surrealism / digi art + nfts are both born from new tech shifts: surrealists hacked cheap printing, photography and early film. digital artists lean into code, ai and protocols.

each movement thrived in new social rooms. paris cafés, little magazines and midnight salons then; discord servers, twitter and mint pages now. the market followed the enery, not institutions. surrealists sold zines and found objects outside academy salons; nfts bypass galleries, creating native economies for code based art. both spread ideas through manifestos. breton’s typed screeds circulated like memes; digital artists are v online and do the same here.

lesson across a century: when art plugs into fresh tech and invites collective play, it stops being a static object and becomes a living protocol.