Artistic Profile = Motor + Means
The study of artistic practices presented in the book 700 Artists' Processes shows that they can be classified into families of concerns — the Motors — and families of materialisation — the Means.
An artistic practice is defined as the association of one Motor and one Means. This association, written as coordinates (for instance 21;15), constitutes the artist's Profile.
Each typology is organised in four levels of aggregation: three initial categories, subdivided in two at each level, lead to the twenty-four types. This is the canonical level, the one carried by every artist page.
Two further subdivisions form the refinement: within a single type, it distinguishes inflections shared by only a few artists. Beyond that, the singularity describes what belongs to one artist alone: two artists with the same canonical Profile part ways there.
The canonical may be set by the artist, who analyses their own work through the typology, with the help of the Motor and Means guides. A profile may also be certified, on request: the analysis is then conducted by Maxime Chanson, from the works, from whatever comes from the artist — titles, writings, statements — and from comparison with all the artists already profiled. A certified profile is thereby comparable with every other certified profile. Refinement and singularity belong to certification.