BY NATASHA JEE and ALEXANDRA LORNA
KUCHING: More local artists in Sarawak especially those in the creative industry have been urged to venture into a new-age marketplace known as NFT.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, is a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided, that is recorded in a blockchain, and that is used to certify authenticity and ownership of a specific digital asset and specifics rights relating to it.
NFTs can be anything digital, such drawings, paintings, music, poems, videos and so on.
Curator of Duality of Art Exhibition at Think & Tink, here, Judith Tela told New Sarawak Tribune that NFT is now becoming a popular and important platform for Malaysian artists.
“Both traditional and digital arts can survive using blockchain technology, which is the trending technology nowadays.
“The artist can use that digitalise platform to sell or market their products themselves, and to cut the middleman to market their arts.
“Therefore with NFT coming into the picture, it is good platform for the artist to regain their control when it comes to marketing, selling and owning their rights,” she said.
Judith who is also the communications lead for MYY Living Arts said, for instance, when buyers purchase NFTs products, they can get the best of both worlds – getting the physical and digital artwork.
She acknowledged that NFT is a still a new thing, but encouraged local artists not to be afraid but to learn and understand the benefit of NFTs.
“In Sarawak, there are already quite a few artists who started from traditional arts and moved into digital arts and have become NFT artists,” she said.
In future, she and her teams plans to do more workshops and expose more people on blockchain technology and basics of cryptocurrencies.
“This is because most of the people who jump into NFT still do not understand the concept of the technology behind digital arts,” she said.
She said that the basic information which is really important is how blockchain technology works, how people can buy the cryptocurrency and use it to purchase digital arts.
“As the Sarawak government is also going towards digitalisation, we would like to share the knowledge about NFT. For a start, we begin with the community,” she said.
She also stressed that NFT is not a scam, but another platform for artists to earn another source of income.
“Therefore, don’t be afraid of technology because technology will not harm you, but will further uplift and empower you.
“However, it is also important to be cautions, and that is why it is important to educate yourself on how NFTs work,” she said.
Meanwhile, the three-day Duality of Art Exhibition is being held from April 8 to 11. It includes the first NFT Art Collective Exhibition.
To know more about NFT, public can also view NFTSWK at its social media platforms on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
