[eltdf_highlight background_color=”#ffffff” color=”#000000″]Expanded Formats[/eltdf_highlight]
[eltdf_highlight background_color=”#ffffff” color=”#000000″]Reimagining art economies online[/eltdf_highlight]
What if approaches to selling and experiencing art online were based on a deeper understanding of the artistic possibilities and politics of technologies?
Lucy Rose Sollitt and Jo Townshend explore alternative future art market economies with a panel of special guests.
Watch the recording of the discussion in full via the video below
Panel discussion on 20 October 2020
Convened by Lucy Rose Solitt and Jo Townshend
Speakers:
Kieren Reed, Director of the Slade School of Fine Art; Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, Artist; Cade Diehm, founder of New Design Congress and Helen Knowles, Artist
The Covid-19 crisis has caused the art market to move online and accelerated the use of emerging technologies such as AR and VR. Yet dominant approaches to selling art using such technologies – whether by galleries, art/tech startups or online marketplaces – often replicate the logic of today’s corporatised technologies and transpose sales models from an already polarised art market.
Use of AI is narrowly focused on achieving sales “efficiencies”, proprietary AR apps are used as visualisation tools for wealthy collectors, virtual 3D simulations are limited to unsatisfactory recreations of fair booths complete with static artworks and VIP areas. While using technologies as sales tools can be positive and needed, the vision seems constricted as the market strives for scarcity. This bears little resemblance to the rich expressions artists are creating using networked technologies, or artists’ responses to wider technopolitics.
In the short term, the likely result is to maintain the status quo and consolidate power-bases. Meanwhile, increasing dissatisfaction at the centralising dynamics of platform capitalism is prompting the creation of alternatives where more people benefit from the value they create. Is the market vulnerable to disruption by the next generation of tech users and innovators?
During this interactive event, Lucy Rose Sollitt and Jo Townshend convened a panel of experts working in the field of art and technology to consider:
What if approaches to selling and experiencing art online were based on a deeper understanding of the artistic possibilities and politics of technologies? Might alternatives to dominant economies be revealed?
Together they considered a range of models and ideas imagined by artists, thinkers, critical technologists working with and reflecting on networked technologies. From blockchain enabling alternative models for selling and supporting creation of born-digital artworks, to curated content and art based on Web 1.0 principles. It explores whether such approaches offer viable alternatives for generating sales while freeing art from dominant market dynamics. And reflect on which perspectives could anticipate future artistic economies.
In the run-up to this event, we handed over our @creativeuniteduk Instagram feed to four artists who are using and exploring the implications of emerging technologies. How might models of sales, ownership and distribution in the market be remodelled to better align with their practice?
Osinachi is a digital artist whose work explores personal experiences within a technological environment. He is also one of a handful of highly sought after digitally native artists whose work is highly popular on emerging crypto based (NFT) art platforms such as Superrare, KnownOrigin and MakersPlace.⠀
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Osinachi produces drawings using Microsoft Word, where he utilizes the basic limited design palette of the word processing software to create narrative illustrations. Using an archaic technological program, one not meant as a professional tool for fine art, Osinachi's illustrations play with the language of computers and its limited aesthetic parameters.⠀
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Osinachi is interested in character types, both from his personal experiences and of the larger community around him. His portraits take cues from popular culture and social media, at times pushing the boundaries of social and gender norms.⠀
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📷 @__osinachi⠀
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#FOTAMUK #ArtEconomiesOnline⠀⠀⠀
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Thanks to @rydavidbradley for joining us today, make sure to book your ticket for the #ExpandedFormats event on Tues 20 Oct to explore the themes raised in today's takeover. ⠀⠀⠀
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Entry to all of the events in the FOTAM 2020: Redefining Value series is free, with all events taking place online. To explore the programme in full and book your tickets, link in bio.⠀⠀⠀⠀
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@itsownlight @ucl @uclenterprise
Cindy Sherman is a generational artist who needs no introduction. Her Instagram posts are beyond brilliant, in that some things can be said with images in ways that words cannot. I find her Instagram works to be one of the only methods for satire of the cult of Instagram beauty, as it pushes the augmentation and fakery of a public self to such ends that the act becomes almost otherworldly, equal parts farcical and sincere. No other "influencer" comes close to the brilliance of her Instagram images. ⠀
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📷 @cindysherman⠀
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#FOTAMUK #ArtEconomiesOnline⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Entry to all of the events in the FOTAM 2020: Redefining Value series is free, with all events taking place online. To explore the programme in full and book your tickets, link in bio.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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@rydavidbradley @itsownlight @ucl @uclenterprise
Miltos Manetas began painting about virtual life in the 1990's, went on to found the art movement Neen in the year 2000 (with an excerpt of the manifesto posted below). Recently he has taken to painting a daily portrait of Julian Assange and giving it away for free on Facebook to collectors to increase visibility for the very complex case being made for press freedoms within increasingly surveillance based economies.⠀
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"NEEN STANDS FOR NEENSTARS: A STILL-UNDEFINED GENERATION OF VISUAL ARTISTS. SOME OF THEM BELONG TO THE CONTEMPORARY ART WORLD; OTHERS ARE SOFTWARE CREATORS, WEB DESIGNERS, AND VIDEO GAME DIRECTORS OR ANIMATORS.⠀
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OUR OFFICIAL THEORIES ABOUT REALITY—QUANTUM PHYSICS, ETC.—PROVED THAT THE TASTE OF OUR LIFE IS THE TASTE OF A SIMULATION. MACHINES HELP US FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH THIS CONDITION: THEY SIMULATE THE SIMULATION WE CALL NATURE. OPENING THE DOOR OF YOUR ROOM OR CLICKING ON A FOLDER ON YOUR COMPUTER'S DESKTOP WILL SEND YOU TO SIMILAR DESTINATIONS.⠀
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TWO VERSIONS OF REALITY THAT ARE SEEMINGLY PERFECT AND DENSE, BUT THEY WILL START DISSOLVING AFTER YOU ANALYZE THEM."⠀
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📷 @miltosmanetas, 2000⠀
#FOTAMUK #ArtEconomiesOnline
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Entry to all of the events in the FOTAM 2020: Redefining Value series is free, with all events taking place online. To explore the programme in full and book your tickets, link in bio.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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@rydavidbradley @itsownlight @ucl @uclenterprise
In 2008 I attempted to sell just the painting file only as the artwork via TradeBit (https://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/105674758-badfx-2007-ry-david-bradley_).
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With recent large online marketplaces being born for digitally rare artwork it is time to reconsider what work gets shown in the traditional gallery and what work may be able to remain digital, with an economy and collector base for both in different ways.⠀
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In the following posts I have selected three artists for some context to the current moment and its history which I hope you'll find of interest. ⠀
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#FOTAMUK #ArtEconomiesOnline⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Entry to all of the events in the FOTAM 2020: Redefining Value series is free, with all events taking place online. To explore the programme in full and book your tickets, link in bio.⠀⠀⠀⠀
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@rydavidbradley @itsownlight @ucl @uclenterprise
Since 2006 my practice has sought to merge an interest in 21st century methods for painting with an aesthetics of the digital world we increasingly inhabit. Recently this has culminated in producing large scale tapestries that are woven from red, green, blue and yellow thread, operating much like an historic screen without power. The content of each work is however composed of contemporary news, painted with custom software and brushes. ⠀
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#FOTAMUK #ArtEconomiesOnline⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Entry to all of the events in the FOTAM 2020: Redefining Value series is free, with all events taking place online. To explore the programme in full and book your tickets, link in bio.⠀⠀
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@rydavidbradley @itsownlight @ucl @uclenterprise
The way we consume is BORING. There is no real desire for change. Horizontal thinking is quickly neatly aligned back into place when trying to hold onto what you know. It is also rooted in owning more as a general consensus of being a "good consumer".⠀
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But consumption has changed significantly, people spend more money on experiences than material objects. We like to experience irl and then go url and show off the experience we bought to the world. Gen Z consume in a very particular way, where they have learnt to navigate multiplatform space and time. They like fast consumption, but they also like to comment, critique and create their own paths.⠀
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📷 Extracts from performances and commissions from @jerwoodarts @icalondon @factliverpool @arselectronica⠀
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Entry to all of the events in the #FOTAMUK series is free, with all events taking place online. To explore the programme in full and book your tickets, link in bio.⠀
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#ArtEconomiesOnline⠀
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@sakeemathecrook @offworldlive @georgejasperstone @jweekk @arselectronica @factliverpool @icalondon @jerwoodarts @_keiken_
#FOTAMUK
Share your reflections on social media and join in the discussion.
About Lucy Rose Sollitt
Lucy Rose Sollitt is a curator, writer and strategic advisor. She focuses on the intersection of art and technology and possibilities for new artistic economies.
Lucy wrote the Future of the UK Art Market report, her curation of Redefining Value in the Art Market follows on from this. Lucy is strategic advisor to DACS’ innovation programme and led research and strategy on art and innovation as part of a new White Paper for the UK government. She has curated projects and programmes for a range of organisations including FACT, Goethe Institut, York Mediale and Zien. Her writing includes Intersections, a series on trends in art/tech for British Council, and articles for Rhizome and AQNB. Lucy previously led on Creative Media at Arts Council London and has devised programmes with Abandon Normal Devices, Innovate UK, Rhizome, Google, and Tate Modern.
A philosopher by training, all Lucy’s work is underpinned by philosophical exploration and belief in art as felt knowledge.
About Jo Townshend
Jo Townshend is the Principal Partnerships Manager (Creative Industries), UCL Innovation and Enterprise.
Working at the interface of academic research and industry, Jo is responsible for identifying and developing strategic partnerships; she specialises in facilitating multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary collaborations with the performing, production and visual arts, museums, galleries and business. By adopting a critical and material approach to innovation, matter become central for knowledge exchange between UCL research, artists, practitioners, community and business to catalyse new thinking, actions and policy.
Recent projects include the UCL AI and Art Futures programme (curated by the Slade School of Fine Art, Laws, Engineering and Innovation & Enterprise) in partnership with Arts Council England. This includes the recent UCL AI & ART Futures Policy Roundtable with UCL Public Policy and UCL Centre for AI at Cog X.
Jo is the chair of Contemporary Visual Arts Network London and acting chair of Creative Newham. She is a Trustee of the Board for the De La Warr Pavillion, Bexhill and Trustee of the RSA Academies Trust.
Speakers
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley is an artist working predominantly in animation, sound, performance and Video Games to communicate the experiences of being a Black Trans person. Their practice focuses on recording the lives of Black Trans people, intertwining lived experience with fiction to imaginatively retell Trans stories. Spurred on by a desire to record the “History of Trans people both living and past” their work can often be seen as a Trans archive where Black Trans people are stored for the future. Danielle’s work has been shown in Focal Point Gallery, Science Gallery, MU, Barbican, Tate, Les Urbains as well as being part of the BBZ Alternative Graduate Show at the Copeland Gallery.
Cade is a designer, writer, researcher and founder of the New Design Congress, a non-profit organisation developing a nuanced understanding of technology’s role as a social, political and environmental accelerant. He has spent ten years embedded in tech infrastructure and security projects in six countries. From 2017–2019, Cade was Design Lead at Tactical Tech, a Berlin-based NGO that works to raise awareness of issues of data, privacy and technology in societies.
Helen Knowles (b.1975) is an artist and curator of the Birth Rites Collection. She has a BA Hons from Glasgow School of Art and MFA Fine Art from Goldsmiths University. She lectures widely around the UK and abroad. Recent and forthcoming shows include; Cosmotechnics, UCLAN, (2021), ‘Trickle Down, A New Vertical Sovereignty’ solo show at arebyte Gallery, London, Galerie du Granit, Belfort, France (2020), ‘Future and the Arts: AI, Robotics, Cities, Life – How Humanity Will Live Tomorrow’ The Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, NEMO festival, 104 Paris, The Ministry of Justice and Consumer Affairs, Berlin, ‘Artistic intelligence’ Hannover Kunstverein (2019) ‘Impakt Festival, ‘Los Algorithmos Suaves’, Centro del Carme, Valenica, Potsdam Film Museum (2018) ‘Zero Recoil Damage’,FolkestoneTriennial, ‘OpenCodes’, ZKM Karlsruhe, Germany, ‘Codex’ D21, Leipzig, The Trial of Superdebthunterbot, Zabludowicz Collection, London (2017).
Kieren Reed is the Director for the UCL Slade School of Fine Art. He is also Head of Undergraduate Sculpture, Director of Studies for Undergraduate Programmes and Undergraduate Tutor at the Slade. Mr Reed’s art research encompasses sculpture, public art, participation, performance and installation, from studies in form to the production of architectural structures. His art is most often linked to a process, place, site or a consideration of a space, situation and pedagogy. Recent projects and commissions have included: Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Folkestone Triennial, Whitstable Biennale, Focal Point Gallery, Camden Arts Centre, Ikon Gallery, The New Art Gallery Walsall, Artsway, Herbert Read Gallery, Gasworks and Studio Voltaire.