Who are the Stakeholders of Digital Domains?
A few weeks ago, Snapchat unveiled a new and artsy high-tech experiment that allows for 3D art installations. Using the Snapchat app, users can peer through their smart phones and explore a digital landscape superimposed atop a physical one. A collaboration with Jeff Koons reveals a giant AR sculpture in Central Park, New York City. His signature balloon inflatable creatures are scattered across major public spaces all over the world. (Of course, all are invisible without the use of the app.)
Shortly after it's release... the project was met with the usual blend of excitement and anxiety. (I admittedly span those spectrums.) @natureofbeing and I have had a discussion about this on Steemit. Part of her response post outlined a thoughtful way of empowering artists through royalties (literally, and not just taking their work). We discussed how Snapchat should approach this project as a way to support artists and ultimately pay them.
Public Art should be "Fair Game"
A question that persists, who owns public art?
Snapchat flirts with a blurry boundary here. Most people assume that any social media site is inherently public. But the reality is that Snapchat (along with just about every social media site) is a multi-billion dollar company with shareholders and board members in mind. The investors who owns shares of Snapchat also - now - own a portion of this AR public art experiment. In my mind, artists that surrender their work to Snapchat are consequently surrendering their sweat equity to bolster the value of the company while also building an AR environment that is not public.
While I believe that this project is a productive step for art embracing the digital world, it promotes a backwards ideology of ownership that hurts artists. Other creatives seem to agree...
Hacking the Digital Realm
One artist in particular, didn't like what he was seeing. Sebastian Errazuriz remodeled Koons' sculpture and added on a layer of graffiti. While is actions were purely ceremonial (he did not literally hack Snapchat) there are some exciting implications here regarding ownership, access and equity. Here's what he had to say...
“For a company to have the freedom to GPS tag whatever they want is an enormous luxury that we should not be giving out for free,” Mr. Errazuriz said. “The virtual public space belongs to us, we should charge them rent.”
Will Graffiti Artists become Hackers in the 21st Century?
Art is poised to take a high tech turn. This includes (and will likely begin with) the risk takers and pulse keepers. I'm curious to see if "street artists" with a tap on culture (like Banksy, Shepard Fairey etc.) could pioneer this hacking of the AR / VR landscape.
What if you could host a public art hackathon? What do you think Steemit? Could blockchain play a role in decentralizing this hierarchical industry? Who does this giant inflatable dog belong to?
“The virtual public space belongs to us, we should charge them rent.” Yes! But most especially the "belongs to us" part. Before we jump to commodity, we should better understand the possibilities and implications and the very real creative and cultural value. Do we rent public space? What is gained versus what is lost when we do?
As a start... Snapchat should be contributing advertising revenue earned through this initiative towards the public parks and amenities that host artwork. Communities should be earning (and renting) through this digital lens. Why not partner with the Central Park Conservancy and use proceeds to pay for IRL (in real life) public art initiatives?
This could be a fascinating means for digital environments to impact physical ones.
Firstly, I just love that this conversation is continuing because this particular app raises such sticky issues. IMO you've hit the nail on the head here in demonstrating that Snapchat is simply using technology and creative equity for their own profits without really contributing anything to help support and regenerate this creative energy their profits depend on. This seems to be usual story and I like so much that @sndbox is dedicated to specifically challenging and creating alternatives to this paradigm.
And such a great idea to contribute towards public parks and IRL public art initiatives.....perfect.
I agree that an asset is being created in this instance. And that it should be shared. What worries me, though, isn't so much what happens when an artist works in the digital space carved out by a corporation. There are almost certainly commercial forces already planning to extend their media footprint that way. As a start, how about devoting digital public space to public good?
Right, definitely. The Koons sculpture in Central Park is worse than a one-liner. It has ZERO context. It's transient just as Snapchat is. (Which makes it a nice pairing.) < and maybe that's the point?
Anyway, we live in super-connected world. Why can't this digital public space experiment snowball into real and legitimate community empowerment? The tools and the audience are there.
OK, then, how about a competition to propose uses/projects that would explore the best possibilities? The rules of such a competition would sketch out rich areas for creatives to work in. Good results should put the Koons/Snapchat example in perspective as hardly an ideal example.
Well... think of a Steemit post as a competition... A lot of what STEEM Park sought to do is just this. There was a park in Brooklyn that needed amenities and momentum. @sndbox proposed using Steemit as a platform to share the narrative of the park and leverage storytelling / history to raise funds. Those funds then paid for planters and benches for the park. Today, the conservancy in Brooklyn is leveraging that project to continue to raise funds for signage.
We wanted a proof of concept that "stories" could be agents to manifest public art and build momentum for a community. Time will tell, but there's a lot of momentum building and change happening.
(Steemit blog posts are a lot like competitions, because they compete for Steem.)
amen
I agree we shouldn't be so hasty assess the situation. The importance of time and real understanding of the problems at hand is crucial regardless of our capitalist technocracy tending to discourage action without immediate effect. Zeynep Tufecki has really good talk on the importance of time in enacting social change (https://www.ted.com/talks/zeynep_tufekci_how_the_internet_has_made_social_change_easy_to_organize_hard_to_win). Her other TED talks are fantastic too (I''m a bit of a TED talk skeptic but these are good ;D)
Wow, it's interesting. I've known AR only due to Pokemon Go. I didn't know or realize that AR could be integrated in art.
Thanks Bree! Pokemon Go has been a really interesting way of integrating AR. You could imagine art doing something similar... like a pop-up AR art gallery that only exists for a few hours. Or a treasure hunt for artwork that you could collect just like Pokemon. Neat stuff!
In this instance the art has wound up completely ambiguous in intent due to its commodification. It's a completely different work to me with snapchat's involvement.
Hopefully with the help of platforms like steemit we can see more art free of the weight of the pressure to commercialise. Where passion can remain palpable and retain its value in art.
Absolutely, "weight" and "pressure" are huge inhibitors for artists. Steemit is loosening that stranglehold on creatives. We're approaching a totally new time for art. The pressure on the final product to sell will be less vital than the story needed for it to arrive.
Stunning post from you
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
art is my favourate hobby.
sometime it gives me huge refreshment.
Art can be a nice way to refresh... I'm curious about how art as a hobby will change as people begin to casually paint and draw (and model) digitally.
thanks
I have a nebulous sense that the solution for artists is to embrace and promote the steem blockchain. The sheer size of humanity means that a seemingly meaningless upvote, when multiplied by millions, could be the answer. These are interesting times.
this is getting interesting with digital
I am a steem developer, please reach out if you need any kind of support
I see that you are new here on steemit. Please don't spam with misinformation. (You are not a steem dev). Keep comments on topic.
nice
pls my post comment @anisullah
nice
@rifatkhan
do
@suvobose
Pretty cool Koons hack right there.