The pandemic forced people, at least until recently, to change how we interact with one another and as a collective society. Zoom meetings, digital movie releases, no-contact food delivery, and live-streamed events became common parts of a new way of life.

Appropriately, this period of time pushed the limits of what could be accepted as sellable art, with sales of NFTs(non-fungible tokens), one-of-a-kind digital files minted and sold through cryptocurrency exchanges, breaking records and causing an explosion of artists trying to cash in.

As society tries to return to “normal”, with many desperate to pick up exactly where they left off before Covid-19, it feels important to point out that the new modes of communicating with one another and attending live events that became common during lockdown provided levels of access never known before. Wheelchair-inaccessible spaces are common in DIY scenes that struggle to find any space at all. And that is far from the only access barrier “normal” living presents.

And the NFT market, while not uninteresting or unimportant, has pushed the envelope even further when it comes to capitalist values controlling how and why much art is made. Digital art, and non-digital art presented in a digital setting, allows people to experience art in their homes, often with free access to high-quality files to look at whenever they want.

In the spirit of promoting access to high-quality art for free, and to push against the idea that a new normal shouldn’t continue to include digital attendance as a standard way of participating in cultural and social activities, The Boston Hassle is holding a call for entries for digital art that only exists digitally. Fungible Tokens of Appreciation will open on The Boston Hassle Website July 25th. Please submit entries in the form of GIFs, JPEGs, video links, and other digital files to [email protected] by July 15th.