Jun
27
2007
Will virtual worlds contribute to democratize art?
Posted by: Fidji SIMO in Art, Innovation, Internet/Technology
I have just made a review on Tech IT Easy of the different types of artistic expressions (creation or presentation) that can be found on Second Life and virtual worlds in general.
To sum up:
- some artists or galleries just reproduce their exhibition on SL
- some other artists use SL to sell online some of their offline pieces of art thanks to scanning
- some artists use SL as a creative place in itself.
Of course my article details all these types and gives examples, in order to answer a big question: in what measure these initiatives will contribute to dynamize and democratize art?
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I will be malicious, but for the great majority of people which virtually live instead of live really, so to visit the Louvre virtually is something of ridiculous but which is appropriate to them. And especially if they are enough stupid to buy virtual objects, why a real creator would deprive himself to sell his paints for example?
In addition, I admit that a made creation of lines and lines of codes can give something of interesting to the final one. But it is easy to say that it is contemporary art, if virtual it is. One day, I made a clip of a song with Sims. But never I will say I am an artist.
To conclude, I think SL is a good means of making known itself, but it is like Myspace. Only the people who are known or who do that with intelligence will be able to leave the mass. Yesterday I had a date at Myspace France, but I have this chance because my band is important, that is all.
I am so happy to see that someone has understood what is the real issue with this topic: you are right, there is a real debate around wether it is art or not, and I think it is the most difficult question to answer. You have probably seen that I will make a thesis on art democratization, and I will have to define what a piece of art is, and I am sure that these virtual worlds and Internet in general will probably make definitions evolve. But at the end it will always be a matter of personnal perception: some people value these creation as pieces of art, some others just can’t. I will definitely write more about how to define art in this scope.
Concerning the necessity of being already known to generate buzz, there is a difference between Myspace and SL: Myspace is already a crowded place, and only good bands can emerge, but SL has recently been so scrutinized that any new initiative (such as the ones I have quoted, which are not amazing in themselves but just worth speaking about because they are new) receive a lot of buzz. And this time will of course end soon, as a lot of artists are appearing in SL and the natural selection will work, as always.