The story of One Thousand Paintings - "The number is the art is the limit is...

Google Tech Talks
July, 10 2008

ABSTRACT

"One number, one painting - the number is the art is the limit is the price."

Onethousandpaintings.com is a truly global art project that has received worldwide media coverage (BBC, Wired, BoingBoing, and many others). On May 30th and 31st 2006 alone, 322 paintings were sold - most likely the highest number of unique, handmade paintings sold on the internet within such a short time. Since then, close to 800 paintings have been shipped to 26 countries. In his talk, Marcel Salath, the creator of One Thousand Paintings, will tell the story behind the project that started as a thought experiment in the heart of Europe, and took him on a trip around the world, eventually bringing him to Mountain View. He'll talk about how the project started, the personal stories behind each number, developing a secondary re-sale market, and many other aspects at this intersection of art, technology, and marketing.

This talk will be taped.

Speaker: Marcel Salathé (Sala)
Marcel Salathé (a.k.a. Sala) has a PhD in theoretical biology and is currently a research fellow at Stanford University. Most bloggers know him for his "webpages as graphs" applet that transformed millions of otherwise ugly webpages into beautiful graphs. His project onethousandpaintings.com has been a worldwide success with about 800 paintings sold in 26 countries, and was featured by BoingBoing, the BBC, Wired and many others. He recently moved from Zurich, Switzerland to San Jose, California.

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[hellonearthisman]

very inspiring about how to value the price of art.

[Naenouki]

You can't do that and succeed anymore, this guy ruined it for you. It would be like copying a Picasso, it wouldn't be worth as much; you need to have a really original or innovative idea, not just a derivative one.

That's the modern art world for you.

[1888junkteam]

excellent work!

[ron2com]

Excellent! I really enjoyed learning more about the project. I am the proud owner of two numbers myself.

[candicejohnsonartist]

I love it. As a series painter I have always contemplated pricing and this has given me many ideas. The most difficult thing for an artist to do is price their work. I lived in Paris for 11 years and found Europeans to be very comfortable and confident to buy art directly from the artist. It seems Americans need the reassurance and high prices from galleries to determine the quality of the work. The most important thing for me as an artist is the exchange with the collector. That is priceless.

[JGW08]

People buy great ideas!

[JGW08]

Oh my, this is interesting. And far more than interesting!!

[slimbuttermilk]

Wow! this really inspired me. I am going to work on painting 1000 people's butts, and I think the profoundness of the subject matter will really move people and pull on their heartstrings. I could command a good price on such a deep subject.

[shaurz]

People really will buy anything.

[JohnsJava]

thats such a unique idea