Takashi Murakami, an artist, was awarded a Special Achievement Webby for his contributions to the space with his NFT projects. The NFT's creators, Anil Dash and Kevin McCoy received the Lifetime Special Achievement award. Dash and McCoy created the prototype for modern NFT (non-fungible token) technology in 2014 at Seven on Seven, a conference that brought together artists and technologists to quickly create a novel technology. McCoy envisioned a world in which digital creators could be paid directly for their work. Could he have predicted that the idea he presented at that small conference so many years ago would have such a far-reaching impact? "At the time, I thought it was a big idea," McCoy explained. "But I had no idea it would grow to this size." I certainly didn't expect to feel this way. "The lived reality aspect of it is different than I could have anticipated."
Murakami, an internationally renowned painter, and sculptor have now completed two NFT projects. CloneX, developed in collaboration with RTFKT, Nike's metaverse arm, was a huge success. CloneX, a 20,000 NFT series, features high-quality 3D animated figures with large anime eyes and a variety of accessories and traits. Some of the NFTs contain references to Murakami's work, and some are even modeled after the artist's face. Mur Flowers was inspired by the iconic smiling flower that appears in many of his traditional works. "What's clear is that Murakami believes in the power of the internet to democratize art, and he's now demonstrating that belief through NFT art and the metaverse," according to a Webby Awards statement.
The Webby Awards were established in 1996 to recognize outstanding innovators and creatives working on the internet. The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, whose members include Grimes, Tumblr founder David Karp, Twitter founder Biz Stone, and others, selects award winners in categories such as best websites, apps, games, and more. This year, the Museum of Modern Art received a Webby Award for Best Content Series for their initiative MoMA Photo Club, which challenged amateur photographers to respond to prompts devised by guest hosts in the arts and beyond.
Selena Mattei
