Does art have a legitimate place in the digital world?

Frieze Art Fair created a partnership with Le Meridien Hotel to generate talks involving art and common matters which can somehow affect the Art world. The latest talked took place last March in London, to discuss the co-relation between social media and art. And how both sectors can combine.

My involved with the Frieze until then was totally online. I follow then on Twitter and so was selected to participate in this particular talk. The discussion panel was formed by two artists, John Gerrad and Marcus Kreiss, the art collector Sylvain Levy, the cultural editor from the Guardian, Georgina Henry and Marc Sands, Director of Audiences and Media at Tate, which lead the discussion as a chairman.

Initially it seems that most of the people involved in the art sector do not know what social media is or how important it can be to the business. The majority have never been on Twitter and use Facebook only as personal tool. However after the talk the audience seemed to be very interested about the subject and open to discuss the matter, and maybe experiment these new technological tools available.

But does art have a legitimate place in the digital world? To me, yes it does. As all the sectors, art should also move to the digital sphere. While continuing to use only the old media channels, the art market is in risk of lose interest from the population. In order to grab attention it is necessary to be online. And even being a traditional area, the art sector should enjoy what is available as a promotional and communication tools.

According to the talk, many establishments and artist have being using social media in order to communicate or promote themselves. However, there is still no real form of art online. And when this happen it will mean that the art world is totally integrated with the digital world.