Collectors’ Mindsets Move from the Physical to Digital;change from art world to art experience

As Neon Mob illustrates, it's the digital age, and that means art galleries and collectors are seeing a reshaping of the art world
Anna Johansson

13 august 2015
Arts & Culture

Most art galleries you visit today will feature mostly (if not all) physical paintings, sculptures, and other artwork. Any artwork portrayed on a screen would be considered a little too different for the traditional museum. However, more and more prominent art galleries are sharing digitally-created art, and thanks to websites such as Neon Mob that make the creating and selling of digital art easier than ever, we are seeing a general shift from physical art to digital in galleries and museums around the country.

Digital Art’s Impact Today

Today, more than 2 billion people are on the Internet, and many of that number spend four hours or more per day online. With that in mind, it’s important to recognize the powerful effect that the digital world has on our culture, particularly where art is concerned. It dulls some senses, but heightens others, particularly sight and sound.

One of the biggest pushes today for recognizing digital art as a celebrated art form comes from Jonathan Openshaw’s new book Postdigital Artisans. The book explores the effects of digital art and how it can fit in with traditional works.

“The virtual is no less real than the ‘real’ and the physical cannot be disentangled from the digital,” Openshaw explains in the pages. “More importantly, the mindset and aesthetics that came with digital technology are reshaping the material world around this.”

Essentially, Openshaw is not so much calling for a complete turn toward digital art as a better relationship between the two. He believes that a digital/physical relationship between the two art mediums will help to reshape the art world around us and produce a general shift in the traditional art collector’s mindset.

The Shift Toward Digital

Thanks to this eye-opening piece of literature as well as some other strong opinions on the matter, more and more collectors are beginning to move their mindsets to the digital world. More artists are also embracing the change.

For example, Steve Bloom has been working to produce the type of relationship between digital and physical that Openshaw spoke of. He pairs his unique talents in ancient printmaking with some contemporary digital processes to deliver his internationally renowned imagery.

In fact, his art is so renowned that he is one of the few artists that showcases his work that uses digital processes.

“A true pioneer of the digital art movement, Steve is one of the few to have his digital creations hanging in galleries,” reports a biography written by Park West Gallery.

Other popular artists who have been so fortunate to share their artwork in galleries include Maiko Takeda, Daniel Arsham, and Joan van der Wiel.

Neon Mob Plays a Factor

neonmob

However, in the future, it won’t only be celebrated artists like those mentioned above who have their digital art hung in prominent art collectors’ libraries. One new website called Neon Mob is making sure that art collectors of every caliber have the opportunity to not only create, but become compensated for the their art.

Neon Mob is a digital collectible’s platform that helps connect artists and art enthusiasts. Artists have the opportunity to publish series of digital illustrations that can be bought, sold, traded, shared, and displayed in every corner of the web.

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The interface of the website is really quite simple, and if you get confused at any point, there are simple instructions to follow. Basically, artists make the artwork on their computer, and then upload it into the system to begin selling and promoting it.

Each piece uploaded to the website is assigned a rarity and print distribution rating. These symbols are a copyright of sorts to help the artist keep track of their work.

Once the illustrations are made, it’s time to write a story, or at the very least, write a description and title of the work. In this field, a simple explanation of the piece probably isn’t enough. You’ll want to engross your audience with a story.

After the artist has put the final touches on your artwork and the story that accompanies it, they can publish and promote it. There are avid fans of Neon Mob already who will take a look at new pieces, but artists are encouraged to share their work through social media.

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The harder they work to promote their art, the faster artists get paid. Currently, the artist can keep up to 70 percent of their sales, depending on the package and their deal with Neon Mob.

This particular website is exactly what budding digital artists need to get their foot in the door and make a living off of this new art form. Though many collectors are still struggling with the idea of shifting their mindsets to the digital age, more and more are beginning to embrace the new concept and are looking to see stronger digital/physical relationships in the future.

Neon Mob
---------------------http://www.ncl.ac.uk/solecentral/