Sinanation

What is the difference between art and design?
In my opinion:
Art is subjective and unique. It is personalized at a level where each individual is given the right to consider a piece of work art and no one can prove him/her otherwise. It is one-of-a-kind and is not mass produced. It is constructed with an established train of thoughts although it does not require a long process of planning ahead. Art reflects on the individual.

Design is objective. It has to apply to a greater crowd rather than a single individual. It is created to solve a problem or an inefficiency. It requires great planning ahead and can be mass produced to balance between supply and demand.

I finally made one of my dreams a reality. I am a strong believer that there are certain subjects that feeds each individual’s source of life. These subjects are an alternative source of energy. They provide a break, an escape from the solid realities of life. Those subjects have been art, music and food for me so far. The interest in art became absolute with artandseek, while the others are mostly in dormant phase so far.

I co-founded artandseek in July 2008 to provide emerging artists like myself a platform where they can display and sell artworks to a private community solely focused in art. It started serving members as an exclusive online art auction house, giving its community the opportunity to also promote art events around the globe. Joining artandseek (www.artandseek.com) is completely free and the only source of revenue for it is the 15% commission charged on the artworks sold through the site.

Throughout college I have taken several art classes to advance on the art genes I have most probably received from my mother. Only then did it become apparent that I needed a platform outside the classes to better weigh and price my work. I have been approached several times by friends for selling my work. I rejected the proposals each time believing there wasn’t a sufficient crowd to objectively price the art pieces. I desperately searched online for a comprehensive and slightly exclusive art site I could become a member of. All my attempts were failures. Most of the sites were overcrowded and they were choked with millions of tools, making it hard to navigate through the pages. Outside the online community, galleries were too expensive with 30-40% commissions for an artist who is not well-known with works raging USD 500-1,000. Auction houses would not go near any artists unless they were already known worldwide and have proved to be a good return on capital in their own niche market. My own art portfolio has not gone beyond 25 pieces, but I strongly believed that other emerging artists must have had the same problems I had.

With the push of my business partner we took the first steps of artandseek in March 2007. The construction of an online auction house has been much harder than I have imagined. The name evolved from the idea that emerging artists are like players of hide&seek who are hiding, but eventually want to come out. The name “artandseek” was the perfect mix between the idea and the focus. We found it extremely difficult to narrow down ideas when there were no limits on the tools we could put on the site. So many tools were first introduced and then taken out. We decided to make the site slightly exclusive to overcome the overpopulation issue I faced on the other art sites. Exclusivity would also make our users feel a little special for being part of a community who are well-rounded in art. artandseek was to be a community for art, not a social networking site. Making prospective users fill out a short mandatory application would confirm the interest in art and the site.

There are still so many things to be learned and challenges we face on artandseek. Still it has given me that alternative source of energy I have been yearning for. It has been a break, an escape from all the things we have to (not want to) make happen. I hope I can soon construct similar projects in music and food.

If you are interested I would love to make you a part of it. Check it out at www.artandseek.com

Humankind has always been selfish and territorial. We are the most intelligent creatures on Earth, but we are also very fragile. The power of nature over and the influence of another being on us contradicts with our survival instincts.

Unlike other creatures on Earth survival has a totally different meaning for humans. Survival for us is not just staying alive. It is taking control, making the life around us obey us. That is why we have never actually been content. We have never been satisfied with the things we are blessed with. Like a Pepsi commercial we have never stopped “asking for more”. That is why the questions that start with “What if”s have haunted all of us since our creation. Unfortunately this obsession got even stronger with the introduction of personalized technology in our lives. This technology has pushed us into individualism and turned our lives into self-proclaimed monarchies. We are no longer as patient. We are no longer as giving. We reached a point where we can no longer shelter anyone else in our private kingdoms. Relationships started to fall apart while marriages end up in divorces.

Walkman and its new generation cousins, the MP3 players are one of the best examples to such personalized technology. They have brought two things to our lives. First they brought more control in the sense that their users no longer had to put up with radio stations where there is almost no control over the songs played. Second they influenced individualism, allowing users to put on their earphones in any setting they wanted. Face to face interaction has been minimized. Computers and the Internet are other examples to this technology. New age computers have minimized our tolerance to patience by addicting us to “command and control”. Requests started to be fulfilled with just the push of a button. Discussions and enduring efforts are no longer required. The Internet tied us to a chair and brought the world to us. We no longer go to the supermarket to pick the freshest food. We no longer go to the shops to pick clothes or furniture. We are stuck behind closed doors, standing in front of a screen. Outgoing no longer. We are fully-equipped and self-sufficient kings of our own kingdoms with our only companions, the technological devices.

Most of us try hard to break the habit. We push ourselves to find a person to share it all with. Yet most of the time most of us fail. We slowly start to realize that the technological advances we created to serve us have turned us into the servants. They became our favorite companions. They made us believe that we only have room for ourselves inside our little self-proclaimed kingdoms. As Apple has ingeniously summarized it for all of us: We all became addicted to “I” and let go of “we”.

Most of us have been avoiding the radio stations since the introduction of MP3 players. Like many I have been content with being in control of my own music and leaving annoying commercials and chatty DJs aside. Knowing what the next song will be in my MP3 gives me a satisfaction I have never found with Power and Kiss FM types. Yet like everything else in life there comes a time when we get tired of our own selections and look for ways to diversify the portfolio and re-enhance the interest. When it comes to music, this is where Pandora.com steps in. It is one of the best online radio stations I have come across for a long time. I have heard rumors about its great functionality, but wasn’t too keen on making a final decision until I tried the revolutionary radio station myself. Pandora is commercial and DJ-free. It gives you the option to personalize your own stations and unlike your MP3 player it leaves room for unpredictability. Not knowing what’s next has been one of the biggest thrills for humankind for centuries. We like surprises, but we would love to make sure that it is a surprise we like. So if you are tired of your own playlists and want to download some new music, give Pandora a try. I am sure you won’t regret it.

I have never been a fan of the cupcakes at the famous Magnolia Bakery, but I have to admit that it has one of the best banana puddings in the world. It is definitely worth the long wait. If you haven’t tried yet, grab your shoes and run out to the West Village or the Uptown store.