Talk given at Creative Tech Week NYC 2016. (Reformatted for Slideshare.) 20+ years and $100s of millions invested in art platforms with no real change in rate of art market participation. Why? What doesn't art get about tech and tech get about art?

1. Tech is
Misfiring for
Art. Why?
About Me: Christina Noren
• Successful Silicon Valley Product
Executive; 3 IPOs in 20+ years
• Founding head of product for Splunk,
2012 $3+ billion big data IPO
• Founded two art tech platforms: Aura
2014; Artloop 1999-2001
• Currently CPO @ Interana; Behavioral
Analytics Leader
• Former exhibiting artist and modest
collector

2. 20 years of Art
Platforms
$100s of
Millions
Invested

3. Where is
the Uber
for Art?
•That unlocks massive new
demand
•That takes the market from
elite to mainstream
•That connects any rider to
any driver

4. Artnet
•a place to dump your
unsold inventory
•where to pay through the
nose for hard to navigate
auction price data

5. Artsy
• a place to find art that will
make you seem hip &
successful that will cost a lot
less than your M Series BMW
• some cool parties
• a cheap online gallery
presence tool

6. 1stDibs
•a really nice place for rich
people to shop for things
that will make them seem
cultured and artistic
•oh, and a few paintings and
sculptures

7. Electric
Objects,
Klio,
Depict
….
•Bill Gates saw it all in 1984

8. Artfinder,
Saatchi
Online,
PicassoMio,
…
•Won’t that look great over
your couch?

9. Instagram
•Reducing art to eye candy
+ online personality, one
feed at a time.

10. Art Doesn’t
Get Tech • A $20 million business is big
• Hi tech= slick UI
• Millennials only want to see
art online
• Database = rigid taxonomy
• Social = likes and loves
• Every brand needs an app
• Online = ads & e-commerce

11. Tech
REALLY
Doesn’t
Get Art
• Art = images
• Art is a luxury good
• Art is a financial investment
• Art is more elitist than music
• All art fits in agreed categories
with fixed attributes
• There is a master database of
art somewhere

12. And Tech
Has
Contempt
for Art
•Techies are the real
creatives of our age
•Artists are not-too-bright
makers of pretty pictures
•Art dealers are small
business people - like
florists

13. What Will The
Real Disruptor
Look Like?
A few
thoughts

14. It Will Be
Valuable to
All Art
Interested
People
• A companion for art visits
• A resource for learning and
reference
• Valuable to experts & novices
• Not focused on buying or selling
• Knows both market &
scholarship
• Building a loyal audience

15. It Will
Grow Its
Own Art
Database
• Not limited to listings
• Organically learns all aspects
of art through daily use in all
venues and situations
• Discovers forgotten,
unknown and hidden art
• Makes connections between
different artists and artworks

16. It Won’t
Dumb
Down the
Art
• User extensible model for
describing art
• Can be as superficial or deep as a
user wants to go
• Can deal with context, content,
form & sensation
• Multiple viewpoints; expert &
popular side by side
• Filtering, ranking, reputation &
context

17. It Will
Convert
Non-Buyers
• Leads people from what they
have seen (even in museums)
to what they can afford to buy
• Gets smart about its users’
interests & budgets way before
they buy
• Makes buying easy and fun
• Buyers will be more loyal to it
than any seller

18. It Won’t Be
Biased Or
Limited
• No paid listings or advertising
• Can lead any buyer to any
art:
• Represented & unrepresented
• Existing & commissioned
• For sale & passive
• Online, gallery, auction, fair &
private

19. What Will
It Take? • A thesis-driven deep-
pocketed investor
• A willingness to invest in
audience & content in
advance of revenues
• Knowledge to seed & curate
a workable art model
• Cutting edge data science,
social & UX technology

20. What Will
Its Impact
Be?
• 10s of millions of new art buyers
• Demand spreading to “long tail” of
undiscovered and forgotten art
• Reversal of trend to the image
• Creation of the largest single
global art market player ever seen
• Disruption to existing business
models