Art in Attention Economy

One of the most important features of the digital age is the fact that we are operating within the attention economy.

Data is abundant and ever-growing. Attention is bracketed by the number of participants in the marketplace and time they spend awake. There is a limited supply of attentive eyes and ears and a clear demand to be seen and heard.

The art market still treats artworks as physical commodities and controls their distribution through limiting of edition sizes and opaque pricing practices. Digital-native media (video, image and sound files) are uniquely positioned to truly prosper in the attention economy under a different set of rules.

Here are some thoughts and recommendations regarding art distribution based on the above observation:

1. Give collectors and fans as much ability to share as possible. Encourage posting attribution data but realize that certain amount of control is lost.
2. Keep editions open and prices low. This reduces the barrier to entry into the art world and discourages piracy. Will have negative impact on the secondary market but perhaps, these media were not fit for traditional speculation practices from their inception.
3. Related; allow users to reproduce the work for personal use. Be OK with someone creating a t-shirt for their child with your work on it, even if you never wanted your work to appear on a t-shirt :)
4. Artist’s intent matters. A serious collector or collecting institution will need to have a “reference” copy of the work. They should be able to order an artist-managed print — size, color, paper type specified and reviewed by the artist.
5. Restrictive licenses/DRM software don’t make sense because they limit distribution of work in the attention-sphere and are VERY hard to enforce.
6. Give easy access to secondary distribution layer. For example, one-click orders from resellers of t-shirts or posters made from artists’ images. This is the new digital secondary market.
7. Give collectors an option to commission new work. Beyond discovery; we want customization.