I’m happy and proud to announce that my book Surfing with Satoshi. Art, Blockchain and NFTs is now available in English! Scheduled for release on May 25, the book can be pre-ordered on Aksioma’s online store with free shipping, alone or in a special combo with Hyperemployment. Post-work, Online Labour and Automation (2019), funnily named “Combo 40”.
Produced and published by Aksioma, Ljubljana, Surfing with Satoshi. Art, Blockchain and NFTs is the English version of my book Surfing con Satoshi. Arte, blockchain e NFT, published in Italian by Postmedia Books in June 2021. Printed in a limited release of 300 copies, this English version features a new design by Superness, color plates and a “Foreword to the English Edition” that offers a major update of the book, and that can be downloaded for free from this link.
The craze for Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) that erupted in early 2021 thrust the art world into the debate on the blockchain, the decentralised public ledger that holds these tokens, as well as cryptocurrencies, and promises to make “verifiable digital scarcity” a reality. Born out of the 2008 financial crisis and seen by many as the cornerstone of a new, more private, more secure Web3, the blockchain has changed the global economy and is now reshaping the digital environment in which art is increasingly being created, distributed and exchanged.Written amidst an explosion of technological hype and a speculative frenzy, Surfing with Satoshi sets the promise of the NFT market in a historical context, investigating the technologies it is based on, the role of certificates and contracts in contemporary art, and the evolution of the media art market over the last thirty years. Riding the wave of the ongoing debate, the book tackles a series of as yet open questions, including: what does art have to do with the blockchain? Does it make sense to talk about “Crypto Art”, and if so what can be said to define it, apart from the way it is traded? Is speculation the be-all and end-all of this trend? How on earth can an infinitely reproducible digital file be deemed “unique”? Will the blockchain’s promise of disintermediation destroy the art world as we know it? And how is the art world reacting to the situation? Are NFTs an opportunity for artists or a scam perpetrated against them? Who are the collectors willing to pay millions for a certificate of authenticity, and why are they doing it? And why do the visual arts seem to have acquired such a central role in the crypto economy?
Colophon
Author: Domenico Quaranta
Editor: Janez Fakin Janša
Translator and language editor: Anna Carruthers
Editorial assistant: Neža Oder
Promotion and distribution: Sonja Grdina
Design and layout: Federico Antonini, Alessio D’Ellena (superness.info)
Printer: Cicero d.o.o.
No. of copies: 300
Format: 10.5 x 16.7 cm
Pages: 376
Language: EN
Year: 2022
ISBN: 978-961-7173-12-3
Published by: Aksioma – Institute for Contemporary Art, Ljubljana
Represented by: Marcela Okretič
© Domenico Quaranta
© Aksioma
Ljubljana, April 2022
Originally published in Italian as: Surfing con Satoshi. Arte, blockchain e NFT
ISBN 9788874903030
© Domenico Quaranta
© Postmedia Srl
Milan, 2021
Supported by: The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the City of Ljubljana