Pau Waelder

Research

Contemporary digital art. Conservation, dissemination and market access

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On the occasion of its 15th anniversary, Montréal-based cultural producer Molior organizes an international colloquium titled Contemporary digital art. Conservation, dissemination and market access, which brings together researchers, curators, artists and entrepreneurs in three sessions (November 23-25) in which the main issues regarding the current situation of new media art in the contemporary art world.

I have been invited by the editorial board to present a keynote on the subject of the contemporary art market and new media art. The keynote opens a session that includes a round table with the participation of Wolf Lieser, owner of DAM Gallery (Berlin), Rory Blain, director of Sedition (London), Dominique Moulon, curator and researcher (Paris) and Jean Dubois, Professor at UQAM | École des arts visuels et médiatiques.

On the occasion of this conference, I have written the article “New Media in the Art Market. Access, Ownership and Artificial Scarcity”, which has been published on the website of the Daniel Langlois Foundation.

Below is the abstract of my talk and the video of the whole session.

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New media in the art market: access, ownership and artificial scarcity

The growing influence of new media in the contemporary art market is leading to new forms of selling and collecting art, as well as a renewed presence of digital art in commercial galleries and art fairs. In addition to this, several startups are exploring different ways of collecting art in a digital format, either as digital editions, downloadable files, or as content in a digital art frame. In these new forms of acquiring and experiencing art, ownership is replaced by access and infinitely reproducible files are subject to artificial scarcity. By examining the evolution of the market over the last six years, the current interactions between the contemporary art market and new media will be outlined.

https://youtu.be/9jaWUEevGxA