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The digital experience can be a polarising topic of discussion for the art world. There is much to be loved and hated. Many people argue that the act of buying digitally sullies the magic of encountering, experiencing and being impacted by art in the physical form. An argument that is wholly valid, if we are speaking about replacing it completely. Thankfully, we are not.
The digital experience presents a brave new world of augmented reality, viewing rooms and virtual spaces. It also presents an old problem repackaged, and that is viewers fatigue. Standing out online is tough especially for galleries taking this new step for the first time.
The art world has had to get used to finding its feet in a completely new and innovative way when faced with unprecedented change. But this isn’t the first time it’s happened.
The turn of the century almost always brings a disruption that feels uncomfortable. In 1760-1840, Modernists were confronted with the industrial revolution and were faced with new, ‘unnatural’ ways of representing their creativity. Their reluctance to adapt saw a shift in art collecting and topical interest. In short, people were changing their perceptions of art, and the subjects it documented.
The rise of photography in 1826 forced artists and collectors to again think differently, the struggles of which resulted in Fauvism, Expressionism, Pointillism, Impressionism and much more.
Evidently, discomfort and change almost always lead to new innovations and historical shifts in the accessibility, experience and presentation of art.
Learning from historical precedent, with the digital revolution changing everything we knew about interaction and communication, it comes as no shock that this movement would pervade the art world in unexpected ways. This time the accelerated rate in which the art world is being forced to change is turbocharged and under stressful circumstances.
Undoubtedly, art deserves to be experienced but when our options for traditional experiences are limited, we need to find the middle ground between keeping the traditional experience viable and the economics of running an accessible art business. The art world needs to remain buoyant in order for it to survive. Can the digital experience be the life raft it’s been reluctant to jump aboard?
Multisensory whimsy might be hard to capture through a screen but that doesn’t mean we should dismiss the digital experience. On the contrary, it can be an opportunity to expand what can be experienced with boundless potential.
Innovations in technology are moving us forward daily. Even though they might feel alien to the fervently organic art world, creating immersive digitally-led experiences is a viable strategy.
This approach needn’t be a singular one either—the hybrid model is being adopted by galleries, solo-artists and art fairs. While subsidising footfalls, fairs and galleries are still able to garner the reach they would have had in 2020. With some opting for a solely digital showcase and others opting for a hybrid, there is certainly no ‘one size fits all’ approach. This is a rare opportunity for the art world to demonstrate agility in the ways in which it creates accessible content for its audiences across the globe.
The pros of optimising online spaces for art are compelling, with the most powerful advantage being the global availability of the digital sphere 24/7. This availability and reach could create a huge shift in buying behaviours, which have already begun changing. The Art Basel Report tells us that although the share of online sales in 2019 was the lowest income generator, the first half of 2020 saw a rapid 37% increase in online sales. Larger galleries and institutions are especially benefitting from this change in buyer behaviour. Those with turnovers in the $10 million-plus segments are experiencing online sales rise five-fold.
This is wildly encouraging as this means that although online is a new frontier that’s relatively unexplored, people who are already using digital applications will be quick to adapt to the new offering. Even though High Net Worth(HNW) collectors were distracted in the first half of 2020, 92% of buyers still bought artworks within the first 6 months of 2020. This tells us that people are not averse to spending large amounts of money, in spite of the chaos surrounding 2020.
This just goes to show that capitalising now could see fairs, galleries, curators and artists thrive, rather than just survive these difficult and unpredictable times. The Art Basel Report also states that ‘gallery sales are particularly vulnerable’, meaning galleries might find themselves struggling in the present realities of the Covid-19 pandemic.
For galleries and art institutions, the time to invest in a comprehensive and holistic online presence is now. According to an article by The Art Newspaper, buying online has become a more preferable approach for many, meaning that adopting the hybrid model could be a sustainable strategy. Once galleries, fairs and artists start reaping the rewards of this new model, turning back to a solely physical experience is simply not going to cut it.
The most successful way you can use the hybrid model in your strategy is to figure out what your audience wants and deliver it in a seamless manner. While the rest of the world is adapting, to base a strategy on the expectation that things will go back to “normal” is not realistic.
Adaptation to online spaces is set to dictate the next stages of how the art world will operate. If galleries don’t take the time to assimilate now, they might find themselves left behind in an online market that will likely be saturated by bigger players. So, although it may feel like an unnatural move, not taking the leap now could prove costly in the long run.
