“Art is not traditionally an open-source practice,” Mr. Watz, who is represented by the DAM gallery in Berlin, noted dryly at the open house. Well, some art i

“Art is not traditionally an open-source practice,” Mr. Watz, who is represented by the DAM gallery in Berlin, noted dryly at the open house. Well, some art is. Music scores. Pretty much all literature. "Open source" at least to the extent that people can (modulo local laws) make copies for friends, given performances and readings, etc. But I get his point. There is much art tied to specific physical objects. It's an interesting fetishization. Also profitable. Duchamp declares this or that found object to be art, but while there may be any number of essentially identical objects none of them are granted that magical glow of "art". Artificial scarcity <-> Art-official scarcity.