EMERGE is interested in art and the internet. Sure, we love art. And of course we love the internet (we blog don't we?). But we really are fascinated by the intersection of the two. We've tried over the past few months to explore those rare instances when the internet showcases or distributes art outside of the traditional homepages of creative types, online magazines, galleries, museums and so forth.

First there was Corrupt, a bizarre bit of computer nerdiness that caught our eye back in May. Then we discovered Artocracy who we interviewed just a few weeks ago.

Now, our brethren over at Influx has turned us on to Art Face Off, a web-based competition devoted to discovering and championing "Humanity's greatest living artists."

Ambitions aside, AFO is a pretty interesting idea that has taken founder Steven W Ochs a couple years to put together. Launched in September, the site is currently working through its initial 900 featured artists in 8 categories, pairing artists together and inviting users to vote on their favorite. The artist getting the most votes advances to the next round and next fall the whole shebang will culminate in a head to head final face off. The winners in each category each win $1000.

Don't get us wrong here. EMERGE isn't totally captivated by the notion that a bit of competition is a good thing for the art world. That world seems pretty darn cutthroat to begin with. However, this site is getting LOTS of traffic. Only two months old, the site has logged about 400,000 votes and receives between 1500-5000 unique page views a day. As word spreads, these numbers will only rise and by next year Art Face Off looks to have the kind of worldwide audience to truly have it's voice heard in the art community.

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