A new online platform striving to inspire global climate action by selling environmental digital art launches on July 19. Called Blueshift and set up by Diane Drubay, the founder of We Are Museums and WAC Lab, the platform aims to raise awareness about global warming and drive change through curated exhibitions, dialogue, and art collecting.
The platform has evolved from a digital art collection started three years ago on the Tezos-based eco-friendly platform Hic et Nunc (HEN). Tezos has long been the art world’s blockchain of choice because of its engagement with the industry and lower environmental impact. The collection morphed into Blueshift through research and a series of experiments coined the “Arteztic” project.
Blueshift will show a diverse range of digital art that “challenge viewers to engage with pressing environmental issues,” the platform says.
“I started a curatorial research project a few months ago on how environmental digital art could trigger climate action, not only by changing the narrative and raising awareness but by making change happen on an individual level,” Drubay told ARTnews. “The potential of digital art to reach audiences globally made it the perfect medium to scale impact. I started producing virtual shows where each curation is a different research strand, and soon more curators will join the research. It is essential to highlight and support these artists who are so committed to the environmental cause, and to give them a stage to shine.”
Blueshift says it has “optimized its website for minimal Co2 emissions, producing only 0.12 grams of Co2 per visit.” According to the Website Carbon Calculator, the average web creates 0.80 grams of Co2 equivalent per page view. Blueshift also claims to host the first and largest collection of environmental digital art – amassed by Drubay herself since 2021 – featuring 100 works by artists including John Gerrard, Kelly Richardson, HUNTREZZ, and Peter Wu. All artworks can be collected as NFTs.
Its inaugural show is a virtual exhibition titled “Newroots – The Antropophytomorphic Age.” It is built on the artist-run platform Common Garden and includes works by Claudia Hart, Gabriel Massan and Nancy Baker Cahill. Viewers are invited to “reimagine their digital identities as drivers of environmental change, reflecting the harmonious relationships we seek with the natural world.”
“Back in 2021, discussions flooded the news about the environmental footprint of blockchain tech, proof-of-stake blockchains attracted artists and collectors advocating for environmentally-conscious practices and discourses, but once The Merge by Ethereum [which facilitated a 99% reduction in the energy costs of processing Ethereum transactions] finally happened, people stopped talking about it,” Drubay says. “It was just like everything was finally green and the years of energy waste disappeared and were forgiven. But artists advocating for climate justice and nature awareness still create on a daily basis – and we don’t celebrate them enough.”
