Tracking Top Artists
In a couple days, voting will go live on artprize.org. Voting, as has been mentioned, is entirely electronic. This means that on the website, we’ll be able to see which artists are getting the most votes. But exactly what will we see?
This is a question ArtPrize has put a lot of thought into. You see, when we list the top artists on the website, you will also be able to vote right on that page. There is a danger in displaying artists with their ranking and total votes like this:
1. Jane Artist (10,000)
2. Joe Sculptor (9,122)
3. Bob Painter (8,999)
The danger is that the top artist is always displayed at the top of the page, giving that artist the most exposure on the website. It potentially creates a snowball effect of votes for that artist: The most prominent on the page gets the most votes.
To create a more level playing field on the website, ArtPrize designed a system, so people can track “buckets” of which artists are in the lead without revealing who, exactly, is in the lead day to day.
During Week 1 of voting, you can view artists sorted in buckets of:
Top 25
Top 50
Top 75
Top 100
The artists displayed will be randomly sorted. No artist will consistently appear at the top of the page for visitors to the website. When voting begins on the Top 10 in Week 2, the Top 10 will be randomly sorted as well. (Of course, you can search and view all artists at any time, but you won’t see exactly where they rank in the overall 1,262.)
Vote tally numbers will not be displayed on the website with each individual artist for the same reason as stated above. We do not want voters to skip to artists in the lead to sort out how they will vote.
Richard thanks for you insight to the facilitys available that display art for me to go look at. Hey thanks buddy for letting me know that the B.O.B. sold donuts, that I did not know. Do they have sprinkled ones with frosting and candy corn, thoes are my favorites?
Jody, a mail insert is completely different than having an artist stop you and force you to engage in a conversation you do not wish to have. I had this happen on several occasions and it definitely put me off. By all means, promote yourself or the artist you like, but don’t be obnoxious about it. None of the artists I witnessed doing this even made it into the top 100. To me, that doesn’t scream success. Well, at least not in terms of vote getting.
Also, wow. There was someone promoting themselves as “cute” (which, by the way, has nothing to do with the artwork itself) just to get votes? Maybe she should have entered herself in the contest rather than her artwork.
An artist telling me the reason that i should vote on their artwork (according to the sign posted next to the artwork) is because they are “cute” is not promoting a piece of art. That is something completely different, degrading at best, unspeakable at worst – much more surreal than unreal. If i was voting on the actual sign as the piece of art it may have got a thumbs up from me as being so absurd and anti-art. Will you be promoting your next art show by demanding that all see it because you are “cute” or because you are “ugly” or will you be promoting the actual artwork?
The last post was in response to Jody’s thoughts on the previous page.
I’ll admit I’m an art student but I’ve been exposed to the environment of the business side of the artistic realm. In all of the examples set and advice, I’ve never been told to take a picture of myself with the words “Buy my art” or “Come see my art at this gallery because look how cute and pretty I am!”
Who has ever gotten an art advertisement saying, “The artists showing in our gallery are sexy!! Come see and buy their art!”
I’ve been in a studio where the artist was working on business cards or fliers to advertise himself. The main subject always would be his art taking up the whole or 3/4s of the advertisement. (with his name and contact on the other half or side) He always said “I let my artwork do the talking, I could care less what they think about me,” and I’d like to think that would be a good example to take on. I’ve seen people buy commissions from this man based solely on his artwork. I thought that was how it should be.
I believe Wynn and others were just simply stating (if not already said) that they were deterred from the artists that drew a line between themselves and their artwork. I personally felt confused at times on if my vote was going to the artwork or the artist. All of these consisted of the artist in person first stating where they were from and how difficult it was to get here or what they were going to use the money for. I’d be less turned off if they introduced their piece and what motivated them to create it or how they wished to communicate with the viewer.(There were some of these too and I enjoyed the chance to approach and talk to them about their art) For me there is a segregated line, detaching the vote between the artwork and the artist.
As far as the notes and t-shirts. I too was disturbed by the reason to vote for this artist (notice not artwork) was because #2 she’s hot!!! Is the artprize voting system really about the artist or the artwork? I’m confused.
Wynn your comments make you out to be a fool, stop while you are ahead. I hope that you are more intelligent than you come across. Degrading, unspeakable, surreal, anti-art. Stay at home, the world is too rough of a place for you someone like you. You are a disgrace to the artist world, I am an artist and your comments are … not worth commenting on anymore. Let me know how you do around election time there chief.
I think promotion is a tricky thing because different people have different views on what constitutes the line of taste/appropriateness or professionalism. I would argue that promotion for a gallery/museum show is different than that of individual artists for their piece of work in a competition. In promoting a show, one is inviting the viewer to experience a body of work, whether from one or more artists with one or more pieces, which fit some sort of overall theme/subject/topic/idea/etc. All the works can and probably should be contemplated together. This gives us a clue into the motivations of the artist(s); it is overwhelmingly unlikely to be about money and just about presenting points of view on an idea. This type of context gives us a chance to consider the piece(s) as pure in form, just art for art’s sake.
Yes, Jody, ArtPrize is a contest in which “the artist with the most votes wins, plain and simple.” But this also gives us a clue into the motivations of the artist(s), which become much clearer the more self-promotion we do. It is very difficult to separate the “I want votes so I can win money” motivation from an artwork when it is presented in this format, and I think that this is largely what makes people uncomfortable: it confuses our notion of why we or other artists create artwork. Now, I’m not saying that the sole reason any artist has entered ArtPrize is because they are greedy for money, in fact I don’t think that is why anyone entered, but in promoting our work, we are promoting ourselves OVER others, promoting ONE piece, not a body of work, which sort of discombobulates the overall effect of a piece and the others surrounding it. We hope that the promotion of ArtPrize as a whole overpoweringly encourages the viewers to see everything, to make a fair decision. But we obviously don’t truly believe that it will, which is where the self-promotion comes in. In the case of ArtPrize, it seems the underlying purpose for self-promotion on the artists’ part is to garner support in order to win. If this plays no part in an artist’s motivation, then there is no reason for self-promotion at all, as ArtPrize is doing a heck of a job promoting the event in its entirety. So I guess to conclude, I leave with the question of why, in the context of ArtPrize, self-promote at all?
Jody, you might want to check out the “Keep the Conversation Civil” blog posting.
Gabriela, Very nice deconstruction of artist/artwork promotion in general and also within the context of ArtPrize. What’s interesting in ArtPrize is how the strength of Young Kim’s work has won people over despite the lack of promotion. It restores my faith in people’s ability to see through flash and appreciate substance.
Calling me a fool certainly does not promote conversation. I believe i am asking valid questions and this along with conversation is one of the objectives of Artprize. Come election time I will not vote for a politician that suggests that i vote for them because they are “cute” anymore than i would vote for an artist who does the same.
Danielle, I agree with you about Young Kim. I wanted to mention him, but as I don’t actually know if there was or wasn’t any promotion on his part, I didn’t want to assume. But I think we can make a pretty good guess that there wasn’t. I hope this becomes the example we imitate in regards to promotion. He didn’t need to do anything, his work was just that good. His votes came not from who he is as a person, not from his personal interaction with the viewer, but from the appreciation of his work. Given a longer first round voting period, this would have been made abundantly clearer.
The End …. That’s all Folks
but it is not the end only the begining. This conversation happening in Europe tomorrow is directly relevant to what just happened in AP. I hope folks dont put art on the shelf until next year
http://www.friezefoundation.org/talks/detail/platitudes_about_contemporary_art_popular_and_provocative_but_true/