Everything is different, everything is the same,
Can a common set of values & principles help us build a better arts market?
We (KnownOrigin) were invited to participate in this years RAREAF 2 in Brooklyn. The main objective of the event was to bring the rare art community together and showcase the best in crypto art.
A little scene setting, Brooklyn has a completely different feel to New York, it has more of a bohemian feel, less polished & more edgy. Most of the streets are adorned with graffiti and are a little beaten up, but this only adds to the atmosphere. The shops and restaurants are mainly independent with very few mainstream chains. The venue is a warehouse set back from the street and has 2 large floors. The downstairs is being used to host the speakers and the discussions panel and the upper floor was for the gallery.
The following artists and platforms were exhibiting: SuperRare, MakersPlace, Noow.Art, Pixel EOS, Snark, Portion, Dada NYC & KnownOrigin. Featured artists include, Joe Looney, Johnny Dollar, Ana Hofmann, Martin Lukas Ostachowski, Hackatao and internationally acclaimed artists Kevin Abosch among others.
After months of hard work led by event organisers James Waugh and Judy Mam the time had arrived for us to head over to NYC. RAREAF 2 is the final event of New York Blockchain week and was set to bring all the galleries, artists and collectors together for one last time as a celebration of creativity. We were very excited to be in New York and honoured to be asked to take part in the discussion panel during the show.
I was part of the discussion panel representing KnownOrigin that also included John Crain of SuperRare, Judy Mam of Dada, Tommy Nicholas of RareArts Labs & Misha Libma of Snark.Arts . The aim was to encourage collaborative thinking, sharing insights and to explore how we could really improve the whole ethereum arts eco-system.
Panel moderator Michael Lee. posed this question,
— How can we build a more collaborative art marketplace?
We have tried to capture some of the key points made during the RAREAF 2, these are based on observational & anecdotal accounts. But we believe there is still value in sharing this with the wider community.
I think it’s important to start by highlighting some of the cross platform challenges we face, we are curious to see if some shared values & principles could established a level of consistency that could help build trust, confidence reassure both emerging digital artists and art collectors alike. This is a new frontier…
Pioneers and Explorers
With any new technology experimentation is key. We must start with this to get a better understanding of the capabilities & power it harnesses. Much like the pioneers of the past the teams that are exploring the Art on blockchain space have lots of shared goals and are tackling very similar challenges.
When embarking on re-inventing or disrupting the status quo having some guiding principles & values to stand can be critical.
Having shared goals & values are a great way to guide the direction of travel, these common things help the wider community understand ‘why’ we are doing this and reassure people that we are here for the right reasons. This bleeding edge tech is in its infancy and well need to be nurtured before it can thrive on its own.
With the exploration of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) we have seen lots of platforms & services move in to this space very quick. Almost all the Ethereum arts dapps are empowering creative people to make a living by doing the thing they love. Having the ability to ‘tokenise’ & sell artwork to a new wave of art collector is now changing the way people view art.
Building new products
Having a great idea is how most new ventures start, this is the same for dApps in the blockchain arts space. There is a genuine need for platforms to provide digital artists, designers and creatives with a credible way of monetizing their craft. With the arrival of blockchain technology & ethereum smart contracts we can now provide a level of authenticity, provenance and a clear chain of custody for digital artwork. This is a new concept for most and has change how people can earn a living.
However with many teams trying to meet this need and building very similar products but in slightly different ways, this has led to artists, collectors and crypto collectable enthusiasts having to learn multiple ways to complete the same task.
Having a more collaborative approach and shared approach could help teams and platforms produce better products. This way of working would ultimately make the Web 3.0 experience much easier to navigate and understand for new artists & collectors and developers.
The fear of sharing
we are currently seeing products being built and released in scilos and with closed teams. I can appreciate that there are some concerns about revealing your ‘secret source’ and the fear of other products echoing your usp. But at such an early stage of the journey having an open and collaborative space to experiment fail, learn and improve would be much more productive.
A non-collaborative approach could affect the broader potential and may have a long term damaging effect on the community & art on blockchain movement as a whole.
We have seen more collaborative projects happening over recent months with announcements by SuperRare + CryptoPunks, CryptoVoxel + XERO Gallery, DaDa + SeedInvest and KnownOrigin + Auctionity. These types of collaboration are a very positive sign & we should celebrate them.
We are also seeing the rise of the DAO (decentralised Autonomous Org)
Co-founder James Morgan has recently written a widely acclaimed article about this approach.
Cross platform challenges
Confusion over secondary sales & royalties
Not all platforms have adopted the secondary sale model. This model ensures that the artists continue to receive royalties as there artwork is re-sold. It is widely agreed that this is one of the big differences and most compelling from the traditional art markets and is one of the biggest benefits for the artists.
Rare ‘What the F does this mean’
Rarity is key when it comes to value. Having a high demand for a assets and a limited amount available can impact the price. Value is very subjective and this can also affect how much someone is willing to pay for a piece of art.
Having a common or global scarcity models will help build confidence in the marketplace, reassure collector and build trust around the digital art movement.
We need to protect this model in the digital art world, but this requires a lot of effort from the platform providers and artists themselves.
Building trust and reassuring the whole community
With the emergence of digital art and blockchain tech it’s never been easier for digital artists to monetize their craft. As more platforms arrive the ability to guarantee uniqueness will reduce. How do we ensure that the ‘exact’ same digital assets is not on / for sale on multiple platforms? This will screw up the scary model and damage the credibility of the movement.
Artists are empowered to create accounts and showcase their work on many platforms but is it widely understood that each artwork they upload should be unique to the eco-system, not just to that specific platform. Or is this an assumption and we may find that collectors are happy to own editions based on broader value systems like; Which platform they purchase it from, when they bought it & who they bought it off — Gallery or direct from the artist.
Things to consider
How do we ensure that the artwork is genuine
How do reassure the collectors that this is genuinely rare and will never exist again
How do we verify artists across multiple platforms and galleries
How do we reassure the collector / buyer that this is work by a verified artists
There are many other areas to cover but these are just a few that came up during the discussion.
Established vs emerging artists
Many artists showcase and sell their work across multiple platforms. This gives the artists a wider audience reach and allows them to having a bigger shop window.
Cross platform duplications
When artists create a piece of artwork and then choose a platform to tokenise there work, they have to consider how many editions will be available for people to purchase. The artists must also understand that this unique piece will never be available again once all the editions have been sold.
Now, with artists having multiple accounts across many platforms this can lead to duplication. Artists are empowered to tokenise and sell their work & mistakes will ultimately happen or malicious behaviour will eventually happen, but having a simple way to mitigate this would be best practice.
The beauty of the blockchain is that all of the information is freely available and having a simple first ‘minted’ wins approach would help rectify any duplications.
One approach would be ‘If an artwork appears on 2 or more platforms the ones that were ‘minted’ artwork most recently according to the blockchain should burned these assets.’
This will help keep the integrity on the scarcity model for all artists and collectors. This principle has a big dependancy on wide adoption to be successful and robust.
Open Values:
• Empower the Artists
• Reward with royalties
• Ensure Rarity & moderate
• Inspire & educate collectors
• Share Insights & collaborate
• Authenticate artwork & reassure collectors
Open principles
• We should empower artists to be creative
• We should be inspirational as well as inclusive
• We should ensure scarcity through uniqueness
• We should promote artist accountability & reward shared responsibility
• We should keep value transparent & clear
• We should challenge historical cliches
• We should be diligent
• We should use collaboration to connect the community
It’s true for any principle or value system to work they need to worked on collaboratively & get broad agreement by all parties. So please feedback by leaving comments or tweet @knownOrigin_io .We are excited to see what happens next.
Somethings are different , everything is better.
Start your digital art collection now, head to KnownOrigin.io
Also remember to say “hello” on our telegram channel or twitter @knownorigin_io account.
Big love… KO Team
