Beeple Four Years Later: Tech-Based Art as a Practice & Modality
The year 2021 was an exciting year. It was a year of both hope and chaos, marked by the rollout of vaccines, the January 6th U.S. Capitol attack, and the emergence of COVID-19 variants. Many people experienced a period of fragility and uncertainty. In the first few months of 2021, more than $200 million (USA) were spent on NFTs. An NFT is a data file, stored on a type of digital ledger called a blockchain, which can be sold and traded. NFTs can be associated with particular assets — digital or physical — such as artworks. For artists who were prolific online the NFT boom was a boon… for about one year. In 2022, the NFT market collapsed. Conversely and perhaps coincidentally, the NFT boom and bust collided with the rise of AI art.
During the AI boom of the 2020s, AI models and tools such as DeepDream, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and DALL-E became widely available making it easier for artists to create things. By then, the blockchain had transformed how the public perceived and collected digital art. Then, came computer scientist Mike Winkelmann AKA Beeple who, in 2021, sold his “Everydays: the First 5,000 Days” for millions. Initially, Winkelmann was inspired by the performative work of Tom Judd who drew a page every day in his sketchbook for an entire year. Winkelmann began making his digital ‘everydays’ in 2007, so by 2021 he was in the right place at the right time… with the visibility and connections to ‘blow up’ in the art world.
The intersection of arts and technology brings the worst of both worlds together. The tech industry is so white male, and the art world also prioritizes white men. But then, when you put those two together, its like it just explodes. — Heather Dewey-Hagborg
Heather Dewey-Hagborg and others have been sounding alarms about the tech-industrial complex that not only builds tools, but also builds power, concentrating wealth, shaping policy, and deciding whose skills matter and whose lives get left behind. For decades, scholars have known about the disparities of power and privilege in the tech-industrial complex and how it is portrayed along racial lines. Art was seldom considered until now, with the advent of generative AI art. When teaching computer science in an urban high school for the arts I was well aware of the disparities and how they had shaped students’ opinions and experiences (prior to the class).
Tech-based art was the focus of my computer science curriculum and, eventually, I discovered DeepDream (computer vision) and generative AI. I have been creating AI-based imagery since 2017, using Deep Dream Generator (neural style transfer). By 2019, I was creating and posting on social media at least one AI-generated image per day. This practice was supported by the introduction of text-to-image or prompt-based AI tools. In 2021, I had some success with NFTs and I wrote an article about it. On the other hand, my drive to make/post AI-generated images was more about countering bias and helping to better represent Black people, especially Black women. Similar to Winkelmann, I made AI art an everyday practice.
Key Aspects of ‘Everyday’ practice:
- Daily Commitment: One must commit to completing and publishing a new piece of art by midnight each day.
- Skill Development: This work serves as a continuous exercise to hone one’s skills.
- The Evolution of Style: The work showcases a progression of one’s artistic journey, evolving from early attempts to a prolific body of work.
- Creative Freedom: The high volume and low-stakes nature of the work fosters the freedom to experiment and comment on the development of AI art without the pressure of creating masterpieces every day.
I make everydays because it is a habit, a creative practice. The work is also a modality, which helps me think about the way we engage other peoples’ attention when they encounter an AI-generated image, rather than telling them about the art work itself, or the personal experiences of its maker (me). When I start each day I seldom know what I want to create and post. I might daydream, read, or browse social media. This morning I learned that August 25 is the anniversary of singer Aaliyah’s passing. I decided to create a portrait to honor her as my everyday. First, I made a collage in Adobe Photoshop. Next, I uploaded the image to ChatGPT and prompted it to create a painting. Then, I used Generative Fill in Photoshop to extend the side borders (making the image into a square). I uploaded the result to social media, which almost instantaneously triggered positive responses.
This tribute really captures Aaliyah’s calm strength. You totally nailed her essence. So good to see her memory honored. — ananncee
Daily, I post AI-generated images for feedback and engagement. My AI-generated portrait of Faith Ringgold, that has been on a wall in Brooklyn since last year, finally started to deteriorate. Unlike digital images on computer screens there is a end date for most public art. Public AI artworks can create opportunities to engage communities in a dialogue about tech + art, and, later this week I will join artist and technologist Stephanie Dinkins, multidisciplinary artist James Allister Sprang, and Latimer.AI founder John Pasmore in conversation about AI’s potential impact on Black bodies and the environment.
This event is presented in part by MORE ART’s public presentation of Stephanie Dinkins’ outdoor art installation, If We Don’t, Who Will, in collaboration with Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, which is on view on the Plaza at 300 Ashland through September 26, 2025.
So what happened to Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” NFT? Apparently it has seen a dramatic drop in value, now worth only $20,000. It sold for $69 million in 2021. So what is its value outside of the art market? I want my everydays to resonate with people mostly outside of the established art and tech worlds. That won’t make me rich but I’ve learned to take the bad with the good as far as tech + art is concerned.