I’m excited about the concept of art as currency, and especially its democratic, participatory nature, but disappointed that it has to involve that particular image. Even apart from the fact that most of the people involved in these exchanges don’t associate Pepe with the alt-right, it’s just not an image that I’d care to work with, and I wish that there were a broader platform. Artist trading cards have existed for a while, but to my knowledge they’ve never been exchanged on a platform as sophisticated as what they’re doing here.
In any event, an economic model centered around original art is a compelling idea and I’d be interested in other examples and other possible ways in which the concept might be applied.
Be that as it may, the platforms they’re creating are interesting. Like Rare Pepe Wallet—here’s a user generated system of trading cards where some of the submissions actually become rare and sought after. They’re not handed down from above like baseball cards or Magic: The Gathering—the people collecting them are the same people designing them, and the best ideas assume greater value.
That’s cool in itself. It gives people a community in which to be expressive, and a kind of gamification that provides feedback and rewards. It’s a different experience from creating art by yourself, and then going to out into the big, wide world in search of people to appreciate it.
And it seems to me that this can be harnessed for good.
We can separate the fact that we don’t like these people from the fact that what they’re doing is neat, can’t we? I didn’t think that was going to be a problem here.
If they want to separate Pepe from the neo-Nazis and white supremacists they can start by compensating the person who lost the most from it happening. Otherwise they’re just as guilty as the far-right garbage for taking away from Furie’s ability to pay his rent with his art. I don’t view “But we’re not doing Nazi shit so it’s okay!” as an acceptable excuse.
As for what is effectively crowd-sourcing your own from of entertainment, sure. It’ll eventually come down to a few people controlling things as it always does because humans are pack animals and have barely left trees mentally-speaking. But as a way to study human interactions, community, small scale economics, and the inevitable downfall of all of them I have no doubt it’ll be a very good model to watch
This is really what I wanted to talk about. I agree that they’re wrong to appropriate Furie’s art and I’m not making any excuses for that, but they happen to be doing so in an innovative way that may have applications outside their subculture. For example, not only are they designing their own trading cards and using them as currency, but they’re doing so in a purely digital environment. Each image is (somehow) a blockchain token, allowing the proper owner to be identified, and thereby permitting digital images to be issued as limited editions.
It’s essentially a mini-art market for non-artists, and it seems to feature a similar reward system to the real one. What if a non-Pepe, non-infringing website used the same platform as a way for kids, students and amateurs to trade and create their own art as a social activity? Wouldn’t be it cool for a 14 year-old to not just have their artwork “liked,” but virtually sold or traded?
Seems like something that would catch on, and I thought maybe some of the Silicon Valley types around here would have thoughts on that.