Artwork Re-Sells Itself Weekly On eBay 372
Lanxon writes "How much would you pay for a piece of artwork that you could only own for a week? A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter, 2009, is a black acrylic box that places itself for sale on eBay every seven days thanks to an embedded Internet connection, which, according to the artist's conditions of sale, must be live at all times. Disconnections are only allowed during transport, says the creator, Caleb Larsen. Larsen tells Wired UK: 'Inside the black box is a micro controller and an Ethernet adapter that contacts a script running on [a] server [every] 10 minutes. The server script checks to see if the box currently has an active auction, and if it doesn't, it creates a new auction for the work.'" Another condition of sale is that the artist gets 15% each time the piece is sold. Maybe the First Sale Doctrine works differently in the UK.
First Sale Doesn't Apply.. (Score:3, Interesting)
First sale doctorine doesn't apply if you have a contract. If you signed a contract to buy the piece of art, it certainly can have restrictions on what you can do with it. The first sale doctorine rather applies to limitations imposed by copyright, ie: the right for the copyright holder of something to sue you, even though you don't have a contract, because you sold it again.
Clever way to circumvent first sale. (Score:4, Interesting)
He doesn't claim you don't have a right of first sale to the raw object, he's just saying that if you don't adhere to the contract then the object loses its value as a work of art and will no longer recognize it as his legitimate work of art. So while you have whatever rights the law gives you to the raw materials, but he is controlling the use of the concept which is what anyone who would buy this thing is actually interested in.
A bit twisty, but if you're into that sort of thing it could work for you. I think every week is a bit much, makes it potentially not worth the effort to deal with it. I'd think at least quarterly would be the way to go.
Stupid cube art. (Score:5, Interesting)
Some famous artist once exhibited a metal cube about 1m on a side. He was based in New York, and one day, driving through New Jersey, he saw a sign that said "You design it, we fabricate it". So he called them and ordered a 1m cube of solid steel. It was explained to him how much this would weigh. So he settled for a cube of sheet metal on a frame. The cube was duly fabricated and drop-shipped to the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
That was in the 1970s, when it was at least an original idea. As late as the 1990s, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art was showing a Plexiglas cube held together with tape. That was embarrassing. (When SFMOMA started, all the money went into their building, and the permanent collection was awful. It's since improved, but it's still far behind NY and LA.)
As Frank Lloyd Wright pointed out, you can have very simple geometric forms, but the materials and finishes must be very well chosen.
Arduino (Score:3, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I'm an idiot (Score:5, Interesting)
That's exactly what it is. Foolish fun. You should try it some time, it lightens up the day.
Not everything in life is about calculating that "you need to sell it at 118% profit to break even".
Looking at the terms of the sale, I'd say that only counts as "fun" if you're a lawyer.
Re:so... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:First Sale Doesn't Apply.. (Score:3, Interesting)
First sale applies to sales. If it doesn't apply, you're not buying, you're renting. This piece of "art" may be in violation of eBay rules if it pretends to be for sale but really isn't.
Re:I'm an idiot (Score:4, Interesting)
You buy it to participate in a cultural phenomenon and interesting concept.
If it were about £20 then I might join in. Hey, that might still happen as the novelty wears off. Just watching the price alone could be an interesting social experiment.
Does it open? (Score:4, Interesting)
Wow. The current bid sits at US $4,250.00 with six unique bidders.
Somehow, based on the posts here, I don't think that number is going to increase as a result of exposure on Slashdot.
My highschool art teacher had a special scowl when he told us about the commonly heard phrase among the plebes, "I may not know anything about art, but I know what I like." I tended to think that this is one of the more sensible statements I'd ever heard, but then I didn't get stellar grades in art class. I wonder if he'd be up for a black cube of doom?
From the FAQ. . .
Hm. That's actually kind of neat. I can see the appeal for the art community. Nice jorb. --Though, for the rest of us, the same feeling can be achieved at discount simply by contemplating the EULA on a piece of software. You own the disk, but do you OWN the disk? The mind reels!
Now THAT's art!
-FL
Re:No such thing as 1st Sale Doctrine outside USA (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:so... (Score:2, Interesting)
You mean... like DRM'ed books, music, etc?
As soon as the authenticating server goes down, there goes your entire investment. Or the company decides they don't want you to have it anymore (eg: Amazon)
This cube is a physical allegory of digital content and culture, and how people have allowed companies to redefine the concept of ownership to be an ephemeral thing, totally dependant on the whims of the producing company.