Investigations on the cultural economy of media art

temporary art market today. Economic determinism means that the predominant economic system (capitalism) is regulating all the phenomena. In other words, we better ask to ourselves why, nowadays art seems to be heavily conditioned by the economic forces of demand and supply. At this point I would like to trace back some aspects of the art market, reconsidering the function of human criticism. Later on I will take into consideration the notion of object and how it is changing nowadays.

Art market and market The art market is alimented by several features and collectors play a very specific role in the “game”. From a general point of view (not only from the art world’s perspective), we may distinguish two macro-areas in collecting.

The first, very generic, is that one concerning the accumulation of objects and items without any kind of cultural nor economical value. In our consumeristic society, commodity achieved a cultural aspect from a sociological point of view, but economically speaking there is a remarkable difference between a kid’s time-box and Andy Warhol’s time capsules. The second type of collecting concerns the proper cultural goods with economical value. Art market is a sophisticate form of market and collecting is its deep expression. A collector never collects what he collects for one singular reason. A collection is always the result of quantity and quality of inherent meanings. A collection has a metamorphic life: it borns as personal project, it may become a cultural heritage, often it ends up to be an economical asset. The three subunits are linked to each other and are not distinguishable. Observing the action of a collector or the history of a collection may help us to establish some clear power relationship between art and market and between market and objects.

At the heart of the desire to own an art piece, might exist an intent of self affirmation or an identitarian model of cognitive life, which views knowledge as obtained through acts of beholding and revelation at the limits of rational consciousness. Our relationship to the things we own goes far beyond utility and aesthetics, our possessions define who we are. Items provide a temporal sense: remind us the past and tell us where we are going.

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