The rise of NFTs: From Traditional to Digital Art (LS-TR-729)
Introduction
NFT stands for ‘’non-fungible token.’’ The uniqueness of NFT means it cannot be exchanged for any value other than its own kind. NFT, which has been frequently used to sell digital assets (drawings, music, etc.) and artworks recently, provides the originality of the converted assets to be easily verified. This learning scenario aims to help students understand the differences between traditional art and digital artworks and to realize the importance of NFTs for digital art. The scenario, prepared from an interdisciplinary perspective, focuses on art and technology. In the first stage, students who interpret the differences between traditional art and digital art using Europeana resources create their first NFT at the end of the course. In this process, the students also display the advantages of NFTs. The course ends with a brainstorming session about the future of art.
Integration into the curriculum
This learning scenario is designed for the Art History course, a high-school elective course in the national curriculum. The scenario focused on traditional art genres, which is one of the essential topics of this course. The differences and similarities between traditional art genres and digital art are emphasized.
Outcomes
At the end of this lesson, the students
- distinguish between traditional art and digital art,
- recognize branches of digital art and design them with the mind map,
- define NFTs and create their own NFTs.
Activities
- Introduction: Any question is asked to get students’ attention. What are the traditional arts? Students’ answers are received with the Mentimeter tool. Students are asked to write three branches of art. Then, the teacher shares the answers with the students as a word cloud.
- Internet Research: Students are asked to research digital art. Students take notes during the research and prepare a mind map. In this way, they have the opportunity to summarize what they have researched.
- Class Discussion: Students are asked to choose either traditional art or digital art and are divided into two groups. One group defends traditional art, while the other defends the importance of digital art. Traditional art defenders are given the story of two female role models who contributed to traditional art. The other group is asked to research artist Refik Anadol, who has extraordinary work on NFTs.
- Creating NFTs: In this section, there are many websites on the Internet where free NFTs can be created. In addition, students can create their own NFTs from any website. At the end of this section, the NFTs created are shared with the class by preparing an exhibition via artsteps.
- Assessment: In order to evaluate this course, students are expected to write an essay with a maximum of 150 words. Details are given in the evaluation section.
Europeana Resources
Other Resources
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Public Domain Mark 1.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Mauritshuis.