Art on the Blockchain - Whitney Hart in conversation with Valérie C Whitacre
Digital Innovation Strategist Whitney Hart speaks to Valérie C Whitacre, author of 'Art on the Blockchain', about the process of shaping the book through continued dialogue and debate through Whitacre’s writing process. The two reflect on their shared experience in the traditional art market, digital and Web3 circles and the continued relevance of new technologies in the history of creative innovation.
Valérie Whitacre (VW) left & Whitney Hart (WH) right
VW: Whitney, it’s been a truly transformative experience writing this book with you at my side. Its framework would not be nearly so robust without the discussions we had throughout. So thank you for having this last one on the record. Before we talk about the book itself, I think we should start from the beginning… Tell me about your introduction to blockchain technology in the art world? What made you most passionate about the technology and its impact?
WH: It’s been a pleasure discussing the book architecture and its contents with you throughout your writing journey. I always love this question because everyone has such a different journey to our niche of art on the blockchain. I didn’t come to blockchain through tech culture; I came to it through art history. While writing my master’s thesis on Walter De Maria, I was deeply immersed in Fluxus-era questions around authorship, process, and the role of the viewer. At the same moment, I was exposed to Pak’s NFT sales at Sotheby’s in spring 2021, which sparked conversations around Pak’s merge and burn mechanics. Those works immediately struck me as a twenty-first-century reactivation of Fluxus principles: the artwork as an evolving system rather than a static object, and the audience as a co-producer rather than a passive viewer.
What made me passionate wasn’t blockchain as infrastructure, but blockchain as a cultural tool. For the first time in decades, artists had a native medium capable of encoding participation, time, and consequence directly into the work itself. That realization reframed blockchain for me not as a market innovation, but as a structural shift in how art can be authored, experienced, and lived with.
What about you – how did you first encounter blockchain in the art world, and what has sustained your interest in this space?
VW: I actually experienced a similar colliding of worlds!
I was a career art dealer with what I now realise was an extremely narrow view. Of course the exposure and access that role gave me was enviable but I’ve never been shy about saying how object-collector focused I was. It probably didn’t help that most companies I worked with were allergic to tech. I discovered blockchain technology as a potential solution to a wave of fake photographs that had come to market during Covid-19 which I had been investigating. Needless to say I quickly fell down the rabbit hole in the way that type-A personalities like the two of us do - with no goal or direction… just sheer, fervent curiosity. The result was an entirely new career trajectory and of course, eventually, the journey of writing this book.
WH: I love that your story starts with very concrete, practical problems the art world has wrestled with for decades — questions of trust, authorship, and verification — and then unfolds somewhere entirely unexpected, driven by your curiosity. Reflecting on your journey writing this book, is there a specific section that sparked your curiosity the most as you were writing it?
VW: Oh wow, probably more than I could rattle off here. I’d say my biggest revelation during the writing process was the importance of telling the distinct histories that led up to the NFT boom; not because they are entirely different but because their audiences are so disparate and for such a short book to have the most impact, I felt it had to speak to different readers. As you often reminded me, it was equally important to include as many projects and artists stories as I could within such a short space. What about you? In the midst of all my writing madness was there something that impacted your perspective on the space or your role in it?
WH: Looking back on that period, which was about eight months ago now, Chapter Two still stands out for me. That chapter explains the mechanics of blockchain itself and unpacks the accompanying jargon. It feels like we went through endless rewrites of that chapter in an effort to simplify without losing accuracy. And while the difficulty and exclusionary nature of the technology has long been a conversation within the space, trying to put it clearly into words on the page made that reality hit much harder. It sharpened my awareness of how much work still needs to be done to lower the barrier to entry, and pushed me to think more critically about my role, not just operating within the ecosystem, but helping translate it, slow it down, and make it legible to people who are curious but not technically fluent.
It’s hard to believe we wrapped the book in August 2025 – it feels far more recent. Since then, the space has continued to evolve quickly. What’s caught your attention over the last few months; any highlights to note?
Third World: The Bottom Dimension © Serpentine. Photo: Hugo Glendinning
VW: Well, unfortunately some of the biggest headlines have focused on closures and downsizing. The closure of Christie’s standalone digital art department in September 2025 was certainly big news. I was disappointed to hear it as that headline itself indicated a retreat from the digital art landscape. But we’ve seen this pattern of retreat and resurgence with other artistic genres such as photography. During economic downturns, it’s not uncommon for these departments to be absorbed into Postwar Contemporary, Design or other departments. If anything, its commercial malleability is an indicator of broader recognition.
WH: That’s a great call-out — I was also disappointed to hear about Christie’s. And now in January we’ve seen further closures of prominent digital art platforms Nifty Gateway and Rodeo, while Foundation has been transferred to new ownership without a clear roadmap for the future. It’s definitely been a tough eight months across the broader art landscape. What about on the positive side?
VW: The main highlight for me was last November’s Paris Photo. As a former photography dealer, I’ve been going to the fair for nearly two decades. The fair’s inclusion of its first digital sector in 2022 reflected my personal history with photography as a long subjugated medium. Last years’ fair was sophisticated, sincere and at times challenging. I especially admired Heft gallery’s Illuminating Dark Days group show, which not only included names from the traditional photography cannon but which chose to provocatively challenge the issues you brought up previously - authorship, process and the role of the viewer. You?
Installation images of ArtVerse booth at Paris Photo 2025. Photography by Bryan Piekolek. Courtesy of ArtVerse.
WH: For me, two moments from 2025 really stood out. First was the opening of Infinite Images: The Art of Algorithms at the Toledo Museum of Art in July, which coincided almost exactly with the final stages of our edits. It was a genuinely thoughtful, museum-level engagement with algorithmic and generative art that traced clear lineages from early code-based practice to the present. The institution invested seriously in display and installation and, in my view, successfully resisted the temptation to default to screens-as-spectacle. It was a pleasure to see that level of care applied to this work.
The other highlight was Zero10 at Art Basel Miami Beach in December. The energy there felt distinctly different from the surrounding object-centric booths of the “traditional” fair. Notably, the artists were present in every booth and actively engaging with visitors. There was a real sense of camaraderie, with artists, gallerists, and community members stepping in to help contextualize the work and explain why it matters. That kind of openness and collective effort is something you do not often see elsewhere in the market.
VW: And what do you think the art world stands to gain most from a deeper understanding of blockchain? Is there a way you see that understanding filtering through to audiences who engage with art more intuitively rather than technically?
WH: Touching on the last point, Zero10 displayed this especially well through its sense of community, engagement, and care, and it offered a clear example of what the broader art world could learn from. The artists were present, conversations were active, and there was a shared investment in helping people understand not just the work, but the systems and ideas behind it. That same sense of care showed up differently, but just as clearly, in Toledo’s approach to exhibition-making. The work was treated seriously, installed thoughtfully, and given the institutional support it deserves, rather than being flattened into spectacle or novelty.
And this care matters because this work is not trivial. We live in a world that is mediated by technology. Systems shape how value is assigned, how information circulates, and how identities are formed. Artists working with blockchain are not simply responding to a tool or a piece of technology, but to the conditions of contemporary life itself. Art offers a way to make those systems visible, legible, and open to critique. A deeper understanding allows the public to engage with this work not as a trend, but as a meaningful lens through which to better understand the world we are already living in.
VW: Precisely, that is the point – I really think it boils down to how we as humans evolve through creative innovation and the infrastructure we create to support those innovations. In the words of a certain billionaire space barron, “We humans coevolve with our tools. We change our tools, and then our tools change us.” I think that the art world stands to benefit from self reflection and continual adaptation. The incorporation of new technologies is an essential part of this and will propel how creative innovation influences wider culture at large.
Jack Butcher’s Self Checkout in Zero 10. Courtesy of Art Basel, 2025.
WH: So what do you think will be the next big shift in the art-blockchain or culture - blockchain relationship?
VW: To be honest, I’m less connected to the Web3 space today than you are! My entrepreneurial journey has led me to new opportunities, though my loyalty to the field remains strong. Right now I think quantum computing is going to change most of the worlds’ relationship to technology and the blockchain, digital art and their markets will be highly susceptible to that eventuality. That said, I’m continually delighted to hear about occasions where the technology adds value. Even in the undercurrents of businesses or art+tech tools. It isn’t a perfect technology or an easy one to integrate, but there is a steady flow of use cases which leverage the blockchain in new and unique ways. You?
WH: I agree that the most interesting shifts won’t necessarily come from dramatic technical breakthroughs, but from quiet integration. I’m enthusiastic about the technology receding into the background so it isn’t “art as tech demo” (to borrow Operator’s phrasing) and instead the focus can return to artistic intent, experience, and context. That’s where I believe its cultural impact will emerge, via a gradual recalibration of how art circulates in a technologically mediated world.
VW: Finally, as you had such a significant impact in its architecture - What do you hope readers walk away with after reading the book?
WH: I hope the book gives readers the confidence to engage more deeply and critically with this space, and it inspires readers to spend more time with the work itself. Chapter Five introduces a wide range of artists, which represent a small segment of many brilliant digital artists contributing to the field, and my hope is that one or two practices resonate strongly enough to prompt further exploration. I hope the book can help readers know where to look, how to ask questions, and how to spend time with the work on its own terms. If the book encourages slower looking, sustained curiosity, and a willingness to follow an artist’s trajectory over time, then it’s done something meaningful.
