I uploaded 24 of my pictures to ArtFaceOff.com after I heard about the site from TechCrunch.  Did not seem to be many FaceOffs for painting category. Weird. Turns out it’s headquartered in Portland, OR, where one of my clients, Alan Mascord, an architect, is headquartered. 

Here’s what TechCrunch has to say .. which sounds like they think ArtFaceOff is a little off in what they’re trying to do.

“ArtFaceOff is a new site that lets artists upload pictures of their art along with descriptive tags, and compete in a face-off with other artists. Winners move on to the next level of competition, and the eventual winner receives a $1,000 prize.

It’s odd to compare one piece of art to another and decide which is “better.” People who know about art and try to explain it to me always say art is about how it makes you feel, not if it’s better or worse than other art. But the site certainly gives new artists a place to show their stuff and interact with users, so it can’t be all bad. Still, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

The company, founded by Steven W. Ochs, is located in Portland, Oregon, “in a tiny gallery on the fringes of the Pearl Arts District.”

I’m not sure; the idea has merit – but – as a grassroots effort from an outsider gallery it does not have much legitimacy and there needs to be some kind of audit process in place, and a Web Analyst, someone like me, looking at the data – does not see like they have that audit process in place. 

As TechCrunch says……art is more about feeling than a competition.  Still, the idea has merit…but it’s all in how it’s executed. People need to believe they are legit, not a small gallery in Portland running this thing to get on the map.  Right now, they have to establish they are more than this- a small gallery trying to get a spotlight on them.

Maybe if I ever get to Portland, I’ll visit ArtFaceOff.com, in person, to see what got them started in this democratic competition to let the people decide what art is better.  

I think this thing runs all year (2007) and they’ll keep showing different paintings next to each other and the one with the highest vote will win at the end of the year…at least, that’s what I think it means. 

I took a gamble and had about 36 pictures to upload, but it only let me upload the first 24 (I got most of the one’s that I wanted uploaded), but not all of them.  Here’s a description from the site:

“Art Face Off is a new online home for the global art community. Everyday we have more and more people join our movement – possibly the most important movement in the art world of the information age – the development of a democratic world art community, flourishing and energized by the vigor of healthy competition.

As a global art community, we vote to choose the next great artists of our times. Our Face Off competitions are designed to promote all artists and encourage everyone to participate. We are different.

Our headquarters are located in Portland, Oregon, in a tiny gallery on the fringes of the Pearl Arts District. Steven W. Ochs, the gallery owner and instigator of the movement, began his quest to build Art Face Off in 2004. The website, finally launched on September 1, 2006, continues to grow rapidly as our volunteers and employees labor at the monumental task of getting the word out to every artist in the world.

Really?   Do they really think they will chose “great artists” this way?  Sounds Naive to me.

Well, I put my paintings in the hat, so if you go to this site, and when they get around to it, to show Marshall Sponder’s paintings – vote for me.  The only thing…I can’t control how often they’ll juxtapose my work against someone else’s or what rule engine they are using.

“Each Face Off spotlights two highly rated artists every five days. Thus, previously unheard of artists will gain instant notoriety as their work is exposed to thousands of art lovers across the world. Every artist who enters into the Art Face Off competition faces the possibility of becoming a world famous art icon.”

So I would go after someone big, like the Tate Gallery, the Metropolitan, the Whitney Museum….someone….some Art Institution to cosponsor this thing – give it the “stamp” of approval in the world of Art.  Even a Corporation, like IBM, HP, Cisco…someone – outside to the gallery running it.

How are the artists rated?

“Each artist who posts an online portfolio on ArtFaceOff.com enters their work in one of our eight media categories: Photography, Painting, Printmaking, Craft, 3 Dimensional, Digital, Drawing, and Mixed Media.

Their work is rated on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is beginning level amateur art and 10 is a masterpiece, by site visitors in a weighted rating system.

The ratings are weighted as follows:
Art curators’ ratings comprise 40% of the weight.
Artists’ ratings account for a slightly smaller 30% of the weight.
Logged in users’ ratings carry a small 20% of the weight.
Non-logged in users’ rating’s account for 10% of the weight.”

Nice idea – not sure about the weighting they chose.

OK, I will lay a challenge to ArtFaceOff.com. 

As a Web Analyst I am considered one of the best – let me see your Analytics and your search algo, so I can better understand how valid your search analysis of artists joining this effort is. 

I may be able to help ArtFaceOff.com better understand where there traffic is coming from, and at the end of the year, or in periodically, I’ll post to their blog, if they allow it, and have a blog (or make one for me) about the user demographics of people voting in the competition.

Why?  Because people are going to want to see the stats for this competition at the end of the day….to give it Legitimacy….people will ask for it – they will want to know how many people voted and why…and it’s a lot of data – I have had a lot of success taking data and making “Art” out it.