The Synergistic Movement of Crowdsourcing Art

Crowdsource Art featured at TED 2014

“Crowdsourcing is creating something that’s greater than the sum of its parts.”

While the concept of crowdsourcing is not exactly new, the public knowledge of this movement s picking up notable speed among many all over the world.Crowdsourcing, not to be confused with crowdfunding (crowdfunding being the act of many people contributing funds to support an idea or project that needs funding to become a reality), is an art movement that is gaining public attention in big ways.

Crowdsourcing is a form of art creation that can only be accomplished by the collaboration of many; many people, with many talents, having many different visions, and often participating for many different purposes all with one singular goal; to connect, contribute, and create something meaningful. This in itself is a breathtaking notion. A notion that has many otherwise un-related groups of people coming together as one.  ARTnews said it beautifully in their most recent coverage on the crowdsourcing art movement,

“Crowdsourced art is about inclusiveness, turning formerly passive audiences into active creators and empowering people who aren’t normally part of the art world…thousands of free man-hours to artists…. enabling them to realize projects of stupendous magnitude.”

Crowdsourcing art is when an artist or group of artists enlist the help of others to work with them in completion of a piece of art or project. The beauty behind crowdsourcing is the truly unique quality that is generated by the variety of people working together on one project. Its uniqueness comes from the final artworks irreplicable components that were brought to life by the unpredictable nature of different audiences with different artistic abilities.

These artist-orchestrated projects can be seen all over the world in museums, galleries, public spaces, and online.  Recently, crowdsourcing art was commissioned for the popular TED conference to celebrate it’s 30th anniversary. TED is an extraordinary nonprofit devoted to sharing ideas worth spreading and the crowdsourced art was a perfect fit for this celebration.

It can be said that the  crowdsourced-art movement reflects a very basic and essential human need in people to connect with others and to do so in tangible, meaningful way.


*Artwork:
Crowdsourced Art from the TED 30th Anniversary:
Skies Painted with Unnumbered Sparks, 2014, by Aaron Koblin and Janet Echelman.
EMA PETER/COURTESY STUDIO ECHELMAN