The One Thing Digital Art has Been Missing
For the past few years we’ve seen digital art grow exponentially. It is everywhere! Websites like dribbble.com allow you to do just that: dribble, over the amazing talent of these computer mouse equipped digital artists.
What do you have in mind when you hear “digital artwork”? Let’s take a closer look at what this emerging trend encompasses.
Looking at all of the above Leonardo da Vinci would definitely have more than one raised eyebrow.
What do you think about the art above? Taste is personal, but words such as “subjective” and “objective” have often been labeled as misleading in the context of art. Someone who likes a certain art piece makes a subjective and emotional claim. This judgement is valid, the emotions created from the art is enough for even those who ignore the technique to be touched by what the artist wanted to communicate through it. Inversely many make the statement that a lack of knowledge is the reason why some would dislike that artwork.
There is something about Digital art that has something scientific, innovative and alive. The experience Digital Art gives users, from TV advertising to website navigation, has allowed technology to be even more mainstream. Whether it’s typography, motion graphics or illustrations the use of the computer assisted art has grown in popularity and in demand mainly due to the amount of devices using a screen have. This contemporary art is the fruit of digital interfaces that talented modern artists manipulate incredibly well.
So what is missing? Why hasn’t digital art followed the more traditional path of art such as paintings?
Rarity is often the reason why traditional art or limited edition handbags sell at such a high value. Unfortunately in the digital era, rarity isn’t a component that is thought out. With good reason, because creating or duplicating the original digital artwork demands low extra resources. The concept of “this is an original” doesn’t mean much.
This is when the Pixinch team and myself decided to investigate the industry and see how we could help. Elon Musk said that “You get paid in direct proportion to the difficulty of problems you solve”, but I would like to twist it to “you get paid in direct proportion to the amount of people you help”.
Some communities have turned a frog meme into a cryptocurrency. The “pepe” idols have helped original creators and collectors benefit from adding the rarity factor to this frog meme. (see https://rarepepewallet.com/) How? Using the blockchain technology.
The startup idea: aim to build a place where digital artists can share, expose, sell, protect and build their fame and where anyone can buy, collect and trade artworks anywhere in the world.
How does blockchain allow us to attribute rarity to artwork? Blockchain constitutes a decentralised list of records. The decentralised aspect is key here, as there isn’t one single owner of that list. Once a transaction is recorded, onto what is called a “block”, each one is secured and distributed collectively through a peer-to-peer network. In other words, no one person owns the blockchain/list of records and once something is recorded on the blockchain the risk of modifying that record is extremely difficult and close to impossible.
The Blockchain will enable digital art to incorporate the “rarity” component. Each digital art piece will have one owner and a history of transactions. It’s that immutability factor that allows artists to protect their work, avoid duplicates and enable users to collect “original” digital art.
To develop this idea into a viable product and website, we have opted to raise money privately but also launch an ICO campaign.
To understand what an ICO is picture an IPO and Crowdfunding having a baby. Did you picture it?! An initial crowd offering allows anyone to invest into newly blockchain based companies to get started. ICOs have helped companies raise over $3 billion in 2017 and already $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2018. Needless to say ICOs are trending upwards and are helping genuine innovation to arise in the blockchain world. (see https://icowatchlist.com) Just like any new trend, scammers have jumped on the bandwagon raising the level of scepticism but also raising awareness to the general public.
The Pixinch team invite you to take a look at a solid plan of action to conquer the untapped market of decentralised digital art at ico.pixinch.com.
