Syndicate: ann! ... net.art sold, Maribor/SI

[Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck@v2.nl>]

Date:  Fri, 14 May 1999 05:20:58 PDT
From: "teo spiller" <tspiller@hotmail.com>
To: Multiple recipients of <announcer@simsim.rug.ac.be>
Subject:  ann! ...  net.art sold

Maribor, Slovenia
12 noon, Wednesday, May 12,1999
5th International Festival of Computer Arts

Live Panel concluding the online forum to discuss the sale of net.art
(http://www.teo-spiller.org/forum/)

Participents: Teo Spiller, Brian Goldfarb, Alexander Bassin (director of the
Ljubljana Municipal Gallery, and the Buyer
of the net.art project "megatronix"), Jaka Zeleznikar

The panel began with Spiller providing a summary of the one month online
discussion of net.art commerce and negotations over the sale of Spiller's
recent online artwork "Megatronix" http://www.teo-spiller.org/megatronix/ .
Spiller announced that a deal had been struck and that the general terms for
a contract of sale were finalized within the final 24 hours before the close
of the forum. The work will be purchased by the Ljubljana Municipal Gallery
for 85,000 SIT (approximately US $500). The work will be maintained on the
artist's server until the Gallery secures its own domain name and server.
Spiller has agreed to add a
small banner to the opening page of the project aqnnouncing that the project
is now owned by the Ljubliana Municipal Gallery. The artist has committed to
updating the site as necessary in collaboration with the Gallery's technical
support personnel. The Gallery and Artist have agreed to split any future
proceeds from reproduction and distribution of the work. The Gallery may put
banner ads on the introductory screen of "Megatronix" but may not alter the
piece in any other way.
Significanly, the Gallery must maintain the presence of the project on the
Web. However, they may restrict access to it if this is part of a revenue
raising  strategy that they are applying to the rest of their art collection
(ie, similar to a museum entrance admission).

Among the terms of the contract which are still unclear is whether the
artist is entitled to a percentage of any advertising revenue gained from
banner ads or other promotional use of the artwork. Also it is still to be
determined who will be responsible for updating the work should, for
example, it become incompatible with future browsers or internet protocol.

Spiller suggests that this will most likely be something that he would
undertake for a fee negotiated under an additional contract.

The negotiations over the sale of megtronix raised a number of critical
issues concerning the changing role of artists, curators, galleries,
museums, and other art world constituencies in a digital age. Many artists
are concerned that traditional collecting and exhibiting institutions take
up a role in preserving art works which may not actually be presented within
the white walls of their galleries. If museums and galleries don't begin
collecting and preserving these works now, it may be difficult to access
these "early" net.artworks later as platforms and software formats change
multiple generations.

It was agreed that net.art is shifting the audiences for art and will likely
affect the economics of artistic production and exhibition. Equally we will
see a shift in the constituancies who see it as in their interest to
support, promote and preserve net.art. Bassin discussed the varying
motivations of commercial and noncommercial collecting institutions and
individual patrons of the arts. While he noted that collectors are clearly
aware of the growing importance of this art they have yet to determine which
avenue provides the best means for their participation.

Spiller, Goldfarb and other forum participants suggest that in the next few
years we will see art on the Internet beginning to conform to two general
approaches. On the one hand there will be a proliferation of works which are
platform independent that can be acessed and downloaded from the net, but
which are essentially removable from it (much like CD-ROMs and DVD). These
works will be supported though the global entertainment industry's
commitment to development of multimedia standards and methods of
distribution and exchange. On the other hand, we will see more specialized
genre of work that builds upon the communicative aspects of the net. These
latter works will be more difficult to collect or preserve as they are tied
to the specific, and rapidly evolving context of digital networks.  They
will most likely be supported through other means than sale. Goldfarb
suggests that they might be supported through the works ability to deliver
specific constituencies through affiliation with a commercial or corperate
patron--much like the model of radio or television programming being
supported through advertising revenue.

With this last point in mind Spiller and Goldfarb have determined to extend
the current  project by announcing a competition for a banner.net.art
project. The award for the winner will be presented in Ljubljana in the
first days of the coming Millenium. Entry and submission details will be
forthcoming on www.teo-spiller.org and will be posted broadly to appropriate
net.art forums and discussion groups.

Teo Spiller and Brian Goldfarb

(more about selling net.art in New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/reference/indexartsatlarge.html )




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