Digital Art – RightsTech Project

For Digital Art, Watermarks Aim To Bring More Aura—And A Hotter Market

April 26, 2016By admin

Thanks in no small part to the Internet, digital art is having a moment, and it’s attracting collectors too. An auction last year of GIFs, digital paintings, and printouts at Phillips in London raised over $113,000, including $3,500 paid for a website by the Dutch-Brazilian Internet artist Rafael Rozendaal.

Along with money, the budding market has also raised some interesting questions: If digital art is built on a medium prone toward reproduction, how do you make a one-of-a-kind edition? You might hang digital art on your wall, but how do you prove who made it, or that you bought it?

“Sharing art online is a double-edged sword,” says Shambhavi Kadam, a cofounder of Depict, a San Francisco-based startup that is building a physical, 4K Ultra HD picture frame, along with “watermarking” software to protect works bought and sold on its platform.

Source: Fast Company

Emerging Technology Enables Serious Collectors to Trade Digital Art Securely

April 11, 2016By admin

Only very recently has the digital medium caught up with more traditional approaches in its ability to be valued seriously by collectors. Up until now, a digital piece of artwork could easily be downloaded copied and shared inconsiderately, making ownership a bit of a sham. Creators of original digital artwork (myself included) have more often than not resorted to creating a physical signed version of the original file so as to achieve a more genuine salable item.In truth, a digital piece of art can still be copied and shared, however, emerging technology has changed all this radically.

A collector can now buy or inherit legal ownership of the original digital artwork and then choose to resell it as it goes up in value.

This is where the emergence of Blockchain technology, offered by businesses such as Ascribe, provide a truly innovative solution in securing the provence of a digital file.

Ascribe is a significant new online service that utilizes this new technology empowering “creators to truly own, secure and track the history of a digital work”. Being a digital artist, what I find so interesting with this service is that it enables the creator to register artwork using a unique cryptographic ID stored on the blockchain. Ownership of the digital artwork can be passed on through email directly to the buyer or alternatively the rights of transfer can be consigned to a gallery.

Source: HuffPost

Madison Start-up Creates Marketplace for Digital Art

April 6, 2016By admin

A long-standing problem with digital art is that it can be easily copied, even stolen, leaving artists with little control over their work. But now, with help from the blockchain technology underlying the Bitcoin digital currency, graphic artists and illustrators are finding a new marketplace that protects their pieces’ originality and authenticity.

“It’s a very interesting time to be not only a digital artist, but also a young collector,” said QuHarrison Terry, co-founder and chief executive officer of Victory is Very Illuminating Inc., also known as 23VIVI, a Madison start-up that is among the pioneers in creating a marketplace for the art.

The company has a website that is only 8 weeks old. But Terry and co-founder Ryan Cowdrey have experience and influence in the digital art world.

Source: JS Online