I will take a look at some examples from around the world of how Web3 technology is being used to collaborate, create and connect in new ways. In the creative and cultural industries, Web3 is unlocking novel possibilities in areas like building communities, the valuation of creative work and tracking intellectual property rights. These examples will give an indication of the role Web3 could come to play in the creative and cultural industries in the future.
The evolution of the internet has brought about several generations of technological advancement. In the early days of the web, or web1, static websites provided a one-way flow of information to readers, lacking interactivity or the ability for users to contribute content. With the advent of web2, dynamic and interactive websites emerged, along with the rise of social media platforms and online marketplaces. Today, most of the platforms we use function in this way, allowing users to read and share information through centralised platforms such as Instagram or Google. However, a key aspect of web2 is that data largely belongs to platforms rather than users. If a user with a large Instagram following is suspended by the platform, their connection to the audience they have built up is lost. An awareness of the consequences of platform dependency has been growing in recent years. Many artists and small businesses on Instagram share that they can hardly reach their audiences and are seeing declining sales due to algorithm changes. More recently, Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter has caused people with large Twitter followings to become nervous about the platform’s future. The true value of having e-mail addresses or phone numbers of the people you want to connect with is once again being highlighted. Web3 can provide further opportunities for being directly connected to these people without intermediaries.
Web3, the third generation of the internet, is characterised by decentralised technologies such as blockchain, peer-to-peer networks and cryptocurrency. Concepts like NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and the metaverse are also commonly connected to the umbrella term of Web3. These technologies enable a wide range of new possibilities. Through blockchain technology, users can take ownership of and manage their data in a more decentralised way. Blockchain technology enables the transparent and secure recording of transactions, information and the transfer of assets. While Bitcoin was launched on the blockchain in 2009, the conceptualisation of Web3 as we understand it today began in 2014 with the deployment of Ethereum, the first programmable blockchain network. Web3 represents a promising new era of decentralisation and empowerment, offering exciting potential for innovation within the creative industries.
Blockchain is a decentralised digital ledger that allows for secure and transparent record-keeping and asset transfer. It can be used to track the ownership and provenance of digital assets like art, music and films, and facilitate direct sales of these assets to buyers without the need for intermediaries.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks allow direct communication and exchange of information and resources between users. P2P networks are important because they enable decentralisation and remove the need for intermediaries in various processes. Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as most other cryptocurrencies being used today, run on P2P networks. Within the creative and cultural industries, P2P networks can enable creatives to directly connect with their audiences and monetise their work rather than relying on intermediaries such as record labels or streaming platforms.
Cryptocurrency, a digital currency secured through cryptography, enables secure financial transactions and can be used as a medium of exchange for goods and services. In the creative industries, this can be important as it allows artists and creators to monetise their work and receive payments directly from their audiences, bypassing traditional financial intermediaries. Cryptocurrency can also promote financial inclusion and provide access to financial services for individuals who may not have access to traditional banking options. For example, artists who may not have a bank account or access to traditional payment methods could use cryptocurrency to receive payment for their work.
Web3 is enabling exciting experimentation and innovation in the creative and cultural industries. In some cases, Web3 could augment solutions and methods already in place and in other areas, the technology has the potential to disrupt the status quo. Web3 could fundamentally alter how we think about ownership, collaboration and value. It remains to be seen to what extent this plays out in the coming years.
Communities benefiting from the value they create
Creative communities around the world are coming together around common goals and using Web3 to rethink how value is distributed in these groups. Many are experimenting with a specific community token, which acts as currency within the group. These tokens can generally be purchased or earned via contribution to the community. As members of a community or cultural scene bring value to the community, the value of the token rises, leading to these members directly participating in the financial upside of the value to which they contribute. Where previously groups responsible for developing a new art style, for example, are often not the people who financially benefit most from it, Web3 allows for more power and value to remain with the people most responsible for its development.
Individual creatives can use similar methods to engage more deeply with their fan base. Holly Herndon, who creates experimental electronic music, trialled a model like this with her 2021 release Holly+. She offered a ‘deep fake’ vocal model of her voice, with which her audience could create and compose their own music. Holly has also created a DAO (type of Web3 community structure), which curates fan-made content. Works collectively selected by this group are minted as an NFT1: 50 per cent of profits go to the creator, 40 per cent to DAO members and 10 per cent to Holly. In this way, Holly’s fans can connect more deeply with her and receive additional benefits from creating content.
Services like P00LS have been developed to help creatives easily launch their own social tokens. Singer, songwriter and producer Aluna is an example of one of the creatives P00LS worked with last year to create a specific social token called $FEVER. Fans could complete incentives supporting Aluna and scan QR codes during digital and IRL events to earn the token. Holding a certain amount of the token enabled them to access private group chats, guest lists and listen to tracks by Aluna that weren’t publicly released.2 In the future, it is likely to become even easier for an artist or YouTube creator to build a richer ecosystem around their work and connect more closely with the most engaged audience members through leveraging Web3 technology.
New marketplace and compensation structures
Web3 has given rise to new models for art community formation and collectively creating value. An example of this is DADA Art, a decentralised community that hosts artists, technology professionals, researchers and collectors with an interest in the blockchain ecosystem. People coming together on the DADA platform communicate through creative collaboration, which results in the output of participatory works. In 2017 the group launched the Creeps & Weirdos NFT project consisting of 108 unique works created by 30 artists. DADA was the first marketplace to introduce royalties encoded into smart contracts (automatically carried out via code when certain conditions are met) and distributed on-chain to people involved in the project. This innovation cemented the project as an important part of NFT history and has paved the way for how many Web3 marketplaces linked to the creative industries are set up today.
For artists, there are a range of benefits to Web3 integration in marketplaces. One big benefit is that they can continue tracking sales of their artwork after they sell it for the first time and automatically collect royalties from these sales in the future. The blockchain can also be used to trace provenance of an artwork. In a time of rapid experimentation with AI art, this is particularly interesting as blockchain technology provides the ability to trace lineage in new creations. An example of this is Vermillio, which enables creators to generate art using AI that can be owned and verified on the blockchain, allowing for proper attribution of AI-generated images. All AI-generated content created on Vermillio's platform is authenticated, meaning that original creators can participate in controlling how their work is used and receive attribution and compensation. Seeing all of the current discussions around AI art and intellectual property, this application of Web3 and the potential implications for supporting remix culture with proper attribution and compensation is particularly interesting.
Connecting with new audiences via Web3
Web3 can open up new audiences for creatives and allow them to create in different ways. Rather than creating a high volume of work, there are opportunities to sell work for higher prices, freeing up more time for the creative process. Nigerian artist Osinachi, who creates digital art using Microsoft Word is an example of this. His work was initially rejected by traditional galleries but in 2017 he discovered he could sell his work as NFTs. He found a global audience through NFT platforms and had one of his works sold by Christie’s auction house. “The middlemen tend to decide who gets through and becomes a big artist. In the NFT space, the artist can decide to go and do their thing and make a name for themselves and make money from their work,” Osinachi explained. However, building an audience in this way can place increased emphasis on the need for individual artists to communicate their story and process to sell work. With platforms like Instagram, we have already seen trends of artists moving to create more content about their work to drive interest and sales. Within the Web3 space, this may become even more necessary, so each artist will need to assess whether this type of storytelling fits their work and how they want to build their career.
Rethinking profit distribution and transparency in fashion
Within the fashion industry, Web3 is being used to rethink how profit is distributed to supply chain participants and create more transparency. Hibiscus DAO is a group driving forward change in this domain. They created the first model for on-chain profit redistribution in fashion, including redistributing profit to stakeholders who previously did not benefit from the upside of their intellectual property.3 Currently, Hibiscus DAO is working towards creating an open-source, community-owned supply chain for clothing. They are engaging with communities on a grassroots level to introduce Web3 tooling to sewers, pattern makers, textile producers and other supply chain participants. Their aim in this next phase is to produce garments using a fully-transparent supply chain connected to blockchain tooling to verify clothes are made ethically, taking into account human rights and environmental impact. Additionally, Hibiscus DAO is building a system that enables creators to create new garments on existing bases—on-chain portfolios of designs that can be remixed and recombined, with a split of profits going to the original creator. “Instead of a siloed system, [imagine] there’s multiple brands building on top of designs, and then those designs are being forked into different things,” Eugene Angelo explains, who was part of early experiments in Hibiscus DAO’s on chain-profit redistribution process. “It creates a positive-sum, cooperative industry, rather than brands competing with each other to the bottom, which is how fast fashion came about,” Eugene added. In a time of micro-trends and fast fashion consumption, these approaches integrating Web3 show promising ways the industry could be changed for the better in the future.
Increasing access to culture
We are seeing the emergence of a range of interesting Web3 use cases being trialled by museums. Examples include tracking works being lent to other institutions, verifying provenance of works, or even curating acquisitions together with a community around the world.4 Arkive is exploring what community curation looks like and is creating the world’s first decentralised museum. The group is providing a new approach to something museums have traditionally had a monopoly on: choosing which art to preserve and display. In museums today, only a small percentage of collections are displayed to the public, while more than 90% of items remain locked away in private collections. To give some context, the Tate shows about 20% of its permanent collection, the Louvre shows 8% and the Guggenheim 3%. Members of the Arkive DAO vote on which pieces the museum should acquire and where those pieces should be displayed. NFTs are created for each acquisition to store and manage its metadata related to historical provenance, authentication and condition on the blockchain. Arkive seeks to move towards diversifying and decolonising museums. This can mean placing acquisitions where they originated, where the work was created, or in a location where it can be viewed by the most people.
Asked why they chose Web3 to set this up, Arkive’s co-founder Tom McLeod explained: “There are things that crypto does really well. It is already established crypto does a good job of fractionalising complex financial contracts. It actually does a very good job of ownership and removing ambiguity. You could probably do that without the chain, but usually, those other solutions still require human interaction or middlemen. Crypto does access to voting and fractionalisation of ownership so well.” Last year Arkive acquired a collection of works connected to turning points in art or culture driven by technological advances and the community is now in the process of voting on works to acquire for its second collection centred around transparency, one of Web3’s core principles.5
Blockchain technology is also used to allow audiences to interact with artefacts in new ways. In late 2021, China’s Hubei Provincial Museum sold out a collection of 10,000 digitised versions of the Sword of Goujian in the form of a detailed 3D model based on NFT technology. Their goal with this collection was to experiment with new forms of promoting digital culture and allowing people to engage with artefacts physically and digitally. Other museums in China that are owners of intellectual property, are digitising their valuable holdings and publishing on blockchain platforms. Technologies like augmented reality are also applied to create more interactive forms of these digital collections. In China, NFTs are viewed more as a form of technology derived from the blockchain rather than being tied to trading, showing how differently this technology is used in different regions around the globe.
Empowering entire scenes
Experimentation with Web3 has also led to creative scenes that have been less represented globally having the resources and support to showcase their craft in a new way. Bajan rapper Haleek Maul raised $650,000 in crowdfunding through NFT sales to finance the video production of his 2022 track Verified. The video now has over 5 million views on YouTube and has been a foundational part of Haleek building out an ecosystem around his projects and providing opportunities for other creatives in Barbados. He is now focusing on empowering Caribbean and Afro-diasporic artists through Web3 knowledge and building a creative headquarters in Barbados, giving people access to tools to develop their own projects.
Looking at developments in Web3 projects globally, Haleek shared: “I think most people that are building are building for people in the countries that they live in and the places that they've been. That's why I'm saying: African and West Indian people get left out all the time because we are not part of the wider system, but we’re literally the foundational members of the hip-hop groups that made all the music…”6 I predict that over the coming years, we will see many smaller communities and creatives in communities that are less globally represented using Web3 to create new possibilities.
Conclusion
As someone who has been actively working on Web3 projects in the creative and cultural industries for the past year, I’ve seen the daily developments in the space and the range of different phases that have occurred. 2022 began with a lot of energy and hype around Web3, with lots of experimentation throughout the following months and the market and hype slowing down towards the end of the year. We are now in a time where a lot of the more speculative and flashy applications of Web3 have died down, and instead, people are focusing on building things with truly valuable use cases. Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about this quote by computer scientist Mark Weiser: “The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it”. In recent years, the Web3 branding has foregrounded how different it is from what has previously existed. This has been accompanied by a lot of technical jargon and a specific style of visual design, making it daunting for many to enter into that whole world. I’m now seeing a trend of simplifying this language and branding to integrate it more with what already exists. I also strongly resonate with the notion of web 2.5—taking elements that work well from current systems and combining them with new possibilities enabled by Web3 technology where it makes sense. There is a positive energy right now amongst creative builders using blockchain technology. They are building more quietly than a year ago but also seem more determined than ever to create valuable projects that are sustainable in the long term. It’s been fascinating to be right at the centre of these developments. I look forward to seeing how things progress and am excited to see what my peers and I will create in the coming years.
