How should a traditional art collection navigate this new decade?

Our approach in collecting has always been a holistic one that includes video games, virtual reality, the metaverse, and also digital art and related assets.  

With web 3.30, the metaverse and the systemic shifts in technology that it has brought along, impacting upon human nature, we have entered a new era of discovery, a ‘Terra Incognita’. It could be argued that we now inhabit a world that is equally both dystopia and utopia.

Imagining the future is difficult, but if the goal is continual innovation then it is especially important to have an agile and creative mindset with an experimental, exploratory attitude rather than just ‘wait and see’.

How might this mindset be applied to an art collection?

My contribution today is to illustrate, with the Dslcollection case study, how an art collection can embrace the digital transformation we now experiencing.

I begin by giving an overview of the collection and how we have moved from a traditional art collection to a cultural entrepreneurial project. In the second part, I explain how going public has obliged us to be ‘phygital’ since 2005: using tools not normally associated with the art world such as virtual reality, video games and the metaverse.