Five Questions to Rory Blain, Director, Sedition

Hi Rory, can you tell us briefly about Sedition?

Sedition is the leading platform used by the world's most renowned contemporary artists to distribute art digitally to connected devices and screens. We offer works by Damien Hirst, Shepard Fairey, Tracey Emin, Jenny Holzer, Yoko Ono, Elmgreen & Dragset, Bill Viola among many others. Our mission is to change the art world by making art affordable and universally accessible.

Transfiguration by Matt Pyke. Full HD video at Sedition. © Matt Pyke & Realise Studio

I've been following Sedition with great interest for a while. Recently you opened up the platform so that artists can announce their interest, and if invited, submit works for approval. This made it possible for me to launch the 133 Seconds edition on your platform. For that I’m thankful, because now a new output medium is available to me. Is this is how you partly see yourself, as a new output medium?

Yes, we see it as a new opportunity for artists to distribute their work – the internet offers an opportunity to reach a vast new audience, and at a much more affordable price. It is very easy for anyone to put their work up on a blog, social media or Youtube, but there is no way for artists to control the distribution and to ensure the highest quality for their followers and collectors. For artists interested to submit work to Sedition, please visit: http://www.seditionart.com/submit.


For digital artworks or video art, I think cloud-based collector platforms, as your own, will be part of the future. The move away from hard-drives and discs seems logical, as that's the direction the whole world is slowly moving in. If Sedition will be THE platform remains to be seen, but your platform is certainly the first major one. What are your thoughts on the future and how do you think you can improve?

We feel people do not need to have their work on a local desktop, but rather make it available anywhere, anytime and on any device, whether it’s a TV, smart phone, tablet or computer. We are constantly looking for ways to improve and will never be finished! There are too many projects to list but the first is to expand the kind of work we can offer. Currently we support hi-res images and videos, so something we want to develop is the ability to support generative or interactive artworks.


As an artform, photography has always been seen and collected as prints and books. With cheaper, better quality and higher resolution displays, photography is looking better than ever on the screen. You’re selling photographs in digital format, so what role do you think photography will play on the screen?

Today, photography is primarily digital and cameras are only getting better with higher resolution images – this improves the viewing experience of photographs on the screen. The hardware is also improving such as Smart TVs and iPads retina displays, which also help in creating the best experience for displaying photographs on screen.

Entrance by Wim Wenders. High-resolution image, 3000x2318px at Sedition. © Wim Wenders

Three works I like at Sedition are Entrance by Wim Wenders, Track Record by Darren Almond and Flight Patterns by Aaron Koblin. Can you tell me three of your favorites?

It is difficult to select only three as we like them all! If I would have to pick just three, I would choose: Damien Hirst’s ‘For Heaven’s Sake’, Lee Lee Nam’s ‘Dreamscape 2’, and Matt Pyke’s ‘Transfiguration’.