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Try Out Your Art Spotting Skills On ARTorNOT

Do you have what it takes to judge a work of art?

If you’ve seen the semi-controversial (well, at least in the art world) Bravo reality series Work of Art, then you’re going to love this new curatorial site ARTorNOT—"the world’s premier source for discovering if a form or concept is ARTorNOT."

The website is the brainchild of OKFocus (Jonathan Vingiano and Ryder Ripps) and is modeled after the beloved 90s webpage HOTorNOT, as both sites prompt you to rate the subject in front of you on a scale from 1-10. Naturally, however, as a site born in the era of Web 2.0, ARTorNOT takes that model a step further by letting you contribute images via Twitter using the hashtag #ARTorNOT.

While clicking through, we’ve spotted watercolors, photographs of computer screens, animated GIFs, album covers and pretty much any kind of visual you can imagine. After rating an image, you can see its overall percentage of “artiness” appear on the left.

ARTorNOT provides a tongue-in-cheek, all-access pass for users, regardless of qualifications, to reflect on the qualifying characteristics of art and aesthetics. Is jewelry art? Is a computer screen art? What about a model’s headshot? If a piece is displayed in a gallery or museum setting, does that automatically legitimize it as art? While the democratic platform, which considers the opinions of art scholars and those who don’t know the difference between Warhol and Renoir on an equal scale, will certainly ruffle a few feathers among the more academic, traditionalist voices in the art community, it certainly provides an interesting and (heaven forbid!) fun forum for debating this age-old conundrum.

Do you think the following images are art…. or not? Try for yourself here.