Mr. Van Slyke:

Thank you for your comments and criticisms. You said some very nice things, so I consider the roses along with the thorns. However, as the Digital Artist responsible for the collection, and also for the design of the website, I would appreciate you listening to my rebuttal for a tight moment.

I hear you, on the Flash format, the music, and also the inability to zoom up on the posters for a closer view. All things were considered pro and con when the site was designed.

Nobody can possibly please everyone, so it’s best to go with the tastes of the majority. I learned that the hard way, when I built a serious but stodgy HTML website 6-7 years ago showcasing this same collection. That incarnation was known as “Old Orient Galerie” and it was content and graphics rich with 135+ pages, artistic format with no music, thumbnail galleries, and the ability to view every single poster in several different sizes, plus an overall grand museum feel.

Problem was, in addition to the 14 months of digital restoration work, the website itself took another 6 to 9 months of design and content work, and thousands of dollars paid to an html programmer (site had a million links and being foremost an artist, I prefer not to learn how to do my own programming) it launched to minor fanfare and being in a narrow niche mode to begin with, I could not even PAY people to visit the site.

I expected better, but in retrospect, to most viewers (save my friends) the site came off as corny and boring. So, Old Orient Galerie died on the vine after less than a year and not enough traffic to justify the monthly hosting fees (at that time $30 a month for a non-paying site was too much for me).

But, I learned. Today it’s all about showmanship, and, I vowed if I was ever able to launch a showcase for the collection again I would do it in a splashier way in order to attract more viewers.

Yes, I too used to hate sites with music, but in fairness, should it be called imbedded music as long as the viewer has the option of lowering the volume control to the soundless position? And, your reference to a David Lynch soundtrack was sort of on the money, since it was kind of intentional. And, the Flash format issue? How can you reach a spoiled generation brought up on MTV and expect them to appreciate something that doesn’t jump out and wiggle at them….

As for the lack of ability to save images from the website, it was also intentional in order to keep from “watering down the stock”, and allowing innocent copyright infringement, since my ultimate goal is to place the entire collection as an endowment with a university library, or an international museum with broad online reach, in order that these images can one day please future generations, much more than I can achieve on my own. After spending winter months in an unheated building working on the images and wearing four layers of clothing and a garbage bag to hold in the body heat while sipping tea all night for warmth, I’ve earned the right to say I suffered for my art, and I also want the best for it in perpetuity, if anyone out there will take it serious enough. My scope as a senior citizen is limited, but I do know one thing, the world is growing smaller faster, and brick and mortar museums may always be around, but the day of the online museum is coming, if just for the sheer volume of stuff we need to exhibit and the lack of physical space to accommodate it all.

My best response to your kindly criticisms rests in the statistics. According to Google Analytics hooked up to the site, in the 30 days the site has been “live”, Old Orient Museum has attracted 751 visitors from 53 countries, and in 34 languages, with 47 hits emanating from the feature article by Tali Shapiro of the Israeli PinupBlog.com, (considered to be an expert) and I quote her here:

“An email sent me an invitation, to see a site that compiles oriental pinups. Off I went and my jaw dropped- I hit the oriental pinup jackpot! Old Orient Museum was lovingly created by digital artist Vincent Lexington Harper. Harper singlehandedly compiled and restored an astonishing amount of pinups of the orient. The site is pleasurably designed and creates a very whole experience, with music, gorgeous graphics and, of course, lovely oriental pinup girls, like this one to the left. It’s so good, I just had to add it to the sidebar! And it’s so good, you have to see it for yourself!”

So, by the standard of traffic and praise, Old Orient Museum is a resounding success compared to the staid Old Orient Galerie, because the traffic in one month is equal to the overall traffic of the original site in its entire short existence. PLUS, I might add here, these numbers have all been rung up without being indexed by Google, which is still in the process of mapping the site and readying it for their search engine, so the hits so far have all come from referral sites and viral publicity.

Finally, on the issue of money, I’m going to be flat out honest and open with you. My original intention in 2002 when I took on the digital restoration effort of the entire collection all by myself, was to market the restored posters as reproductions, and make a pile of money, right? Well, it turned out that after 14 months and 4,500 plus hours of painstaking work on a borrowed computer in the borrowed offices of the graphics company that laid me off as a result of the 9-11 business downturn in advertising, there was not a huge market waiting. In spite of my best efforts, I realized I was never going to make a real business out of it. The year after getting laid off I earned $11,000 in part time income.

So, the collection lay dormant for the next 6 years, but not forgotten. I was beaten, broke, and lying bleeding in an alley, but still refused to give up. I realized that if it wasn’t going to be a business, then I had a much nobler obligation in store, to give them to the world so they can be appreciated, but not by selling them. Present them to the art lovers of the world in the form of a showcase or a museum. A show in an art gallery would have been too limiting, so it had to be a broader stage, and my idea for the online museum was born. By all rights, I should have given up long ago, and most sensible people would have, but I still felt the original works of art deserved more respect than to be tossed away by time.

As for the “Donations” part, draw your own conclusions. Nadia Suleman (OctoMom) would love for people to give her a million dollars, but we both know that isn’t going to happen. I’m not extending my hand out in the hopes that people will throw money in it, but, you never know. There are philanthropists that gave away millions to save the art in Venice from the floods, and to save the crumbling celluloid works of the Hollywood classics, and so if there are patrons out there who believe strongly as I do that these works of commercial art deserve to be respected and rescued, then, I have another large part of the collection to be digitally restored, and if allowed to work on it, I would be more than happy. But, honestly, I’m not holding my breath. Of all things connected to this effort, this was probably the one aspect you can consider “tongue in cheek”.

Oh, and I guess the “excuses to say The Orient” was a little barb? Technically, at the time of the posters origin, the region was known as “the Orient”, and Shanghai was called “The Paris of the Orient”…..get my point? I’m aware of contextual issues today, but it’s not a smarmy attempt to overuse a term.

Respectfully,

Vincent Lexington Harper