Art Forum: Emerging Technologies and the Expanded Art Field
Wed 22 March
1 – 2pm
Cell Block Theatre

The emergence of NFTs, blockchain, AI art generators and so-called metaverse platforms have provided artists with a new set of tools to create, distribute and monetise their work. Artists and collectors are embracing these technologies to participate in an expanded art world that no longer relies on traditional gatekeepers and art capitals. Likewise, artists are exploring the creative affordances of blockchain and AI to advance the conversations about these technologies and the ideas they represent. In this lecture, Jessica Priebe will explain how NFTs work and the events that led to the NFT boom and bust. She will consider the impact of blockchain technology in the art world and discuss recent trends in AI art and metaverse curation.

Dr Jessica Priebe is an art historian and lecturer in the Department of Art History and Theory at NAS. Her elective, Art in the Digital Age, focuses on the role of emerging technology in contemporary art. Jessica is a former research fellow in Enlightenment Studies with the Sydney Intellectual History Network and the author of Francois Boucher and the Art of Collecting in Eighteenth-Century France (Routledge, 2021). Jessica works with artists, education and cultural institutions to develop and deliver NFT projects, exhibitions and events, generative AI and metaverse showcases, and Web3 workshops. Her research on emerging technologies in the arts and creative industries is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Sydney
University’s Incubate Startup program.

Image: Urs Fischer from the series CHAOS #1–#501, a collection of 501 unique digital sculptures released as individual NFTs on makersplace, 2021.