An in-depth look at how we make and circulate art today, and how creative and economic processes shape the meaning and value of artworks.
An in-depth look at how we make and circulate art today, and how creative and economic processes shape the meaning and value of artworks.
In Ecologies of Artistic Practice, Ashley Lee Wong explores the economic relationships of artists working at the nexus of art and technology as they negotiate a means to make art in a neoliberal creative economy. Wong looks at the diverse ways in which artworks circulate, both online and offline, in galleries, on digital platforms, and on media facades, and investigates some of the mechanisms that enable artists to create works, including selling artworks and NFTs, grants, licensing, commissions, and artist residencies. The book also looks at the ways in which artists collaborate with corporations and develop practices as commercial entities themselves.
The book provides unique insights into the diverse creative and economic processes that shape the meaning and value of artworks. Wong seeks to shift away from notions of individual authorship and finite artworks that can be bought and sold, and instead toward an understanding of artistic practices as collaborative, social, and cultural processes. Rather than critique this economy, Ecologies of Artistic Practice opens space for engaging in hypercommercialized contexts, while considering how money is not an end goal, but a means to initiate or continue an artistic process.
By:
Ashley Lee Wong
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Weight: 369g
ISBN: 9780262552165
ISBN 10: 0262552167
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 24 June 2025
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgments Foreword Introduction: Thinking Economies Ecologically Beyond Precarity and Conditions of Disempowerment Diverse Economies of Art and Technology Ecologies of Artistic Practice Processes of Making, Circulating and Organizing Chapter 1: The Means to Make Lorna Mills: The Separation of “Art” and “Work” onformative: Carving Out a Practice Between Art and Design LoVid: Shaping the Organization of Time and Labor Facilitating Knowledge Flows Chapter 2: Circulating in Post-Media Art Markets Empty Gallery: The Variable Materialities of Conceptual Art Licensing: Towards A Plural Conception of the Art Object TRANSFER: Experiments with Distribution Formats for Immersive Media From Ownership to Circulation Chapter 3: Between Scarcity and Free Circulation in Digital Economies Lorna Mills: GIFs as Poor Images and High Art Sedition: Creating Artificial Scarcity NFTs and The Financialization of Art Beyond Scarcity, Towards Abundance Chapter 4: Mechanisms of Corporate Patronage Licensing for Media Facades Brand Commissions Corporate Artist Residencies The Artist and the Corporation Chapter 5: Collaborative Production Xu Zhen: The Art of Incorporating teamLab: Large Scale Artistic Collaborations MetaObjects: Art Fabricators as Mediators The Company as Collective Conclusion: Artistic Practices in Process Processes over Products Artworks in Permutation Collaborative Cultures Shifting Roles, Fluid Identities Bibliography Index
Ashley Lee Wong is Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of MetaObjects, a studio facilitating digital production with artists and cultural institutions.
