If you have little experience or knowledge of the Metaverse, you may think it has something to do with the new name for Facebook. For many, the term ‘Metaverse’ first entered their consciousness when Facebook changed its name to Meta in later 2021. At the time, many people assumed it was merely a passing trend, focused on gamers and younger audiences, with little or no relevance to them or their businesses.
Although it is undoubtedly true that the company now known as Meta would love to be synonymous with the Metaverse, it is only a small part of this bright new world – or worlds.
In order to explain you what the Metaverse is, firstly, we are going to answer the question by concentrating on the art that can be created there and question how this new Metaverse can benefit digital artists. Secondly, we are going to provide more general information of its impact in business, focusing in particular on the technologies that are necessary to realize the Metaverse. This because we believe that the Metaverse is not only changing the art market and the sector’s business models, but also changing the world at large.
The Metaverse in a Nutshell
The Metaverse is any kind of virtual world where users or players can build and own digital goods. This could be an apartment building in New York City – or the Statue of Liberty itself. As long as no one else owns the digital version, you can use blockchain technology to buy it using digital currency.
Even if you have little understanding of them, you will have by now some understanding of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This is how you own digital goods in the Metaverse. The decentralized nature and blockchain technology ensure that your ownership can be proved and the transaction is recorded.
It is not surprising that digital art is one of the major forerunners in the Metaverse. Art is inherently collectable and the value given to it comes from how valuable the potential owner deems the art to be. Before NFTs and the Metaverse, digital art could easily be reproduced. But now digital art is just like any other kind of art. The originality of digital art can now be shown.
Power to the Artist
Digital art sales skyrocketed in 2021-22 and the trend has only continued over the last year. There have been accusations of NFTs being the ‘emperor’s new clothes’, but value is chosen by the market. Critics may dismiss the Metaverse– and NFTs in general – but for those who are interested in obtaining digital art, it is just like buying an original piece of physical art.
Supporters of this way of creating and selling digital art would argue that it is an even more honest marketplace – and a better investment for those buying. This kind of art will never deteriorate and the NFT aspect provides online copyright control.
Artists can profit from the initial sale of a piece of digital art. But then can also make money from future transactions on the same piece thanks to the way that blockchain technology and digital marketplaces, such as SuperRare, work.
How does the Metaverse Work?
The Metaverse defies precise description and is typically thought of as a network of 3-D virtual digital environments. The best way to understand it how it works is to imagine it like the internet of today operating in virtual reality. The most certain aspect of the Metaverse is that it is a virtual space where you, among other users, can communicate, transact commerce, and establish social bonds using your digital ‘avatar’.
Users of the Metaverse are represented by their avatars. They are an individual’s Metaverse identity, enabling users to participate in a variety of adventures and activities. In other words, an avatar is an image that you use to identify yourself online, and many platforms will allow you to personalise it and make it look and dress like you do in real life. The quality of avatars is a main topic of discussion in the industry, following feedback on quality at events such as Metaverse Fashion Week (which happened in Decentraland and that had 108,000 special visitors). Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg lately faced criticism over the quality of avatars in his new digital experiences.
Metaverse galleries and art exhibits took off a couple of years ago or so as a logical response to the pandemic’s seclusion. Since then, users have been enjoying interacting with one another and building stronger connections with art in the virtual domain. Most importantly, and regardless of their geographic locations, artists and fans have been interacting in this perfect virtual environment. You may consider getting a VR headgear to have a better immersive experience or exploring exhibitions by meeting family and friends physically located all over the Planet in a single Metaverse art show. The Metaverse can certainly help you building your art collection fast whilst allowing you to bond with the global artistic community as well as with new and old friends.
Collect in the Metaverse
A good way to start collecting or to expand your current art collection through a fresh perspective, and by selecting from a virtually endless and all-comprehensive archive of interesting artworks, is to go online and Google ‘Metaverse art gallery’. Metaverse art galleries are cutting edge ones which have embraced the future and new ways of showing art through the technological possibilities of Virtual reality (VR). We are proud of being one of them!
Many Metaverse platforms are introducing gallery spaces. In these spaces, art curators and dealers are pushing the boundaries of what an art exhibition can look like, creating original narratives beyond the NFT art media and including virtual versions of physical artworks, such as paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures; which can be seen in the virtual world from the comfort of your desk or sofa before being purchased online as real objects to be enjoyed in the material world.
The world of VR exhibitions is expanding. Therefore, artists are increasingly joining Metaverse art galleries to exhibit their work, particularly the most innovative, high-tech and visionary ones. The trend is so massive and relevant that even mega global galleries and hyper traditional auction houses are beginning to exploit these venues by relocating their exhibition spaces (the so called ‘white cubes’) to the Metaverse. The migration of the big players of the art market to the virtual world is what is primarily responsible for the rise of interest in this category. For instance, in the Voltaire Art District of the famous Metaverse platform called Decentraland, Sotheby’s has opened a virtual art gallery. Unfortunately, starting an art collection by browsing in the Sotheby’s Metaverse will require a six-figure budget per pop, as it is hard to find items under a million in places like that.
Metaverse & Business
Since the Metaverse has been applied to the business world, key players and consultancies have been falling over themselves to declare its huge potential, outdoing each other with the scale of their market forecasts. We want to provide a realistic picture of the Metaverse impact on business, focusing in particular on the technologies that are necessary to realize the Metaverse.
It is important to recognize that the Metaverse is not a new concept. The reason it is high on the agenda today is that we are seeing a rapid acceleration of development activity and usage adoption. This acceleration is driven by the convergence of three industries: gaming; collaboration and productivity tools; and social media and networks. The acceleration is also fuelled by the confluence of key trends in user behaviours, software, and hardware development.
Businesses beyond the artworld should not underestimate the importance and potential of the Metaverse. Put simply, it promises to be the future version of the Internet, powered with new properties that will open up new usages and business models — in a similar way to how the smartphone transformed the Web.
Forecasting the size of the market is difficult. If key enabling technologies are included, such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain, as well as the required digital infrastructure development, then the market could easily reach several trillion euros by 2030. However, we advise caution, as some of this market represents substitution rather than genuinely
new market space. Our more conservative view suggests an incremental market, excluding infrastructure, of perhaps €500 billion by 2030, with a 30%-40% growth. In any case, however you define it, the Metaverse market is enormous and very dynamic.
To help understand the Metaverse and its current development status, a six-layer architectural framework has been developed by experts. Using this analysis, they concluded that, in contrast to what many observers are saying, the underlying technology to enable the Metaverse as the complete “future version of the Internet” won’t be fully available for around a decade. This is something that businesses need to be aware of.
Instead of a single, unified Metaverse, businesses face today a world of unconnected proto-metaverses. That said, there are still huge opportunities. Despite the remaining technological challenges, businesses need to take steps now to understand the current market and position themselves for the future.
In summary, experts believe that among all the trends and factors currently shaping the Metaverse, three of them are especially critical because they combine high potential impact and high uncertainty. These three critical factors are:
1- Immersivity. The development of new augmented reality/mixed reality (AR/MR) technologies that effectively overcome current technical obstacles would be a strong accelerator of new usages in the coming years. In the same way that smartphones made the digital economy shift from computers to mobiles, we believe that user-acceptable AR/MR glasses would drive a similar shift from screen to Metaverse.
2- Interoperability. Interoperability is essential to provide a true seamless experience to users and to allow them to share resources, irrespective of their access platform. However, due to diverging interests between vendors, users, and other players in the value chain, there is no guarantee that this will be achieved.
3- Abundance. In the physical world, scarcity drives the value of assets in a market economy. In the traditional digital economy, since a digital file can be duplicated at no cost, scarcity was reintroduced artificially through systems such as digital rights management. In a virtual world with blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a new economic paradigm of ‘abundance’ may appear, implying a more fundamental value shift from physical assets to experience and, perhaps, status. The extent to which this will happen, and its implications for business, are uncertain.
ABOUT US
We are a Metaverse Art Gallery which believes in a new
future for the Art World in the Post-Digital Era.
We push the boundaries of Contemporary Art by curating VR exhibitions with art works by exceptional talents who are socially, ethically, and politically committed to the making of a more equal, sustainable and fair World.
Our Programme of Virtual Reality Exhibitions explores the most current and pressing matters in a globalised human hub.
We are for Art Collectors interested in technology, social equality, ecology, scientific development, and alternative perspectives which
improve the prospects of Planet Earth.
In recent years, there has been a democratisation of the collecting world, and a trend against the remoteness of
the ‘white cube’ and its sense of snobbism and exclusivity. We support and promote this process, as the collector’s space has expanded to a younger,
more engaged and aware audience.
For us, Art in the Metaverse, and online sales, are tools for the democratisation of visual culture and the most effective and far-reaching way to connect collectors with artists.
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