Digital Zone of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility NFT sells for $1.2 million
Coinhead
Coinhead
An early “conceptual NFT” has sold for US$1.2 million in Ethereum, a record for the collection, just before a similar one is set to be auctioned by Sotheby’s.
The “Digital Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility” were launched by artist Mitchell F. Chan in August 2017, who drew inspiration from the 1960s French artist Yves Klein, who once sold “fresh air” to Americans for gold ingots.
Chan instead sold an NFT linked to a pure white blank screen. That link was lost during a fork of the blockchain Swarm, but wrapped versions of the token are available on Opensea.
Always nice to hit an ATH the day before your @Sothebys auction opens! đđ˝
@0x_b1 not messing around here! https://t.co/U8UstGow8Lâ Mitchell F Chan (@mitchellfchan) October 18, 2021
Chan wrote on Medium in August that he made the conceptual art deliberately hard to mint, with no front-end to ease contract interactions.
“The Digital Zones of Immaterial Pictorial Sensibility are, broadly, artworks about buying artworks. Theyâre about which aspects of an artwork you can and canât buy. So itâs important to me that when you buy it, you really f***** buy it. You donât click a button, because thatâs so easy that itâs barely an experience at all.
“Instead, you go through these steps so that the act of buying is deliberate and slow: There is at least the possibility of a moment of contemplation and reflection about what youâre doing.”
An art collector known as 0xb1 bought the artwork for 313 Ether on Opensea, where “wrapped” versions of the token are changing hands. The image metadata currently points to a certificate of authenticity, but the “unwrapped” version of the image has no display value.
Delighted to be the new owner of @mitchellfchan‘s #IKB Series 0, #13 on the eve of his historic auction @Sothebys tomorrow for a Series 0.
#13 is only the SECOND Series 0 IKB to have EVER traded hands in the 4 years since mint! https://t.co/KHATvHjzbS
â 0xb1 (@0x_b1) October 17, 2021