Page 43 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2016

focuses on producing projects speci cally on commission: ‘I’ve always regarded my studio as a production agency of which I’m the main customer. Pro ts from a project are reinvested in the studio and in new experimental projects, so that it increasingly has a higher production capacity and is more independent. That way I’ve been able to produce work for clients like Nike or the London Science Museum’. In contrast to nearly all the interviewees, who spoke of misgivings or di culties posed by the art market, Daniel Canogar29 says he strikes a balance between more experimental projects and pieces adapted to galleries’ requirements: ‘My studio survives thanks to the market. Certain works that function on the art market help me fund other projects that are more di cult to nd an outlet for, but [that] I don’t want to stopworking on. I’ve come to terms with having to produce limited editions, issue certi cates of authenticity and other important details so as to secure a place on the art market playing eld. I’m easy about it, and don’t have any remorse or an uneasy conscience’.Digital art festivals and exhibitions at museums and art centres continue to be the most favourable environment for showing digital artworks.Being in the art market entails adapting to requisites established for traditional formats such as painting, sculpture and engraving, which conceive the artwork as a unique end product. The challenges posed by works based on processes of calculation and technologies subject to built-in obsolescence are hardly compatible with the traditional models of art sales and collecting. Therefore, the market, currently in the process of assimilating digital technologies in all areas of society, remains reluctant to fully accept digital art. The artists interviewed generally note that the presence and acceptance of digital artin the art world are growing (especially in blogs and online communities) to the extent that, as Jaime de los Ríos30 states, ‘contemporary arthas embraced media art and therefore there’sno need to stress it with a special category’.This situation contrasts with a market that is conservative, reluctant or even ‘resistant to digital’. Speci cally, the art market in Spain is described as ‘poor’ or even ‘bleak’ and compares unfavourably with the situation abroad, though according to Clara Boj and Diego Díaz new media artists also have many di culties gaininga market foothold in other countries. Daniel Canogar is the only one not to take such a negative view of the market, pointing out that in Spain there are ‘a host of collectors who are very faithful to the national scene’, though he admits that it is di cult to nd buyers for works costing more than 20,000 euros.With respect to market presence, mention should be made of the attention that theFIG.6: Félix Luque and Íñigo Bilbao, Memory Lane (2015). Installation presented at the Naked Veriti exhibition at the Ars Electronica festival, Linz. Photo: Félix Luque. Courtesy of the artists.FIG.7: Félix Luque and Íñigo Bilbao, Memory Lane (2015). Detail of the installation showing a 3D impression of a rock levitating above electromagnets. Photo: Félix Luque. Courtesy of the artists.AC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 201643Smart Culture: Impact of the Internet on Artistic Creation