This case study was developed to be read in association with the Theory in Practice Series.
Case 2. Creating A Cyber Gallery
Nick Bleasel is a printmaker and painter whose work deals with social commentary in the ‘street art’ tradition. Nick’s practice involves the creation of posters, badges, signs, T shirts, cartoons, stickers and fridge magnets. In 2003 he spoke with Merrilee Kessler about why and how he set up his website.
“As my art deals with social commentary, the need for me to explore methods of broad exposure is essential. And while I am pragmatic about any individual artwork's chances of effecting broad change, without exposure of the artwork, there is no hope at all.”
Nick designed his site himself (www.heynick.com) and it has been running since 1999. Since 2000 the site has had a web counter and in that time it has received 8,074 visitors (as at 30/12/2003).
Q. What was the motivation for setting up the site?
A. I wanted to have some other presence than a gallery show for 3 weeks once every 2 years. It is important that work based on social commentary and street art is accessible to the public. There is so much media that the artworld hasn’t gotten into and I see the internet as a ‘cheap to access’ TV station.
The site is about having my own art gallery and it also works well as a permanent brochure for my work.
Q. How did you do it?
A. The design was informed by visiting other sites. I deliberately designed it so it could be used by someone on a slow computer, therefore I avoided devices like large flash movies. One of the positive feedbacks I have received is that people say it’s so easy to use. You have to keep in mind the audience’s needs and don’t design a site that’s heavy in features. People won’t wait (for complicated graphics to download) so you have very little time to appeal to them.
Nick’s suggestions on some aspects of getting a site up:
Registration. Try to get a dot com, not a dot au. Australian registration requirements are complicated, expensive and inflexible.
You have to register the name and the server base that hosts the site and they are often two different organisations and payments. Go through Google to find web hosters.
Domain Name. Don’t have a long domain name, people can’t remember it. And it has to be easy to spell. If my site was called nickbleasel.com no one would remember how to spell bleasel.
Write the proposed name down and consider it as a graphic. Is it easy to read and remember?
Choosing A Server. Look for a competitive price. My site is located in the US. I’ve had some problems when trying to fix problems on the site but the degree of helpfulness has not been different from what I would expect from an Australian server.
Time Commitment. Sites can be incredibly time consuming both in the time spent developing and as an ongoing process. How you design the site from day one will determine how easy it is to alter in the future. It is very important to think in terms of a site that will get bigger and how it will be efficiently altered.
I probably spend about one day per month working on the site, but this would be broken down into a few hours per week. The site doesn’t need to be updated every day and I’d suggest a practitioner should redesign his/her site if it does.
I’d also spend about one hour a day responding to emails, and I check that every day.
Q. What were the major learning hurdles?
A. The first site I designed I used Pagemaker but I now use Dreamweaver. Setting up a site isn’t all that hard but the html language is reasonably basic. It’s more like a clunky word program than a modern graphic design program. It requires you to think broadly about how everything will end up working. You need to learn the flow chart of it and then do it.I remade the site after about 2 years. The main aim was to tidy everything up and put things in folders and files. This created individual sections which can be remade without having to redo the whole site.
Q. How is the site advertised?
A. Mainly through the work - I put the address on the physical artworks (posters, postcards etc.)I think it’s extremely inefficient trying to advertise websites via the internet. You can code into the pages various search key words so it is easier for the site to come up in a search. I’ve done that, but when I did a search myself using those words I didn’t find my site anywhere near the top of the list.
A web counter can be analysed and can tell you where you are getting hits from. I had this service at one time and it was interesting but for me it wasn’t worth the money you have to pay.
I find that word of mouth is good. The postcards I have done, which went out via Avant Card (I wasn’t paid for the use of the image but I also didn’t have to pay the usual fee to have them printed and distributed) have been good for attracting visitors - an image is on the front of the card and the web address is on the back.However, there are people who know the work, maybe through Avant Card, but they won’t go to the site.Linking your site to others is also important.
A lot of search engines rate sites by how many other sites link to it (the rating determines how high up in the list a site is shown when a search is done.)
I did a daytime interview with Triple J (radio station), in which the site was mentioned once, and that resulted in 500 hits in one half hour period.
Artists with web sites should insist that every time their work is shown or discussed, say in catalogues, newspaper reviews etc, they have their website address listed. The protocol at present seems to be that the artist’s gallery will be noted but it should be just as standard that if the artist has a site then that is also noted - the website as gallery/contact point.
Q. Have your expectations been met in terms of what the site does for your practice?
A. I need to say upfront that my work isn’t ‘web art’. The internet is the digital display of work I do for other situations. As such I find the internet as good as TV in terms of displaying work. There are obviously limitations in terms of the size of the file you can have but the medium is sympathetic to reproductions.
My original expectations were low and they have been exceeded. I have gotten far more out of my practice by having the site. There would have been something missing in the communication I can have with the audience without the site.
Q. How does the internet presence compliment the physical work?
A. I see the internet as another form of street art. It’s not a a huge part of my practice but it is as useful as putting stickers up on a wall.
Q. Are there barriers or complications to selling over the net and how have you dealt with these?
A. Selling via the internet with a credit card facility etc is stupidly prohibitive in Australia. In the US you can join some organisation who will process the transaction for a limited percentage of the sale value.
But the list of charges that are imposed in Australia is extraordinary. For example, there is a monthly fee, a commission fee on sales as well as a fee per transaction. (A local bank can give information on what’s involved and how much it costs).
On the other hand, people seem resistant to writing cheques. You get a certain number of people who will email you to say they’ll purchase but an even fewer number who actually do. I don’t think it’s so much that they distrust the transaction, it’s just the inconvenience. Therefore, you really do need online credit facilities and maybe the government should be taking a role in making it more affordable for small businesses.
There are various levels of sales interactions that can occur over the net, you don’t necessarily have to have the full system where its all done via computer, right up to sending the money to the bank. Having a merchant card and treating internet sales like telephone sales might be a good idea. But I don’t really try to sell over the net any more.
Q. You also use an email list to send occasional notices to people on the list. How were the names collected and what does it achieve?
A. An associated email list is a good idea for a site. All sites should have an invitation to join the list. People are receptive to a well timed email although you can’t abuse it by sending crap every week. You also shouldn’t use other people’s lists, it needs to be built personally. And don’t share your list with others. Email lists are a good way of talking to people who have expressed a desire to be talked to. It does get people to go back and look at the site again.
© National Association for the Visual Arts Ltd, 2008 This information is provided as general information only and should not be relied on for advice. Professional tax and legal advice must be sought for specific issues. Information correct as at time of printing. Not responsibility taken for any errors or omissions.
