Is it possible virtual economy to function in an arts website?

And to regulate the relationships among the users, their activities in the site and their products? A global economy independent of the global financial crisis, where you settle your payments in virtual currency?

That's what happens in artisticclub.com. As a result, more and more artworks of value appear on the site.

First, let's clear some possible misunderstandings about Artistic Club :

• There are different sections for texts , films , images and music . Therefore, writers, filmmakers, musicians and painters should stay each in their own dedicated section.

• You are an artist. You upload your work in Artistic club and start waiting for someone to write a review.

• Artistic Club is not a site to only share and review artworks.
  

That is being done in thousands of other sites. Yes, indeed, the basis of Artistic Club is to share and review authors' works. But this is only 10% of what you can do at the site.

The rest of its functionality opens a wide field for interaction. This is an interaction among artists, between artists and artworks.

Apart from reviews , interaction comes through online contests and tasks .

When you see an available contest that you like and you have an uploaded work which meets the requirements, you may submit it. Then, your fellow-members of the site can vote for it and make it a winner.

Or you see an art related task announcement. For instance, somebody needs a music piece to be composed for their short film. If you are a composer and are interested, you sign up for the task and compose the music to the satisfaction of the task owner.

With such activities, from a state of lurking you transform yourself into a semi-active participant. Why 'semi'? Because now you react, but you could also initiate your own contests and tasks , at conditions set by you. If you like, you can open a contest for a documentary action-comedy entitled “How I spent my vacation in jail because I got caught with hashish”. It's up to you.

Or you might be a musician and need graphic design for your new album. You post the task and wait for a graphic designer to take it up.

But why should anybody be interested at all? What kind of award will you get if you win the contest? How will you be compensated for your work on the music you composed?

The answer is Artes.

Artes is the medium of exchange, the virtual currency to use in the dealings within the Artistic club. It has nothing to do with real money. It serves to settle the relationships among the users when contests, tasks, uploads of works and reviews are concerned.

What can we do with these Artes? Everything art-related in the Artistic Club.

Believe me, when the site becomes popular and fills up with users and artworks, you'll have reasons to spend the collected Artes, indeed.

How does the system work?

Imagine the site's system is a state. Let's call its government an ‘Artocracy’, or Art government. This state prints its own currency called ‘Artes ’. To avoid inflation, only a certain amount of Artes is released in circulation.

The economic system of this Artocracy works like this: in order to upload your work, you need to pay a certain amount of Artes. Where do you get them when you are just starting and have nothing in your pockets? You'll request the system to assign you to write a review and it will give you an artwork to review. When you deliver successfully, you will receive your Artes.

You need to pay virtual Artes when you upload a work in order to be stimulated to review others' works. This is one of the main aims of this site.

When the system allocates an artwork for you to review, it's a kind of a task . In Artistic Club you can post and accept all kinds of tasks, if they are art-related.

Of course, if you want somebody to make you a favour, you must pay them back. Or, if you have made a favour, you will be paid. The currency is Artes.

Contests are organized in a similar way. The prizes are in Artes and they are paid by the initiator of the contest to the winners. Which artworks win is decided by democratic voting by the site users. There is an additional bonus for the competition owners: they get the submission fees in Artes from the participants.

The economic system of the 'Artocracy' of the Artistic Club is made to work according to the laws of market economy. A virtual system , not limited by state boundaries or physical limitations, devoted entirely to artists and art lovers. It's like a Monopoly game but with thousands of participants, and instead of building hotels on Picadilly, you create art.

But for Artistic Club to work at full steam, there should be enough artworks and users. The example with the task to compose film music would be successful if the director would have big choice of musical pieces to fit his/her taste.

That's why a critical mass is necessary to catch fire and bring Artistic Club to full blast.

So I appeal to you to make it popular wherever you can, and that is in your interest, too. Share about it with friends and colleagues artists and lovers of independent art, announce it in your art school, at your work, on forums and blogs.

Promote it in social networks and bookmarking services like Facebook , Digg , Reddit , StumbleUpon , Del.icio.us , etc. To facilitate this, in the lower part of the page you can find links to most popular networks.

Please give me your feedback about what you think of this, by commenting this page .

And to make above theory complete with practice, herewith the 'System' creates a task entitled Hype Artistic Club. Those who accept the task and deliver, will be paid accordingly in Artes. This way you combine fun and practice and discover the functions of the site.