Monday
Nov102008
What is the Value of Contemporary Art?
Monday, November 10, 2008 at 8:26PM
VANSA asked me to submit a comment in response to the question "What is Contemporary Art in South Africa worth?" for their newsletter. Not having the foggiest idea of how to even begin answering this, the first thing I did was ask my Twitter network, and Uno De Waal shot right back with the answer: "Your 2c". I loved that. But my response needed to be 300 words, so I came up with this longer version. I'm not very art savvy, though I'm getting into it, so I'd like to know what you think:
Our society is increasingly distracted and our attention is fragmented. Everything is information - from the colours of cars, the adverts all around us, shows on television, and the textbooks we never read. If Attention is the Amount of Information we can process in a moment, then Contemporary Art is an incredibly efficient way for us to invest our Attention. This idea of an Economy of Attention helps explain the value of Contemporary Art for me.
The basic idea with Attention Economics is that Information consumes Attention. It might sound inconsequential until you consider the overwhelming amount of information we're exposed to every day.
As consumers of Information, we have to make choices about where to invest the relatively scarce Attention that we have. Our choices are generally informed by where we think we'll get the most reward for our investment of our Attention - where we'll get the most information, experience, or insight for our time. Those who are able to attract us can create value simply by lending their Reputation to anything we can engage with.
You can see this in effect with artists, like Damien Hirst, who are able to make a decent living off the Attention they get for their creations. The value is not in the objects they create, but the Attention and Reputation they are vested with. In Hirst's case at least, Reputation is as good as the Philospher's Stone. As P.T. Barnum, one of the world's first show-biz millionaires, once said: "No publicity is bad publicity".
Since I'm a Marketer, and Marketer's love lists with P's, I use Biddington's 3 P's to assess the enduring value of contemporary art: Past, Present, and Personal .
For me, the value of great Contemporary Art is its ability to invest a creation with the experiences, insights, and reputation and information, not only of the artist, but of everyone who participates in the work - whether by creating, viewing, critiquing or buying it. The more we discuss it, the more Attention we give it, the more valuable it becomes.
Our society is increasingly distracted and our attention is fragmented. Everything is information - from the colours of cars, the adverts all around us, shows on television, and the textbooks we never read. If Attention is the Amount of Information we can process in a moment, then Contemporary Art is an incredibly efficient way for us to invest our Attention. This idea of an Economy of Attention helps explain the value of Contemporary Art for me.The basic idea with Attention Economics is that Information consumes Attention. It might sound inconsequential until you consider the overwhelming amount of information we're exposed to every day.
As consumers of Information, we have to make choices about where to invest the relatively scarce Attention that we have. Our choices are generally informed by where we think we'll get the most reward for our investment of our Attention - where we'll get the most information, experience, or insight for our time. Those who are able to attract us can create value simply by lending their Reputation to anything we can engage with.
You can see this in effect with artists, like Damien Hirst, who are able to make a decent living off the Attention they get for their creations. The value is not in the objects they create, but the Attention and Reputation they are vested with. In Hirst's case at least, Reputation is as good as the Philospher's Stone. As P.T. Barnum, one of the world's first show-biz millionaires, once said: "No publicity is bad publicity".
Since I'm a Marketer, and Marketer's love lists with P's, I use Biddington's 3 P's to assess the enduring value of contemporary art: Past, Present, and Personal .
For me, the value of great Contemporary Art is its ability to invest a creation with the experiences, insights, and reputation and information, not only of the artist, but of everyone who participates in the work - whether by creating, viewing, critiquing or buying it. The more we discuss it, the more Attention we give it, the more valuable it becomes.
Reader Comments (25)
Respectfully, I must disagree. "Modern" art is largely devoid of value (the social impacts you mention notwithstanding). There is a lack of Quality. Ironically, the more empty the meaning, the greater will be the purse required to obtain the work. Abstraction, I think, is what they call it. One strips away the identifying features of a subject until the concept is so generic as to mean anything to anyone. This is how an artist grows a market for their work.
At the turn of the previous century, when photography challenged the portraiture income of artists, they (artists) were under pressure to reinvent themselves in a way that would continue to be relevant. Since the quality of work of the average artist is below what a camera produces (as an image to be viewed by non-artists), the work naturally tended towards abstraction and the vulgarity of shape, line and colour experiments displayed in open view. Unfortunately, the public has lost out because the work of a master is *better* than what a camera can produce, but alas, we have largely lost those skills except for a handful of ateliers in the US and Europe.
If a janitor working in a gallery cannot distinguish between the art and the furniture, then, I'm afraid, it is not art, regardless of however clever the language surrounding it may be.
That's my 2c :)
Thanks for your comment Caleb. I think that on a functional level what you say makes sense, but I see the value of art as Social Currency... Status objects, for example.
While I concede that all views are subjectively equal, it is very difficult for me personally to understand yours because I am a function-over-form motorcycle maintainer.
Fair enough:) I'm an Apple user and I tend to put Form ahead of Function. Thanks for bringing up the alt.perspective.
Dave, I haven't visited your blog for a few weeks, so thought I'd pop in and see what you've been writing. Some incredible postings - can see your thought process's have not slowed down over the last few months.
More importantly, i'm keen for Squash! call me
What about and interactive exploration of the community based Land Art Project in South Africa?
Part of a 10 hectare large estate with mazes and botanical gardens in Robertson in the Western Cape. Not designated for mass tourism but for a very personal experience.
I've heard about that, but didn't know what it was all about. Sounds great Donkerbok... Will definitely look into that more!
Thank you for your help!
Gr8 blog! Ill definitely be coming back
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