Art in Second Life

Until some time in 2006 it was not possible to make an object no-copy no-transfer. The original intent was that EVERYTHING in SL would either be like licensed works - copyable but not transferrable - or like physical objects - transferrable but not copyable - or both. If you had a no-transfer object with no-copy components, or vice versa, you could always remove the components even if the object was no-mod. This might *break* the object, but you had the right to do that, to retain the right of first sale. This was changed, and the reason was never explained, but it seems to have been done to allow for some kind of non-transferrable gambling token.

OK, your post made it sound as if this was the current situation, and thus misleading.

It's still not *supposed* to be possible. You can't set an object no-copy no-transfer in the edit box, you have to use a hack. The fact that this hack works is a problem. I have had to throw away otherwise perfectly good products since then because it wasn't possible for me to (for example) pull animations out of a no-mod object with broken scripts and stick them in a separate attachment. It's yet another reason why I am extremely reluctant to buy no-mod *anything*, even for L$0, and I won't buy no-copy no-transfer (which is also obviously no-mod) period.

Personally.....the Art community in SL has completely changed my focus. I love visiting galleries....I'll look at anything....SL produced or RL. I think the exposure for artists (and musicians alike) is incredible.

I don't buy art only because I have created a gallery of my mom's paintings, so I have become one of those on the other side of the community....displaying Art and also hoping to help a worthy cause. MS. (my mom had progressive MS and painted until she absolutely could not) So....this is a subject close to home on so many levels. I think, honestly.....if I were to be looking to purchse Art in SL....I would be looking for RL art represented in SL so that I could potentially purchase pieces from the RL artist, via an SL showing.

I buy a lot of art, too. I also will spend thousands of lindens, or whatever, for a 'must have'. It rarely is 'that' expensive, but, I would if I wanted it. Mostly I spend from $L500-$L1,000 for a piece. I bought a beautiful, simple painting just the other day, done by Milla Alexandre's mom, called 'Iris'. It was not expensive, but is one of the most beautiful pieces I own now, probably BECAUSE of it's simplicity.

My favorite SL artist are Ronin1 Shippe (who I am hosting now with a huge exhibit at my gallery on Cape Able, and also Hope McAlpine.

I favor minimalist art, zen, primary colors, and am not one for 'old masters', they make me sleepy.

Over the two years my art has been in SL, my pieces have fluctuated in price. I had some helpful people at the very beginning. One sold his art at 1000L and told me to set my price low and move up over time. I set it some number I do not recall now, but know it is more than what I charge now. For a long time I've put all my art at 250L and left it at that number.

On a side note, I still miss interacting with the art community, like I did long ago; when I had art up at that Twin Towers art gallery and there were art shows.

Ok, that made me cry. LOL I love her Iris paintings too....it was her fave flower and she actually did many iris paintings over the years. (((hugs))) Thanks Treasure, that was such a wonderful thing to read.

I've bought quite a bit of erotic art for my house & really enjoy it. I prefer the photorealistic art that's framed & can be resized. My favorite place to go is Submissive Studios but I do go to other places & roam around looking for more art to add to my collection.

I used to, and still do have a lot of erotic art but it's in my inventory now, I seem to get tired of it after awhile, and 'change themes'. Nothing in my houses is erotic right now except of course for the 2 huge portraits of me,me, me, lol

i have a lot of original native American modern art that i just had to buy..
if i lost them i would re-buy them..
as much time as i spend in my home in the sky building it's worth having something on the walls that i love to look at..

One of my favorite things about SL. It is amazing how much talent is out there.



I buy lots of art. I collect art from SL resident artists. I used to display it in my castle in Kuula, but I'm looking for a new home for the collection now.



Limited Editions and Uniques are problematic in SL until an artist has a grid-wide reputation. I can only think of a few people who could pull it off.



Everything but prim-based sculpture (too many prims).

If you are doing Limited Editions, you are appealing--in part--to the collectibles market. "No Transfer" kills that part of your market. In addition, most SL consumers are very hesitant to buy "No Copy/No Transfer" items.

I've done okay selling public domain (i.e., out of copyright) art and maps in SL. However, I charge a very minimal price (40L$) for them.

Talking about art, what's the "perfect" size for the picture being imported? Resolution size? There is a detailed really long thread I waded through a long time ago, but it flew over my head.

Perfect as in rezzes relatively fast and still gives enough detail for the artwork itself.

1: pointless (anyone can copy and upload a texture into SL and create "art"
2: Nope
3:Erm none of them as I do not buy art in SL
4: I do not buy art in SL (I consider it a waste of lindens)

If I want a painting or other artwork in SL, I will simply create it myself in photoshop or scan a RL painting (I would only use my own work, I would not scan someone else's painting) and upload it to SL to "recreate" the artwork in SL

re: 1: no one, but me, can copy and upload my real life art. (unless they steal the texture from inworld).

you are aware that there is no setting to make it no copy no transfer (unless one uses the prim in a prim trick or script inside a prim, however being modify can easily overcome that, just remove the prim or script)

ok I take that one back, did not think it clearly

let me rephrase it

1: pointless with any artwork that is public domain as anyone can upload it into SL

actually
if you sold your RL artwork, then yeah the buyer/owner could scan and upload it

so it is pointless in my opinion, for any artwork that is available for someone (other than the creator) can be uploaded to SL

"Art in SL" to me doesn't mean "uploaded 2d paintings"... to me it means "things created in SL that are art".

Well, I've said before that a large number of my "paintings" are not 2d paintings, but they become 2d when I upload them.

Touché.

"Art in SL" to me doesn't just mean "2d images of paintings"... to me it potentially includes some of everything created in SL.

My answer is not going to be popular, I'm afraid. I'm all for the creative commons license in the digital world. I think it's the wave of the future as copyright laws become more and more impossible to enforce globally.

So, no I don't buy art. I have uploaded public domain art for myself as decoration and I also like to donate $L to galleries as I love all types of the visual arts - but what would I really do with a giant sculpture that orbits itself or whatever? I am having fun experimenting with those as well, but I wouldn't dream of selling them.

In real life it's a different story.

I'm trying to start a new thing and I been having a couple of orders since starting 2 weeks ago.I do rl potrait painting or drawing of peoples avatars like art on demand.As of now i been doing mostly gorean work but i'm open to all sims and all sort of avatar so of course your idea seem really interesting and I would like to learn more about it.
And for anyone interested in my work you can email me and/or look in the gorean forums or sl-gor for examples of my paintings

[email]azarielbeaumont@yahoo.com[/email]

I use 512x512 for most square or rectangular paintings or antique maps. If the aspect ratio is really extreme (very long in the horizontal or vertical axis), I may use 512x256 textures, or rarely a 512x1024 texture. Non-decorative maps require a higher level of detail (as people are more likely to zoom in on them), so I'm more likely to use a 512x1024--and in some cases a 1024x1024 texture.

You're really conducting your survey in the wrong place.

There may be a potential market for your product, but it would be very niche.

The vast, overwhelming majority of Second Life residents only want to get art because it is something that would look pretty. Whether or not it's limited edition would be meaningless; and thus, would not pay more for limited edition, whatever you do to ensure it's limited-ness.

If you have a potential market, it is Second Life users who have a lot of disposable income, dump an inordinate amount of that disposable income in Second Life, and enjoy playing rich big-shot in Second Life.

There are probably very, very few of these people in Second Life. But if they have enough money and you can find them, it might be worthwhile to you. And if you do any research, you want to try to find a way to get at this potential market, rather than just a general sampling of Second Life residents.

I don't know much about the real world art market or anything like that. I think that what people are paying for, when they pay extra money for originals, is some sort of proof of authenticity. So while you do have a challenge in preventing people from copying works, your main concern is giving your buyers a way of proving theirs is authentic and not a copy.

You want to provide a way of documenting the transaction. Make a concrete way of documenting the chain of custody of each piece, and showing the chain of custody when necessary. One thing to consider is to mark each piece in a way that identitfies the orginal owner. It could be smudged out or cropped, but anyone with a smudged or cropped copy obviously doesn't have an authentic copy, since the only authentic copies had the marks. If someone has a copy with a particular mark, then that should make it easy to track the chain of custody to that particular artwork. One copy with a unique number can only be traced through one set of buyers; there is no "I got this from a store I can't remember" or somesuch.

Though no one should really expect Linden Lab or legal procedures to adequately protect art in Second Life, you should provide the means to make it easy for someone who bought the art to file the DMCA claim or court case if they wanted to do so; make sure you can give them an easy-to-follow, complete chain of facts they could quote in their infringement claim and convince right off the bat anyone reading it.

Definitely make it no-mod and transfer, because your target audience is people who like to play rich big-shots in Second Life. They want to mimic how it would go in real life (a roleplaying exercise). In real life, the size and shape of a painting cannot be changed to taste. And in real life, people buy art for investments; the ability to sell (transfer) is part of the investment (one reason one is willing to pay so much for art is because one could recoup money by selling it). Now from a real perspective, no one sanely puts investment money in Second Life; but simulating an investment value probably appeals to the people who would actually buy limited editions.

And the people who would buy this thing are luxury buyers. They probably aren't concerned with efficiency. If they are going to pay a premium price for art, then they probably expect anyone viewing the art to actually wait for the fine art to load. (Fine art isn't something you enjoy for only a few seconds.) I really think you'd want to go high resolution on it. People who shop for textures based on efficiency probably aren't paying premiums for limited editions.