Art and the web don't have to be strange bedfellows. A content strategist and curator discuss what artists have to gain from embracing the web and learning the basics of usable web design.

1. The real & the virtual
Elizabeth McGuane & Jonathan Carroll

2. Grappling with the virtual
Elizabeth McGuane

3. Why should you put your
work on the web?

4. The web =
a lack of
control
Credit: Matt Stokes et al, Art on the Underground

5. Art can’t be boiled down
But the way we present it should
be simple and clear

6. Art and technology are not
new bedfellows

7. But they
don’t have
to give birth
to this
Image credit: Maurice Li, vectorialvancouver.net

9. Option 1
Work can be
displayed &
distributed online:
the web as virtual
gallery
Website: Saatchi Gallery Online

10. Option 2
Work that
engages
directly with
the web as
a medium
Website: www.wefeelfine.org/

11. Website: www.wefeelfine.org/

13. The questions you need to
ask are the same questions
curators have always
asked

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

15. Curation shouldn’t be an
obstacle
When you go to an exhibition, what do
you need to see?

16. Online & offline
you need to understand your
materials

17. do so many sites look like this?

18. 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

19. These are
the principles of
good design

20. Credit: Jason Santa Maria

21. Online
Art is not
site-specific
Installation: Jeff Stark / Photo credit: Katherine Lorimer

22. Online, our perception is
influenced
by what we link our work to
and by the language around it

23. The web lets
you speak
directly to your
audience
Credit: Terry Summers - Fox Galleries, Brisbane, Australia.

24. This is terrifying.

25. And it’s where content
strategy comes in

26. What is your content?

27. It’s your body of work.

28. Stand back and treat your
work as a curator might.
Credit: Paramount Pictures

30. How?

31. How?
CATALOGUE IT

32. How?
CATALOGUE IT

33. How?
CATALOGUE IT

34. Next:
Decide how to organise it

35. Why
does it have to be
chronological?

36. What
about
by series?
Credit: Rania Hanssen, goshdarnknit.blogspot.com

37. What
about
by materials?

38. Does
platform
matter?

39. No: content strategy
is tool-agnostic

40. You don't buy a frame
and then paint a picture
to fit that size.

41. What
matters
is your
content:
it’s the engine
for your web
presence

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

43. You’ve built your site:
What next?

44. Connecting with the real
The web can help you grow without
galleries

45. To Tweet
or to
Facebook?

46. These tools won’t do
anything that hasn’t been
done before

47. But they can broaden your reach

48. Where to start?

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