The Illusion of Ownership: Digital Art's Existential Quandary

 You can't buy my art. It doesn't exist.

In a world where physical ownership is often equated with value, the realm of digital art poses a fascinating paradox—it exists, yet doesn't exist in the traditional sense. Schrödinger's art if you will. Unlike tangible artworks that occupy physical space, digital art challenges our notions of ownership and tangibility.

The essence of art lies in its ability to evoke emotions, provoke thoughts, and challenge perceptions. However, digital art blurs the lines between the tangible and the intangible. It resides in the digital ether, accessible with a click, yet elusive in its formlessness.

While we can admire digital art on screens, share it with others, and even purchase digital copies*, the notion of ownership becomes nebulous. Unlike a physical painting or sculpture that we can possess, display, and pass down through generations, digital art exists in a realm where replication is effortless, and originality is often questioned. This is what I so love about it. Art as a commodity is just bollocks.

The concept of scarcity, which underpins the value of many physical artworks, loses its footing in the digital domain. With the ease of duplication and distribution, the scarcity that drives traditional art markets is diluted, challenging the conventional mechanisms of valuation.

Moreover, the intangible nature of digital art raises questions about authenticity and authorship. In a world where digital manipulation is commonplace, distinguishing between an original work and a reproduction becomes increasingly complex.

Yet, despite these challenges, the allure of digital art persists. Its fluidity allows for experimentation, collaboration, and democratisation of artistic expression. Artists can transcend geographical boundaries, reach global audiences, and engage in dynamic interactions with their viewers.

Ultimately, the paradox of digital art lies in its ephemeral nature—it exists in the digital realm, yet its impact transcends screens and pixels. While we may not be able to possess digital art in the traditional sense, its influence on our culture, creativity, and imagination is undeniable.

In embracing digital art, we confront the evolution of artistic expression and redefine our relationship with the intangible. As we navigate this ever-changing landscape, we are reminded that the true essence of art lies not in its physical form, but in the emotions and ideas it inspires. It is the ultimate art!

I actually like the fact that my art does not exist. I like that it can only ever be printed as a copy if, for some reason, a physical copy needs to be displayed. I gave up trying to sell my art quite a while ago. I found the whole process of trying to hawk my wares to be a pain in the arse. Now I just make my art and if people get something out of it then that's good. If not then it doesn't greatly matter. Not being an artmonger is quite liberating.

*I realise that there'll be some knobhead who will probably mention NFTs and all I would say to that is please do fuck off.

AI ART?

I always think that the idea that art is somehow precious is quite laughable. People treat art with far too much reverence. It's basically what has turned art into a commodity. Creating fictitious standards, competition in the art world and notions of good and bad art has played right into the hands of the money men. It's only art for goodness sake!

Everyone is an artist. You don't need a piece of paper to tell you that you are an artist. You don't need anyone's permission to be an artist. You just need to do it. The only values that art really have are the ones that the artist has in the joy of creating and to those that consider something to be art are the joy of viewing/experiencing a piece. These are the reasons why I hate the concept of NFTs and embrace AI picture generation. Art is in the eye of the beholder as Duchamp illustrated. Art is what you want it to be. All art is collage in one form or another. AI is just an automated way of creating collage. It's here to stay. I suggest you get over it and embrace it. Nobody will die from it. Lighten up folks.

Generated by Dall·E using: Is AI art and what really is art?

The art market “knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”

There’s been a fair bit of coverage recently in the press about digital art and non-fungible tokens. With NFTs digital alchemists have reinvented the south sea bubble. It truly is all artifice. 

The problem here is how artists see the 'art market' in general terms. The 'art market' and the whole cryptoart thing are no different to the Emperor's New Clothes. It's all made up bollocks that has nothing to do with art whatsoever. People need to understand that. 

For as long as I can remember I’ve despised the art market. I decided early on, when I first started to take my art seriously, that I didn’t want to make my living as an artist and that I didn’t want to get on to the treadmill that is the art market. 

As I’ve never sought to make a living from my art that puts me in a privileged position. One of being able to treat the art market with the disdain it deserves. I feel for those poor souls who struggle to make a living from their art. They often become slaves to an uncaring system. a system that sees money making and competition as virtues. I decided never to sell my soul to the devil. 

The value of art cannot be measured in monetary terms. The only values that art has is in the feelings that reside with the artist and the feelings of any beholder/s. No ‘expert’ can value art. There are no experts; art experts are charlatans. Art investors don’t give a shit about art. Their only interest is in making money. They worship a fool’s gold. The artwork is incidental. 

I’ve never wanted to sell my original works of art. In my earlier days I experimented with producing simple black and white pictures so that they could be photocopied. I’ve always liked the idea as art being ephemeral. Then when digital art came along I realised that it was what I had been waiting for all my life. I could create art without actually producing an original. The great thing about a digital file is that it can be copied over and over and each file is exactly the same. This really upsets the art market. They can’t cope with an art that they can’t exploit. Enter blockchain technology; it creates a unique non-copyable ‘thing’. That ‘thing’ is then sold as a provenance with a piece of digital art supposedly making the artwork ‘original’. Of course it’s not, as you can still create identical copies of the actual artwork, so it is very much a shame. But, hey ho, I’m not going to be able to stop it. So why does it bother me? 

What does it bother me?

Well it bothers me because it gives people a false impression about what art is. They think art is something elite, something they could never understand and so they never go there. They never explore. They never get to dip their toe in the rich, warm, stimulatingly efficacious waters of the arts. And that’s sad. That’s why!