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Let's talk about art and artists! 

What is art? why have humans made art since the beginning of time? Does it have function in society? 

First the word itself, art comes from, Proto-Indo-European root “ar”, that means “to fit together”. So artists essentially means people “whom can make things fit together”. 

Just as there is no perfect way of doing things, but there is an infinite  amount of different ways of doing things, the best way to do anything depends only on the circumstances. There is no single answer to these questions, but these are the ideas we are concerned with at OOO Studio Lab. We posed the question, "What is Art" and got these answers:

 

ARTIST

IDK... [long pause, deep breath] "Art is to communicate".

 

But what are you communicating? Art is to transmit the ideas of humanity to humanity itself, as a reflection. There is no better way to know the history of a society than seeing the evolution of its art. 

From a deeper point of view, it is the artists who carry and enrich the honor and glory of a society. In addition, the artist injects life to the culture, renewing it, because without that life the culture becomes more and more reactive and begins to decay, as it happened in Rome today.

How does one make a business out of art? 

 

ENGINEER

 When I was a kid and made a drawing for my mom, she loved it because it really communicated a felling through that piece of paper.  She keep it and then put it in a frame. It’s the perfect example of and art action. I was being an artist at that moment because I communicated somethings that triggered an emotional response to my audience. When someone can effectively cause an emotional response to a bigger group, other than just a mom, then that person became an artist. The more people you reach, the better an artist is. Some artists don't do that in their own lifetimes.

How does the art world work nowadays? 

Short answer: as a business 

Long answer: In the Russian revolution and than with the industrial revolution, art had a strong inflection point. It became a consumer good, moved by trends or fashion. Its original purpose (if it had one) became more and more distant from the current one. 

The business model is as follows 

Artists, like everyone else need money to survive in society, so they must produce and sell their works, through three mechanisms; scholarship, sale, commission. 

 Donation 

Different public or private institutions decide to support the artists through scholarships. This seems like a noble idea, but in practice the only artists who receive scholarships are those who align themselves with the worldview and agenda of the institutions, CENTRALIZING the artistic vision.  

Commission 

Different public or private institutions, decide to commission a specific work to an artist to represent some idea or vision of the people behind these institutions, CENTRALIZING the artistic vision.  

Sale by Gallery or Auction house 

This is the most influential mode of sale. These institutions curate collections, which are then shown in circles of influential clients, to sell for high prices. It doesn't sound bad, but what is curation? Curation is a fancy word for choosing what the curator likes. In other words, each collection must be to the taste of a specific art specialist, who usually chooses works that are in line with his or her values, ideas and in general his or her own worldview. CENTRALIZING the artistic vision.  

Free sale  

An artist by his own means promotes and sells his work in his own circles in a free way, DECENTRALIZING the artistic vision, it is the least common form of sale. 

In this ecosystem strong fashions or trends are generated, with a cascade mechanism where the most expensive works set trends for the following ones. The only ones with enough momentum to change the trends within the ecosystem are those who have access to the most prestigious galleries. Galleries makes a new collection that aligns with the new values that the client perpetuates the cycle and unifying the message that art delivers according to the desires of a central elite. 

The problem  

How do you decentralize the artistic ecosystem and unleash the creative potential of artists in our society, so that art can once again be a social innovator and not a vehicle for propaganda?

As explained, centralization exists in the sales channels and directionalization exists of free creative impulse.  

Define constraints  

• Allow free artistic vision  
• Do NOT want to depend on experts to evaluate an artist's work. 
• We want to have full traceability of the possession of the works to avoid fraud. 

Key insights  

One possibility of decentralization is to remove intermediaries from the chain, allowing the artist to promote their work freely and offer it directly to the public. This is already happening with digital art, how can we integrate those who use more classical, non-digital media? 

NFTs are a way to generate traceability, immovable on a blockchain, but it is not necessary to put the art inside, nor does it have to be digital. We can use NFTs as certificates of ownership over real work. 

Minimum viable product

Create a format for art ownership certificates to be stored as NFTs. The certificate will contain the following information. 

Digital double of the artwork (it can be just a photo); Title of the artwork; Dimensions; Medium; Year of execution: Place of execution; Catalog Number; Description; Provenance; Signature and name of the artist. 

Maximum Inviable Idea 

Every artist can gather their own community and show them their artistic vision, in a broad range of demographics, price ranges, quality and expertise. All of them can follow the provenance of each artwork.