

Art.sy, a collection of the world's greatest art - giorgiofontana
http://art.sy/

======
andrewcooke
(really) nice site + curation, but what's the target audience? it seems like
it's going to be too high priced / limited numbers for mass market sales? do
you display prices to registered users? if not, how do you expect to filter
large amounts of queries (i'm confused about the balance between wide audience
and price / quality)? is the best way to see this as a portal to established
(commercial) galleries (with a few "big" exhibits thrown in to keep it looking
good)? if so, how do you plan to attract return visitors?

i know i asked similar questions here before, so apologies if this is to the
same team. also, from that discussion, are you worried about people's
reluctance to buy before seeing "for real"? maybe location filtering would be
useful?

(finally, maybe just me, but i was (am?) confused by your use of "collection"
and whether that meant creating on-line "favourites" or actually owning a
piece of art).

oh, and this seems to be aimed at the us market, but op is italian

EDIT - the nyt link from cvursache answers much of this (i hadn't realise this
was related to the art genome project)

~~~
carterac
Thanks for the feedback. Our goal is to make all the world's art freely
accessible and so in the short-term we are more focused on building our
database and the Art Genome Project than a particular audience. In the long-
term we intend Art.sy to be a tool for collectors to more easily discover new
artists and galleries, and more easily purchase art. This commercial activity
will ensure that Art.sy remains free for the 99.9% of people out there who
will never buy art, but don't currently have access to it, particularly lower
income and rural demographics who live outside of major city centers.

The collection feature is just for saving your favorites. Although expect some
major upgrades to that soon.

Also, I wouldn't be a good founder if I didn't mention that we are looking for
interaction + visual designers (we believe in bringing both together),
software engineers, and art world professionals:

art.sy/jobs

We're also really into open-source. You can check out our projects here:
<http://artsy.github.com/open-source/>

------
MatthewPhillips
I'm a huge fan of art.sy. Even though I'll never be able to afford most of the
art on the site, it is a great way to discover new artists. I also adore the
design, they did a fantastic job of making it minimal but still modern (it's
tiny stuff like the transition that happens when you click Browse). I like how
this flat design aesthetic is evolving. Art.sy's design could be called
"Metro", I suppose, but it looks nothing like Microsoft's designs.

If you're looking for JavaScript or Clojure engineers, I'm interested.

~~~
orta
We are: <http://art.sy/job/developer>

------
engtech
Interesting site, but I found it hard to get in to a groove of stuff I found
interesting.

The introduction to the site might work better if it followed a model like
netflix where they always show new users some very popular stuff in different
genres at the start so they can see the value of it.

That holds true for any content website, lead with your best foot to get
engagement, and then lead people down the garden paths to see the obscura.

------
knewter
I love these guys. @dblockdotorg was nice enough to let me, my wife, and my
CTO come check out General Assembly and their space while I was in New York
earlier this year. Their code seems solid, I've happened upon stuff @dblock
wrote when looking for solutions to something (grape-on-rack, some mongoid
bits), and in general can't say enough nice things about this company.
Congrats to them.

~~~
dblock
Thanks so much for the kind words :)

------
melkisch
Congrats, you have a great site. Do you intend to add social features like a
follow button not only for artists but also for collectors?

I believe it helped a lot <http://theartstack.com/> getting users.

------
JosephRedfern
How are the Artists/pieces chosen?

~~~
cvursache
The Art Genome Project blog explains how the artists/pieces are chosen
<http://theartgenomeproject.tumblr.com> .

There's also a nice article on the NYTimes about how art.sy works:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/arts/design/artsy-is-
mappi...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/arts/design/artsy-is-mapping-the-
world-of-art-on-the-web.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

------
sgdesign
Great execution. I love how the site pops up from the bottom on the landing
page and you can use it right away, that's an awesome idea for any kind of
demo. I might just steal it for my own projects!

~~~
dblock
There's a blog post on 3d transforms here:
[http://artsy.github.com/blog/2012/10/18/so-you-want-to-
do-a-...](http://artsy.github.com/blog/2012/10/18/so-you-want-to-do-a-
css3-3d-transform/)

There's also an awesome open-source project by a fellow NY dev here:
<https://github.com/hakimel/meny> that accomplishes the same thing (we didn't
use it because it's frame-based).

------
mapleoin
Urgh, that's the most gratuitous and ugly use of openGL I've seen so far.

------
agconway
Nice talk From Art'sy Director, Matt Israel, at DataGotham:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9X3_8te4hs>

------
soperj
The "take me to artsy anyway" on the unsupported browser screen doesn't work.
Just goes to the same unsupported browser page.

~~~
dblock
We set a cookie when you click that and don't redirect to the error when that
happens. So two questions: 1) do you have cookies enabled 2) what's your
browser?

Feel free to e-mail support@art.sy with this.

------
westondeboer
Invitations available here <http://art.sy/fp5i3l>

------
jherdman
Seems to be completely broken on FF 16

~~~
dblock
Can you please drop a note to support[at]art.sy with what you see?

------
b7ffh5
But it supports Syrian dictator. See

[http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/foreigners/2012/08/...](http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/foreigners/2012/08/art_sy_s_syrian_domain_name_could_the_company_be_violating_u_s_sanctions_.html)

