Power vs Meaning by Gavin Shapiro

Power vs Meaning is a conceptual blockchain artwork based on historian Yuval Noah Harari’s idea that modern society is a deal in which humans agree to give up meaning in exchange for power. Playing on the idea of utility and collector rewards as prevalent themes in the NFT space, holders of Power will be granted the power to reward themselves with an additional edition of their NFT whenever they wish. Meaning, on the other hand, is simply a piece of art, and holders will not be granted any sort of utility or rewards. A social experiment that will only be able to fully tell its story as people interact with it, Power vs Meaning asks viewers to confront their own motivation for collecting NFTs in the first place. As time goes on, how will the collection change, and what will it say about us?