Dot Dash 3 Lets Artists Build Virtual Galleries to Sell Real Art (and GIFs Too)

New art-tech venture Dot Dash 3 (the word art in Morse code includes three dots and three dashes), is something like a video game for art collectors. The new technology creates a virtual exhibition space that allows you to visualize artwork in 3D space without ever leaving your desk. The site is ostensibly for art sales, although the potential to create virtual exhibitions could, if the idea catches on (usually a big if in the world of online art ventures), make the technology commonplace on the websites of art institutions everywhere.

The new virtual reality exhibition space (for lack of a better phrase for it) is the brainchild ofLarisa Leventon, a former portfolio manager at Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital. With two degrees from MIT and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Brown, she doesn’t seem like your typical art world entrepreneur. However, her time in Cambridge included plenty of art history, and she spent some time taking RISD courses while at Brown. “I seriously considered going to art school instead of studying math,” she told me when we met to talk about her new venture.

The new site is essentially a virtual gallery space created (not just customized, but totally conceptualized) by the artists who show on the site. All of the current shows stick to the standard white-cube configuration of a real-life gallery, but Leventon assured ARTINFO there is potential for much more radical spaces if the artists she works with want to get more creative. It takes a little bit to get the hang of navigation, but it can actually be enjoyable to click through the rooms. Below the interactive graphic — where “framed” JPEGs representing real life paintings and drawings “hang” on the walls alongside GIFs and videos — is a description of the show, written by the artist, a biography, and occasionally accompanying audio. Clicking on a work within the graphic interface brings up more information about it, as well as the price (all of the works are for sale unless otherwise stated).

 

Read the full article at BlouinArtinfo…