Page 45 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2016

that a new generation of collectors will pay more attention to me? The new distribution platforms and frames for digital art (commented on earlier) are not a feasible solution: most of the artists spoken to found them interesting, but consider that having to adapt their work to the technical requirements of these devices is a disadvantage and they are not convinced that these products are underpinned by a sound market.The Internet makes it possible to analyse and supply all the quantitative data on works and artists so as to o er collectors reports on market trends.Conclusions: towards a third art marketThe progressive introduction of new channels for disseminating and selling artworks and the alternative ways of selling art in digital format may trigger deep changes in a market anchored to old structures. The art market is characterised by information asymmetry (Moulin, 2010, pos. 40–46): the symbolic value of an artwork is known by those who play an active role in the sector and it is therefore not clearly accessible to the public at large, whereas its nancial worth tends to be kept quiet except for the astronomical gures published by auction houses, which give rise to a distorted view of the economy of art. The prices of artworkshave a decisive in uence on their appreciation and the artist’s reputation, and they therefore undergo precise manipulation (Velthuis, 2007). This control over the information is lost on the Internet: online sales make it necessary to provide the potential (and anonymous) buyer with as much information as possible about artworks, including their price.35Furthermore, quantitative data on works and artists (prices fetched at auctions, number of exhibitions, etc.) are analysed by companies that o er collectors’ reports on market trends. The growing importance of the nancial aspect of art is leading to the adoption of practicescharacteristic of stock markets, as artists and works are viewed as securities to invest in and speculate with.36FIG.9: Promotional image of Sedition showing Prosopopeia (2014) by Matt Collishaw on a user’s PC. Courtesy of Sedition.In addition, the value of a work of art has traditionally been based on its rarity as a unique object. Reproductions of a particular work have only been allowed in limited numbers, and number of copies is a factor that in uences the value of the work. However, with photography and video, works are adopting formats that permit a large number of reproductions. In the case of digital works, there are no limitations on their reproduction, as each copy is identical to the original and the cost of duplication is next to nothing. Instead of being sold as a unique object with a high price, a digital artwork can thus beAC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 201645Smart Culture: Impact of the Internet on Artistic Creation