Toronto-based artist Krista Kim has sold the first NFT-backed digital home for over half a million dollars, as interest in virtual design continues.
Named Mars House, the digital home designed by Kim was sold on non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace SuperRare for 288 Ether – a cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin – which is currently around $512,0000.
Based on blockchain technology, NFTs act as digital certificates of ownership and enable digital artworks or designs to be bought, sold and collected.
Described by SuperRare as “the first NFT digital house in the world”, Mars House is an immersive 3D file that can be experienced in virtual or augmented reality.
“It will become the greatest creative renaissance in human history.”
Kim designed the home in 2020 to be a space that embodied her philosophy of digital zen and meditative design. She worked with an architect to render the house using Unreal Engine software.
Kim describes the house, which overlooks a moody mountain range and features an open-plan design and floor to ceiling glass walls, as a “light sculpture”
Colourfully-hued gradients made by the artist cover the floor and ceiling. The digital environment is accompanied by a song produced by Jeff Schroeder from the band The Smashing Pumpkins.
“Soon, we will all live in AR”
The digital home can be experienced in virtual-reality or could be overlaid with the real world to create an augmented reality (AR) environment in apps likes SuperWorld.
Following the sale, Kim told Dezeen that she thinks AR environments, which could include Mars House, will become commonplace in the future.
“Soon, we will all live in AR through our real environments using Superworld, a new app that has mapped the entire world for AR interface,” said Kim.
“Virtual real estate based on the real world can be purchased on Superworld, and in the very near future, this app will allow us to mint 3D NFTs and create a marketplace of digital AR assets.”
“Mars House is ready for that future, where it can be transposed onto our real environment and enjoyed with others,” she continued.
“We can eventually have it on the surface of Mars. It represents of paradigm shift of our definition of art in an augmented reality world.”
This is a “crypto revolution”
The buyer of Mars House will be sent a digital file of it. However, this is not itself the NFT. The NFT exists as an authentication certificate that is stored on a blockchain, equivalent to a title deed for a real house, which verifies that the buyer owns the digital house.
NFTs have opened up a world for digital artists that allow their works to be bought, owned, traded and collected through digital marketplaces.
A number of designers and artists have recently sold their work as crypto art and with Christie’s selling a jpeg created by Beeple for a world-record $69 million.
Barcelona-based Andrés Reisinger putting ten pieces of virtual furniture under the hammer last month, which sold for almost $450,000 in total, while Alexis Christodoulou sold his architectural renderings for $340,000.
“I believe that the NFT market supports positive change through the crypto revolution. It is the crypto revolution that will create real political action to support green energy and sustainability,” Kim said.
“With more equitable wealth distribution, democracies also have shifts of power away from corporate hegemony into political representation of the people – and the people want sustainably and change. NFTs are part of the solution, not the problem,” she added.
“There are endless possibilities, and it will become the greatest creative renaissance in human history.”
The post Artist Krista Kim sells "first NFT digital house in the world" for over $500,000 appeared first on Dezeen.