NU12 #10 Philippine Art Auction Website by Marty Dagdag

NU 12 #10

Topic:New Product/Service or improvements

Philippine Art Auction Website

by Martino Rafael T. Dagdag                                                                 

    SPEntrep S10         

Introduction:

I was looking around the house and I noticed several paintings hung on our walls painted by my grandmother's brother-in-law(who we call "Uncle Oscar"), who gave the paintings to our family as a house-warming present when we moved to our new house a few years ago. The paintings were beautiful and really life-like, I remember Uncle Oscar tell stories of how his paintings were auctioned off and traded years ago at a time when art was very much appreciated. 

I myself am a fan of painting, I cannot help myself from appreciating paintings when I see them displayed in museums or in malls, which makes me think that paintings are a true reflection of our culture.

But in the digital age, how do we make art more accessible and more appreciated by others who are literally living on a cloud? My idea is to have a website that can auction paintings of Filipino artists, professional and upcoming for the appreciation and collection of art enthusiasts and collectors.

Website Development:

The website would be similar to other shopping and auction websites such as ebay.com, zalora.com.ph but instead of commercial items, the website will only feature hand crafted works such as acrylic or oil paintings, pastel or pencil drawings and sculptures made by Filipinos. 

To start, a member shall be required to input data such as Name, company, pen name and contact details. 

• Company: this applies to Art galleries who want to feature their items

• Why a pen name?: Some artist want to hide their real names to the public so as not to be judged after seeing their work of art. However for security sake, the real name is required. A back office of the website will verify the legitimacy of the member. 

Once proven legitimate, a member will take a picture or scan his work of art and upload it online. Each item up for auction will appear on a separate page showing the image, title of work, the materials used, dimensions, name of artist, contact details and starting bid. 

After uploading, other members can view his or her works through 2 channels: (try to imagine a facebook or pinterest type of layout)

Channel 1: the members profile page where works up for bidding are featured. 

Channel 2: the home page, where a registered member can view a roster of images up for bid.

Concerns on copyright

So since paintings, drawings and other images have value, intellectual and artistic copyrights may be a concern, to address this, a tight membership is going to be required upon set up of the website, second is that images will have small resolution icons and automatic water marks on enlarged images. In this way other users cannot use other images for other purposes.

Bidding Process: 

A member can opt to bid, and the bidding process will commence and last for several days. The winner would be the highest bidder and will be contacted by the owner of the artwork for payment arrangements. 

Benefit of website:

1. larger collection to choose from for buyers

2. searches can be narrowed down to specifics such as type of art: drawing, still life, landscape, abstract, sculptures etc.

3. is a new way of discovering up and coming Filipino Artists 4