[p2p-research] the abundance of art

[Kevin Flanagan]

Hey,

There is definately a culture of making art works artificially scarce. Lots
of art is scarce by default because of its medium ie painting and marble
sculpture, other art works prints and photographic prints from film are also
scarce by default of their medium but less so, the artist might produce an
edition of 10. But with digital video and photography the original source
material , your camera RAW files or MTS files can be copied and reproduced
with 100% accuracy. So scarcity is not built into the digital medium it is
imposed by choice of the artist/gallery in order to get a decent price on
the market.
It is important to consider how reproductions also contribute to the
mythical status of the original art object. We all know the Mona Lisa and
that shared knowing itself plays a big part in what gives the original its
social currency. If that makes sense?
So how do I make a living from my art, it is a tricky problem? I dont
currently and I worry about this quite a bit..
If I make the source files of my work accesible online with a CC licence
allowing anyone to make a high quality digital print without having to
renumerate me I will be underminig my own ability to make an income from
selling work through the gallery system. The gallery system thrives on
making art artificially scarce, and inflating its monetary value. On the
other hand I could give away my art for free online and hope that people
will take an interest and support me and what I do by other means.
Ideally I would like to make everything available for free as and when I
like but I think a mixed approach is more practically viable.
Im hoping to have a solo exhibition in 2010, I will get some nice high
quality photographic prints done up to mount on the walls but I will also
make some poster quality prints of the same images for sale at an affordable
price, personally I can never afford to buy art nor can most of my friends
so I think it would be a nice way to make the work accesible to regular
people not just collectors.

I would certainly like to see contemporary visual art become more accesible
for regular people and I think affordable reproductions are a good way of
achieving this.

Regards

Kevin F
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