As many of you may know I’ve been locked in a basement for the past month or so building something in my secret underground lair. I’m getting really close to being done and I am looking for a bit of guidance from the art community on the topic of classification. If you have a few minutes, please read below and provide feedback in the comments section. Thanks for reading!
What I’m working on
Basically I’m building computer software that enables 2 and 3 dimensional artists to easily create and manage portfolios of their work on a website. The program in question is an extension of the WordPress publishing platform and will be released for free under the GNU Public License.
How you can help
Basically, there are many ways to help out and if you are interested or have ideas, I’m totally up for hearing them! But in this very early stage I was wondering “How would you classify your art”. The software will come pre-installed with multiple options that you may use to easily create different ways of viewing your work. One such method is “Body of Work”. If you choose to enable this method of classification, you can easily add custom bodies of work and add different pieces to each one.
I intend for the program to be as flexible as possible and to be of value to artists, galleries, collectives. The term artist is meant to be as broad as possible – encompassing many different disciplines including but not limited to painters, designers, illustrators, sculptors, photographers, etc…
The List of Classification Methods
Artists
This classification method is indispensable for websites that display work from multiple different artists. Art galleries, collectives and group sites will find this especially useful.
Bands
This method was installed for graphic designers who work in the music industry. This is a great way to classify your portfolio if you regularly find yourself producing designs for CD’s, posters, t-shirts or other music related products.
Clients
This is a good choice for artists who do work-for-hire. This includes, but is not limited to the fields of graphic design, interior design, architecture, etc.
Collectors
no description
Exhibits
Are you an artists who regularly displays your work? Do you run an art gallery that has rotating, monthly exhibits? If you answered yes to either of these questions you should consider using this classification method on your website.
Locations
An easy way to track the inventory of one-of-a-kind works. There are two scenarios in which this method can be of use. 1 – If you regularly display work at different galleries it might be beneficial to log this information with your website. 2 – If you are interested in keeping track of where your work is located after it has sold.
Medium
The media that you used to create your piece. Media should not include the surface or substrate on which the work was created. Example: If you are adding a piece to your site which was created by applying oil-based paint to canvas, the media term should be “oil” not “oil on canvas”. Better organization can be achieved by separating the media used from the surface it was applied to.
Series
no description
Substrates
no description
Symbolism
no description
Types
This method of classification is intended to be as general as possible leaving it open to multiple interpretations for different websites. If you are a visual artist whose work encompasses a wide variety of disciplines, it might be best to create terms like “Painting”, “Drawing” and/or “Sculpture”. If you find that you would like to add products or reproductions to your website, “Type” is general enough to be used for this purpose as well.
Questions that I have
- Would you add anything to the list?
- Would you remove anything from the list?
- Would it be better to release it with one big list, or create multiple packages that contain methods tailored to a certain discipline and release them separately?
- Would like like to write descriptions for any of the items that do not have one? These are used in the help section. I’ll give ya props!