Picasso and the next stage of online advertising
As a junior in college I took an art history course in Madrid. A typical guy like me took art history to 1) impress attractive appreciators of art and 2) to avoid bi-weekly lectures on Don Quijote and his sidekick Pancho(?). No surprise, after 11 years all of it has been forgotten (now that I'm married not even reason 1 holds anymore). That said, ol' art history did leave a few strong impressions...
1. There's plenty of posers but only few original works of art.
Picasso is a great example of a pure original. The result was not always pretty, but Picasso created something blindingly new by taking on a completely 'tweaked' perspective. Greatness from non-conformity, irrationality (and potentially some very good drugs). Once Picasso crossed that threshold, the mob of posers followed. Bob Ross' hair notwithstanding (where do all those landscape paintings end up anyway... probably eBay), now any MBA/ex-consultant can be a cubist.
In the online realm, MS, Netscape, eBay, Google, Yahoo (to name a few) represent complete originals. Perhaps they weren't the first to conceive the idea, but they were certainly the first to fully execute new concepts with blind faith through the 2000-2002 implosion. Much like watching that first acrid plume of black smoke at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, we were witnesses to a new epoch of information transparency and commercial democracy. Markets literally underwent a cataclysmic shift as consumers engaged with increasingly integrated mediums of online communication and commerce. That said, over a decade has passed since the start of this thing and many of the new ideas seem a lot more evolutionary than revolutionary. Now any MBA/ex-consultant can create a search and auction site by buying off-the-shelf software (Wagglepop we barely knew you) or through high-volume Chinese manufacturing purchases of Overstock...
2. Great art begat Good art begat Crap art begat Great Art
The Van Goghs and Picasso's of the world took vicious, irrational leaps of faith from the rubble of the conventional to become great. That said, the number of artists who attempted the same and remain nameless are legion. But without these numerous failed attempts, the craft would never have evolved.
So it goes online. Take the example of www.snap.com. From our friend Senor Gross at Idealab! this is a fairly innovative and new take on search - 1) buyer keyword optimization through real-time keyword usage queries 2) natural search algorithm that focuses on a mob of Snap! online census takers gauging real-time clicks, average page views and traffic monetization and 3) a best effort pay-for-performance ad system. I wont assume that THIS is the next viable competitor to Google, but I love the fairly significant leap of faith to introduce a more effective search model. Snap feels more edgy than the vertical and specialized search crew, more Picasso than Bob Ross.
So hear hear to the innovators at Idealab! (and countless other entrepreneurs) as they risk following the footsteps of Don Quijote and Pancho(?) with the windmills and giants and stuff (gawd that book made no sense), all to pursue the unconventional, irrational (non-drug-induced) great and original concept made real.
1. There's plenty of posers but only few original works of art.
Picasso is a great example of a pure original. The result was not always pretty, but Picasso created something blindingly new by taking on a completely 'tweaked' perspective. Greatness from non-conformity, irrationality (and potentially some very good drugs). Once Picasso crossed that threshold, the mob of posers followed. Bob Ross' hair notwithstanding (where do all those landscape paintings end up anyway... probably eBay), now any MBA/ex-consultant can be a cubist.
In the online realm, MS, Netscape, eBay, Google, Yahoo (to name a few) represent complete originals. Perhaps they weren't the first to conceive the idea, but they were certainly the first to fully execute new concepts with blind faith through the 2000-2002 implosion. Much like watching that first acrid plume of black smoke at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, we were witnesses to a new epoch of information transparency and commercial democracy. Markets literally underwent a cataclysmic shift as consumers engaged with increasingly integrated mediums of online communication and commerce. That said, over a decade has passed since the start of this thing and many of the new ideas seem a lot more evolutionary than revolutionary. Now any MBA/ex-consultant can create a search and auction site by buying off-the-shelf software (Wagglepop we barely knew you) or through high-volume Chinese manufacturing purchases of Overstock...
2. Great art begat Good art begat Crap art begat Great Art
The Van Goghs and Picasso's of the world took vicious, irrational leaps of faith from the rubble of the conventional to become great. That said, the number of artists who attempted the same and remain nameless are legion. But without these numerous failed attempts, the craft would never have evolved.
So it goes online. Take the example of www.snap.com. From our friend Senor Gross at Idealab! this is a fairly innovative and new take on search - 1) buyer keyword optimization through real-time keyword usage queries 2) natural search algorithm that focuses on a mob of Snap! online census takers gauging real-time clicks, average page views and traffic monetization and 3) a best effort pay-for-performance ad system. I wont assume that THIS is the next viable competitor to Google, but I love the fairly significant leap of faith to introduce a more effective search model. Snap feels more edgy than the vertical and specialized search crew, more Picasso than Bob Ross.
So hear hear to the innovators at Idealab! (and countless other entrepreneurs) as they risk following the footsteps of Don Quijote and Pancho(?) with the windmills and giants and stuff (gawd that book made no sense), all to pursue the unconventional, irrational (non-drug-induced) great and original concept made real.
posted by Ro at 5/04/2005
2 Comments:
We know the art class didn't help you score. :-)
« Le Jou, la Bataille s’est engage » or « The Game, the battle has begun »
Good call with the Picasso reference. In fact, the battle of online communication and commerce is not far cry from the provocative challenge sent by Picasso in his 1912 collage, “The Guitar with Wine Glass”, to his friendly rival Georges Braque. Interestingly enough…there is a large debate over the creator of cubism. To that, I say, wait until we have a roaring fire and a drink in our hands.
Both Braque and Picasso threw down gauntlets back and forth through their art daring the other artist to push the boundaries of art and human perception/imagination a little further each time. Attempting to be the most cutting edge/modern in their field, watching each other’s every move in order to counter it and yet both men still aiming for the consumer’s adoration (or perhaps their pocketbook)… not unlike the cyber titans of our times.
But why do we remember just Picasso as the creator of cubism and not even relegating Braque a newspaper boat to float the backwaters of our minds? Perhaps it is because Picasso was able to meet the challenges of Braque with an eye to the future painters. After their 6 year “collaboration”, Picasso throws Braque aside and begins competing with the rising artists in new genres. An early day Madonna (and I speak not of the Holy Mother), Picasso constantly reinvented himself by reading his upcoming audience and competition. Braque, alas, fell back to his old habits - fauvism. And talk about Wagglepop syndrome, hello fauvism (which garnered the same amount of time on the art history continuum as one of my favorite “blink and you’ll miss it” art periods - the Japanese Taisho period).
Keep writing, Ro-man, and perhaps you can solve the question that has been on my mind for a long time “Was Google was named after googol of the famed googolplex?”
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