Call it the American Idol phenomenon. These days, there’s a reality series where artists compete against each other for fame and fortune in nearly every discipline. There’s Top Chef for the toque-and-mise crowd, Design Star for aspiring décor gurus and — of course — Project Runway for the fashion obsessed.
The premises of these programs are universally known: Take a dozen or so practitioners in the field, test their mettle in nerve-fraying weekly contests of skill and conceptual ability, then let a panel of finicky judges or the general public vote them off the proverbial island until a solitary genius remains. And p.s., don’t forget to videotape the entire endeavor and air it on national television — with an emphasis on the emotional breakdowns and personality conflicts that arise over the course of the competition.
Given such shows’ formidable popularity, it’s only fitting that a local version has cropped up: Artistik Envy, a showdown between 10 student designers at Tampa’s International Academy of Art and Design (IADT). Envy challenges the students — who hail from a mix of IADT’s disciplines, including graphic design, fashion design and recording arts — to design a piece (e.g., a garment, a website, a song) in response to a biweekly themed challenge. Audiences can watch the presentation of designs and the subsequent judging live at IADT or in the form of Web videos on envy.artistikmagazine.com.
“Challenge Four: Urban Funk” finds the original 10 competitors winnowed down to a quartet: graphic designers Keith Burnson, Walter Hamilton and Carlos Mangual, and animator Brian Wilson. During Friday’s presentations, as well as a fifth challenge on Dec. 5 and a finale on Dec. 19, the four will vie for the title of “Creative Genius” along with whatever relative web celebrity and job offers the experience may yield.
In a nod to Idol, Envy relies on public voting (on the website) after each installment to determine which contestant gets the axe. Decisions made by a panel of judges as to which designs are best have no impact other than their influence on public opinion. In fact, contestants deemed top competitors during the Friday evening sessions have sometimes found themselves auf-ed by the following Wednesday, when online voting closes.
“The voting is what matters. If you’re not marketing yourself out there, as well as [winning] with your design” you’re toast, says Burnson, one of the remaining graphic designers.
Despite the pressure-cooker atmosphere, there are no hard feelings between the students, who describe the bonds they’ve developed during the competition as familial. (Perhaps it helps that Envy’s producers resisted the urge to tape — or induce — the behind-the-scenes breakdowns so prevalent in the network shows.) If anything, says Jovani Coleman, a fashion designer booted after “Challenge Two: 1970s Revival,” their respect for each other’s work and previously unfamiliar disciplines has grown. A few sleepless nights aside, the competition has been equal parts fun and hard work, students say, starting with makeovers (provided by Tribeca Salon) for all. Before each challenge, they ham it up in group photos that reflect the week’s theme while doubling as a gig for IADT student photographers.
The open-ended nature of each challenge makes Artistik Envy more creative than American Idol, says Josef Mancino, a graphic design faculty member and creator of the show. To date, presentations have featured students excelling in their customary medium (e.g., Kristi Lamons’ poster design for a 1970s cultural exhibition for Challenge Two or fashion designer Henry Spencer’s dominatrix-vamp ensemble for Challenge Three) as well as branching out into unfamiliar territory (graphic designer Walter Hamilton’s foray into music composition for Challenge Two).
But the real brilliance of Artistik Envy may be its potential as a viral marketing campaign for IADT. What aspiring designer wouldn’t be attracted to a school that could launch their career through a reality show competition? (Is there any more quintessentially 21st century conduit to success?) No doubt the IADT bigwigs are thanking their lucky stars for Mancino’s initial insight and subsequent oversight of the project. (To my eye, the one aspect of Envy that could be significantly improved upon is the production quality of the online videos — all else is quite impressive.)
Regardless of which student competitor earns the title “Creative Genius,” IADT comes off looking brilliant. Now, that’s got to inspire some envy.
Sketchbook
People passing by downtown Tampa’s waterfront MacDill Park last week couldn’t help noticing a new addition to the landscape. “Big Max” — artist John Henry’s 33-foot tall, 75-foot long and 38-foot wide cherry-red steel sculpture — now towers over the three-quarter-acre park, transforming it from an under-trafficked green oasis near downtown’s southwestern corner to one of the most visually intriguing spots in the city’s core.
The sculpture, which will grace the riverfront through May, is part of Henry’s Peninsula Project, an installation of his monumental-scale outdoor sculptures in seven Florida cities: Boca Raton, Miami, Naples, Orlando, Sarasota, Tallahassee and Tampa. In addition to the MacDill Park installation, the Tampa Museum of Art will showcase a small exhibit of related drawings and models of other sculptures by the Chattanooga-based artist from Jan. 17 through April 4.
Though initially inclined to downplay “Big Max” — a nonrepresentational sculpture in which two steel pylons form an “x” to support a third piece that slants to the ground — as an example of plop art, a comment by Clearwater public art specialist Christopher Hubbard moderated my opinion. Hubbard, in response to a blog post I’d written at artsqueeze.com, offered a more appreciative perspective on Big Max: Unlike most plop art (i.e., public sculpture that seems to have been deposited in space without regard to its surroundings), Henry’s sculptures playfully engage their environments by guiding viewers’ eyes to focal points at different lengths from the sculpture’s center.
One thing’s for sure: If it’s got people talking, Big Max is already a success.
This article appears in Nov 19-25, 2008.
