[NetBehaviour] Selling digital art

[Gretta Louw]

Some works are right for printing and that’s fine - but others aren’t. In these cases I think the biggest problem is the lack of good hardware options for showing the digital/moving image works (affordable, stable, reliable). 

Something that I’m experimenting with at the moment, is how much people are willing to pay for a commissioned digital portrait, see the website here: http://www.gifportrait.net/
Obviously working on a commission basis, with some creative input from the buyer, is not always desirable or feasible, but I do wonder whether a similar model might work - a series of works, say, that get revealed piece by piece as they are purchased.

In a way, I also think it’s our responsibility to show people how they can best purchase, hang, display our work (if that’s something that is important for the artist at that time or for that project, which it isn’t always). So, this would mean providing examples and perhaps even tips on what hardware works best etc. I mean, of course it would be ideal if a gallery or dealer would do this for us…

Gretta

> On 02 Nov 2015, at 13:53, Antonio Roberts <antonio at hellocatfood.com> wrote:
> 
>> It's often been suggested to me that I try selling prints of some of my more
>> visual pieces but I can't do it. In these pieces there is no final state...
>> they run... on and on and on. It would completely defy the nature of the
>> work to attempt to capture a single moment for a print.
> Snap. Most of my work is video and people want stills from it.
> 
> I have thought about the possibility of people buying randomly
> generated pieces. Or, they would pick a still from a generative piece
> that would be printed. However, I don't think there are any existing
> services that support this (and no, I can't set one up).
> 
> Antonio
> 
> On 2 November 2015 at 04:12, Pall Thayer <pallthay at gmail.com> wrote:
>> It's often been suggested to me that I try selling prints of some of my more
>> visual pieces but I can't do it. In these pieces there is no final state...
>> they run... on and on and on. It would completely defy the nature of the
>> work to attempt to capture a single moment for a print.
>> 
>> I did sell a piece a few years ago that was installed on a computer that was
>> set up solely to run that piece. It was a piece that used imagery from a
>> live webcam. About 3 months later the webcam stopped working. I don't know
>> if they ever got it running again.
>> 
>> On Sun, Nov 1, 2015 at 10:47 PM Rob Myers <rob at robmyers.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> On 01/11/15 03:23 PM, Antonio Roberts wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> My motivation behind this decision was my belief that the value of an
>>>> artwork should not be based on scarcity.
>>> 
>>> +1
>>> 
>>>> If I had used expensive
>>>> materials or if making multiples was labour intensive then I could see
>>>> more justification in raising the price and producing less. However,
>>>> in my case they were relatively inexpensive digital prints and so
>>>> making multiples was less of a problem.
>>> 
>>> Treat it as tipping or patronage in return for a touch of the artist's
>>> aura?
>>> 
>>>> This presents a problem if I want to make more money from things like
>>>> prints.
>>> 
>>> You can always do prints with those nicer materials (archival paper/inks
>>> etc.) and charge more for those.
>>> 
>>> Or you can sign prints or provide certificates of authenticity -
>>> 
>>> https://www.flickr.com/photos/http_gallery/22348355411/
>>> 
>>> There are several startups that do blockchain-based editions of digital
>>> works. ascribe for example:
>>> 
>>> https://www.ascribe.io/
>>> 
>>> (I've met some of the people from ascribe but don't have any involvement
>>> with the project. Other services are available etc.)
>>> 
>>> that takes the prints out of the equation altogether. :-)
>>> 
>>>> Crowdfunding (patreon, kickstarter etc) has been suggested in the past
>>>> but that is more about supporting the artist, not about making money
>>>> directly from the artwork itself.
>>> 
>>> You could crowdfund the edition and have the prints as backer rewards at
>>> various levels.
>>> 
>>> Crowdfunding works best with things that are events with a narrative
>>> people can get involved with, so you'd probably need to do annual or
>>> biannual crowdfunding events for projects or (groups of) editions.
>>> 
>>> You could also sell shares in a work/project/edition in return for e.g.
>>> sponsorship mentions at shows (like at the end of a crowdfunded movie or
>>> book).
>>> 
>>> - Rob.
>>> 
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>> 
>> --
>> P Thayer, Artist
>> http://pallthayer.dyndns.org
>> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> ============================
> antonio at hellocatfood.com
> http://www.hellocatfood.com
> ============================
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