"competition" "art" "must use google technologies" wtf is going on here? This sounds like a huge advertisement for google under the premise that "if we put your stuff in a gallery, you will be an artist." One that the public in another country will pay (the gallery) to see. > "Sometimes we just need some inspiration and an outlet." Folks, your outlet for your art is the entire world around you. It is your friends and…
It's one thing if Google was being dishonest about the opportunity on offer. That it sounds like a premise you particularly dread hardly makes it actually operate under said premise.
In the face of a profession that worships craft-as-opposed-to-art, Google sounds an encouraging note: that code can be/can produce art and that it wants to promote that idea, and show off those who avail themselves of that idea.
Are you under the impression that artists in this sphere are in it for the money?--and that Google is therefore somehow swindling aspiring participants? We could do worse than have an online art hack month. The modest constraint of using a single Google product in exchange for participating a well-supported competition seems reasonable for most. And that will hardly, "for God's sake", "limit [them] to showing [their] work in this one gallery." Like game jams, this is about kickstarting creativity.
You decry mercenary motives and then evaluate this opportunity purely in terms of profit. You can't have your urinal cake and eat it too.