Angelo Sotira is one of the founders of Deviant Art.í‚   He has watched an idea he helped create become the largest forum for printed art and culture online.í‚   Capital Film editor Malcolm Levy caught up recently with Angelo Sotira to explore how Deviant Art has made such a huge mark in such a short time.

Malcolm Levy: You and the other creators of Deviant Art stress that the project is always done in í¢â‚¬Å“Our Wayí¢â‚¬ . Explain.

Anelo Sotira: We are literally, in every way doing it í¢â‚¬ËœOur way.í¢â‚¬â„¢í‚   We have been able to remain entirely private, the only way that we would not remain private or fully in control of the property is that if we found it greatly to the advantage of the community to alter that strategy.í‚   And we have had many opportunities, and many offers but we have walked away from all of them because we didní¢â‚¬â„¢t want to lose control.í‚   The employees of the company and myself and my partner are directly in charge of the operations of Deviant Art.í‚   So we have done it our way.í‚   There are no board seats available outside the organization.í‚   There is no money that would come with any strings attached.

We started deviant art in the summer of 2000, and at that particular time, it was very difficult to start an internet property like Deviant Art, because basically, all the other internet properties that were focused in any way on any kind of medium of entertainment were going out of businessí¢â‚¬ ¦.Just crashing.í‚   When we initially described it to people it seemed like a hobby, and that there was no business there and no opportunity.í‚  

ML: What I find interested about Deviant Art is that you have people from numerous realms í¢â‚¬“ from photography to design, illustration, downloading, and even groups like the freethinkers movement.í‚   So the question is, how did the partners emerge and are they active on the site? Do groups have specific roles?

AS:í‚   The folks who started Deviant Art were involved in a lot of sites mainly focused on application skinning.í‚   I started the first Winamp facelift, which was the first skinning site online.í‚   So there were a lot of different sites online and there was a community built, but there was no dominant leader in that group, there was just a lot of smaller sites.í‚   Somebody just hadní¢â‚¬â„¢t hit the right buttons.í‚   Many of the other sites are still around the same size as they were then, and havení¢â‚¬â„¢t really grown in the same way up till today.í‚   So those are our partners, who we give shout outs too.í‚   Also there are partners that are arts groups within deviant art that have branched out to create their own art groups, so we generally look at partners in that way.í‚   We wouldní¢â‚¬â„¢t dream of changing this structure.í‚   Ití¢â‚¬â„¢s a matter of staying true to who we are.í‚   Just as the front of the website says í¢â‚¬ËœDeviant Art loves youí¢â‚¬â„¢, this is also true of our partners and you will never see it go away.

ML: What motivates your contributors, how do you interact with your contributors and how has this been crucial in the success of Deviant Art?í‚  

AS: I think ití¢â‚¬â„¢s changed a little bit since the beginning.í‚   In the very beginning, it was simply a place that recognized artists, and we were very responsive to our community as requests came in to open up new categories.í‚   There was a time, I remember, where Scott and Matt and I would comment on every single deviation that was submitted.í‚   That was a point of pride, if you submit to Deviant Art, the administration will comment on it.í‚   Whether we are specifically experts in critiquing art or not youí¢â‚¬â„¢re still going to hear from us.í‚   We did that for as long as we possibly could.í‚   From the inside out, we defined what Deviant Art was, and what we expected from people on the site.í‚  

ML: Would this philosophy also work in terms of merchandising?

AS: The thing is, merchandising didní¢â‚¬â„¢t really enter the picture for quite some time.í‚   It really isní¢â‚¬â„¢t even there today.í‚   In the early days of Deviant Art there could be no corporate anything, and it took a lot of discussion with our community to get to a point where there was enough foundation to show how enterprise could be responsible. We felt incredibly nervous launching the Deviant Art print program because we felt the community would reject the notion and get upset.í‚   I mean, the community was actually actively saying that they didní¢â‚¬â„¢t want that sort of thing at Deviant Art.í‚   But we sort of felt that if we didní¢â‚¬â„¢t figure out how to start monetizing these pages then the site was going to get out of our control.í‚   We launched it as DAPrints.com early, and there were no links from anything on our site.í‚   People started to use the program and then began requesting that it be put on the site, and then over time we watched as the community itself began to pull it in.í‚  í‚  í‚   Looking back, I can tell you that we didní¢â‚¬â„¢t lose any credibility, respect or members because of this.í‚  

ML: Ití¢â‚¬â„¢s a really new way of looking into a dotcom company, where it isní¢â‚¬â„¢t based on the venture capitalist saleí¢â‚¬ ¦You have kept your ethics and your audience throughout.

AS: That is what we have dedicated our time and lives too.í‚   For the first four years of Deviant Art, we knew there was real interest there, the traffic on the site was consistently high, and we knew that it was going to be a very interesting property, but we were not going to do it that way.í‚   Frankly, I think many of the venture capitalist firms out there today are just ill equipped in the ways in which they are currently structured to add anything to Deviant Art or other sites like Deviant Art.í‚   Ití¢â‚¬â„¢s not that I doní¢â‚¬â„¢t think the value is going to be there at Deviant Art, but ití¢â‚¬â„¢s a value thatí¢â‚¬â„¢s only going to appear over a 10-15 year period.í‚   What venture capitalists today are looking at and what the internet is looking at are these quick boom-bam deals, and quick boom-bam doesní¢â‚¬â„¢t work any more.í‚   You can pull together social networks quite fast if you want to, but ití¢â‚¬â„¢s different.í‚  

ML: If you look at Facebook right now, it is certainly making incredible inroads.

AS:í‚   I like Facebook as a property.í‚   I never understood MySpace; I just couldní¢â‚¬â„¢t get it, especially running an online art community and seeing the flexibility of the Deviant Art pages.í‚  

ML: There might be more connectivity at Deviant Art and it might have to do with the connectivity and knowledge of those people you are connected with.

AS: I love MySpace from one perspective: social networking.í‚   MySpace is just training wheels for social networks.í‚   And I love that because ití¢â‚¬â„¢s a very widely appealing network that is pulling in millions and millions of people.í‚  í‚   Its training people to participate in social networksí¢â‚¬ ¦the natural conclusion of the MySpace experience is, í¢â‚¬ËœHey maybe I need something thatí¢â‚¬â„¢s similar to this but more focused.í¢â‚¬â„¢í‚   And, if youí¢â‚¬â„¢re an artist, thatí¢â‚¬â„¢s Deviant Art.í‚  

ML: Do you see a place for some of the newer Video Paintings and Ambient Video works that have been gaining a lot of attention over the past few years?

AS: Oh Absolutely.í‚   We havení¢â‚¬â„¢t made any announcements about this yet, but we are months away from enabling video and film on the site.í‚   Ultimately, Deviant Art will be to youtube what it is to flickr.com and Photobucket.í‚  

ML: Is the Deviant Art mobile system another step for the future?

AS: We launched a system, almost for fun one day on the site.í‚   Now we have 3,000,000 pieces of art deliverable to a phone, but thatí¢â‚¬â„¢s not good enough.í‚   I havení¢â‚¬â„¢t seen a great application for this type of thing without concrete and specific movement and culture built into it already.í‚   Believe me, the problem isní¢â‚¬â„¢t with storing photographs, its really about not wanting to interrupt the culture of Deviant Art.í‚  

ML: What do you think the next crowdsourcing movement is going to look like?í‚   I think we would both agree it hasní¢â‚¬â„¢t hit its potential yet.í‚  

AS: I am specifically fascinated with the idea of group crowdsourcing.í‚   In other words, getting groups of individuals who are proficient in a particular area to come together and do something.í‚   The second motivation that has to come into play is financial: there has to be a system and a mechanism to provide better incentive.í‚   There is always going to be that place on the net for fun.í‚   We have that on Deviant Art.í‚  

Ií¢â‚¬â„¢m here in Hollywood, and I see a tremendous amount of opportunity here.í‚   Reality TV hasní¢â‚¬â„¢t only taken over the television screen but also your computer. í‚  I mean, its all reality.í‚   At some point people are going to look at that and say í¢â‚¬ËœIí¢â‚¬â„¢m kind of sick of this stuff.í‚  í‚   Ií¢â‚¬â„¢m looking for some quality, Ií¢â‚¬â„¢m looking for some production again because I kind of miss studios spending a bunch of money just to make sure Ií¢â‚¬â„¢m entertained.í¢â‚¬â„¢í‚   I think weí¢â‚¬â„¢re going to move into that world again in a different sort of way.í‚   Content will always be king, and it will be the creators of that content that get their due.í‚   So I think this is an important time for artists.í‚   In terms of a lot of the issues with the music business right now which is also happening in film and other areas, I think that a lot of what is happening now will be truly positive in the long term.í‚  

ML: It will almost fix what it started in a way?

AS: Yeah, thatí¢â‚¬â„¢s exactly the situation we are seeing right now, and I believe that weí¢â‚¬â„¢ll be seeing more of that as we move forward.