Tuesday 29 April 2008

ITCHY ABOUT SAATCHI

Pencil drawing

Well its been a while since I added anything to this blog - I have been busy, honest.


Recently I decided to give the Saatchi online "Showdown" another crack. I had all but abandoned entering anything again after I became disillusioned with the rather bizarre voting patterns that seemed to plague its early days. On entering Saatchi showdown into Google after one particularly surreal round I discovered what probably is the root of the problem:


Endless "vote for me" posts on Facebook, Myspace, blogs, forums etc. It had become more a contest of internet networking and compuer trickery than about whose art was more popular! To be cynical about this, Saatchi has done little to stop people multiple voting, voting down rivals or using proxy servers - and their site has grown exponentially as a result.


Not to be outdone I plugged away at my friends, their friends, family, neighbours and complete strangers in checkout lines with the result that people now cross the street to avoid me.


Several months on and in the relentless quest for site traffic I plunged back in with a small (rather cheeky) figure study I did last year and which I felt might just rattle a few saatchi cages.


Well it came 14th in the previously selected favourites list which leads me to believe that being selected as a favourite probably carries more weight than the rather silly 1-10 voting system.