Digital art as a medium has, like digital music, suffered from its fungibility. Once the work is completed by the artist and committed to code, that file can be infinitely replicated and shared across the world. The value of owning that artist’s work therefore diluted and their ability to continue to make work, financially diminished.

The introduction of the blockchain created an opportunity to take that first file – the one on the creator’s computer, the one they opened, worked on, saved and finessed until it was right – and identify it amongst all others. The artist’s original work finally had value. Or so we thought.

In 2021 Chemical X approached four artists from the fields of music and performance and suggested creating a collaborative collection of artworks based around the premise of ‘Number 1’ as these pieces would represent their first foray into making a purely digital work of art. Their creations forever to be the first art on the Bitcoin blockchain, an ephemeral ledger to last as long as humanity itself.