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Roger Dickerman, or “RD,” oozes conviction in the inevitability of digital art. After his fitness and wellness business was wiped out during COVID-19 in 2020, Dickerman stumbled on NFTs and has since reinvented himself as a leading voice in digital art.
The American born just outside of Philadelphia started the “24 Hours of Art” report in August 2023 and it has since become a go-to resource for artists, collectors and funds alike.
He then put himself in the creator’s seat late last year, launching the 24 Hours of Art Collective.
Empathetic in his approach but strong with his opinions, Dickerman pulls no punches when it comes to the integrity of his content with 24 Hours of Art and wants to see the space he so dearly loves get some respect.
“I felt it was necessary. I felt like we were lacking art specific voices and I had something to offer. The core philosophy behind 24 Hours of Art is that I talk about respect. I’ve started to use that word a lot more. I want to see respect for this space increase.”
He says two big steps toward making that happen are creating resources to enable people who are passionate about art to explore the space and providing unbiased information.
“It does frustrate me at times to see… [something] that’s put forth as a report of sorts, but you can tell all they’re doing is talking about what they own. I want my report to be an independent, unbiased resource that somebody from outside the space could come in and they could look at. Information on what actually happened, not through tinted glass.”
The birth of 24 Hours of Art
A self-described “baby of the bear,” Dickerman launched the 24 Hours of Art report a year ago, which became industry go-to content due to his attention to detail and passion.
Originally publishing five days per week, he quickly ramped it up to six and then eventually seven. Posted on X the report gives followers a snapshot of primary and secondary sales that have occurred in the previous 24 hours along with highlights, upcoming drops and market insights. The content-rich report is accompanied by a number of visual pieces of digital art.
He said that when the report began, NFT sentiment was grim. “I think a lot of people were facing the realities of the time that they were spending in the space, and did they have a future here? For me, I had a grand gut check and knew I absolutely wanted to be here and wanted to use my voice to productively help move this thing forward because I do believe in that future inevitability of digital art,” Dickerman said.
“There was a little bit of a thesis I thought about — ‘no matter how bad it gets, no matter how bad the bear gets, there’s a lot going on’. It was just not all being pulled together in one place.”
It takes Dickerman three to four hours to compile each report, and he starts each day just after 4 am or 5 am to get a head start.
“I’m a coffee snob and the asshole in the house who will run the coffee grinder at 4:05 am in the morning and just hope everyone can just block it out for the 15 seconds it takes to grind the beans. Then I sit down and get to work.”
“As you might imagine, I have quite a large checklist of all sorts of centralized marketplaces, sources, chat groups, friends, aggregators that I run through. I really do try when something is above a sales threshold, I do try to get everything that would be considered to be falling within the Art Lane.”
In terms of content sources, Dickerman says the magic lies in the 10-20% of unique gems he unearths for each report.
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“The 10 to 20% exists as this passion project, this magic element that you just have to be obsessed to get. That’s the literal one of ones, the curation of your social feed to have lists of the people that you know some of the gem news items will be unearthed through.”
“Eighty to 90%, anybody can legitimately replicate if they want to put the time in.”
New York Times cover of NFTs
Dickerman’s own collection, “24 Hours of Art Collective” was a partnership with Transient Labs on the technical side and with Justin Wetch on the artistic side.
The idea was to make collaborative onchain 24 Hours of Art reports, minting 366 tokens — at least one for every day of 2024 lining up with a specific date of the year.
“Minting at 0.24 ETH, it took about a calendar month to sell out. I got just this beautiful trickle of the right people. I got a lot of the main brands and platforms in the space. A lot of incredible artists, a lot of incredible collectors and it’s created a very unique collective,” Dickerman says.
“Chikai who’s one of our strongest advocates and an amazing artist in his own right, calls it the New York Times cover of Art NFTs. You want to see what is going to come out on that cover page each day that attaches to that report and then that becomes an item of provenance, and then that is owned by somebody.”
Holders of 24 Hours of Art Collective, also members of a token-gated Telegram, get allowed list opportunities, a weekly show where Dickerman goes deeper than his public report, plus a number of other benefits.
24 Hours of Art: Today’s Mint Explained
What?
366 tokens (each receiving a unique day of 2024)When?
2:00pm ETWhere?@TransientLabs (link in second tweet)
How?
– Public sale
– 0.24 ETH per tokenWhy?
24 Hours of Art is a daily, independent and unbiased report on the digital… pic.twitter.com/hk0f38A0JO— RD (@RogerDickerman) December 28, 2023
Why digital art is still underrated
With the bright lights of the 2020-2022 NFT bullrun no longer shining, Dickerman is a firm believer that digital art is being underrated. From accessibility to discoverability to the one-to-one direct relationships collectors can create with artists, Dickerman believes digital arts is only at the beginning of a renaissance.
“We’re in this time frame where you’re seeing artists sort of speed run these careers because they’re willing to be soul bared, completely transparent in the weeds with their collectors having conversations that would not be possible in most traditional art settings.”
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“I think that’s a pretty fascinating element of this. When you see an artist crash and burn as a result of the intimate collector relationship. Transparency can be a negative too. But then you do see on the other side, some people absolutely thrive under those conditions. They are probably speed-running careers and, maybe, will take those careers to a place they never would have gotten otherwise. I think that’s fascinating.”
“There’s a sense of inevitability. In a recent tweet, I wanted to take a step back, and I listed my fundamental beliefs. My fundamental belief is that digital art is art. I think we are in a bit of a renaissance and I think this will be obvious to most. Digital art is the new medium as the world is going more digital.”
Base Principles:
1. Humans are wired to collect
2. Humans collect art
3. Art is a time tested economy
4. Digital Art is art
5. The future is increasingly digital
6. Art will trend increasingly digital
7. Digital Art (Asset) ownership is essential
8. NFT is an own-able…— RD (@RogerDickerman) June 15, 2024
Rapid-fire Q&A with NFT Creator Roger Dickerman
If you could only own three digital art pieces, what would they be?
1 — 5000 days by Beeple
2 — Empire Crumble at the Hand of Revolution by Alotta Money
3 — Lady Justice by Raf Grassetti
The year is 2030. Where do you think we’re at in terms of mainstream sentiment and acceptance of digital art?
“I think we’re a lot further. By 2030 you’ve put enough time on the clock for frame tech to advance. I think that is just such an unspeakably huge unlock. We may even have enough time on the clock to go to the other side of the grand unlock, which is a real mixed-reality solution.”
Are there any upcoming artists that you think we should be particularly paying attention to?
Yes, I have two.
1 – Everfresh (@everfreshdesign)
2 – The Mess (@The_Mess)
It’s a tough one, but name your favorite NFT artist.
“I think Alotta Money is appropriate there. He exists in rarified air. He is no longer with us. He is the forefather. He would have thrived in the memetic first culture that we exist in right now.
I’d add that in terms of an artist that people should be paying attention to, nobody should sleep on Alotta Money and the respect he’ll continue to grow. There are a number of people like Coldie and Trevor Jones for example that are very interested in keeping his legacy alive for a long, long time.
But my gosh, if he was alive today, he would be having a party and he would be making us all laugh. He would be making us all feel better about a bear market, and he would be at the forefront of the pack in a bull market, no question about it.”
Who are some of your favorite NFT collectors if you had to name three?
1 — Bryan Brinkman
2 — Coldie
3 — Jediwolf
What’s your favorite NFT PFP project?
“I can’t go anywhere else but to say Akutars here. I think when we talk about looking into the future and when you see a character that can truly break out of this space and grow and do really interesting things in the mainstream. Nothing’s ever guaranteed but I just see that character.
“What’s cool to see is that Micah [Johnson] has been traveling, doing interesting things in the baseball card world, sort of connecting those worlds together.
“Aku now has its first official collaboration with Major League Baseball. He’s been handing out Aku backpacks, taking Aku to China to collaborate with Astro Boy. Aku is out there and sneakily doing some very serious stuff that maybe yet has not captivated the bulk of the space or really grabbed viral attention. But that character is taking some interesting strides.”
Who are your three favorite follows on crypto X (Twitter) for art?
1 – Jediwolf
3 – Rebecca Rose
If you could put one piece of iconic digital art on a billboard in Times Square, what would it be?
“Politics is Bullshit comes to mind by Beeple.
“We’re in that time and place within the US right now where things are kicking up and everything is polarized and it’s left and right and, who knows what to believe anymore. I think that artwork, which is, by the way, his first ever onchain from October 2020. I think that has really stood the test of time.
“Here we are actually thinking back, that was a presidential cycle four years ago. It feels even more relevant today than it did then. I think it’s an interesting statement that he made and it also makes me wonder, I think Beeple’s one of those artists uniquely suited to do things around presidential elections, making those sorts of statements.”
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Greg Oakford
Greg Oakford is the Head of Growth & Partnerships for Upside DAO, a leading Australian crypto & web3 co-working hub and investment fund. He is an avid NFT collector and the co-founder of NFT Fest Australia. Prior to crypto, Greg was a marketing and sponsorship specialist in the sports industry working on professional events.
