Department of Creative Design EngineeringThe purpose of the research is to develop an art platform for the mutual development of Korean amateur artists. The process of this project consists of literature and case studies to clarify the situation of the target, three times of MVP production and testing and a co-design workshop that was conducted with artists to derive the final concept and content of the service. The user experience of the service contents was evaluated through subsequent prototype development, and a final conclusion has been reached.
Through the literature and case studies an issue was found that the problems of the ???amateur artists groups??? in Korea were largely divided into two: economic issues and art-related issues. Unlike economic issues, there were no institutions or platforms that focused on ???art-related issues???, and those who work ???part-time??? to make a living while continuing their artistic activities are not fully able to focus on their art due to the poor environment.
To overcome this problem, the production and testing of MVP has taken place in three different sequences. The first MVP was designed to evaluate the service content of ???collaboration of different amateur artists???, but it ran into an issue of ???service not sustainable???. To solve this issue, a content called ???inspiration story??? was introduced in the second MVP test. Finally, a third MVP test - which was designed to identify the overall service content experience -, reached a conclusion of ???the service matches the topic of ???mutual development, but it did not do much on helping the amateur artists overcome their difficulties???.
Based on this, the ???inspiration story??? content was expanded to the main content. In addition, by combining the factor of ???communication between artists???, the service contents were modified to allow free communication between artists about their work and inspiration. Later, through the Co-Design Workshop, ???communication point system??? and a new service business model of ???combination of ads and posting fees??? had been suggested. Since then, the service was named IBA (Interaction between Artists), based on its main contents and concept - ???Artistic communication between amateur artists??? -.
Through evaluation, it has been predicted that the ???story of inspiration??? content of IBA would let people understand the artist and their work more deeply, while having other positive effects such as better communication between the artists, improved quality of art-based dialogue, inducing mutual artistic empathy, and providing artistic inspiration.
Give that the main target user base of IBA does not usually have many opportunities to get feedback from others about their work, IBA is expected to provide a ???variety of high-quality communication opportunities??? to the amateur artists, fulfilling their ???desire to communicate??? successfully. This helps artists to form bonds with other artists and exchanging artistic inspiration. These kinds of merits are expected to play a positive role in developing the artistic creativity, sensibility and expressions of many amateur artists of Korea. Also, as IBA is a platform that covers all kinds of genres in art, it is also expected to assure diversity and expand the sectors of art while making it easier for artists to come up with new and innovative form of art. Based on these points, it is believed that IBA will have a positive impact on the mutual cooperation and development of amateur artists.
But one important issue is that the platform is limited to artists only. Though the user base of IBA is limited to artists only, the artists constantly showed their needs that the public should be included as a stakeholder for the service.
In this regard, it is important to seriously consider how IBA will be introduced to the general public who are not artist, giving an answer about what kind of role they will play inside the platform. Additional research should be focused on how the platform will balance itself between ???professional communication between artists??? and ???the reaction from the general public??? and support the artistic independence of each individual artists.ope
