Concealment. Certainly, as a child, I really enjoyed the thrill of opening football stickers and seeing what I had. The nature of trading for what I still needed was also a pleasure. And the thrill didn’t stop there for me. I soon passed into the land of Magic the Gathering cards, which was a whole new level of excitement with its rares, uncommons, and commons.
So it is with this in mind that I look at the art world and think perhaps it is missing a trick. Should artists, instead of freely supplying the internet with their hard-gained work, all for a few likes, instead be looking to produce physical, concealed packs of art for people’s enjoyment? Would this not, in fact, be a fun endeavor? There is certainly enough of us to fulfill everyone’s collection needs.
What medium would suit such a project? Well, the humble postcard certainly seems to be well suited to collection on mass. Cheap enough to be accessible to all, and also small enough for storage. There are already collectors, certainly of vintage cards , and, of course, if this was done on masse, then a contemporary market would also develop. There is already the growing trend of a form of snail mail, PostCrossing, where people agree to send postcards to each other, and collections and collectors are already forming.
Should we, then, leave the digital world completely alone? That seems quite drastic, at least at this stage. Perhaps instead we could open up both spaces at once. For instance, what about interactive postcards? They might come with a QR code to unlock hidden content. A video blog post on how the picture was captured; a link to an interesting news source; artist offers – I’m sure others could think of more interesting ideas.
However, I would add a proviso: never, ever, upload that image to the internet, unless it’s a print house. Your images are currently filling the pockets of a very small number of people. Why do that for the hollowness of some “likes” on social media? Why supply the AI algorithm with all of your images?
Remember, #NoMoreFreeArt
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