Artopology Marries Art and Blockchain for Utilization and Authenticity of Works

In fact, collaboration between art and technology has been practiced for a long time. A number of art groups in Indonesia are experimenting with creations by combining elements new media art, science, and technology. Not only about creation, technology is also starting to be used as an alternative access for art activists and connoisseurs.

Platform marketplace is the most possible approach to introduce works of fine art, not only through galleries, exhibitions, or arts commission. Artopologi is one of the similar platforms in Indonesia that adopts blockchain technology as added value.

• Artopologi was founded by Intan Wibisono (CEO) in 2022; a connoisseur of fine arts who previously had a long career as a communications practitioner who worked at Bukalapak and Edelman.
• Developing a curated and blockchain-connected fine art market platform; buying and selling paintings, sculptures and art installations accompanied by digital certification.
• Acquire pre-seed funding from Ideosource with an undisclosed amount in October 2022.

In an interview with DailySocial.id, Intan admitted that she started digging deeper into the use and potential value of blockchain and its derivative products when she was in the middle booming during a pandemic. The first Proof of Concept (POC) was introduced at the Indo NFT Festiverse event.

"It turns out that our POC was successful, we learned new lessons. Then, we started to seriously work on the Artopology platform, we made observations and testing too," said Intan.

Blockchain in traceability of work and authenticity

In her presentation, Intan considered that works of fine art need access to the market mainstream, which may have previously been limited to galleries or exhibitions. Meanwhile, the number of existing galleries is not yet able to capture all the potential. Based on OPUS report in 2020, the fine arts subsector was recorded as contributing to national GDP of IDR 2,238 trillion in 2017.

Apart from that, he said that disruption in the arts industry was not as massive as in other sectors and the process was quite complex. This complexity refers to the logistical aspect, especially talking about the distribution of sales of works of art in various forms. The handling is different from goods generally sold in marketplace.

From mapping this problem, Artopologi seeks to provide alternative access to a wider market and add value with blockchain to engage in traceability of works and authenticity of works—another challenge that often occurs in the art industry. "We combine marketplace and blockchain because our concern is not only about buying and selling works, but also aspects of work traces and authenticity to protect artists in the long term."

Artopology uses the Polygon blockchain network within its platform. To obtain a digital certificate for a purchased work, the user must have crypto wallet first.

Users can explore various forms of fine art on this platform, from paintings, illustrations, sculptures, photography, to installations.

Product curation and handling process

There are three services on the Artopologi platform, namely sales of physical works of art, sales of works of art with digital certificates (blockchain-based), and a database for track records of works and artists. The market segment is B2C (purchases and rentals handled by art handler) and B2B (addressing owner needs brand involving the work of art being handled art adviser).

Intan emphasized that she does not limit the works of art she wants to buy and sell on the Artopologi platform. However, he places a curator in the process as a verifier. "We must have a responsibility to maintain the credibility and value of the works of art in Artopologi. That's why we verify the artist's track record and portfolio."

One of the physical works at Artopologi that is blockchain-based is an art installation made from iron waste called ARTificial Ree. This installation was created by the Terumbu Rupa Foundation which was initiated by artist Teguh Ostenrik; has been purchased by a number of collectors and placed in the North Bali sea.

Reflecting on the decline of the Web3 industry in the world, Intan admitted that this situation had not had much impact on her business. However, for the retail segment, this situation could have an impact awareness and declining public trust. The Web3 industry is required to be more rational.

"We release [products] according to market needs so this year we will focus a lot on revenue traction. Our goal is to do it profitable and scalable in the long term. Moreover, last year we did a lot of market tests to achieve this product-market fit," he said.

Intan has also not considered raising new funding. The current target is to pursue profitability to prove that the business model is scalable.

Previously, the Indonesian Blockchain Association (ABI) projected that NFTs would play an important role in the development of the creative industry ecosystem, especially in the arts sector. A number of artists, creators and corporations are starting to use NFTs to utilize and promote their work.

According to the report "Statista Digital Economy Compass 2022", there are 1,25 million NFT users in Indonesia, also the 8th largest country in the world. In first position is Thailand with 5,65 million users.