Unnique  (2021)

Unnique is an inquiry into the current state of digital objects. The explosion of speculation in Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in early 2021 demonstrated that even digital artworks can supposedly be made scarce and transformed into commodities. But an NFT is nothing more than a certificate attesting that a given individual owns the idea of the artwork; the work itself might be equally available, in the same form, to anyone with an Internet connection. This project is our effort to consider what it means now, at this moment, for ownership, title, and scarcity to enter into the digital economy. We want to know if it’s possible to create and circulate digital objects that are indeed singular and scarce. Although it seems inevitable that the instruments and metaphors of the capitalist economy will fully adapt to the digital realm, we still hold out hope that there are new and other ways of creating value that prompt collaboration, sharing, and debate, rather than speculation.