Some days ago, in a conversation with some friends, someone said: “Art Galleries are the new Sex Clubs, Casinos or Banks of Second Life”. Of course who said that was not meaning Art Galleries were a scam or something, just that someway, there are a lot of Galleries, like one new every week. Not small galleries of people showing their own stuff or small shows, i mean “big” ones, or ones selling “exclusive” works for high prices (around 5000 L$ for a frame with an image).
All this made me think about some stuff, is right to sell my images for 5000 L$ losing part (or even all) my rights over them? or more that if it’s right, is what i want? should be “art” for sale? does a creation stop being “art” once you start selling copies and copies? This are tough questions. First, i’m not sure what i’m doing is “art” (that will need a complete definition of Art and that is not easy) at least every image i create… maybe just a few are but not all for sure, and second, i’m quite reluctant to lose rights over my creation (like the right of showing it publicly).
I presume is just i don’t understand “art” as a business, i don’t create images for selling them, just for me, to express myself, to enjoy creating them, to share with friends… Some of that “5000L$” galleries are asking for a 50% commission. Under my point of view that is crazy, a 50% for nothing? I may understand a 50% commission in RL due the difficulties of art distribution and the work that involves, but in Second Life, where anyone can build his own place to show his work possibly in a better place than a gallery (because the artworks will be in a context) 50% is way too much under my point of view. 50% of commission would mean the work of the artist is the same of the work of the Gallery owner, and that’s crazy under my point of view.
I had exhibitions on contracts or conditions i don’t want to have anymore sometimes, so i decided what will be my way to show my “art” inworld from now:
- Just will show my works in galleries were i can rez myself my frames, or using a frame provided by the gallery where i can add my texture. This way i won’t give full permissions textures to art galleries.
- I won’t sell my work anymore in exclusivity, because i want to keep my exclusive rights as creator.
In this moment i’m “resident artist” in Vain Inc. Gallery. I consider Nyla and Toko (gallery owners) good friends, i like and believe in their project for the gallery, something non commercial, where works are not for sale, where every artist have freedom but at the same time works as a collaborative space. I consider it the best gallery in Second Life for all that reasons. Vain Inc. is not the only gallery in SL with a “non-commercial” philosophy, there are some more around, mainly owned by people that has a business in SL and uses part of the earnings to maintain a gallery, just because they love creation or art. I prefer to keep working with this kind of galleries.
Raul, I have had the same debate. The rights issue is a huge sore point for me. In RL, the artist retains royalty rights on resale in California and in the EU. I hope that these laws protectinga rtists get passed everywhere.
I know several RL gallery owners, and the most commission charged is 30%.
I have only had one major show in SL. I sold original pictures, not shown on Flickr, with the agreement that the buyer would have the only copy, that it would never again be offered for sale, but that I would retain the right to show a copy of the work.
I debated on what to charge. I hate the idea of inviting all my friends to my show, then expecting them to shell out $20 to buy my pictures. At the same time, I have gone to their shows and often buy a $20 piece. My rationale is that, if I could meet my friends in RL, I would surely treat them to a drink or dinner once in awhile, so $20 really isn’t much, and it helps them cover the cost of buying costumes, furniture, paying tier, etc., so that they can continue to make pictures.
However, I’ve decided since that one show not to sell my work anymore. I just feel so uncomfortable asking people to buy the things I make. Of course, I would love to make a living off my art (or whatever you want to call it), but I am hoping that I can use the skills I’ve learned doing SL pictures to get a RL job or hope that someone likes it enough to buy a RL copy.
I see the copying as similar to producing posters or prints, as many RL artists do. There is always the theft problem, but having worked in a RL art museum, I see people violating the copyright ALL THE TIME by bringing RL master paintings into SL and selling them or displaying them on websites. It is as wrong to do that as it is to make a snapshot of my, or any sl artist’s pictures on Flickr or in SL. If you find your work reproduced, you have to assert your rights to it. The potential for theft should not cause people to say, oh, digital art is worthless and so you shouldn’t charge for it. If it were worthless, people wouldn’t steal it.
i have actually always sold my rl artwork in sl, half because when i was a noob it was the only thing i knew i could make money off of (even though it rarely sold) and half because i wanted to make sure some jerk didn’t decide to rip it all off of deviant art and sell it as their own work. i sell it for pretty cheap though… it’s not exclusive of course… i only did that once with an sl piece and to my disappointment no one wanted it heh.. so i’m probably not going to go that path again. since it was my first show, and the first time anyone had actually asked me to show anything, i didn’t think it though as much as i should i suppose. i was a tiny bit blinded by the “wow someone thinks i don’t suck” lol
i don’t think an artist should have their rights taken away from them completely on any piece they do. it just seems wrong to me… i’ve always felt that art is a piece of you. if i make these images, they mean something to me, they show something of me. i would worry that someone taking over full rights to an image i produced would use it in a way that would be contradictory to my thoughts and feelings that i placed in that piece. of course, i also feel the same as you do about the whole “art” thing… i don’t concider myself an artist… i’m not really sure what i would call myself.
not sure if any of this makes any sense i’ve hardly slept today!
*nodded a lot*
“Art” made in SL is a tricky thing to define. You’re right there.
I’m not the one to make up the propper definition of what is and what is not “art”, but I think I told you when I was in BCN (I think it was at the beach):
“my opinion is: I’m not an artist, because what I do is using the creativity of somebody else as base for personal creativity in PhotoShop. Imho, that’s “photographer” or “photoshopper” (or perhaps “photography photoshopper”), but not “artist”.”
That still is my opinion…
Makes sence?
As for the galleries:
Inside SL, people are always trying to find “easy money”, and yes, recently galleries are the new way to get “easy money”.
There are more and more people trying to find a space to show with lots of traffic, and people try to play on that wish, but the price the people who made the picture or sculpture have to pay is indeed (too) high in some places.
When it comes to selling, I still think a “limited number” of selling is the best way, like 10 copies… but at your own terms and conditions.
I’m not a member at Vain Inc (I think it would be nice to be, but personally I don’t know if I’m able to make something for every theme), but I like to visit it.
I think their philosophy is really good.
I also like the smaller and more personal art shows, but you knew that already ;o)
To me, the ideal formula is:
show at an open and fair gallery like Vain Inc., or doing a group show like we’ve done with Musa Artis, not sell anything while the show is running, but sell a limited number of the works at your own store when the exhibit has closed…
does this make me an utopist?
@ Nimil: I think many people like what you do, I know I do…
Thanks for sharing your points of view, some interesting opinions about the theme of this post. About selling the images directly, well, i’m not doing it right now, just did it lately for things like RFL, or for helping a friend with his gallery to may pay the tier.
Is not i’m agaist it, is just i’m not sure about selling illimited copies of an image, as Nimil says i consider them part of me, expressions of my mind.
About calling oneself an “Artist”, well, i don’t consider myself an artist, even i would like to be one some day. Anyway i think some people call themselves or the rest “Artist” too easily, and some other (specially some artist or people in art world) find hard to call others “artists” becuase they think what they make is better than other’s, i think both are wrong, first because art is still a concept to be defined correctly becuase is a dinamic concept, always changing.
I have a point of view from a gallery owner. I disagree that the galleries are the new SL sex shop and they are definately not a way to make easy money. I started my gallery in SL because I was overwhelmed by all the creativity I found there. I started a simple gallery on part of land I purchased for a house and that grew because so many artists approached me(both experienced RL artists and those brand new to creating anything of an artistic nature) who wanted a place to display/sell their art. I recently moved that simple building and created a new gallery on an open space sim.
There is no profit in having a gallery and selling art in SL, at least none that I have found especialy now that I’m paying nearly $100 USD per month for an open space sim. I have the enjoyment of being able to create myself, I refer to the sim/gallery development and recently have been experimenting with creating a few inworld pieces too. As far as making any money, the land where my previous gallery was is now rented and I’m covering my tier there. I don’t take rent money from any of the artists and only charge 25% commission whenever they do sell a piece. This amounts to 10 cents to 50 cents for each piece when it sells or 350 pieces of artwork selling per month on average just for me to make the tier. I can tell you that out of 27 artists currently maybe 10-15 pieces sell per week. I also paid to have a special script created that would allow selling a set number of pieces and then it destroys the vendor item. Currently all the artists at my gallery choose to sell multiples some are copies of their RL pieces and some are SL creations.
Anyone in SL looking to make money should be selling sex, weapons, skins or clothing and not running an art gallery.
Thanks, Zanyrob, for sharing your point of view.
Sorry if i wasn’t enough clear, but i was not trying to say ALL art galleries are a business, as you, i had one for a long time, just working with donations in my case. Most art galleries are owned by people who loves creativity and tries to give a space to share that creativity. I’m planning to have an art area in my sim too.
This post was more about personal experiences, the kind of galleries i was talking about is that ones that sale original works for around 5000L$. I’m nobody to criticize that, i’m just telling my mind, and i just don’t want to be part of that business due all that doubts exposed in the post itself.
Of course i prefer not to give names, but after some galleries started working under that system (high prices, original works, high commissions, even sale of “RL versions˝ of that SLworks, …) a lot of galleries were opened following the same business style. What i don’t like is that, that transformation of an artwork (understood as an expression of inner feelings of the creator) in a commercial object just available for people who has enough money, and specially becuase that “inner feelings” will become exclusive property of that people becuase selling the works means sell almost the full rights over them.