The Real & the Virtual: Art & the Web

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Art and the web don't have to be strange bedfellows. A content strategist and curator discuss what artists have to gain from embracing the web and learning the basics of usable web design.

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The real & the virtualElizabeth McGuane & Jonathan Carroll

Grappling with the virtualElizabeth McGuane

Why should you put your work on the web?

Art can’t be boiled downBut the way we present it should be simple and clear

Art and technology are not new bedfellows

But they don’t have to give birth to this

Image credit: Maurice Li, vectorialvancouver.net

Option 1Work can be displayed & distributed online:

the web as virtual gallery

Website: Saatchi Gallery Online

Option 2Work that engages directly with the web as a medium

Website: www.wefeelfine.org/

Website: www.wefeelfine.org/

The questions you need to ask are the same questions

curators have always asked

What do we need to know •About the artist?•About their materials?

Curation shouldn’t be an obstacleWhen you go to an exhibition, what do you need to see?

Online & offlineyou need to understand your materials

do so many sites look like this?

Certain things matter:• Fonts (sans serif for body copy)• Font sizes (large enough to be legible)• Screen space (use it)• White space (use it too)• Image size, weight and format

These are the principles ofgood design

OnlineArt is not site-specific

Installation: Jeff Stark / Photo credit: Katherine Lorimer

Online, our perception is influencedby what we link our work to and by the language around it

The web lets you speakdirectly to your audience

Credit: Terry Summers - Fox Galleries, Brisbane, Australia.

This is terrifying.

And it’s where content strategy comes in

What is your content?

It’s your body of work.

Stand back and treat your work as a curator might.

Credit: Paramount Pictures

How?

How?CATALOGUE IT

How?CATALOGUE IT

How?CATALOGUE IT

Next:Decide how to organise it

Whydoes it have to be

chronological?

Whatabout

by series?

Credit: Rania Hanssen, goshdarnknit.blogspot.com

Whatabout

by materials?

Doesplatformmatter?

No: content strategy is tool-agnostic

You don't buy a frame and then paint a picture to fit that size.

What mattersis your content:it’s the engine for your web presence

First figure out what you want to present. Then plan how you want to present it. 

What next?You’ve built your site:

Connecting with the realThe web can help you grow without galleries

To Tweet or to Facebook?

These tools won’t do anything that hasn’t been done before

But they can broaden your reach

Where to start?

Thanks for listening.I’m online at:

•@emcguane

•mappedblog.com

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