if 'money!' is the cognitive basis of one's every question and subsequent answer then sure rap-casual about life's little inequalities while doing precisely zero about it (because how could one really - with one's expensive design degree from a nice university in a safe gated neighborhood using state of the art 3d-rendering software on modern hardware only handfuls of people can afford for hyper-corporate clients able to pay handsomely for the 'artistic' results?) **+** a cursory glance at beeple's output: numerous instagram-friendly posts often expressing vague socially progressive messages - 'boo trump sucks etc' that don't really alienate anybody's corporate golfing partner. the rest seems amazingly-unamazingly generic professionally polished 'near future retro 80s' style sci-fi comic book output. the images featuring 'critical' content often express desperately common 'public secrets' nobody sane could possibly disagree with; war = bad / wintertime is cold etc. real bears-shit-in-the-woods level stuff. merely what's dumb and popular and disgustingly 'now' - basic capitalistic memeification https://digitalnative.substack.com/p/the-memeification-of-american-capitalism the unquestioned assumption however is that one has to be seen constantly agreeing with such (actually anti-political) sentiments. conceptually however such art feels flat and uninteresting; your-dad style 'edgy' displays of some long abandoned vaporwave aesthetic unironically tinged with ugly trumpist kitsch. pedestrian homilies toothless home truths perfectly safe for postmodern korporate consumption. no need to be native here - everyone involved in crypto anti-art at this level is already on the same (ideological) page **+** one word that keeps popping up about such anti-art work like a fake penny: 'genuine'. especially now with such a large cryptoart sale to cement the artist's legacy and commitment to that's just how great ("for me at least") things are. that apparently some little slab of crypto-generated and 'secured' code can provide one with instant digital authenticity - spray on matrix-style karmic copyright legitimacy. literally (virtually) 'proof of work' - proof that the system works (for itself and it's own.) slow claps all round can digital certificates however provide philosophical truth existential authenticity - actual meaning? such art often only appears as genuine as cola kompany's "it's the real thing" - a tautological illusion an endlessly self-justifying system of hyperreal electronic deadness **+** it's a hell of a thing to hear loltube comment stans rave about such awesome 'rendering' - literally 'making the ideology of capitalism manifest'; it's as if such artists who make i.t. big on the world stage of global hyperreal capital are destined to be held up as avatars and holy (desktop) icons - righteous paragons of selfless artistic dedication. but dedication to what exactly? that is other than nakedly careerist self advancement - the aggressive ascent / manifest destiny toward the dead middle; the trite art of the state **+** the blockchain actively dis-embodies a randian ideology of self-reliant edge lords joining together to promote ir respective self-interest (when market forces drive such cooperation.) free from government tyranny they believe blockchains the key to a new world economic order - the tyranny of a capitalism unrestrained by 'token' nods towards democracy privacy and worker's rights. like a mainstream news network journalist sent in with the invading colonialist army to cover ir war the very (dubious) notion that 'blockchain can help artists' is itself already fully embedded within a (mythic self-serving) narrative of rich whiteness educational privilege easy access to technology and the domination of a particular scientific society. in other words it's just another goddamn conveniently self-romanticizing lie; a giant lying machine **+** fungable (as non fungable tokens) has as its root the latin "to perform." in this sense what such multi-million cryptoart sales signify is the public performance of dim 'everyday' truths - a slick crypto-graphically auto-legitimizing ideological handshake between members of an elite private members-only club. and what kind of goddam sour grapes commie party pooping 'hater'(r) couldn't get behind that particular techno-$atan? victori spolia eh beeps? **+** such hollow soulless art and the system which anoints it with digital legitimacy appear all but functionally indistinguishable; the true poverty of art in a post mechanical age. in such virtual light beeple's expensive digital collage of his works - "everydays: the first 5000 days" - brings to mind the decree of some ancient emperor whose reign 'starts here' - made unquestionable through ubiquity (much like finance's grand network) and apparently tabula rasa. supremely devoid of sociopolitical history and rivals sold via a crypto platform such an artwork appeared a smeared mishmash of digital nothing and-or anything; what was really important the truer art here seemed the mere 'real cost' paid; the symbolic primacy of the system's inherent philosophical legitimacy. that one just got paid-in-full like a mother.. and therefore (as a privileged male o' whiteness) one deserves every virtual penny baby. (the totalizing worldview of such art can be expressed thus: "i am because the ultra rich buy." a dangerous garme of optical narratives about what shared delusional insanity it's possible to believe and to what degree) **+** to consider digital art therefore as merely the next new tradeable token of one's uncritical renewed membership to global capital's big club. amen. and yet a beautiful glaring and un-washable kernel of doubt remains among all this good bleach white news: "69 mill for a flocking jpeg.. really?" (it brings to mind the term "you've just been j-pegged.") perhaps what's being questioned is the very (/lack of) meaning of 'value'(tm) itself - a lifeless plastic world reducible to the coldly cynical (true believing) digital transfer of virtual speculative asset classes between inherently psychotic artificially intelligent inhumans (aka 'rich white & violently happy') **+** now when every 2bit internet influencer-personality schmuck and ir ugly martin shkreli looking cat is mainlining nft themed 'beeplemania' (repeatedly pressing print screen or making bs ticktock gifs to slang to any ecash-grabbing putz able to afford them) there's no better time to support real genuine change and equality for truly marginalized (human.e) artists. nfts are only novel in the sense they make stark the financial gold rush machinations that facilitate the dirty business of artful business-art; a collective hallucination cult of 'memetic e-money printer go brrrrr' monitization (/of one's inherent advantages as an 'artpreneur' - yeesh) **+** the idea that art dealers artificially inflate prices on a regular basis rests on the false idea that the very idea of 'price' isn't itself already an foul entirely artificial inflation - in this case of the pathological self importance of the art world its asshole inhabitants and ir dim shit-eating smugness much like 'time' art brought and sold in the gallery system always was merely 'money' - either as a strict investment or a symbol of the holy self-worship of shiny useless objects. similarly the notion that cryptoart is the next beeping 'bubble' is itself already a pus-filled inflammation in a sick networked body of global capital. control and manipulation are the very virtual bedrock of such undead mechanical thinking (ie. economics.) cryptoart may therefore be seen as inherently vulgar - no less vulgar as the ultra rich themselves. despite the digital totally synthetic nature of cryptoart one constantly feels like having a scrub when hanging around such topics **+** to watch in deadpan horror as the stunt economics ideology of blockchain continues to eat itself - https://news.artnet.com/market/beeple-everydays-controversy-nft-or-not-1952124. like the old graffiti pseudonym-tag of jean-michel basquiat all this terminally boring amsterdam fiat-ponzi-tulip-pyramid crypto-speak seems very 'samo' - despite the hype (or rather because of it.) the underlying myth of 'rational actors merely seeking to maximize financial self-interest' is that such a rationality is itself remotely rational - and not merely just outright batshit (as in 'the man who rationalized himself insane.') similarly the artificial scarcity of the blockchain is merely the mathematical expression of the need to keep everyone else who isn't ideologically on board (ie. 'wired') with the latest capitalist innovations constantly in debt - where they belong **+** money money everywhere nor any drop to spend; this isn't a problem of as-yet unequal distribution - the blockchain is a distributed decentralized network ensuring widespread scarcity _for everyone else_ (https://defector.com/a-cryptocurrency-expert-introduces-me-to-the-dystopian-nightmare-of-art-as-a-financial-instrument) who can't afford its self-serving myth of untold-riches-for-all. as though 'riches' what everyone even asked for - especially human artists concerned with truth and common shared meaning. the seeming self-evidence of the 'naturalness' of such 'artreprenural' success under capitalism really only shows how well both conceal ir origins > any sufficiently advanced financial technology is indistinguishable from white self-congratulatory crypto-colonialist techno-romantic bullshit > ~ paraphrasing arthur c. clarke **sudden pop-through vr-ad** only kapitalist kunts buy nfts .gif: ![[only-kapitalist-kunts-buy-nfts-.gif]] salutations. this is an example conceptual nft also valued at $572m. it is meant as a pseudo-critique of blockchain capitalism. if you buy this as an nft you truly are just one of many 'kapitalist kunts' and are in fact about as original and rare as a fly needing to vomit on a rotting pile of designer dogecoinshit note: not only am i too goddamn poor to even set up a cryptocurrency wallet in the first place i simply couldn't be bothered to learn about blockchains nft's and all the rest of that terminally flocking boring pale nerd techbro-goatse bullshit. feel free to use this shitty gif - based on a sweet cherry mx ultra low profile switch - as an nft. just make sure to donate a portion of your profits to a nearby deserving artist living in relative poverty. to whatever ultra rich tosser purchases this cosmic digital uselessness i therefore humbly say 'on behalf of humane art the rest of us non-lizards do us all a favor and go flock yourself off back to the neoliberal techn0-hell that spawned you **emailing the beep** a scenario in which robert what roleplays as the net's beloved resident amateur postmodern theorist for-hire on a long hard journey as an impoverished human artist living on the margins. as a form of followup they've sent beeple the following email (alas still no reply): > dear mr. winkelmann > hello. congratulations on your recent historical crypoart sale. i've recently written a about this and as a keen follower of the arts kindly offer you the opportunity to respond. this critique was formed in the spirit of good faith artistic cooperation - and ultimately compassion. i believe in the old socialist adage that we should be critical of our enemies - but even more critical of our friends (for as a group such a practice keeps us honest) > > ~ sincerely robert what **+** of course the biggest yoke of all - which sums up the inherent pathetic scammy nature of crypto and the stinking slime-covered arts which merrily slide about on its slick toxic surface - is that beeps _immediately_ converted all his shitcoins to good ol' u$d. ha!! talk about professional cynics! talk about a total brain-zapping lack of confidence in the holy process! now **that's** a fat techbro cock-pump and dump! (there's a hard pathetically simple lesson being taught here - in fact it's repeatedly spaffing rancid digital cheese in the public's face. yet dare we face up to our own gullibility admit the true degree to which we're all collectively being flocked over by these rich smug parasites - and then simply start hitting back where it hurts?) https://decrypt.co/62547/beeple-immediately-changed-his-53-million-nft-takings-from-eth-to-usd > a pump and dump scheme is a misrepresentation or a market manipulation conducted by scammers to artificially inflate the price of a security to make a profit > > ~ criminal lawer group: pump & dump schemes https://www.criminallawyergroup.com/practice-areas/securities-and-commodities-fraud/pump-dump-schemes/ **+** on white-collar crime > "but advocates say the stratospheric valuations placed on artworks by even second-tier artists leave them no choice but to impose constraints on a vulnerable industry at a time when drug kingpins oil oligarchs and assorted kleptocrats are desperate to turn ir dirty money into a clean or fungible asset" > finance & development: the art of money laundering > https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2019/09/the-art-of-money-laundering-and-washing-illicit-cash-mashberg **+** the choice is fully automated luxury psychedelic inner space communism vs evil magic beans - https://www.inputmag.com/culture/create-your-own-million-dollar-nft-art-scam-with-beeple-generator **+** cryptocurrency as simply extended neoliberalism - https://fstoppers.com/opinion/nfts-are-pyramid-scheme-and-people-are-already-losing-money-554869 **+** a rite against cryptoart (the comics journal) - https://www.tcj.com/a-rite-against-cryptoart/) **+** book - the politics of bitcoin: software as right-wing extremism (david golumbia) - https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517901806/the-politics-of-bitcoin/ ![[flock-crypto.png |600]] // republic of bob