This is Not a Pixel: building trust in digital art through the blockchain

This paper discusses a range of perspectives on the author’s recent research activities in the field of digital painting. The medium of the pixel is celebrated with reference to the history of accessible computer graphics systems, and the value of data-only digital art is considered. Drawing on the author’s digital art practice and appropriating ideas from quantum theory, this paper argues that human labour still has value in an increasingly algorithm-centric world. The problem of conferring provenance on purely digital artworks is examined through a discussion of newly available blockchain technologies, and an offer is made to gift ownership of some of the author’s virtual paintings to the Computer Arts Society.

http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/EVA2019.28