THE AESTHETICS OF DIGITAL IMAGES AND THE DYNAMICS OF VISUAL PRACTICES IN THE MEDIA ENVIRONMENT OF THE NEW ERA

The use of digital technologies has become a central element in artistic practice in the 21st century. In terms of creative techniques and communication formats - digital images are now becoming autonomous artistic artifacts that are being circulated in the global art market and obtaining material worth through sales. The growing awareness of digital art as a potential for new forms of artistic creation and new ways of communicating between artists and viewers has become one of the central themes in contemporary art discourse. The objective of this project was to determine the variables influencing the sale price of specific artistic products. For this study, we applied a comprehensive visual, formal, and contextual analysis of twenty of the most expensive digital visual art products sold during recent years. We were able to show that both highly detailed (works by Beeple) and simple, minimalistic images with pixelation (works by Larva Labs) created by the use of algorithms and other generative technologies (works by Dmitri Cherniak), as well as images composed of white text on a black background were among the most expensive works. The results of our study indicate that artistic technique does not significantly influence the price of digital images. Instead, the most important factors are a complex interplay of social-political concepts, the artist’s previous reputation and success within the art world.