The ArtReview website, in all its strangely familiar glory
Following on from the relaunched Frieze website, their art mag rivals have stepped up to the plate. The new Art Review website, currently in Beta, follows a social networking model with a clean, easy to navigate design. They're not the first to try and be the MySpace of the artworld, of course: there is, after all, a MyArtSpace as well as Artlog - indeed last week's Futuresonic exhibition and conference in Manchester took a detailed look at the links between how the notoriously linked-in networking of the artworld can benefit from the world wide web.
Unlike many other disciplines, art lends itself perfectly to online community networks. Numerous corporations seem desperate to launch their own MySpace or blog, giving little consideration to what use its users will gain from it.
For an art magazine, it makes perfect sense. When the majority of your readership is composed of people wanting to display images (not to mention film and audio), and others who are desperate to view them, connecting the two halves demonstrates perfect synergy. The only thing lacking is the clinking of mini champagne bottles.
In an online environment, where it's survival of the fittest, which ones will flourish? I've already signed up to the ArtReview site, simply because it seemed the easiest to join, with the biggest potential draw. I hope it works - they've already seeded the Beta with enough material to make a visit to the site worthwhile, and I've already tracked down a few long-lost artist friends.
But it doesn't really matter what I think. The proof of the pudding is in public consumption: so, how do you rate it? Or do you have other sites you'd recommend?
