Artist-turned-entrepreneur finds new outlets in social media apps
Photo/Matt Dodge
Artist and USM professor Raphael Diluzio has released his first social media iPhone app, with a second in the works
With two iPhone apps in the works, a university tenure and little drawing ability, Raphael Diluzio does not seem like your typical artist. But then, Diluzio doesn't really consider himself an artist.
After a 2008 auto accident, Diluzio lost his cognitive abilities temporarily, his long-term memory and 30 years' worth of drawing ability. But he soon found his brain processing information in a new way, lending a fresh outlook on growing trends in social networking and the convergence of art and technology. "After the accident strange things began to happen as my brain rewired itself," says Diluzio, who earned his MFA from UPenn in 1991.
Drawing on his lifelong interest in film — he was at the forefront of the video-DJ or 'VJ' movement — Diluzio hatched the idea for his first mobile app while still in recovery in the spring of 2009. Described as "Twitter for video", Vingit allows users to create 15-second video clips they can share with friends and upload to the app's website. Released in the iTunes App Store in early January, the app also allows advertisers to tack short commercials on the end of videos related to their product, earning points for the user that can eventually be redeemed for goods in a forthcoming digital store, according to Diluzio.
While a free app like Vingit can make up to a $250,000 a year on banner ads alone, Vingit's business model is based on getting users to pay for additional video filters, longer clips (sold in five seconds intervals) and getting their video showcased, or featured prominently on the Vingit website. Clips with a low number of views are pushed off the server to make room for newer content. "If you think you made a great thing but no one is going to see it, you can buy a showcase and put it on the top bar," says Diluzio.
The app market was a $7.3 billion industry in 2011, and is expected to grow to as much as $36.7 billion by 2015, according to industry analyst Canalys. Diluzio's next app attempts to bring the digital community of social networking to the real world. Utilizing smartphone features to ensure a good night on the town, Swarmtrooper allows users to connect online, creating events or planning nights out.
Similar to an event organized through Facebook, Swarmtrooper takes it one step further, encouraging users to 'buzz-in' once they reach a bar, club or event. By indicating their mood as red, yellow or green, users can indicate just how willing they are to mingle. "When you're out with Swarmtroooper, you're never alone," says Diluzio.
"In Facebook you form groups and you can talk about places you want to go and say 'Yes, I'm going', but you have no way to interact," says Diluzio. "Swarmtrooper allows people to meet up online and go into the real world and do things in real time."
Like Vingit, Swarmtrooper is a social tool that allows companies to join in. By collecting personal data, the app can direct users to different businesses, which ideally would offer deals and discounts for 'swarms' with ascending levels of savings based on the number of people who turn out. Diluzio says that Swarmtrooper will not broker the deals directly, relying on businesses to take their own initiative in attracting new customers.
After seven months in development, Swarmtrooper is nearing completion, but is not currently available for download. Meanwhile, Diluzio is training the app-creators of tomorrow through the University of Southern Maine's design science program with a specific focus on micro-industries.
Having helped to create the curriculum for the University of Maine's new media program, Diluzio transferred his tenure to USM last fall to capitalize on the area's creative potential. "Portland is an ideal place for micro-industry startups, even better than [the] West Coast because we have intellectual resources of Yale, Harvard and MIT," he says.
While business meetings and computer coding might seem a world away from the fine-art painting that brought him to Maine 12 years ago to study under landscape master Neil Welliver, Diluzio says he sees the two as more alike than ever before.
"If an individual has an idea for a startup, it's like a band: the programmer is lead guitar, the web developer is the bassist — it's a union of people working toward a common goal, which is an idea that didn't exist before, and through drive, attention and perseverance, it comes together," Diluzio says. "How is that different than a piece of art? I no longer see the difference."
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