Sunday, November 2, 2008

Open Source Art


I have an idea for a new web community that is a cross between a blog, imdb, wikipedia, and iTunes. I'll get right to explaining it. Users can:
  • Post art of any medium: music, lyrics, poetry, video, stories, books, illustrations, graphic designs, paintings, technology-based art [web page layouts, ytmnd's, lolcats], you name it
  • Attribute the entry with searchable metadata that describe and categorizethe work for others to use for enjoyment, inspiration, education, or reference
  • Track the flow of ideas that go into the creation of any piece of work, thus providing further insight into the work itself - for instance a song can have its own blog entry and link to other music/poetry/blogs/outside news articles/facebook profiles/Google Maps/etc. that have contributed or inspired the work
  • Serve as an open source community of ideas to distribute, inspire, teach, catalog, and ultimately promote the creation of more art - sort of an opportunity for new art mashups, or simply a resource to learn more about your favorite song, painting, book, or artist.
An example:
  • A poet/lyricist can post her or his work for the community, with the option to include a background description, photos, etc.
  • A jive band who may shred but cannot write decent lyrics to save their life may stumble upon this writer's work and use it as inspiration or take it en mass to complete their own work
  • From this, any number of animators or film makers may want to create their version of a music video, or include the music in a film
  • The band can find another artist to create album art or web design
  • All portions can be cited by the contributing artist/tagged to be searchable/linked to other works that may have influenced/discussed by the original creator or the community
  • The work can be downloaded for free/open contribution (a la Radiohead)/purchase by track/purchase by album
  • The work can then be distributed easily via posting on other web sites, or compatibale iPod downloads, order prints, etc.
Although the open source aspect may seem to short change any single contributor (for instance of a web design or lyrics in this case), the contributor is given a citation and interested parties can easily contact the contributor or view other work.

Of course this can all be done already, but the niches are
A) the "open source" community of philanthropic artistic collaboration
1) entertainment value of learning/contributing background information about art
I) spam-free (I'm looking at you, myspace) and multi-format access to obtain music & art
N1) citation of ideas / implicit suggestion or promotion of other art

Update: (2/4/2010)
http://bandcamp.com - Great!