A nice piece of art: A Tool To Deceive And Slaughter is a black box with an internet connection. Every time someone buys it, it seeks connection to the internet and after seven days places a bid on eBay for itself.
A Tool To Deceive And Slaughter
The artist tells Wired.co.uk:
Inside the black box is a micro controller and an Ethernet adapter that contacts a script running on server ever 10 minutes. The server script checks to see if box currently has an active auction, and if it doesn’t, it creates a new auction for the work. The script is hosted on a server to allow for updates and upgrades if and when the eBay API (the interface used for 3rd party programs to talk to eBay) changes.
I really like this idea a lot. It plays with art buyers and in essence mocks them. In that way it’s a lot like Geert Jan Jansen. I personally believe gallery owners worldwide are running a huge scam and everyone keeps falling for it, but who am I.
The artist keeps a percentage of each transaction. That makes the whole thing feel more like the million dollar homepage than some sort of grand art statement.
Also, like you say, this thing is bought and sold on ebay. I’m afraid it says a lot more about ebay buyers than it does about art gallery owners.