FAQ

Q: Things look different. What’s new?
A: Thanks for noticing! We’ve had a bit of work done courtesy of recent infrastructure funding. See details of How we have been funded. Some things have changed, but the core principles of the site remain the same.

On the content front, Design & Art Australia Online now collects data on designers and curators, hence the name change. We have also improved our search capability and developed functionality to enable truly collaborative research. We made a start on this in the previous site, but we always knew there was more to be done.

We’ve put a lot of time into the user environment so we’re pretty sure you’ll find this a fruitful experience.

Q: Why are certain artists not on the site?
A: This database is by no means complete. One of the reasons we’re redeveloping the site is to make contribution easier for individual researchers and to enable partner organisations to share their data through interoperation. If our plan works, before too long this will not be a frequently asked question.

Q: What is a stub?
A: A stub is a placeholder entry that contains only a few sentences of text. While too brief to provide in-depth biographical information, a stub still contains useful information and a starting point for further research. To find out how to add to a stub, see How to improve a record.

Q: How can I contact an artist listed on Design & Art Australia Online?
A: If an artist is a contributor to the site you can contact them directly via the details they provide in the contributor’s profile.

If the artist you want to contact isn’t a member, try one of these other directories or organisations: Art Almanac, Art & Australia, Australian Art Collector or the National Association for the Visual Arts, Copyright Agency Limited or Viscopy.

Q: Can I submit my own biography or the biography of a relative?
A: Please do! Just read the DAAO Contributor Guidelines first.

Q: How do I submit a biography?
A: Become a member. Membership is free, we just need to know you aren’t a spambot and to tell you about our licence. Our How To section contains loads of useful tips and learning objects about how use and contribute to Design & Art Australia Online.

Q: Can I promote my show on your site?
A: No, sorry. Design & Art Australia Online is a research tool; promotion of upcoming events is not appropriate. However, you can list your exhibition history, include a link to your website (subject to the our links policy and point to the DAAO in other material relating to your work (see the DAAO Terms of Use.

Q: How long does a biography have to be?
A: There is no minimum requirement but biographies should ideally be 1000 words or less.

Q: How do I update or make a correction to a biography?
A: Login and make your changes directly to the biography. Best to check the contributor guidelines Contributor Guidelines before you make edits, however, as we have a few rules about what you can and can’t edit.

Q: What should I do if I have an issue with changes to the data I enter or to my edits.
A: As a member you should familiarise yourself with the contributor guidelines Contributor Guidelines in order to understand how your information is treated.

The Talk Pages will soon be attached to each bio to provide a forum for you to discuss your information with interested peers. If you have any questions you can always contact the administrator.

Q: What does double-blind peer review mean?
A: Some biographies on Design & Art Australia Online have undergone Peer and Board review. This is a service that some academic researchers have requested and constitutes only very small percentage of database entries. Only academic researchers can request this service and it is subject to very stringent conditions. If you believe your work warrants academic double blind peer-reviewing please contact the Editor Once peer-reviewed the biographical text in these entries cannot be edited.

Q: How does Design & Art Australia Online’s member community work?
Respectfully and collaboratively. See our Legal Notices for Terms of Use.

Q: Why can’t I find biographies I know are in the Dictionary of Australian Artists (DAA) or Heritage? I know these were your foundation texts.
A: These entries were penned by hundreds of different authors some time ago. We need to ask each author’s permission to republish their work but unfortunately we haven’t been able to locate all of them. If you know the author of a missing DAA or Heritage biography, would you mind telling them we’re looking for them?

Q: How are members using the site?
A. Academic researchers use the site to find reliable factual data on individual or groups of artists and designers, their lives, their works, processes, associates, exhibitions, awards. They also use our project functionality to organise ‘pushes’ into new areas of research.
A. They are using our functionalities like tagging, project organisiation, the ability to export and bookmark searches to find out more about Australian art and design.
A: Cultural institutions interoperate with the DAAO to make their data searchable and updateable in the context of a broader data portal. This has an added benefit of increasing their site traffic.
A: Family historians seem to love Design & Art Australia Online and we love them right back. Family historians have always been active in providing data on their artist relatives that no-one else has access to.
A: Curators have been using Design & Art Australia Online to research artists who are little documented elsewhere.
A: The new site isn’t even finished yet and already a number of academic projects are planning content work and ARC Discovery projects around Design & Art Australia Online’s new Project functionality.
A: Commercial galleries are uploading their artist CVs to the DAAO and updating them over time. It’s even better when other members keep the entries updated for them.
A: Artists and designers are adding and updating their own records.
A: The new Design & Art Australia Online site is being built with adaptability in mind. We’d be thrilled if you found ways to use the data for a purpose we haven’t thought of yet. Let us know!