Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog

I love Jazz.  I also think typewriters are pretty cool, although I can’t believe that people actually got very much work accomplished on them.  I guess that shows my age.

So, it’s not to hard to believe that I’m pretty interested and excited to have the original typescript of Kerouac’s On The Road coming to the IMA for an exhibition… (see On the Road Again with Jack Kerouac and Robert Frank )

I’m also kind of an info-dork.  I love graphs and charts or all sorts.  Anyone else who is equally geeked up on crazy ways to view information should really check out the Information Aesthetics Blog. It’s a really great set of creative and artistic ways of representing information. But, I digress…

One day, perusing this blog, I happened to stumble upon the work of Stefanie Posavec. She must be a genius because her work is so beautiful and insightful! What really caught my eye was some work she has done in visualizing the textual structure of none other than Kerouac’s On The Road!

Spreading out link leaves of a Ginkgo tree, this beautiful example of infovis at its finest shows all sorts of interesting details about Kerouac’s novel.  Each branch of the tree represents chapters, paragraphs, even the sentences and words used in the novel. 

Each is colored by what topic it relates to like light blue for “Travel” and green for “Bop and Jazz Music”.  By doing this it’s really easy to see for example that Kerouac talks about “Work and Survival” almost solely in chapters 11 and 13.  I love the simplicity and insight that she achieves here, and with such a beautiful aesthetic!  If all graphs and charts were this engaging we would have paid more attention in school!

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Blogging anyway. So…where to start? I began by making a list of things to talk about. Things I have read recently about design or maybe just some stuff about myself so you can get to know me a little better. You know, something funny and charming that would win you over by the time you finished this first paragraph. I like puppies and I recycle. And there it is.

Okay, well maybe not. Perhaps I’ll just follow Richard’s lead and start off with what I do.

I’m the Senior Graphic Designer here at the IMA. So what does that mean exactly? Any graphic designer will tell you that we get this a lot. Not a big deal. Don’t be afraid to ask if you ever find yourself in this situation. My own family still has trouble figuring out exactly what I spend my day doing. When I was growing up I loved to draw things. I was a drawin’ fool. Mainly Spider-Man and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This, of course, implied to every adult that knew me that one day I might just become a successful artist. Watch this kid; he’s going places!

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Today we are pleased to welcome Anne Laker, our newest IMA blogger, representing the Education department. She is also known for her compassion for all things green, so please enjoy her inaugural post on this most appropriate occasion.

Never underestimate the potential of a bruised banana. Around the office at the IMA, my desk is known as repository for fruit that’s past its prime. Colleagues know—as an obsessive recycler—that I will repurpose their bananas by taking them home, tossing them in the freezer and using them in a smoothie.

The re-use ethic is the foundation of freeganism, the practice of strategic food salvaging. Freegans use their wits to rescue perfectly good food out of the back doors of grocery stores and other venues. Freegans and freecyclers can imagine other uses for other people’s garbage. [If you are an Indy-based freegan, please respond to this post!]

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So, there are a lot of people out there in the world telling you to vote these days. Voting is important, many argue it is a civic responsibility. I am writing today in support of that point of view. But not in that other big race. This one is pretty local.

A couple weeks ago, Daniel gave you a prompt to submit ideas for a new IMA Blog t-shirt slogan. We had a couple dozen contributors, many of which are IMA employees. So before you get all worked up about the unfairness of our contest, we decided to go ahead and be the good guys and give every person who submitted a comment(by April 15th) a free t-shirt with the winning slogan.

That being said, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try harder next time. I mean, c’mon, 3 out of 5 of the best slogans were submitted by IMA employees, and 2 of them were mine! To be fair, we might have chosen some of the other submissions if we could have reconciled the concerns surrounding them. An IMA favorite was “Lose 30 pounds in 30 days,” submitted by Ben, but we figured there was no truth in that advertising. Another fan favorite mentioned some names in a certain CEO’s title. We feared this might leave those outside the IMA circle clueless and that we might have some explaining to do if we selected that one.

I expect that you are reading this post and thinking, “My submission was SO much better than what they picked!” and that is okay. You can disagree, but we just want you to know that we took this assignment really seriously, and had an hour-long meeting to argue about which slogans should be selected as finalists. So, without further ado, please have at it. Vote for your favorite slogan and we’ll make a t-shirt with the winning phrase.

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The poll closes on May 5. You can only vote once (sorry, but it is the only fair way!).

We’ll be in touch soon to collect info to distribute free shirts.

An art parade is an intriguing thing. Over the last few months I’ve received a lot of questions from folks wondering about the art parade. So, I thought with 9 days to go, I’d compile (with the help of my colleagues) a list of the public’s most burning questions. Knowing that a list of questions alone is probably not helpful, I’ve also included a list of answers.

On Procession FAQs

Is there a Web site where I can find more information about the parade and the exhibition? Sure is! Visit www.OnProcession.org to learn more.

Can I still be in the parade? How can I sign up on the day of the parade?
Yes! You can still be part of the parade. You can register your project on the morning of the parade between 10:00 and 11:30 am at either end of the parade route. Registration tents will be located near the intersection of Virginia Avenue & S. East Street (WEST end) and near the intersection of Virginia Avenue, Shelby Avenue & Prospect Street (EAST end). If you’re not sure whether you are EAST or WEST, click here for more information.

I want to be a spectator on parade day. What are the vantage points?
The parade route will run the one-mile stretch of Virginia Avenue between the Anthem Building (located at the intersection of Shelby St., East St., and Virginia Ave.) and the Fountain (located at the intersection of Virginia Ave. and Prospect St.). Anywhere along the parade route will be traffic-proofed and ready for spectators! Click here to see the map.

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