Hi Edward, See this sculpture <http://www.2ra.co/tmiwfull.html> by Rachel Ara along similar lines, although it does exist and it doesn't use blockchain technology so far (but she's developing it all the time).
Sophia On 22 October 2017 at 14:26, bjørn magnhildøen via NetBehaviour < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi Edward, > > Would you consider submitting it to http://noemata.net/aphantasia/ ?? > I think it would fit the project well - it concerns > existence/non-existence as an 'attribute' of an art-object. for example, an > art-object may have existence as an attribute but without existing itself. > blockchain is used as a form of attribution/verification/documentation > technology. > > Best, > Bjørn > > On Sun, Oct 22, 2017 at 2:40 PM, Edward Picot via NetBehaviour < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Dear all, >> >> See what you think of the following: >> >> Works of art offer unparalleled opportunities for investors, both >> individual and corporate. They have proved their worth time and again as >> hedges against inflation. The only disadvantage is the physical work of art >> itself. >> >> >> Valuable art is increasingly bought, not to be displayed, but to be >> hidden away in warehouses in ‘freeports’: tax- and customs-free spaces >> where objects are, legally, indefinitely ‘in transit’ between countries. >> >> >> Shares in valuable works of art are now being offered for sale online, >> for example via Maecenas (https://www.maecenas.co). Investment in art is >> thus being spread out from the privileged few to the >> slightly-less-privileged not-quite-so-few. If you’re not rich enough to buy >> an entire work of art, you can buy a fraction of one instead, without ever >> seeing or touching the original. >> >> >> You don’t even have to know what the original work of art was like. All >> you have to understand is its market value. >> >> >> The more successful online investments in art become, the more likely it >> becomes that the works of art themselves will be permanently hidden from >> view. They will cease to have any meaningful existence in terms of physical >> form, expressiveness or aesthetic quality. All of this will be dissolved >> and sublimated into their market price. >> >> >> The next logical step in this process is for the artwork itself to >> disappear completely, and for the market value of the work to be the only >> thing that actually exists, right from the outset. >> >> >> Therefore, today, we are offering you a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. >> You are invited to buy shares in nothing. >> >> >> Nothing is a completely unique work of art. It’s uniqueness lies in the >> fact that it doesn’t exist. It is an absence, wrapped in a negation, buried >> in a nullity. >> >> >> Even though it has no physical dimensions, nothing does have a precise >> geographical location. For the sake of security, to preserve value and >> avoid taxes, it will be held in permanent storage. The location of this >> storage may vary from time to time. Nothing is currently stored at >> *51.57057,-0.09667** - **the Furtherfield Gallery, Finsbury Park, >> London. * >> >> >> *The method of storage is itself unique. In Flann O'Brien's novel **The >> Third Policeman,** one of the policemen (MacCruiskeen) has a hobby of >> making tiny boxes, each tinier than the previous one. He keeps them one >> inside the other. When he unpacks them, the **last five** are completely >> invisible, and in fact there's really no way of telling if they exist at >> all. 'The one I am making now,' he says, 'is nearly as small as nothing.' * >> >> >> *Nothing is being kept inside MacCruiskeen's tiniest box, and anyone who >> would like to visit the Furtherfield Gallery to view it in storage is >> welcome to do so, **during normal opening hours**. * >> >> >> *Please be aware, however, **that nothing, and the box in which it is >> stored, are both** completely invisible.* >> >> >> *In keeping with Furtherfield’s copyleft philosophy, nothing is being >> licensed on a creative commons basis. Anyone is welcome to reproduce and >> display nothing, provided they give fair attribution to Furtherfield.* >> >> >> *Also in keeping with Furtherfield’s open and democratic principles, we >> are making **one** trillion shares in nothing available, at a price o**f >> ************** each.* >> >> *Questions: Firstly, for Ruth and Mark, would you be happy to have >> nothing on display at the Furtherfield Gallery? An empty room, an empty >> plinth, an empty box, or even a pin with nothing balanced on its tip?* >> >> *Secondly, for Rob, is it practical to offer a trillion shares in >> something? And what's the smallest cryptocurrency amount that could >> practically be charged for each share? In my innocence I was thinking that >> you could charge one BitCoin for each share, imagining that a BitCoin was >> probably worth about 50p, but when I looked it up on line I see that a >> BitCoin is now worth about four and a half thousand pounds. Is it possible >> for people to pay for things in fractions of a BitCoin, for example a >> thousandth or a ten thousandth of a BitCoin? In order to do so, if they >> didn't have any BitCoin already, would they have to buy at least one, ie. >> stump up several thousand pounds?* >> >> *It looks as if the cheapest of the cryptocurrencies is the Doge, which >> is about 46p at the moment, and you can get a few of them free as a starter >> deal. So I suppose the cost of a share could be one Doge: they're less well >> known, but more fun. Is that practical? Could you make a trillion shares >> available via the BlockChain and charge one Doge for each of them?* >> >> *The other alternative would be to make very few shares available, and >> charge a lot of money for each of them, which would be more like the proper >> elitist art market, and therefore perhaps a bit more satirically pointed... >> But probably nobody would buy them. And if anybody did buy them, you might >> end up feeling as if you were endorsing the whole art market system.* >> >> >> *Edward * >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> NetBehaviour mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > >
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