The Creator’s Project blog is looking at the ways people are trying to sell GIFs and other net art online. While they focus on Kim Asendorf & Ole Fach’s new endeavor (which seems a tad boring and intellectualized IMHO), they provide a good overview of many of the options that have already been explored:
It’s an interesting trend we’re seeing of late where Young Internet Based Artists (YIBAs) are creating digital platforms to sell their wares or display their art, rather than relying on a third party. We’ve seen Rafael Rozendaal selling websites as unique artworks by giving the buyer the domain name so they get exclusivity to the piece. There’s also sites like Commissioned where artists (abiding by a set of rules) are commissioned to make an artwork — the favored works getting displayed on the site. Just last week we saw the opening of online exhibition Il Labirinto di Cristallo showing work from a variety of artists centered around certain themes.
As well as these showcases there’s also critiques on the current schism between buying and selling traditional art, compared with that of net art, like Jerome Saint-Clair’s Invest in Art online bookmarklet that allows casual web surfers with money to burn patronize web art by putting a red dot next to pieces they’re interested in, just like in the “real” art world.
Sorry to ask a totally random question, but some of the ways net artists sell their work seem restrictive, as it’s forced to stay on the artist’s website. What if you want to move your GIF to another “gallery” or venue?
Not GIF-related, I have to say I really like the work of Rafael Rozendaal and his taste for sleek simplicity online.
And a lesson learned from the Asendorf project, which we may have all already known even though it is counterintuitive, namely that being a minimalist is expensive (the minimal works are much pricier than the maximalist ones).
YIBA is like YBA? oh my…