Actor and venture capitalist Ashton Kutcher’s first attempt at digital art, an awful piece titled “The Eye of the Beholder”, is auctioning at Cryptograph. At the time of writing, the highest bid stood at 13.26 ethereum, or about $5,400, with a day to go before the sale ends.
Kutcher’s video on the blockchain-based art market demonstrates a new concept where the physical original is destroyed to assure the digital copy of a unique existence as a cryptograph.
Kutcher’s piece, digitized in a low-resolution phone-camera shot, is a remarkably bare-bones doodle of cartoon eyes and a one-stroke star.
The ‘Two and a Half Men’ star adds his star power to crypto-art creators, including Paris Hilton, Skeet Ulrich and David Arquette. He has picked two charities, Global Wildlife Conservation and Oxygen Seven, to receive a portion of the sale.
Cryptograph commented on the historical aspect of Kutcher’s digital artwork. “He has created a physical sketch drawn inside a book, which he then digitizes before destroying the physical version of his work, by burning it,” it said, in a statement, adding:
His idea here is to show that his physical creation is fully transcending into the digital realm, where its authenticity and immortality is absolute. This action is deeply symbolic and provokes one to think more on how the physical and digital realms can be combined in new and interesting ways.
Cryptograph added that Kutcher’s minimalist take on eyes looking at a star, viewed in the context of the title, is probably meant to capture the subjective nature of art.
Now, in its second year, Cryptograph is a blockchain technology that converts drawings into unique digital artworks that cannot be copied, stolen, or destroyed. A portion of all sales are donated to charities of the artists’ choice.
Kutcher’s investment firms, A-Grade Investments and Sound Ventures, have put money into multiple crypto firms. It remains to be seen whether his piece matches Paris Hilton’s cat doodle which was recently fetched at $17,000, but his participation is the latest instance of Hollywood royalty flexing their crypto art goals.
Early last month, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the growing sales of non-fungible token (NFT) artwork on marketplaces like Opensea, Nifty Gateway, and Makerplace. Nifty Gateway recently broke records, selling a digital piece by the artist Trevor Jones for $55,555.
What do you think about Ashton Kutcher’s NFT digital art? Let us know in the comments section below.
Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons
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