Digital Art Collection

I sometimes wonder if there will ever be a market for digital arts. I am not talking about cool PhotoShop images, but real serious digital art that real art collectors will pay top dollars.

Let me confess - I do not collect paintings, sculptures or any other type of arts. But I know few people who does -- and what they tell me, it can be one of the most lucrative form of investment (albeit a lot risker than an index fund) and while you are waiting for your collection to grow in its value, it will look nice on that drawing room wall.

When I think about it, the value of art in ones mind (besides obvious intrinsic value of the human creativity and skills) can be a combination of -- (a) its commercial value, more if the artist is well known and the art is an original work with some significance. (b) Its aesthetic value, more so for private collectors and (c) bragging rights of owning something that is unique. The uniqueness of art will also directly impact its commercial value.

In digital art, i.e. computer generated art, where a real artist creates some type of art, be it a picture or a 360 degree virtual sculpture in Flash or even a complete virtual reality scene, can clearly have great deal of aesthetic value. After all, that comes more from artist's creativity, not from the medium of expression. But digital artifacts can be copied any number of times, taking away the uniqueness aspect -- thereby making the value to a minimal very quickly.

But what if we can solve that problem ? No, I am not taking about DRM or copy protection -- we all know that usually does not work. But what if, the location itself of the art in the cyberspace is certified, making that art only available to one owner. Then, conceivably the demand and supply rule will bring the price. The idea I am talking about it, collector's virtual homes -- which could be FaceBook or similar social networking sites, will pull in the digital art securely from the artist's certified published art gallery and display it on the collector's profile.

Think about it. Virtual walls of my virtual home[page] will be decorated by the digital painting from that budding new artist from Canada. Even if some one copies the image and puts it on their home page, everyone knows that is a copy, because mine is coming from the certified location. Better yet, all my friends are right there to see it !

A very early form of this type of digital art market is already evolving. Today several FaceBook applications allow you to purchase limited number of 'gifts' (which are small icons or pictures) for a friend -- which then will then be shown on your friends profile. But these are by no means 'collectibles' yet. For one, these are mostly simple images or photos. But once the marketplace is defined, young artist will surely pick up the new media of generating fascinating creativity that exists on canvas and oil.