DESMA 9 Week 1: Art in Numbers

I graduated UCLA almost two years ago. I have a BA in Sociology and am currently working towards my minor in Statistics. I attend UCLA part time and have a full time job as a Marketing Coordinator at a technology company called Accessory Power. Everyday I witness the phenomenon of how marketing is both a science and an art. It is the clash and unison between two cultures that C.P. Snow speaks so admittedly about. I believe that the reason I am successful in my career is because I have "closed the gap" between the two cultures of science and art (Snow pg. 53).

John Brockman's interview from Wired UK is something that hits very close to home for me. Part of my job is finding contacts for press releases, and Wired is one of my top resources. I think Brockman makes an extremely valid point when he states that science and art meet as artists and act as a monitoring device for all of society (Graham-Row pg. 3).

Everyday I have multiple products I need to maintain and create ads for. I am the monitor that Brockman speaks of. I have to think like the average person and how they would search for something like "portable bluetooth speaker". I also need to decide how to write my ads to appeal to the more tech savvy crowd as well as the crowd who may want a speaker for aesthetic purposes only. This is where I can use the science of marketing and number crunching and apply it to my creative side.

Take the Dr. Dre new Pill speaker. You can see by the picture below that it is a straight on shot of the speaker. However, with pictures like this, it is hard to see the actual dimensions and highlights of the product. It is flat and boring.

With my product, I submitted photo requests of a more angled shot to show the depth and grooves of the product. Meet the BlueSync SRC by Accessory Power. I wanted to highlight the features of the speaker that our competitor did not.

After many hours of picture manipulation, I get to actually create and code the HTML for our ads. This is where most of the science comes into play. I get to use resources like Terapeak Keywords and SEO databases to construct my ads, titles, and hidden search terms in a way that ensures that when customers search for product, mine is the first one to pop up.  

    

Both the artistic and logistical aspects of my job are what keep me enthralled. I have concrete numbers to back up my strategies but also am given the create freedom to construct ads and display pictures I feel are relevant in our tech culture today. I am the epitome of Kevin Kelly's "the third culture" (Kelly pg. 1). "It's a pop culture based in technology, for technology. Call it nerd culture" (Kelly pg. 1). Half of my job is just "trying out something and seeing what happens" (Bohm pg 3). Even if I am dead set on implementing a new marketing strategy for my products, for all I know society won't care and will have a negative response which means a decrease in sales. I relate closely to what Bohm states as "being able to learn something new, even if this means that ideas and notions that are comfortable or dear to him may be overturned" (Bohm 3). Everyday I walk into work and try something new if I realize what I did yesterday was not working. Even the smallest minute thing such as adding a word into a title on Amazon can make a huge difference.

As Stephen Wilson states as a myth and misunderstanding in thinking about Arts/Science/Technology,there is not a radically different situation where art arises in a profession. I use a blend of all three everyday and agree with Wilson in that it is crucial for this type of knowledge to become more widespread (Wilson pg. 5).  

References

Bohm, D. "On Creativity". Leonardo, Vol. 1., No. 2. (Apr. 1968), pp. 137-149. 

Snow, C.P. "The Two Cultures and The Scientific Revolution". Cambridge University Press, NY. 1961.

Graham-Rowe, Duncan. "John Brockman: Matchmaking with Science and Art". 3 February 2011. 

Kelly, Kevin. "The Third Culture". Science, 279., No. 5353. (13 Feb. 1998), pp. 992-993. Web. 06 Oct. 2013 http://www.sciencemag.org/content/279/5353/992.full

Wilson, Stephen. "Myths and Confusions in Thinking About Art/Science/Technology. College Art Association Meetings. New York City, 2000.