Peace Breaks Out in Bidding War at New Form Art Auction
Reports from the Edge of Art and the Blockchain #2
By Ruth Catlow
The RadicalxChange movement seeks to promote social justice through the radical redesign of market mechanisms. At their first International conference 22–24 March they turned their attention to the art market with Sight Unseen, a Live Art Auction produced by DADA.nyc.
Participants bid for a provably rare collaborative digital artwork created simultaneously at the time of the auction by different artists in different countries broadcasting via webcams.
The auction process itself combined two auction mechanisms: Dutch (in which the prize is won by the first bidder as the price descends), and English (buyers push up the price incrementally and the final bid sets the price).
Bidding commenced and again we watched as process ticked away in front of our very eyes.
I can only assume — as a curator of collaborative and live artworks — that it was all this connectivity that prompted competing bidders in the auction to reach out to each other.
Meeting for the first time, the two final combattants in the bidding war crossed the auction floor, conferred and then announced that they would buy the artwork together. They would double the English price and match the Dutch price of $3100, and work out the details of ownership later.
Simon De La Rouviere, one of the buyers, and himself a blockchain art pioneer said “When I saw that there were 10 artists involved, and they were there for 2 hours, I got a sense that they needed to be paid for their time.”
Likewise, Beatriz Ramos Founder of DADA.nyc concluded that they “wanted the artists to benefit” and went on to explain the next stage for the buyers is to “decide how they want to share it — to form a community around this piece of art”.
To me, this represents opportunities not just in better compensating artists for their time, but for new collecting collaborations. Yes, that can double spending power, but it is also about spreading the risk of supporting innovative new work.
Ruth Catlow is ICO advisor for Arteïa and writes a regular column Reports from the Edge of Art and the Blockchain. Catlow is co-author of Artists Re:thinking the Blockchain and co-founder and co-director of Furtherfield London’s longest running (de)centre for arts and technology and DECAL Decentralised Arts Lab.
