Remediation, Disappearing, Aura. NFT Project "The Currency" by Damien Hirst.

Abstract

This bachelor's thesis aims to interpret Damien Hirst's 2021 project "The Currency" in which 10,000 paintings were created, which were then converted into into NFTs (non- fungible tokens). When selling the works, it was the customer's crucial decision whether to buy the original or NFT version of the work, with the unselected variant being destroyed. The bachelor thesis will show that with this project Hirst has opened up the question of material-media essence and transformation of artwork, which can be researched as a problem of the theory of remediation, disappearance and aura, as developed by contemporary media science and philosophy, as well as the theory of reproduction in its relation to the original, as opened up by Walter Benjamin and developed with regard to his thinking by other authors of the 20th and 21st centuries. The bachelor's thesis, in addition to an introduction to the NFT issue, interprets its theoretical implications as a problem of the medium, its disappearance, and an issue of aura within art theory and history. Key words: Damien Hirst, The Currency, NFT, Remediation, Disappearing, Aura