Marco Senaldi critiques Barabasi's formula for artistic success

In an editorial on Artribune, philosopher and art theorist Marco Senaldi critiques Albert-László Barabasi's 2018 Science article "Quantifying reputation and success in art." Senaldi argues that Barabasi's quantitative approach, which analyzes 500,000 artists' careers to produce a graph of success factors, is fundamentally flawed. He points out that the study lists Villa Croce Museum of Contemporary Art in Genoa as a key location for success, which Senaldi dismisses as a peripheral institution. Senaldi contends that measuring cultural influence requires more than quantitative data, as the measuring tool and the subject are part of the same scenario. He also questions the self-referential nature of Barabasi's theory, suggesting that if big data explains everything, then Barabasi's own insights would be predictable, undermining his claim to originality. The editorial references Hegel's concept of abstract thinking and criticizes the trend of "prêt-à-porter" thinkers in contemporary culture.