An independent research space concerning contemporary issues. This is neither a formal academic publication nor an opinion column: it is analytical work supported by data on topics I consider relevant and worthy of rigorous examination, even when they fall outside specialised academic circuits. Open to co-authorship. Proposals to: hola@juanesteban.art
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Entradas: 88
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When the frame defines the picture
Sobre cómo la institución y el contexto producen la experiencia artística Recientemente leí una noticia que no me sorprende y que tampoco me deja de hacer sonreír. Alguien publicó en una red social una pintura real de Monet —Nenúfares— presentándola como una imagen generada por inteligencia artificial, y pidió a la comunidad que explicara por…
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Look first, study later
Sobre la autonomía ontológica del acontecimiento artístico Llevo unos días recuperando una pregunta aparentemente ingenua que me hago desde joven. Si cuando vamos al cine vemos primero la película y luego, si nos interesa, leemos sobre ella, ¿por qué con el arte contemporáneo damos por hecho que tenemos que estudiarlo antes de poder mirarlo? Me…
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Art, productive time and material survival
Resumen ejecutivo La historia del arte puede leerse, en buena medida, como una historia de la organización social del tiempo creativo. Antes de ser “genio”, el artista necesita duración, concentración, materiales, espacio, mediaciones y una forma de subsistencia. En la larga duración histórica, ese tiempo ha sido financiado por regímenes muy distintos —culto religioso, corte, nobleza,…
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Post-NFT Digital Art. Infrastructure, Archive, and Recognition III
Recognition. Institutions, market and canon. This entry concludes the series. Entry I examined provenance—what renders a digital work identifiable as a work—through the case of the artist romainiti and the closure of Foundation. Entry II addressed persistence—what is required for a work to endure and continue...
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Post-NFT Digital Art. Infrastructure, Archive, and Recognition II
Persistence. Archive, custody and the duration of digital art. This research examines, from the perspective of curatorial practice and collecting, what remains of tokenised digital art following the collapse of the speculative NFT market. Entry I examined the first dimension of the triadic framework—provenance, persistence and recognition—through the case of the artist romainiti and...
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Post-NFT Digital Art. Infrastructure, Archive, and Recognition I
Provenance. The Romainiti case. Introduction to the series. This research examines, from the perspective of curatorial practice and collecting, what remains of tokenised digital art following the collapse of the speculative NFT market. The series is developed across three entries that articulate three dimensions of a single problem: provenance, persistence and recognition. The present text, the first of...
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Global Art Market Overview
Foundation, an invite-only tokenised art platform within the Ethereum ecosystem, has gone offline indefinitely after failing to find a buyer. The platform itself attributes the decision to a financial and operational reality that prevented the resumption of service with any guarantees. What follows is an interpretation of the current situation, distinguishing between what…
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Mass technology and ethical consumption
Regarding the environmental impact of artificial intelligence, video games and social media in 2025. Study objective. This paper compares, using the best evidence available in 2025, the order of magnitude of the annual environmental impact of three mass digital markets—artificial intelligence, video games and social media—and discusses whether the prevailing question…