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Artist sells numbers as paintings on the web

onethousandpaintings.com — Can you sell 1000 numbers on the web? An artist tries just that, and he sold already 50 numbers in less than a month!

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chiller 2 years 262 days ago

206 diggs
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32 Comments
Who Dugg It?

z0manifest, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2LMAO. 1000 of them hmmm. The more that is sold the more valuable it is, very smart in deed. I take it the process has been probably been patented too? :P Sure has a nice pale blue color to it and I wonder how accurately placed the numbers are?
parearau, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Funny how there are so many ways to rip people off...lol...is he able to COPYWRITE the numbers? "Project" my ass, it'd be SO easy to (1) buy your own canvas at any art store (2) buy stencils of numbers at same art store (they come in packages of numbers 0-9, enabling one to do any number combination they want to) and (3) buy can of blue spray paint at same art store...VIOLA! Less money invested than BUYING it from someone - I'm still ROTFLMAO :-)
- rustle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1for the critics that are crying about stencils: The numbers are painted with a brush freehand not stenciled. :p
  Proud owner of 848 here :)
- oriolesfan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You laugh at how simple it is now, but he's the one who came up with the idea first and he will probably make a nice chunk of cash off of it too.
josef27, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4It's genius. He makes money while showing that some people will buy anything if someone else says it's interesting, illustrating the simple and sad way advertising basically works. It also shows that people will buy whater someone else calls are. Surely you've seen crap out there that people have thousands of dollars for.
josef27, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0* calls art.
nathstar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Full marks to the guy I say! I was so convinced (some might say "sucked in") that I bought one :)

You critics are missing the point and obviously have no appreciation for what art is. Art is not just a bloody "photo realistic painting".
biijii, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Us Eskimos have enoung ice already thank you...........
samstr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Hahah I saw this earlier linked from the story 'Web sites as graphs'.

Wicked idea. I hope the cash rolls in!
thekohser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The artist is well past 100 sold now, which means the prices have gone up, which means this project has legs, baby!
brianbaute, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Brilliant! It reminds me of the 2000Bricks project (www.2000bricks.com), which is also starting to take off.
charmedguy18, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1That's cool.
ploum, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0It's interesting to note the pattern and the order in which numbers are buyed. Interesting.
leeandjennie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This guy is smart. Had he made 100 numbers, he would have made too little. And more than 1000 would have seemed too greedy.
dotuplink, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2STUPID!
msaleem, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I think its funny that this 85 day old story is getting so many diggs today.
takeyourmedicin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"I think its funny that this 85 day old story is getting so many diggs today."

That's the BoingBoing.net effect and the effect of putting a link to this story on his site.
merwyck, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2What so many of you cynical types seem not to consider is that in a free market economy, nothing is worth anything except what another is willing to exchange for it. These aren't just numbers, they're a limited edition offering complete with an algorithmically-derived serial number to verify authenticity.

You're obviously not the limited-edition, collectible-acquiring type, and that's fine but... you sound more than a little ignorant with these myriad shallow rantings.

Your preferences are just that: preferences. To them you are entitled, but to judge others by them seems displeasingly similar to narrow-mindedness.
conro, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1i was bored so i wrote a little ruby script to see how much money he would make if the artist sold all the paintings..
the min amount he would make is (999+998+...900)0.1+(899+898..800)0.2+...+(99+98..40+40+..40)*1 =$193,045
and the max would be $361,740

obviously neither of those will be the exact number... but his profits should fall somewhere in that range, assuming he can sell all the paintings. not quite the million dollar webpage, but thats a pretty decent profit for painting numbers.
conro, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1heres the code in case someone wants to check my math:
#!/usr/bin/ruby1.8
sum = 0
j = 1
while j < 11
discount = j / 10.0
x = 1 ((j - 1 ) * 100)
y = 100 ((j - 1) * 100)
for i in x .. y
price = discount * (1000 - i)
price = [40, price].max
sum = price
end
j = 1
end
p 'min: $' sum.to_s

sum = 0
j = 10
while j > 0
discount = j / 10.0
x = 1 ((10-j ) * 100)
y = 100 ((10-j) * 100)
for i in x .. y
price = discount * (1000 - i)
price = [40, price].max
sum = price
end
j -= 1
end
p 'max: $' sum.to_s
- conro, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0digg seems to have stripped all my 'plus' signs.. which really makes the code semi-useless... just imagine there is a plus sign where ever something doesn't make sense.. specifically y = 100 PLUS ((j - 1) * 100) etc
  
  here is a slightly more legible version:
  
  #!/usr/bin/ruby1.8
  sum = 0
  j = 1
  while j < 11
  discount = j / 10.0
  x = 1 PLUS ((j - 1 ) * 100)
  y = 100 PLUS ((j - 1) * 100)
  for i in x .. y
  price = discount * (1000 - i)
  price = [40, price].max
  sum PLUS= price
  end
  j PLUS= 1
  end
  p 'min: $' PLUS sum.to_s
  
  sum = 0
  j = 10
  while j > 0
  discount = j / 10.0
  x = 1 PLUS ((10-j ) * 100)
  y = 100 PLUS ((10-j) * 100)
  for i in x .. y
  price = discount * (1000 - i)
  price = [40, price].max
  sum PLUS= price
  end
  j -= 1
  end
  p 'max: $' PLUS sum.to_s
admirabumblebee, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2109 diggs and no front page? but innacurte Wii/Ps3 articles make it in 30? hum..
NiNJ4gamer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Funny and original as it is, it's spam.
cameron074, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1original, yes. anything other than a blue number on a white board, no.
flevour, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I admire the genius a-la-milliondollarpage. When it's done, it's done, but being the first to raise all those bucks out of (almost) no value must be really cool ...
RareSaturn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What would the re-sale value be? How soon will we see these thing popping up on eBay? They do seem to be flying out he door..
brianbaute, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I graphed the sales history of One Thousand Paintings and posted the results at 2000 Bricks. It's interesting stuff.
imack, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Damn it. Now I want one!
binkus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is tremendous! i couldnt resist buying one just for the possibility that it may increase in value...or as a reminder of how many brain cells i must have had to buy one! , it s a great idea and wish him lots of luck!

ive got my number!
- RareSaturn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What number? I first saw this when under 100 paintings were sold...now it's over 500
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Artist sells numbers as paintings on the web

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