Glossary
“Click to buy” services
Enable the online purchase of products (or services) with minimal or no interaction between provider and buyer.Copyright
The subjective and absolute right to the protection of intellectual property in material and conceptual terms. As an objective law, it comprises the standards of a legal system that govern the relationship between the creator of a work and her legal successor; it determines content, scope, transferability and the consequences of infringement.Digital
(From Latin digitus, ‘finger’) The term given to media based on computer technology and its underlying binary system. Digital media stands in contrast to analogue media.Digitalization
The treatment of analogue media with the aim of storing or processing it electronically. Marks a socially and culturally relevant transition towards electronic approaches based on information and communication technology.Mainstream
The view of a large majority. Seen as a contrast to elites, subcultures and underground movements.Net-Appeal
Wordplay on sex appeal. Denotes the attractiveness of an object or its on-screen depiction.Online
Generally refers to a state of active connection with a communication network, in particular the internet. When such a connection is inactive, the term offline applies.Online purchase
The internet-based buying process made in the context of online retailing (or e-commerce). Data transfer is used to establish an instantaneous business relationship between provider and purchaser.Offline
The state in which a device that possesses a communication interface is unable to send or receive data through this interface. In a broader sense it also includes forms of communication that take place without online technologies, or people who aren’t contactable via internet-based means of communication.Ranking
A list of numerous comparable objects ordered by an evaluation process. One-dimensional ranking facilitates comparison and selection.Social Media
Digital media and technologies that enable users to interact with each other and create content individually or as part of a community. The term social media is also used to describe a new attitude towards communication, one that concerns more than individual media channels.Virtual Reality
VR for short. The depiction and simultaneous perception of a reality and its physical properties in a computer-generated, interactive virtual environment.Index
The gallery’s authority on price setting will be constantly called into question.
More artists will become entrepreneurs, with gallery owner as their business partners.
Virtual reality will be able to simulate and potentially replace the live experiencing of art.
Considerable net appeal helps the short-term online marketing of art. In the long term, however, it needs a physical location to ensure success.
Digital channels will pave the way for a new mainstream art market, but not effectively democratize the current one.
Rankings will offer orientation to investors – and potentially mislead them.
Copyright violation will become a business model: some will use it to increase visibility, others to assert commercial interests.
More and more private collections will become publicly accessible – both online and offline.
Social media use will influence the sale of contemporary art more than traffic from “click to buy” platforms.
Talk of digitalization will be a thing of the past.
The gallery’s authority on price setting will be constantly called into question.
The gallery’s authority on price setting will be constantly called into question
“Only those who sell the emperor’s new clothes need to be scared of transparency: Who cares about costs when you offer the finest silk? People will reveal the price paid – either openly or subtly.” – Max Schreier, partnership content manager, Artsy
“There is no price setting authority in the internet age, even if people still act like there is. Global digital networks enable global research and reduce the role of the art gallery to that of a shop.” – Wolf Leiser, director, DAM Gallery
More artists become entrepreneurs – the gallery owners their business partners
More artists become entrepreneurs – the gallery owners their business partners.
“I believe in the attitude ‘cooperation takes priority’, and structure many financial aspects of my gallery work transparently – internally and sometimes externally. For example, we take part in an art fair – and guess who pays for it? The artist and I split the costs and workload between us. This way we both retain control and share responsibility for the outcome.”
– Kelani Nichole, TRANSFER NYC
Virtual reality will be able to simulate and potentially replace the live experiencing of art.
Virtual reality will be able to simulate and potentially replace the live experiencing of art.
“Virtual reality will soon be able to represent existing artworks very realistically. The spatial experience made possible through technologies like stereoscopy and tracking enables the viewer to walk round artworks and installations on a 1:1 scale. But the medium doesn’t just offer simulation: its greatest potential lies in creating spaces and experiences beyond the laws of physics. In this realm, there is an almost unlimited scope for artistic opportunities.” – Philip Hausmeier, CEO of Metaphysics and founder of the Virtual Reality Berlin meet-ups
“Today’s digital images produce a reality indistinguishable from the photographed one. Virtual reality will completely convey the visual-haptic quality of artworks. This applies to digital works and to those transferred from the physical world. The poor image will die out. There will be no difference between digital and physical aesthetics. Both will overlap in VR, which will be universally available online. The virtual space will be more important than the physical one. Things that do not exist there in high quality will hardly be valued.” – Tina Sauerländer, free curator and author, co-founder of Peer to Space
Considerable net appeal helps the short-term online marketing of art. In the long term, however, it needs a physical location to ensure success.
A high net appeal yields short-term results in the online marketing of art – but in the long term online sales, too will only be successful if there is a tangible place of desire.
“The same that applies to other producers and dealers has always applied gallerists and artists: multichannel. Personal contact is the best way to approach a purchaser, but in order to expand over a wider area you have to promote yourself accordingly – and the internet is ideal for this. A good website is a must; galleries without websites are only possible for as long as the demand for artworks is greater than the supply. But there will be a day when a desire for growth or increasing cost pressures require more extensive publicity work.” – Peter Niemann, Sammlung Haus N
“With an ever-increasing number of sources vying for attention, actors in the art market will have to manage various analogue and digital distribution channels. On top of this, new ‘live’ or VR formats offer an enormous potential for sharing experiences that are physically separated yet digitally unified. But can they replace direct encounters with art? When almost everything is digitally accessible, art fairs, exhibition openings, previews and ‘flash sales’ are needed in order to provide orientation and the incentive to buy.” – Katharina Bauckhage, founder, Artflash
Digital channels will pave the way for a new mainstream art market, but not effectively democratize the current one.
Digital channels will pave the way for a new mainstream art market, but not effectively democratize the current one.
“Digitalization will not lead to a democratization of the art market, but to its ‘basification’. Nowadays, everyone with a smartphone can be a publisher. What has become democratized is the capacity to promote artworks and artists. The ability to buy something at one of the larger art fairs, however, remains a reserve of the wealthy – actual democratization would mean a dramatic fall in prices. To know that something exists isn’t the same as being able to afford it.” – Marc Spiegler, director, Art Basel
Almost half (49%) of those surveyed stated that they had purchased art online in the last 12 months. In 41% of those surveyed, the amount invested in this way was under 1,400 euros.
Most online art purchases are currently in the lower price segment of the market: in the companies surveyed, around 44% of the works sold were under $1,000, and around 97% were under $50,000.
Source: Hiscox Online Art Trade Report 2016
Rankings will offer orientation to investors – and potentially mislead them.
Rankings will offer orientation to investors – and potentially mislead them.
“The art investor follows the art market like the stock market. Rankings can offer a certain amount of orientation, but they only index outcomes from the past and present – they are never able to look into the future. Rankings pose the greatest danger for those who purchase art with a view to gaining a return on investment. The fact that artists go in and out of fashion can’t be figured out by any ranking system.” – Euphemia von Kaler zu Lanzenheim, founder, curart online gallery
Copyright violation will become a business model: some will use it to increase visibility, others to assert commercial interests.
Copyright violation will become a business model: some will use it to increase visibility, others to assert commercial interests.
“The digital challenges the definition of ownership: How can you ‘own’ something when it can be freely copied and sent around the world within seconds? This makes it difficult to understand a digital file as something possessing value. Actually, the world has dreamed of this for a long time, always yearning for ‘the future’. Well, the future is already here: producers can now use an open register – a blockchain – to assert and verify intellectual property rights, transfer ownership and assign value to digital work.” – Masha McConaghy, co-founder of ascribe and BigchainDB.
“Copyright infringements are able to become business models in areas where the copy can replace the original – the recording industry could tell us all about it. It’s different in (analogue) art: the original is what counts. It is safe to assume that even in the digital art market, the original’s function as a communicator of attribution and exclusivity will still play a significant role. Blockchain and smart contracts will make the original intangible. The copy will remain – at least in a commercial sense – of little importance.” – Jakob Braeuer, art lawyer and partner, Bauschke Braeuer
More and more private collections will become publicly accessible – both online and offline.
More and more private collections will become publicly accessible – both online and offline.
“We are currently witnessing the growth of a new generation of collectors who want to share their collections and exchange views on art. But very few of them get the chance to display their works in museum-like settings. Platforms such as Independent Collectors offer the opportunity to ‘exhibit’ individual collections in a high-quality context, thereby helping artists – especially young ones – to reach a larger audience. It would be absurd if the newest art were otherwise only publicly accessible a few years or decades later – when the large institutions ‘rediscover’ it.” – Karoline Pfeiffer, director, Independent Collectors
In 2015, among dealers who sell art online: 52% sold to new customers, 19% sold to known buyers that the gallery owner or gallery is not personally acquainted with, and 29% sold to personally known buyers/collectors.
Source: TEFAF Art Market Report 2016
46% of art buyers prefer to buy offline, yet over half (54%) of those surveyed would be as inclined or prefer to buy art online.
Source: Hiscox Online Art Trade Report 2016
Social Media use will influence the sale of contemporary art more than traffic from “click and buy” platforms.
Social Media use will influence the sale of contemporary art more than traffic from “click and buy” platforms.
“Social media rules the world – so do we! For a new project space like the EIGEN + ART Lab, social media is a perfect tool for bringing our artists and projects to a wider audience in a modern, up-to-date way.” – Anne Schwanz, Johanna Neuschäffer, directors, EIGEN + ART Lab
Have you bought artworks from artists that you discovered on Instagram?
Have you bought specific artworks that you originally found on Instagram?
Source: survey of collectors on Instagram by Artsy 2015
Source: Hiscox Online Art Trade Report 2016
Talk of digitalization will be a thing of the past.
Talk of digitalization will be a thing of the past.
“The idea that digitalization is the solution we all crave is overestimated; it doesn’t reduce or simplify the work required. Ignoring the digital realm actually decreases the workload – but also customer numbers.” – Ivo Wessel, collector and software developer
“In five years, the digital will be so self-evident that people will no longer talk about ‘digitalization’. Do you hear anyone today speaking about ‘telephonization’?” – Christian Kaspar Schwarm, collector and founder of Independent Collectors
Beta-Manifest zur Zukunft des Kunstmarktes – Beta Manifesto for the Future Art Market
The Beta Manifesto for the Future Art Market was developed by the Association of German Galleries and Art Dealers (BVDG) and Independent Collectors. It consists of ten theses addressing current digital trends in the art market and offers a glimpse into the future, remaining forever unfinished in beta form.
What will the digital art market look like in the future? For the launch of the Beta Manifesto on 23 June 2016, we invited innovative thinkers to the Deichtorhallen Hamburg to discuss this question and exchange ideas on the ten proposed theses.
Photos from the event:
Photographer: Anna Ziegler (www.annaziegler.com)