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Art and the promotion of art is becoming increasingly digital - most artists nowadays have an Instagram account where they post their art - yet people's desire for real-life experiences and creating their own social media presence through photographs has prompted us to see the opportunity in transforming the digital into the physical. In a team of four, my co-founders and I have envisioned a start-up that hosts Pop-up exhibitions around the country to help local artists who lack marketing skills to gain exposure through us as a platform. Within half a year, we successfully hosted a two-week exhibition under the budget of $100 given in class (originated from a class project). Our April 2018 exhibition is highlights Los Angeles artists who use Instagram as their main means of marketing and we marketed and displayed their work in a way that would increase their social media following, thereby gaining influence.
艺术不断在被数码化- 大多数艺术家都在Instagram上展示他们的作品- 而人们对亲身体验与获得“网红”照片的欲望却一路飙升，这两个看似矛盾的现状让我们看到了将数码转变为实体艺术的机会。从拿到限定100元本金的商业创新课上开始，一切都起源于我们四个大学生对原创艺术的热情和现代人对艺术呈现的高要求：通过协办一系列的快闪展览来帮助当地有独特作品却缺乏营销手段的艺术家来增加曝光度和找到属于他们的观众。由于我们的初创项目起源于课堂，我们在规定的半年内用100元美金的预算成功办了我们第一次持续两周的展，收获了900余名参观者和媒体关注。本年度四月的展览位于洛杉矶艺术区，主要展出了洛杉矶当地用Instagram作为主要推广方式的艺术家的作品，我们用自己的设计创想和对当代人心理的把握将他们的作品以一种抓人眼球的方式营销并实体呈现出来，以此增加影响力。
8/10 of the articles on the first page of Google, when searching “why artists fail,” explicitly mention a lack of business & exposure skills as a main reason.
8/10 篇谷歌主页的文章中，缺乏商业与营销头脑是艺术家失败为终的原因。
We contacted almost 200 artists online through hashtags and Los Angeles location tags, and we handpicked the artists’ works with the most potential in gaining following, with an upper limit of artist following of around 1000. Because all artists are local, many were able to come to our show and interact with the viewers. For some of them our show was their first showing and for some they had more showing experience, but we were so thrilled to see the sharing of art and conversations surrounding art. Initially many people doubted us for not paying the artists to show their art, but the result has proven them wrong - for the 99% undiscovered artists, they are more than eager to show their art. It is a mutually beneficial deal because we use their content and they gain free exposure.
通过标签和洛杉矶坐标搜索，我们联系了近两百名网上艺术家，并亲手选出了最具关注度潜能的艺术家-那些有出色作品却不到1000追踪者的人。由于艺术家都来自本地，他们大多数都在我们展览期间到现场来与观者互动；许多艺术家也是第一次正式的在美术馆展示作品。这些关于艺术的交流与传播，完美达成了我们的初衷。我们也打破了一开始其他人对我们的质疑：难道你们不需要付钱来请艺术家把自己的作品给你们吗？答案是，那99%被埋没的艺术家都抢着要免费展示他们的作品。因为这是一个互惠互利的策略：在我们得到可展出的好作品时，他们得到了免费的曝光度。
Through displaying the originally digital work in a close-up, physical medium, we aim to give the viewers a visually enhancing experience that they would never have browsing through their Instagram feed. But in order to make it trendy, we decided to incorporate the Instagram features, usernames and current likes that also prompts viewers to actually follow the artists with their own Instagram accounts.
作品本身是电子的，但放大、近距离地展出能够给观展者一种更真实的视觉冲击，是光浏览Instagram体验不到的。为了更好的突出主题并吸引年轻人的眼球，我们将作品镶嵌在经典Instagram边框中，保留艺术家的用户名和目前的赞和追踪者数量，鼓励人们用自己的账户去关注喜欢的艺术家。
Our first visualization of how we display the art is with simplistic black clips and a digital interactive aspect which viewers can see the likes go up on the physical work as they like the artwork on their own account. We had a working web-hosted mechanism built for the real-time LIKE feature, and our first printed, to-scale MVP.
我们最初的展出作品的方法包括简约风的黑夹子和人机互动的成分(观者可以看到当自己用自己账号点赞时，实体作品上的赞数同速增加)。去年11月此特殊功能我们已用网络服务器编出了可行的程序，并且我们生产了我们的第一幅印刷画。
My vision of how the entire space could look like can also be shown in my initial model. We would use a multitude of ways to display the art, such as creating a suspended maze, magnifying selected works onto the wall, and providing tools for people to better explore the art through its own theme. Fortunately, some elements were accurately implemented at our show, such as the black clips and suspension aspect.
我对这个展览的空间设想大部分都落实在了最终展览中，最主要的比如悬吊式，用作品构成的照片墙迷宫，可以让观者得有二维和三维同时的视觉冲击。
Just two months before the projected date for exhibition, we have thought about pivoting, yet our passion about our idea propelled us to keep grinding. We were finally able to strike a deal with Art Share LA, a local non-profit art museum, having convinced the CEO with our creativity and presented credibility. Instead of paying the rent, we traded labor of repainting the walls ourselves and promising all the proceeds go back to the museum, which fulfills our initial requirement to donate all money any way. Thereby, we got our venue and a lot of help from expert installation artists living in Art Share LA, for free.
短短几个月中，我们团队面临过放弃转型的念头，因为预计展览时间前两个月还没能确定地点。但终于在不懈努力后，我们成功与一家洛杉矶市中心的非营利性独立美术馆Art Share LA 达成了合约，我们的想法与创意使管理人动心，并且他们乐意免费将场地给我们，并给予了专业安装艺术家的帮助。当然，本身我们项目的最终盈利需要捐给我们选择的慈善机构 - 我们便承诺将盈利捐回给他们。
Guided by the eye: our logo is designed to be the first thing viewers see. 注意力由视线主导，我们的标志是你看到的第一个画面。
Ordered by the amount of visual impact and spatially arranged on staggering levels, these are the first three works your eyes see, almost like they are floating.
以最具视觉冲击的作品排列，和交错有致的空间安排，你最先看到的三个作品在我与工作人员的研究下实行了悬吊的效果，仿佛漂浮在半空。
These works all have to to exactly where they go right now, together as five, they form a conversation in their color scheme and their motion.
这五样作品在这样的摆放顺序下出现，使得整面墙都活了起来，它们在对话，无论是色调上还是造型上。
These pieces are brought by their own artists with their unique frames and matches perfectly with the wall material and size.
这些独立作品由他们的主人亲自带来，有属于自己的边框并完美在墙的不同材质或大小上呈现。
One of the artists, Federico, brought his installation art he exhibited in Chicago along with printed descriptions and music that enhanced the entire viewing experience.
其中一位艺术家亲自带了他在芝加哥展出过的三维装置艺术，还有简介和加强观感效果的音乐。
In order to compensate digital interactivity originally envisioned, I created “a wall of motion graphics” and collected generative art projects from students - adding the element of play with shadow and camera interactivity.
为了弥补原本十分重要的电子互动元素，我创造了一面”动态影像”墙并利用现有的资源(同学们的程序生成动画作品) - 让观者可以在观看有趣动画的同时，自己的影子也成为作品的一部分，是一个拍照片的好地点。
Coherent with the entire theme, the bio follows the Instagram format with username, follow button, and bio, which prompts viewers to take out their phone to follow.
为了使整体品牌概念贯穿所有元素，艺术家的简介也同样是Instagram的版图，保留了用户名，关注健，简介等等，促使观者拿出手机关注。
To better guide our viewers, I also prepared stickers and brochures.为了更好的引导观者，我设计了贴纸和宣传册。
To enhance interactivity, viewers each received heart stickers to put beside their favorites - delivering a similar message as the real-time like feature.
为了加强互动，每个观者可以将爱心贴纸放在最喜欢的作品旁-这样传达了跟实时点赞系统同样的寓意。
People can purchase tickets on the dates of our exhibition on our website (prototype). 人们可以从官网上买票。
People can purchase tickets on the dates of our exhibition on our website (prototype). 人们可以从官网上买票。
As one of our most original goals, we wanted our exhibition to be “Instagrammable”- meaning it is designed in a way where people want to take artsy pictures and post on their own account, such as the “The Happy Place” and “Infinity Mirrors”. Many viewers voluntarily posted on their Instagram main feed and tagged us - creating around 400 more impressions in two days. This is free, organic marketing for us.
最原始的目标之一便是”网红照属性” - 我们除了展出高质量艺术品之外，展览的设计能够让观者自愿拍，并拍得出”网红”照片，发在自己的账号上然后标注我们。短短两天，观者发照片给了我们免费的有机网络营销，为我们账号增加了近400个点击量(只有公众号管理者才能看见)。
Originally, we only had two days at the venue to exhibit the art, but since the viewers received it so well, Art Share LA requested to exhibit for two more weeks (without us stationing obviously). More than 900 people visited throughout the two weeks of exhibition, including targeted audience and visitors of Art Share LA. Because the venue itself is usually free for visitors, we did not charge ticket price to enter our exhibition - we only suggested donation of $10 per person. For the two days when we stationed at the venue, we earned $533 in revenue, with total cost of only $123, a gross margin of 333%. Before and after our show, the artist with the highest increase in followers gained 195 followers, all artists gained an average of 30.2 followers, and a total of 453 followers added up.
虽然本身美术馆只给了我们两天的展览时间，最终因为观者反馈强烈，他们要求我们再加展两周。这两周里，总计多于900人参观了我们的展。由于美术馆其他的展都是免费的，我们没有硬性要求观者付门票钱(只是建议10刀捐助)。尽管如此，最终我们收获了533美金收益，仅用了123美金成本金，毛利达到333%。展览前后统计显示，粉丝增长数量最多的艺术家新获195个，平均每个艺术家30.2个，总共453个。
In the future when are able to fundraise and have more start-up budget, we are going to incorporate the real-time LIKE feature, and other interactive features to charge an inflated ticket price which people would still go. We are also going to ask artists’ permission to sell their printed art and produce merchandised items for sale to increase revenue and exposure.
未来计划中，我们不会有在课上时间和预算的限制，并且可以筹款。有了更多的本金，我们可以实施人机互动功能(实时点赞) 和其他互动元素，让人们愿意花不少钱来观展。我们下次展览时还会提前与艺术家们沟通，在他们同意的情况下卖他们的印刷作品和有他们作品的商品(如衣服，画册等)，然后分成，来增加利润