The label "delire" hathe been affixed to this message,
as for the media arts funding, this is from where my (and many others on this list) primary income derives; grants, research funding and performances. however, the 'media market' you speak of is not centred around point of sale goods and rarely is it even software services. work (digital artifacts or softwares) are not bought and sold. instead an artist is paid to present or show in a given festival.
Custom systems would probably qualify as an art form.
If one were to set up a lisp audio workstation {something like Kyma... and featuring pd, cm, snd, osw, stk, etc, etc and maybe base it on gnustep and musickit as well} one could probably get fine art prices for it.
like the good ol' days before the copyright FUD, recording artists made income not from record sales but from concerts. strangely the microeconomics of the 'media arts scene' has been this way since it's conception.
huh?
less money is spent on software by media artists than painters on paint. this may be BS, if so prove it to me (& design companies don't count). typically artists themselves don't buy software, though often they will pay for a developer or consultant to assist in production.
Last time I bought a tube of paint... Winsor Newton cadmiums were going for ~$50 a tube. ...Linen can run up to hundreds for a yard... figure an easy $50 for a standardish stretcher... I've gone through an entire tube of cad red on many paintings and I don't paint all that heavily. Winsor Newtons not, by any means, the most expensive paint {you can spend hundreds a tube... I've spent $90 a tube for colors.} Decent brushes can run you a couple of hundred apiece { http://www.dickblick.com/zz052/98a/products.asp?param=0&ig_id=6275 again... not the most expensive.} and I can easily burn up a new bright on one painting...
See these tears so blue. An ageless heart that can never mend. Tears can never dry. A judgement made can never bend. ... And I've been putting out fire with gasoline... {Dave}