New Developments in the Infinite Art Tournament

I) The Play-In Artists!

Sometime this summer, possibly as early as July 15, I will close nominations on play-in artists for the Infinite Art Tournament. Remember, this is your chance to nominate artists that you worry may not be represented in the base list of 1000, perhaps because they:

• have become active only in the past few decades
• have gained, or regained, artistic cred only in the past few decades
• work or worked out of the mainstream of the Western tradition
• are considered, fairly or unfairly, to be genre artists or, shall we say, "mere illustrators"
• are incredibly awesome, but just not very well known

We needed at least 25 nominees to proceed in an orderly fashion; as of this writing, there are 80 (of whom, admittedly, a good quarter were nominated by me.  But still.).  Those eighty are listed under the brackets right under the brackets (see below) near the top of your sidebar.

When I introduced the play-in concept a few months back, I listed a bunch of rules for entries.  This may have had a chilling effect, so I will only repeat the two most important ones here:

• Nominations can be left in the comments or, if you’re bashful, can be emailed to the blog at InfiniteArtTournament-at-gmail. Or sent to me on an appropriately arty postcard if you know the address.
• Some degree of “fame” is a prerequisite; a significant community needs to take the artist seriously.

Not sure that your favorite famous artist will make the list?  When in doubt, nominate!

II) Art Creep

If we are committed to introducing a new first-round contest every weekend -- and by gum, we are -- then simple math shows us that the Tuesday contests will no longer be enough to accommodate the subsequent second-round, third-round, and left-bracket action.  For now, the Tournament will start colonizing every other Thursday.  Where will the various Thursday features go to live?  Fans of the Wednesday Post, if there are any, might want to think about organizing some sort of action committee.

III) Visible Brackets!

In the interest of greater transparency -- and because Chuckdaddy, who is an excellent commentor, asked nicely -- the actual IAT brackets are now available for your perusal in the upper regions of the sidebar!  I pledge to keep them, if not exactly up-to-the-minute, at least up-to-the-season.  If they're getting too dusty, feel free to rattle my cage.