Add-Art: Art replaces ads

May 2008

Add-Art is a Firefox plug-in that replaces website advertising. Created with support from Eyebeam and Rhizome, Add-Art releases new art shows every two weeks and strives to feature contemporary artists and curators.

Add-Art demo steve lambert

The plugin works alongside AdBlock Plus, which blocks online ads, and simply replaces that blank space with art images. AdBlock Plus is the most popular of the thousands of available add-ons for Firefox with 18 million total downloads (as of May 2008) and over 250,000 downloads per week.

For many, replacing ads with blank space would be enough. AddArt attempts to do something more interesting than just blocking ads - it turns your browser into an art gallery. Every time you visit the New York Times online or check the weather you’ll also see a spattering of images by a young contemporary artist.

The project will be supported by an small website providing information on the current artists and curator, along with a schedule of past and upcoming AddArt shows. Each 2 weeks will include 5-8 artists selected by emerging and established curators. Images will have to be cropped to standard banner sizes or can be custom made for the project. Artists can target sites (such as every ad on FoxNews.com) and/or default to any page on the internet with ads. One artist will be shown per page. The curatorial duty will be passed among curators through recommendations, word of mouth, and solicitations to the AddArt site.

With the overwhelming popularity of adblockers, if AddArt were to attract 5% of existing users, the numbers would be in the hundreds of thousands. AddArt can bring contemporary art to the desktops of all types of people at home and in their workplace - all over the world.

Would you like to see art instead of ads as you browse sites online? Go to add-art.org and download the plugin for your Firefox browser now.

Completed with the help of opensource developers including:

steve lambert

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