When social media meets art and creates a new business model

Twit2art is one of those wonderful ideas that captures the age we’re living in – and heading towards. A project by Belgian artist Jan Leenders, it works like this: you send a tweet @twit2art and he’ll make an artwork with it.

So far, so good. But this is where it gets interesting:

“If you’re fast, it’s cheap. The first twit (thus the first painting) costs € 1. The second € 2, the third € 3 and so on. The price includes everything. Material, packaging, shipping, taxes. Everything.

In other words, there is a reward for being an early adopter – and we all know how valuable early adopters are in spreading the word (put another way, he makes a loss on the first sales in order to spread word of mouth).

Not only that, but this taps into a game narrative, again something which is often key to success online.

Finally, it is simply fun. Call it punk capitalism – increasingly companies are going to have to work harder to make the relationship with consumers more than simply an exchange of money. And that applies to news organisations as well.

So as customer #3936 I’ll be paying 39 36 euros for my piece. The list of twits (and therefore how much you can expect to pay) can be found here – but it’s a good idea to do a search on Summize as, despite unconfirmed tweets (see comment 1 below), there is potential for a lag if he gets a rush.

Via Dorien Aerts