POSITIONING OF ART AS A META FROM THE INDUSTRIAL ERA TO THE DIGITAL ERA: "ART MARKETING" AND "NFT"

Considering the history of humanity, it is possible to say that each new development deeply affects the cultural, social and economic life of societies and brings many changes. Humanity, who painted hunting and war scenes on cave walls in the early ages, found new ways to express itself to the outside world in parallel with technical developments. The reflection of technical developments on art, which is one of the most important cultural elements, has brought debates in every period. Conceptual art, which was ignited by the industrialization brought by the Industrial Revolution, moved away from its physical existence with digitalization and became compatible with the crypto system. NFTs, which emerged depending on the blockchain technology, have caused differentiation in the production and consumption of art. The aim of the thesis research is to examine the current developments in art marketing by detailing the change in the positioning of art with digitalization. For this purpose, in-depth interviews were conducted with 18 participants consisting of digital artists, art historians and academicians who produce and sell NFT, and 7 semi-structured questions were directed to the participants. The data collected from the participants were deciphered and analyzed through MAXQDA 22 Analytics Pro. As a result of the research, it has been revealed that there is a connection between digitalization and the positioning of art as a commodity, NFTs support the transformation of art into an investment tool, and there is a positive relationship between NFT-based art and marketing. In addition, it has been concluded that art has entered a process of change with digitalization and NFTs provide advantages viii such as intermediation, democratization, reliability, decentralization, accessibility, visibility, transparency and freedom to the art market.