The New York Public Library has thousands of historical photographs and illustrations of NYC that you can help geotag with a new tool called “Surveyor.”
Crowd Sourcing
Posted inArt
Assert Your 21st Amendment Freedom by Transcribing Wine Label History
More than 5,000 wine labels at the University of California, Davis, chronicle the industry from the 1800s to the 1950s, before and after Prohibition in the United States.
Posted inBooks
The Call to Action to Save Digitized Books from Oblivion
Digitization may be increasing the accessibility to the history of literature, but there is something lost about the book as a physical object.
Posted inArt
Crowdsourcing the Bronze Age in a New Platform for Archaeology
Some of the most significant records on human history remain inaccessible to a wide audience. A new open source crowdsourcing platform called MicroPasts is looking to involve online amateurs in collaborations with professional archaeologists to create digital records of archive collections.
Posted inNews
National Exhibition Will Fill US Billboards with Art
Five American art museums and the Outdoor Advertising Association of America will mount a nationwide public art exhibition this summer. Art Everywhere will bring reproductions of some 50 artworks from the museums’ collections — chosen how else but through an online public vote — to billboards, subway platforms, train stations, and more.
Posted inNews
Italy Crowdsources Art Conservation Decision
Stories of Italy struggling to save its cultural heritage amid governmental dysfunction and a lack of funds are commonplace these days. But tales of the Italians getting creative with their efforts have been springing up too, and a piece from NPR yesterday points to another example: a program called L’Arte Aiuta L’Arte, or “Art Helps Art.”
Posted inArt
Can a Crowdsourced Narrative of Failure Do Anything But Fail?
In looking to create a visual of the word “failure,” the Archive of Failure seems almost designed to fail. The project, funded by the Arts Council’s Grants for The Arts in the United Kingdom, is crowdsourcing an online and print narrative of anyone’s idea of what the word failure is, with “no curating, no overarching ‘quality control,’ and no selection process.”
Posted inArt
Slimming Down the Short Lists: A Look at 10 ArtPrize Finalists
Most of the year, the art world’s attention is focused on the big, international cities: New York, London, Miami Beach, LA, Basel, etc. But starting in the fall of 2009, ArtPrize put the far lesser-known city of Grand Rapids, Michigan on the art world map. ArtPrize quickly became famous in part for its openness — anyone over 18 may enter their artwork; in part for its voting style — often described as American Idol–like, with anyone allowed to register and vote; and in part for the large sums of money it gives away — $200,000 for the winner of the public vote, another $160,000 for the others in the public top 10, plus a new $100,000 Grand Juried prize this year and five more $20,000 juried awards in specific categories. That’s a whole lot of prize money.
Posted inOpinion
Why Crowd-Sourced Voting Can’t Win
By now the votes are in, and the winner of LA’s inaugural Mohn Award has been announced: Botswana-born painter Meleko Mokgosi will receive $100,000 over the next two years, and a monograph will be published about his work. The Mohn Award, which is being funded by LA philanthropists and collectors Jarl and Pamela Mohn, was an American Idol–style arts competition that enlisted both art experts and the general public. The former chose five finalists from among the 60 artists in the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A. biennial — also happening for the first time this year — and the latter then decided the winner.
Posted inOpinion
Take a Tour of Detroit with an Insider’s View
LOS ANGELES — One Day in Detroit is a crowdsourced tour guide experience with a simple goal.
Posted inNews
Brooklyn Museum Returns to Crowd Curating with “Go”
Last Friday the Brooklyn Museum announced plans for Go, a new crowd-curated exhibition happening this fall and winter. For those familiar with the museum’s work over the past few years, the use of crowd curating shouldn’t come as much of a surprise — in fact, if anything, it’s become something of a trend at the institution.
Posted inOpinion
New App Lets You Crowdsource the DJ
LOS ANGELES — We all know what it’s like. You’re at a party, and the music’s great, but you wish they’d play a different song. But maybe other people won’t like that song. And then someone more vocal jumps in and suggests some other song that’s not so great. Okay, maybe it’s not that complicated. But there’s an app for that anyway.