21 December 2012

Advice to Second Life Artists from Quan Lavender

One of the great challenges confronting Second Life artists is how to increase the value and significance of their work. Much like any other market, Second Life art obeys a version of the law of supply and demand: the less available or accessible the art is, the better it is. Popular work is always of low quality (just like the masses who like it), and conversely, rare and obscure art meets the highest standards. But there's also an opposite problem, because people need to have heard of an artist's work, even (or especially) if they've never seen it, in order to perceive its value. Artists face a difficult problem in balancing these two forces.

But help is here. In How to Avoid Visitors - A Guideline for Artists...., Quan Lavender had provided artists with excellent pointers on how they can make visitors and curators understand the excellence of their work. Her recommendations cover dealing with visitors, the press, opening events, curators, and other aspects of obtaining recognition for the best art that Second Life can offer. She also provides advice to art galleries, some of which applies to installation spaces, and so I am taking those suggestions to heart. And for people who have difficulty grasping her point, at the end of her post she even provides a bit of sodium chloride.

I'm dismayed to add that only one or two of the artists who have shown their work at Split Screen have followed Quan's recommendations, which (alas) tells you something about the quality of the work I'm able to obtain. I have tried to arrange for installations by superb artists, ones who clearly do follow Quan's wise advice, and as a perfect demonstration of how accurate her guidelines are, I have been unable to do so -- proving the excellence of these artists' work.

I urge everyone in the Second Life art world to read and heed Quan's words.

1 comment:

  1. I enjoyed reading it. I'm supposed to be somewhere else in a minute but I stuck to reading the story. I like the quality of your blog

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