Art in Second Life

Interesting idea.

Put a script in it, with a URL hardcoded into the script (so it survives reset), that takes you to a web page authenticating the work. If you can script the server side as well, you can track the ownership of the piece there as well by encoding the avatar name into the cryptographically checksummed URL it generates.

Personally, to me, more human involvement with verification (the seller actually keeps records manually to be made available) would be preferable to automated. That is in part because I don't have a lot of technical computer skill, and trust people more than computers (because I understand people better than computers).

But it's always my intuition that there had to be some way to automate tracking content in SL. Maybe not only the limited edition art has a market in Second Life; I bet a content-tracking system would have an even bigger market if someone developed it.

This doesn't describe me or most of my art buying friends. The amount of money I put into SL is probably well below average (excluding the newbie population). I don't tend to spend a lot on clothes, skins, shoes, hair etc. because that's not where my interests lie. I spend it on art instead because I love art and while it would be wonderful to be able to collect in RL, I simply can't afford to. I also don't enjoy playing a rich big-shot - I am fairly shy and reclusive and generally prefer to turn up at an art show the day after the opening party when there's nobody around.

I am under no illusions that it's a sensible financial investment or anything like that - I just buy what I like. If I can support a SL artist's creative endeavours by buying their work then that's sort of an investment as it helps to ensure they stay around to make more work for me to enjoy

You are right about the authentication stuff though and it's a problem for any artist working with digital media, SL or RL.

I'm selling this post for L$50000. It's a limited edition.

well so far, being a second life artist, the replies in this thread are really disappointing. there is REAL second life art being made in-world, some are good, some are very bad. i for one do not consider uploaded images of real life art dropped onto a canvas and maybe given a prim frame as being art, it's a texture that illustrates real life art, if you like it so much buy the original RL one. also taking a snapshot of a beautiful sunset in-world tarting it up in PhotoShop and adding glow does not in my opinion equate to art, although there is a talent to taking a good snapshot in SL.

now content creation is more of a tricky situation, there are creations out there, like dresses, hairstyles, buildings and whole sim designs that one may wish to call art, but in the true sense of the word, they are not but they are creative, wonderful, beautiful and artistic, but it is made as content creation and 'mass produced'.

if your interesting in real second life art, look out for these artists, of course this is just a small selection of artists who's work is available to see. Selavy Oh, Ichibot Nishi, Arahan Claveau, Bryn Oh, AM Radio, Alan Sondheim, Soror Nishi, Sowa Mai, Nebulosus Severine, Juria Yoshikawa, Glyph Graves, Misprint Thursday, DanCoyote Antonelli, four yip, Penumbra Carter and not forgetting to promote myself Dekka Raymaker.

Some of these artists are real life artists too, but the work done in second life is specific to it, not copies of their real life pieces.

Places to find these artists, i've put sim names if I know them: Brooklyn is Watching, Popcha; Arthole, Kress; Hotel Dare; Odyssey; uqbar. media art culture.

If Andy Warhol counts so does Uchi Desmoulins.

here here!

(um ... I did sort of say some of this on page 1)

Andy Warhol is dead

Yes sorry, you did sort of

1) I think art is more or less time/energy wasting. Anyone can be artist and no one can define what art is.

2) I dont buy
3) I prefer unlimited editions
4) exploder, zyngo machines, menu driven ad boards

stands for rl too

Fine, I'll close my art galleries then.

Well obviously my reply would upset someone, but that wasn't my intention. There is nothing wrong with your gallery or others like it, you provide something a lot of people want to see, buy and enjoy. It is just my personal opinion and you can totally ignore my point of view, I certainly don't think mine is better than yours.

In real life I am heavily involved with the modern contemporary art world, so you can now accuse me of being a little bias, if you wish.

If you wish to consider defining "Second Life art" as art that's created solely inworld, that's your prerogative and perhaps you have a valid point.

However, to say that a digital representation of art is not art at all is patently ridiculous. By your definition, digital artists are not artists. Computer animators are not artists. My work is not art because it's represented in SL, regardless of the fact that it's represented digitally everywhere else as well?

You can truthfully say it is good art or bad art, as that is an opinion based on your knowledge (or lack thereof) of aesthetics, but you cannot say it is or is not art, purely because you are not the artist. The artist defines what is or is not their own art, and if they call it art, then it is, regardless of quality.

Art is the action or result of expression in a given medium. Music, literature, a 5-year old's finger painting - all are forms of art. After that, everything is subjective.

The medium does not, and never should, define what is or is not "art".

When I hear someone use the term "REAL"-something. My first impression is that the individual is trying to elevate their own particular brand or viewpoint above others. Or trying to lessen the value of what they feel doesn't fit.

Prims as a form of artistic expression, prims as a display mechanism for artistic expression...it's all good in my book.

*curmudgeon mode on* meh... besides, REAL art ceased as soon as Jackson Pollock entered the scene. Everything from then forward has been nothing more than the random scribblings that any three year old is capable of, passed off as a higher form of expression. *curmudgeon mode off*

His art is still art. If a poster of a can of soup is art, so is a Moufette or Kani.

OK maybe my definition of art doesn't gel with the majority of residents in SL, it certainly doesn't with the majority of residents in the real world either, all I know is that my opinion is acceptable to most artists in the real world. I do not in any form what so ever wish to force my opinions on any one at all, they are merely to be considered.

Which started Elora and I talking about Magritte again. He would have loved SL.

I agree and I'm sure Mondrian would have too, as well as many artists. Imagine someone with the scope of Da Vinci in Second Life, the question is would they think a virtual world like Second Life was beneath them?

Likely not, especially in the case of a Da Vinci, who worked in a wide variety of media. Second Life shares with real life the concept that it is a backdrop for expression. That there are ample numbers of mechanics that are NPIRL, as well as mechanics that are NPISL, wouldn't have mattered. One exists inside the other, and IMHO Da Vinci would have found ways to crossover to express himself artistically if need be.

'Most' is a big generalization. But you do have the right to discount anything you like. The person who acts as my art director, for the gallery on my sim, has a ph.d in art and is the RL director of the Fenimore Museum in Cooperstown NY. SL name is Nicolo Anthony in case you'd like to look him up. He also has galleries around SL, and does regular streaming vid presentations on various artists. He has RL credentials and I am positive he'd disagree with you. None of what I just said is any kind of violation of TOS as it's all in his first life section of his SL profile. I'm going to take him for a visit to Lexxi's gallery to see what he thinks. I just don't think you should be saying 'most' artists...would agree. It's too big and vague. Me, I just know (and buy) what i like, and I love her art. In fact, I think I'll buy some tonite.

OK… acceptable to artists in the real world

My opinion is a fish.

Magdalena, Hi!
IM me in-world. I just cruised past and saw your thread. I have sent you a note with names of art dealers who you can contact. Also some landmarks of my own gallery homes which you are welcome to visit. There's currently about 200 artworks on display so you will get a broad view of sl art and artists. I have about 500 pieces in my "stacks". The art world is a vibrant community here and well worth investigating.
Jig Chippewa.
(Dont worry, people, I am not "coming back" to forums - just helping someone.)

Acceptable as your opinion, as expert as it may be. But not as an absolute truth.

I am also involved in the RL art world and I know where Dekka is coming from. I have a real love/hate relationship with the art world because on the one hand it can be very elitist but on the other it allows for work that is not necessarily pretty, decorative or at all the sort of thing you'd want on your wall at home, if it asks interesting questions, presents a new way of looking at something or explores a medium (any medium) in a new way.

There is no definition of what art is, even among RL artists. They've been arguing about it for centuries and will probably continue doing so for centuries to come. Out of those arguments interesting things can emerge.

None of this is to discredit what Lexxi or anybody else does, but I don't think it's all the same thing or that it can or should be judged by the same criteria. It's a shame we don't have more words than just "art" to describe this vast range of creative output.

I do still think that there is a danger that something is lost when a canvas (never entirely flat) is uploaded as a texture and so I tend to view these types of work as reproductions rather than originals.