Industry Served: Arts & Social Networking
Symposia, A Critique and Networking Platform for Artists and Creatives
A Mobile App Where Artists Connect, Share Work, and Receive Honest Feedback from Peers Around the World
Building a Trusted Space for Creative Professionals
Discuss your projectArtists at every level face the same problem: the people around them are either too polite to be useful or too far removed from their practice to give relevant advice. Generic social platforms weren't designed for critique. The comment sections on mainstream networks trade in encouragement, not insight, and the algorithmic feed surfaces what is popular rather than what is most useful.
Symposia was founded by Ian Duffy with a clear vision: to create a trusted space where artists could receive productive feedback, connect with like-minded individuals, and explore new perspectives on their work without the noise of advertising, algorithmic interference, or anonymous hostility.
We were the development partner for the platform, building a mobile app for iOS and Android that centres on real-time critique sessions, location-based discovery, a personal portfolio gallery, and AIassisted tools that help surface the most constructive feedback within each session.
Project Challenges & Needs
Real-time Chat at Community Scale
Critique sessions needed to feel immediate and live, with multiple participants exchanging messages and feedback simultaneously without lag or dropped connections as the user base grew.
Anonymous Critique with Authentic Identity
Hosts needed the option to run critique sessions anonymously to encourage unbiased responses, while the platform still required real-name participation elsewhere to keep the community accountable
AI Moderation for Visual Creative Content
Artwork shared across the platform spans every medium and style. Image moderation had to distinguish harmful content from challenging artistic work, and user-reporting needed a clear, fair escalation path.
Portfolio Privacy and Access Control
Artists needed full control over who could view their portfolio. Work in progress, client commissions and personal projects each carry different visibility requirements that the platform had to support without friction.
location Discovery Without Privacy Trade offs
Regional networking required connecting artists by geographical area, but precise location data had to stay private. Discovery needed to be useful at a local level without exposing users to tracking.
Relevance Without an Algorithm
The founding brief ruled out engagement-driven algorithmic feeds. The platform still needed to help users find relevant sessions, artists and content organised by usefulness rather than popularity or paid promotion.
Our Solution
We built a mobile networking and critique platform for iOS and Android, delivering:
Scalability was a core engineering focus throughout. The architecture was designed to accommodate a growing global community while maintaining real-time performance, so the platform could grow from launch without requiring a rebuild as the user base expanded.
Interfaces We Developed
Mobile App (iOS & Android)
The primary product, used by artists and creatives to connect, critique and grow:
- Real-time chat rooms for live critique sessions with multiple participants
- Host controls for room entry, including the option to run sessions anonymously
- Location-based search to find and connect with artists in the same region
- Artist-type filters for discovering practitioners within specific disciplines
- Personal portfolio gallery with user-controlled access permissions per piece
- AI positivity scoring on comments, ordering feedback by constructiveness within a session
- Private insights and analytics dashboard, visible only to the account holder
- Private content dashboard for storing and organising work, notes and session resources
- User-reporting tools with structured escalation and AI image moderation running in the background
- Ad-free, algorithm-free feed showing sessions and connections by relevance and recency
Admin Panel
The moderation and oversight layer for the Symposia team:
- User account management, including verification status and reporting history
- Moderation queue for flagged content and user reports, with structured review and action tools
- AI moderation review, showing automated decisions alongside escalated cases for human review
- Platform analytics covering registrations, session activity, engagement and geographic spread
- Community health metrics tracking report volumes, resolution rates and repeat offenders
Key
Features & Capabilities
Real-time Artistic Dialogues
Live chat rooms where artists exchange feedback in the moment. Sessions feel like a studio conversation rather than an asynchronous comment thread.
AI-driven Positivity Analysis
Comments in critique sessions are scored for constructiveness. The most useful feedback rises to the top, so artists spend their time on advice that is worth acting on.
Anonymous Critique Hosting
Hosts can submit work for critique without revealing their identity, removing the social pressure that can distort honest feedback. Participants still engage under their real names.
Location-based Discovery
Artists can search for and connect with peers in their region without sharing precise location data, making local networking possible while keeping personal information private.
Controlled Room Access
Hosts set who can enter a critique room, keeping sessions focused and safe. Invitation-only rooms allow artists to work with a trusted circle rather than opening to the whole platform.
Personal Portfolio Showcase
Each artist has a dedicated gallery for their work, with per-piece access controls. Work can be shown publicly, restricted to connections, or kept private until the artist is ready
Ad-free, Algorithm-free
No advertising, no engagement optimised feed. Artists see what is relevant and recent, not what a model has decided will keep them scrolling longest.
Private Insights and Analytics
Each user gets automated insights on their sessions and activity, visible only to them. Conversations are organised by helpfulness, giving artists a clear picture of where the useful feedback came from.
Outcomes And Impact
A Community Artists Trust
Platform
No ads, no opaque algorithm, and a moderated environment give artists confidence that the platform is built around their needs rather than engagement metrics.
Critique Worth Acting On
Quality
AI positivity analysis surfaces the most constructive comments in each session, so the best feedback is findable rather than buried beneath general reactions.
Rapid Scale, No Rebuild
Technical
A scalable architecture from day one meant the platform could grow its community rapidly without performance degradation or the need for a disruptive technical overhaul.
Technologies Used to Develop the Solution
Mobile
React Native
Cross-platform iOS and Android app from a single codebase, with native performance where it matters.
Backend
Node.js
API layer handling authentication, user management, session logic and reporting workflows.
Real-time
WebSockets
Persistent connections for live critique rooms, keeping all participants in sync without polling.
Database
PostgreSQL
User accounts, portfolio records, session history, analytics and moderation data.
AI & Moderation
Computer Vision & NLP
Image moderation for uploaded artwork and sentiment analysis to score comment constructiveness within critique sessions.
Storage
Cloud Object Storage with CDN
Portfolio images and user-uploaded content served reliably across regions.
Notifications
Firebase Cloud Messaging
Push notifications for session activity, new connections and moderation updates.
Security
Encryption & RBAC
Data encryption at rest and in transit, with role-based access separating user, host and admin permissions.
Analytics
In-platform Reporting Layer
Private per-user insights and platform wide admin analytics covering session activity, engagement and community health.
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