The founder of the online collaborative creative magazine Computerlove is exploring new ways to showcase online art, using the website's refurbishment as an opportunity to host a special art project.
Christophe Martin is creative director at Publicis Net in Paris and runs Computerlove, or cpluv.com, as an accompanying creative project. As a design and visual culture site that plays host to art, videos, adverts and other artistic pieces, it also acts a forum for contributors to write and comment about the work.
While the website is being revamped, Martin has decided to use it as an opportunity to triumph digital artwork, and showcase the designs of friend and ex-colleague David Polonia. For the project, the former Publicis Net art director was given an open brief with one exception: it had to be centered on the concepts of ubiquity and omnipresence.
"I trusted David to create something really intricate and mysterious around this strange idea," explains Martin. "David has created a beautiful and immersive universe with this piece. It is artwork you can get lost in."
The homepage of the site starts with a spinning heart-like symbol that is surrounded by a series of Hindu references to god. The descriptions are related to the theme of omnipresence, and the viewer can access and interact with Polonia's artwork by clicking on the various Hindu references. Each lead to a different creation, made using a combination of animation, graphic design and real footage.
Polonia, who has worked on campaigns for Dior, Giorgio Armani and Yves Saint Laurent, says using the old site as a platform to showcase his new work provided him with the perfect opportunity to jump into his new career path.
"This project, named Ubiq, was really important to me because it shows the beginning of a new life for me as a freelance digital artist," he enthuses. While it's Polonia's first project like this, he's sure it won't be his last.
For Martin, the concept presented a complementary opportunity of its own. "The transitional period where the old site is almost dead gives us a chance to turn the empty site into something special, and bring attention to the new site when it is comes online" he says.
Cpluv.com has been active for nearly five years, and has a strong editorial focus where some of its 23,000 members, 100 bloggers and various other journalists are able to contribute. And while most cpluv.com contributors and fans expect the unexpected, Martin says responses to this project have been mixed.
"Some people seem offended by the explicit content in some of the pieces," he explains, "because they don't clearly understand the concept. But so far, so good. Most people love it."
You can judge for yourself by checking out cpluv.com, while in the gallery are some sneak peeks of what the new webpage will look like.
