The Real & the Virtual: Art & the Web

The real & the virtualElizabeth McGuane & Jonathan Carroll

Grappling with the virtualElizabeth McGuane

Why should you put yourwork on the web?

The web =a lack ofcontrol Credit: Matt Stokes et al, Art on the Underground

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

Art and technology are notnew bedfellows

But theydon’t haveto give birthto this Image credit: Maurice Li, vectorialvancouver.net

Option 1Work can bedisplayed &distributed online:the web as virtualgallery Website: Saatchi Gallery Online

Option 2Work thatengagesdirectly withthe web asa medium Website: www.wefeelﬁne.org/

Website: www.wefeelﬁne.org/

The questions you need toask are the same questions curators have always asked

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

Curation shouldn’t be anobstacleWhen you go to an exhibition, what doyou need to see?

Online & ofﬂineyou need to understand yourmaterials

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 arethe principles ofgood design

Credit: Jason Santa Maria

OnlineArt is notsite-speciﬁc Installation: Jeff Stark / Photo credit: Katherine Lorimer

Online, our perception isinﬂuencedby what we link our work toand by the language around it

The web letsyou speakdirectly to youraudience Credit: Terry Summers - Fox Galleries, Brisbane, Australia.

This is terrifying.

And it’s where contentstrategy comes in

What is your content?

It’s your body of work.

Stand back and treat yourwork as a curator might. Credit: Paramount Pictures

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 strategyis tool-agnostic

You dont buy a frameand then paint a pictureto ﬁt that size.

Whatmattersis yourcontent:it’s the enginefor your webpresence

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

You’ve built your site:What next?

Connecting with the realThe web can help you grow withoutgalleries

To Tweetor toFacebook?

These tools won’t doanything that hasn’t beendone before

But they can broaden your reach

Where to start?

Thanks for listening.I’m online at:• @emcguane• mappedblog.com

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The Real & the Virtual: Art & the Web

by Mapped. A Content Strategy Blog.

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The Real & the Virtual: Art & the Web Presentation Transcript