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Roger Dickinson,Or “RD” exudes confidence in the inevitability of digital art. After COVID-19 derailed his fitness and wellness business in 2020, Dickerman stumbled upon NFTs and has since reinvented himself as a leading voice in digital art.
Born just outside Philadelphia, the American launched his “24 Hours of Art” report in August 2023 and has since become a valuable resource for artists, collectors, and funds alike.
Then, at the end of last year, I took up the creative profession by launching the 24 Hours of Art Collective.
With his empathetic approach and strong opinions, Dickerman is uncompromising in maintaining the integrity of the content at 24 Hours of Art and wants to see the space he loves so much respected.
“I felt like there was a need. I felt like there was a lack of a voice specifically for the arts, and I felt like I had something to offer. The core philosophy of 24 Hours of Arts is that I talk about respect. I’ve started using that word a lot more. I want to see respect grow in this space.”
He says two big steps to making that happen are creating resources that allow people with a passion for art to explore the space and providing unbiased information.
“Sometimes I put out a report, and it’s frustrating because all they’re doing is talking about what they own. I want my report to be an independent, unbiased resource that someone from the outside can come in and look at, what really happened, not through a tinted glass window.”
The Birth of 24-Hour Art
Dickerman, who describes himself as a “bear cub,” started the 24-Hour Art Report a year ago, which has become a must-have content in the industry thanks to his attention to detail and passion.
Originally published five days a week, he quickly expanded to six, and eventually seven. Reports published on X provide followers with snapshots and highlights of primary and secondary sales that occurred over the past 24 hours, upcoming drops, and market insights. The content-rich reports are accompanied by visual works of digital art.
He said the NFT sentiment was bleak when the report began. “A lot of people were facing the reality of the time they had spent in that space, and was there a future here? I had this incredible gut feeling that I absolutely wanted to be here and use my voice to help move this forward productively, because I believe that the future of digital art is inevitable,” Dickerman said.
“I had a little thesis that I came up with, which was, ‘No matter how bad it gets, no matter how bad the bears get, there’s a lot going on.’ It’s not all coming together.”
It takes Dickerman three to four hours to write one report, and he starts work early, starting just after 4 or 5 a.m. every day.
“I’m a picky coffee person and at home I’m the kind of guy who starts the coffee grinder at 4:05 in the morning and expects everyone to just shut it off for 15 seconds while it grinds the beans. Then I sit down and get to work.”
“As you can imagine, I have a pretty big checklist of all sorts of central marketplaces, sources, chat groups, friends, aggregators. I really try to get to the point where something crosses the sales threshold. I try to get to anything that can be considered Art Lane.”
In terms of content sources, Dickerman says the 10 to 20 percent of unique treasures he finds in each report are magical.
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“10-20% are passion projects, the magic element that you can only get if you’re obsessed with them. That’s the literal thing, curating your social feeds to have a list of people you know, some of whom will turn out to be gems.”
“Anyone can legally replicate 80-90% of it if they invest the time.”
New York Times Cover on NFTs
Dickerman’s collection, “24 Hour Art Collective,” was created in collaboration with Transient Labs on the technical side and Justin Wetch on the artistic side.
The idea was to create a collaborative on-chain 24-hour art report and mint 366 tokens, at least one for each day in 2024, corresponding to a specific date.
“I mined it for 0.24 ETH and it took about a month to sell out. I had a really great group of people that fit together. I had a lot of the major brands and platforms in the space. There were a lot of amazing artists, amazing collectors, and it just created a really unique group,” Dickerman says.
“Chica, who is one of our biggest supporters and an incredible artist in her own right, calls it the New York Times Art NFT cover. She wants to see what’s going to be on the cover page attached to that report every day, and then that becomes the provenance item, and then someone owns it.”
Holders of the 24 Hour Art Collective and members of the token-gated Telegram receive permissioned roster opportunities, weekly shows where Dickerman goes into more depth than his public reports, and several other benefits.
24 Hour Art: A Brief History of Today’s Mint
what?
366 tokens (each with a unique date in 2024)when?
2:00 PM ESTwhere?@transientraps (link to second tweet)
how?
– Public sale
– 0.24 ETH per tokenwhy?
24 Hours of Art is a daily, independent and unbiased report on digital… pic.twitter.com/hk0f38A0JO— RD (@RogerDickerman) December 28, 2023
Why Digital Art Is Still Underrated
As the bright lights of the 2020-2022 NFT bull run fade, Dickerman firmly believes that digital art is underrated. From accessibility to discoverability to the one-on-one direct relationship collectors can create with artists, Dickerman believes that digital art is only at the beginning of its renaissance.
“We live in a time where careers are moving fast because artists are willing to bare their souls and engage in deep conversations with collectors – conversations that would most likely not be possible in a traditional art setting.”
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“I think that’s a pretty fascinating element of it, when you see artists crash and burn as a result of intimate collector relationships. Transparency can be negative, too. But on the other hand, you see some people absolutely thrive in those conditions. They’re probably speedrunning careers, and maybe taking that career to places they would never have gotten to otherwise. I think that’s interesting.”
“There’s a sense of inevitability. In a recent tweet, I took a step back and laid out my fundamental beliefs. My fundamental belief is that digital art is art. I think we’re in a renaissance, and I think that’s obvious to most people. Digital art is the new medium as the world becomes more and more digital.”
Basic principles:
1. Humans are made to collect.
2. Humans collect art.
3. Art is an economy proven by time.
4. Digital art is art
5. The future is becoming increasingly digital
6. Art will become increasingly digital
7. Ownership of digital art (assets) is required.
8. NFTs are ownable…— RD (@RogerDickerman) June 15, 2024
Quick Q&A with NFT creator Roger Dickerman
If you could only own three pieces of digital art, what would they be?
1 — Beeple’s 5000 Days
2 — The collapse of the empire by the revolution of Alotta Money
3 — Lady Justice by Raf Grassetti
It’s now 2030. Where do you think we are now in terms of public sentiment and acceptance of digital art?
“I think we’re way further along. We’ve clocked in enough time for frame technology to advance by 2030. I think that’s an unbelievably huge unlock. We might even clock in enough time to get to the other side of the grand unlock, which is a true mixed reality solution.”
Are there any new artists we should pay particular attention to?
Yes, there are two.
1 – Everfresh (@everfreshdesign)
2 – The Mess (@The_Mess)
It’s a tough problem, But who is your favorite NFT artist?
“I think Alotta Money fits in there. He exists in rarefied air. He is no longer with us. He is an ancestor. He would have thrived in the mimetic first culture that we exist in now.
When it comes to artists that people should be paying attention to, no one should miss Alotta Money and the respect he continues to grow in. There are many like Coldie and Trevor Jones who want to keep his legacy alive for a long time.
But please, if he were alive today, he would throw a party and make us all laugh. He would make us all feel better about the bear market, and he would be leading the pack in the bull market. No question about it.”
Who are your three favorite NFT collectors?
1 — Brian Brickman
2 – Coldy
3 – JediWolf
What is your favorite NFT PFP project?
“I can’t help but say Akuta here. When I look to the future, when I see a character who can grow out of this space and do really interesting things in the mainstream, I think about it. Nothing is guaranteed, but I just see that character.
“It’s cool to see Micah (Johnson) traveling and doing interesting things in the world of baseball cards and connecting those worlds.
“Aku has just done his first official collaboration with Major League Baseball. He’s giving away Aku backpacks, and he’s taking Aku to China to work with Astro Boy. Aku is sneaking out and doing some very serious stuff that hasn’t really caught on yet or gotten viral attention, but the character is making some interesting progress.”
Who are your three favorite art Twitter followers?
1 – JediWolf
2 – Alejandro Cartagena
3 – Rebecca Rose
If you could place one iconic piece of digital art on a billboard in Times Square, what would it be?
“Beeple thinks politics is bullshit.
“We’re in that time and place in America right now, where things are escalating, everything is polarized, left and right, who knows what to believe anymore. I think that piece, by the way, was first put on-chain in October of 2020. I think it’s stood the test of time.
“We’re actually thinking back to the presidential cycle four years ago. It feels more relevant today than it did then. I think what he said was interesting, and I’m curious. I think Beeple is one of the artists who is suited to make that kind of statement in a presidential election cycle.”
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Greg Oakford
Greg Oakford is Head of Growth and Partnerships at Upside DAO, Australia’s leading crypto and web3 collaboration hub and investment fund. He is an avid NFT collector and co-founder of NFT Fest Australia. Prior to crypto, Greg worked in the sports industry as a marketing and sponsorship professional, working on professional events.
Follow the author @GregOakford