London :  SapientNitro, part of Sapient ,today announced the launch of a social media campaign, in collaboration with The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), to encourage the debate around contemporary art. ICA’s Art Rules launches to the public at 3PM BST, and will be the first digital forum of its kind – provoking and encouraging a global conversation about what defines contemporary art in our modern culture.

Art Rules has been created by SapientNitro London to raise the visibility of contemporary art and bring it to a wider audience. The new platform – artrules.ica.org.uk – will offer everyone the opportunity to engage with and debate the subject of contemporary art directly with key figures from the worlds of art, film, architecture, performance and other art forms. It also brings together the contemporary art community with audiences from all walks of life to debate the question “what is art?” and share their definitions of contemporary art “rules”.

Every rule is open for discussion as users can respond with a comment, share socially or simply “agree” or “disagree”. The conversation bubbles up, literally, as each rule appears in a bubble on the homepage, pushing others to the sides and thereby creating a visual experience of the conversation. The more people agree with a rule, the larger the bubble will appear on the page, creating a visual hierarchy from which users can instantly identify the most popular discourse. Rules are shareable through Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, encouraging users to extend the discussion to their own social networks and create a far-reaching lively debate.

Audiences are also encouraged to use the hashtag #whatisart and interact with the ICA on social channels whenever they are provoked by what they see in the world around them.

Gregor Muir, Executive Director, ICA, says: “The ICA has always strived to cultivate thought and discussion around contemporary art and it is exciting for us to take this debate online. It is fantastic that everyone can engage in the art debate through this far-reaching digital forum. We look forward to seeing the results.”

Malcolm Poynton, Chief Creative Officer, SapientNitro Europe, adds: “Creative culture is something we’re passionate about at SapientNitro and we believe this is just too damn important for us to stand on the sidelines and not get involved. Anyone that feels the same should jump into the conversation and share their view at #whatisart.

“We created Art Rules with the ICA to ignite the biggest, brightest, hottest, blazing, raging, crackling online conversation about art. Without art in our lives, the world would be a pretty dull place and yet in this always-on, connected world, the art conversation is confined to the physical environment of galleries and hasn’t connected with the younger generation online.”

   Source : Anish Bangia