The new imamuseum.org.

The redesign centers around a more structured hierarchy of information as well as a renewed simplicity around the site navigation and a refreshed appearance throughout. With mobile traffic on the rise, the responsive design makes the site accessible across a broad range of screen sizes and devices and provides a more seamless digital experience. Through the collaboration of the IMA’s digital production team, the site was built entirely in-house.

Though the refresh has been applied to most major sections of the site, some additional sections will continue to be updated over the next year, including areas devoted to the IMA’s collection and blog.

We’re excited to bring you expanded and more timely content on your favorite devices through our new website. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Inspired by SmallBox Web‘s 24 Hour Web Project, we decided (perhaps foolishly) to hold a 24 hour sprint to implement the new ArtBabble. This gives the nine of us a chance to collaborate closely on the project, as well as do focused work without other office issues interrupting. We decided to get away from our usual space, and are excited to be sprinting at the Speak Easy, an awesome co-working space in Broad Ripple.

So finally, today is the day! The sprint is upon us, and we have gathered with much caffeine to babble our little hearts out.

The team sets up and gets to work.

Charlie Moad, Director of IMA Lab, and I will be live blogging the progress here, so check back for updates or follow us on twitter at @ArtBabble. We guarantee some middle-of-the-night dance party madness and at least a few shots of us eating pizza.

9:00 a.m.: The team arrives and starts carting computers, paperwork, food and yellow mascots up to the Speak Easy loft, our working space for the next day. There are so many things to bring! I forgot my mouse and made an emergency phone call to get one delivered. -Emily

9:45 a.m.: We are all set up in the loft, including multiple cases of Diet Coke, Dr. Pepper, and Red Bull. Designer Rita Troyer just briefed the guys on the technical feature list and everyone is volunteering for tasks they are interested in. -Emily

10:17 a.m.: The table gets quiet as everyone gets to work! -Emily

11:00 a.m.: Most of the first hour involved just getting everything up and running and assigning areas of the site that each developer will work on. I’m working with the designers to get the main site theme running. Kyle and Dan are working on the search index and site navigation. Ed is working on the video pages. Gray is cranking out partner and people listing pages. Kris is diving into the front page. Emily is providing moral support. -Charlie

11:01 a.m.: Rude. I am, in fact, organizing the “For Educators” page content. -Emily

11:25 a.m.: Pictures are starting to show up on twitter. Follow along with #babblesprint. -Emily

11:35 a.m.: Some of us dressed for the occasion: https://twitter.com/cmoad/status/269117240379592704 (Buy your own Wolf Shirt) -Charlie

11:50 a.m.: Lunch arrives (delicious Jimmy Johns) for our first break and recap of work so far. Daniel Cervantes reports on how search is going: “It’s going.” -Emily

12:44 p.m.: Starting to see some content appearing on the home page and working with developer Kris Arnold on some content for “Popular Videos”. Jimmy Johns sufficiently decimated. -Emily

1:16 p.m.: It’s getting real now. A lot of crosstalk is starting to happen. -Charlie

1:18 p.m.: Emailing partners and working with them on embedding their videos from YouTube, Vimeo and Brightcove. We hope this major change will enable many more videos from places you love like SFMOMA. Also, just checked out our browser use analytics for the past year: AB users are fairly evenly spaced out, with Safari at 30%, IE at 24%, Firefox at 23%, Chrome at 22% and Opera squeaking in with 1%. -Emily

1:30 p.m.: Meg Liffick, the IMA’s Director of Public Affairs, brought us some of her amazing cookies. Just the fuel we needed to keep going! -Emily

2:14 p.m.: More and more content is starting to appear on the staging site, and Matt is following up with style. I’m about to migrate all the video files from the old site to the new site where we are still hosting the videos. Many videos on the new ArtBabble will be hosted by Vimeo, YouTube, and BrightCove. -Charlie

2:33 p.m.: Web designer Matt Gipson is dominating CSS while working on the main menus. Also he just finished his third Red Bull. -Emily

2:34 p.m.: Developer Gray Bowman announces all code for the partner channels page is finished. A cheer rises from the gathered crowd. -Emily

3:03 p.m.: Time flies when you are having fun. 5+ hours in and it feels like we just got here. -Charlie

3:39 p.m.: ArtBabble 24 Hour Sprint, now brought to you by George Michael and Stanley. When someone working downstairs heard the saxophone they shouted “Oh, NO!” -Emily

4:00 p.m.: I couldn’t stand it anymore. The free beer tap downstairs has started flowing. -Charlie

4:12 p.m.: At a quarter of the way through, spirits are still high. We have completed a significant amount of work and are starting to get to the fun parts. More visiting coworkers are on their way! -Emily

5:30 p.m.: The videos pages are starting to really look like the final product. I also just kicked off a transfer of about 1500 videos from the old site to the new site. They are all going to be converted using Zencoder. -Charlie

5:44 p.m.: Jenny from Public Affairs stopped by with spirit glasses! The team paused for a group photo. -Emily

6:12 p.m.: Kyle Jaebker, whose titled is self-described as “Boss”, just announced that the Facebook comments feature is done! I am personally really excited for this feature and the potential for more conversation around videos. -Emily

6:49 p.m.: The pizza and wine is here. -Emily

7:39 p.m.: We were working so hard we tripped a breaker. Lights out until we can figure where the breaker box is hiding. -Charlie

7:57 p.m.: 10 hours in. Light are back on. We are getting ready to pause for our first major group check-in on progress. I think we were supposed to do that about 6 hours ago… -Charlie

8:49 p.m.: Everyone is diving in after our status meeting. We have progressed through much of the development of more than half of the pages and Matt has started styling pages. The site is starting to look real! I have been adding test content for related links and getting videos selected to test the new homepage slider. -Emily

9:43 p.m.: The music selection is going down hill. Fast. -Charlie

9:49 p.m.: Halfway through. Starting to see lots of check marks on our progress board! -Emily

10:28 p.m.: The music is getting truly bizarre. Also, 90 minutes until our cookie delivery arrives. -Emily

10:55 p.m.: We have started to get into the nitty-gritty. Lots of detailed questions and everyone is focusing on minutiae, throwing questions out for designers Rita and Matt. -Emily

11:42 p.m.: Cookies are here. Time for a progress update and stretch break. -Charlie

12:13 a.m.: Working on pulling high resolution poster images. We want our partner’s videos to look great. -Charlie

12:41 a.m.: 9 hours to go! Just finished writing the blog post announcing the update for the existing site. We hope to have a splash page with a promo video on the old site on Monday morning for the next few weeks before launch. I also have started the task of saving every partner logo and transferring them to the new site. It’s the little things like this that make the site start to look really put together and polished. -Emily

12:59 a.m.: “Waiting for my internet to come back.” -Charlie via Emily’s internet connection

1:10 a.m.: Everyone is getting their second wind. Almost all the work at this point is in the fine details. Unfortunately there are a lot of those. -Charlie

2:13 a.m.: Just finished pulling and adding all the partners logos. Now I am going to create the new footer pages: About and Contact Us. This will combine all the current footer page content, some of which is outdated. Kyle just shared: “We already have more code commits in two hours today than what we did all yesterday.” -Emily

Code Commits for the past 24 hours

2:37 a.m.: A middle of the night sneak peek at the new ArtBabble graphic identity. I can’t wait to unveil the full site! -Emily

3:25 a.m.: After wrestling with it for 45 minutes, developer Gray Bowman just announced YES! and pounded the table when he got a particularly difficult bit of code to work. At 3 in the morning, these are the things that keep us going. -Emily

3:31 a.m.: It’s getting harder and harder to tackle the next task… Still plowing through though. -Charlie

3:58 a.m.: LOOK! a squirrel!!!!! -Kris

4:20 a.m.: Just completed our 4am status meeting. The final To Do list has been drawn up and everyone has broken out to work on the final tasks. Eyes are red. Also, it appears the blog has been hacked. -Emily

5:42 a.m.: Tasks are taking about 4 times longer than normal right now. Knowing we are approaching the 24 hour end is making it hard to concentrate as well. -Charlie

6:20 a.m.: Desperately needing a shot of inspiration to make it through the final stretch. I have been been linking videos for a while, and made a lot of progress on SmartHistory, MoMA and YBCA. “You Can Call Me Al” just came on so I think it may be time for a short dance break. -Emily

6:22 a.m.: I just counted 4 heads leaning on hands. These hours are ticking by slower and slower it seems. -Charlie

6:54 a.m.: Speak for yourselves, you guys. -Rita 

7:35 a.m.: I have been officially spent for about a hour. Everyone else is hanging in there like champs and have done amazing work over these last 22 hours. -Charlie

7:35 a.m.: The guys have a new round of focused work after breakfast bagel delivery. I am working on more content for the homepage and hoping the final hour goes quickly! -Emily

8:39 a.m.: Cleanup and breakdown begins. The number of Red Bull cans, pizza boxes and cookies gathered is preposterous. I am so proud and impressed by the amount of work the IMA Lab team completed! We will take the next few weeks to implement page styling on the site and make sure everything is working perfectly before the big launch. -Emily

9:15 a.m.: We have had so much fun today, and we are so pleased with the results of the sprint. Thanks for following along! Thanks also to SmallBox Web and the Speak Easy for sharing and hosting us. We can’t wait to share the shiny new site with you on December 4th (we hope!) Please continue to share our project on Twitter until the relaunch and let us know what you think of the site when it debuts! - Emily & Charlie

This morning, in a room at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, I joined a group of museum colleagues (representing 151 institutions, from 40 countries!) and journalists for the launch of the next iteration of the Google Art Project. For those of us who worked on the project, this was our first look at the results of an all-hands-on-deck effort to prepare images and gather contextual information about the works in our respective collections. Each participating museum’s logo flashed on the screen as the revved up to the big reveal. Sorry for the blurry photo, but I got a little excited at this moment!

The big reveal

Google has made an incredible 30,000 + high-res images available in this wave of the project. At the IMA, we selected over 200 works from our collection to feature – a number that will continue to grow as we add more to the site. For us, this opportunity came at a moment when we were beginning to re-assess the content that’s available on the collection pages of our own website, coinciding perfectly with a major effort to expand this information and re-think the layout of these pages (more to come on this later!).

Art Project organizer Amit Snood revealed a number of features throughout the site demo, including search options that allow users to browse by artist’s name, artwork, type of art, museum, country, collections and the time period. To highlight the cross-collection capabilities, Amit walked us through a search he did for Van Gogh’s The Bedroom, which revealed not only the three versions on view at the Art Institute of Chicago, Van Gogh Museum and Musée d’Orsay, but also pulled in an artist he was previously unfamiliar with named Kyung Min Nam, who was inspired by Van Gogh’s work.

Search functionality demonstration

Users have the capability to create their own collections by saving their favorite works into galleries, adding comments, and sharing with friends.  Amit also featured the expanded street view and gigapixel options with a view of the galleries below us at the Musée d’Orsay:

Street view of the Musée d'Orsay

Of course, as soon as the demo was over we all made a beeline to the computers in the hallway to check it out, necks craning over shoulders to scope out our neighbor’s museum and our own.

Exploring the site for the first time, plus another shameless IMA plug

I’m looking forward to delving into the site further to look at the IMA’s collection in context with other works of art across the globe. Looking around the room this morning, Google’s goal of developing connections and providing access seems to be off to a pretty good start. Take a look and see what you think.

The IMA on Google Art Project

As one of the two photographers here at the IMA, I am responsible for capturing the IMA galleries in a similar fashion.  At times I capture galleries alive with its patrons.  At other times I document for posterity the space free of human distraction.  I, as those participating in my questionnaire, enjoy seeing the galleries in various degrees of these states – the sole visitor reflecting on a work of art, the mass of humanity flowing between its walls, the gallery alone asking us to reflect on the images presented, or the gallery free of any artwork or person and completely desolate.

Below are a few of those images and the responses from the photographers.  If you are interested in the photographs presented, please follow the gallery series on Flickr.

 Witold Riedel:
Witold Riedel is a creative director at one of the largest advertising networks in the world. He is responsible for a worldwide campaign, which “involves a good amount of travel.”

This image was included in the “Trapped In The White Cube” series. An excerpt from Witold’s responses to the questionnaire is below:

(via Flickr)

 What made you capture and share the image you created?

Are we talking about the picture of the nun and the dinosaur? Oh, it was just a very sweet moment at the Museum Mensch und Natur in Nymphenburg, in Munich. I had missed my flight to Moscow on that day and after visiting the BMW Welt, Nymphenburg felt like the perfect contrast. The room was very small, I had to be close to the nun to take the picture. I only had one chance to expose the photograph without disturbing the composition. I was lucky. I had set the exposure and aperture and the focus on my Leica correctly. I like that there are some parallels in the expression of the dinosaur and the nun. The picture is certainly not intended as cultural criticism. I have nothing against dinosaurs or the Catholic Church.

What type of museum objects do you enjoy the most?

I like to return to some not very loved paintings, just to discover that I have changed more than they have. And I also like to see that they are still there, in their own place. Or maybe in a new place.

I  used to stand next to the Mona Lisa at the Louvre sometimes and just look at the people coming to visit. I actually have two photo series about this on my old website. It was interesting how many visitors were not actually interested in the work, they were more interested in having a picture taken with the work. It really is about that connection sometimes. The Mona Lisa is now in a different place within the Louvre. It is now easier to take pictures with her. But it is much more difficult to see her. That might be one of the reasons why I prefer the not so loved paintings sometimes. Though they obviously must be incredibly special already, just to make it to the galleries. What percentage of the work never makes it out of storage? Some museums have created galleries that feel almost like open storage. I like that idea quite a bit.

XAM+ANNA:
XAM+ANNA are actually Massimiliano Matera and Annalisa Pilati, two aspiring architects, and a couple in life and work.  They live in Rome, which is its own “open-air museum.”

This image was included in the “Trapped In The White Cube” series and here’s an excerpt from XAM+ANNA’s responses to the questionnaire below:

(via Flickr)

What made you capture and share the image you created?

The photo creates a relation between the space and the visitors, with specific references from the art world (see works of contemporary artist such as Vito Acconci and Michelangelo Pistoletto, for example). For us, the link between spectator and artwork is fundamental and our research tends to show the reactions of the spectator, making him an integral part (then actor) of a new form of art, in which he’s the protagonist.

Vileinist:
Vileinist, a.k.a. Jonathan O’Reilly is a Faculty Researcher at University of Maryland lives in Washington D.C.

(via Flickr)

What made you capture and share the image you created?

It was an interesting piece of work. You can expect avant-garde art at the Hirshhorn Museum, but this was something quite unique. When I turned the corner into the room, I was taken aback by the visual display – swirling curves of light were dancing across the wall to a soundtrack of pure silence. There were no distractions in the room, just the projector and the wall. There was a lone person looking at the piece in a state of wonder. Her placement in the frame helped me create an image that helped to reflect my own feeling of awe. An image of the piece by itself would not have been as surreal. In general, I like to photograph humans not as primary subjects, but rather as accessories to accentuate proportions or my own feelings in a given setting.

IndyChannel recently launched their A-list ballot for 2011 – a yearly poll that highlights the best of Indy. The IMA is proud to say that we have been nominated as a contender for best museum. The wide-ranging list below, in the form of a TOP ten, are just a few reasons why you should vote in support of the IMA as Indianapolis’ BEST museum. We know you already agree but we hope to reassure you anyway.

10. First and foremost, the IMA is an ART museum, even though it provides films, talks, events, galas, and workshops that may convince you otherwise, the enormous and comprehensive collection is at the heart of our existence. The IMA strives and achieves in providing an art museum environment that is friendly and non-threatening to those without an artistic background, embracing the community as a whole. Those with a love and passion for the arts can mingle amongst peers and schedule an entire weekend of events solely with IMA activities.

9. The IMA has had a remarkable year which included a recent performance at the Venice Biennale, representing the US on a global venue. As you know, the IMA has been working tirelessly on this event, which has garnered amazing responses to Allora & Calzadilla’s works. The IMA represented Indianapolis and the US in an authentic and innovative way through this artistic duo. Did I mention the IMA represented the ENTIRE UNITED STATES? Just checking.

Photos by Andrew Bordwin.

8. In recent years, the opening of the Randall L. and Marianne W. Tobias Theater, aka The Toby, has drawn some big-named speakers into our Indianapolis sphere. Most recently Stefan Sagmeister came to speak about design and happiness from his personal studio, Sagmeister Inc, which was founded in 1993. Sagmeister has designed for the likes of The Rolling Stones, HBO and the Guggenheim with his maxim’s made of both conventional and unconventional mediums using his words and design as a “tool for social renewal.” The Toby has also hosted, Temple Grandin, a woman living with Autism, who is praised with her humane design for handling livestock facilities. An HBO film biography on her won seven Emmy awards! With an amazing turn out for the Toby’s first year (almost 37,000 visitors) the future only looks brighter. Who will the Toby draw in next?

7. Not only does the IMA host galleries filled with ancient arts and artifacts from cultures around the world, it also hosts its own contemporary art wing from a world-wide net. Do-Ho Suh’s contemporary work, Floor is  a very awe inspiring piece. Viewers are allowed and meant to step upon this expansive platform where hundreds of male and female figurines seemingly hold you up. The hundreds of figures that cover the underside of the 32 individual squares allow each viewer’s weight to be held up by their tired plastic arms. The IMA has a contemporary collection worth noting as well as artist showcases, presently being Mr. Thorton Dial—whose exhibition Hard Truths runs through September 18.

6. Spring has sprung and summer is fully fledged! 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park is an amazing outdoor experience that is definitely worth its own visit to the IMA. On these beautiful Indianapolis summer days, 100 acres is a perfect getaway from the bustle of the city (even just for a few hours)! With eight sight-specific works commissioned, the park shows how art and nature intertwined in a contemporary style. Joep van Lieshout, with his studio Atelier van Lieshout, created Funky Bones, and interactive large-scale sculpture of a Halloween-esque skeleton to be multifaceted, as both art and as functional benches. Plus, where else can you row out to an artist-inhabited island? Pretty sure we’re the only one.

5. In 2008 the IMA was named an Energy Star partner with a pledge to reduce energy consumption. In turn, we reduced natural gas consumption by 48 percent and electricity by 19 percent. In 2010 the IMA was named one of 11 museums to receive recognition by the Environmental Protection Agency which sparked the IMA’s own “greening committee”- displaying art and protecting the environment, one day at a time.

4. We love to collaborate! The Indianapolis International Film Festival has again paired with the IMA’s Toby theatre and DeBoest Lecture hall and will be running from July 14-July 18. This festival will show films from all over the world of varying genre, skill level and lengths. From one minute films (Check out Dinosaur Ballet) to full length feature films, this festival will have a film to suit everyone’s taste. The IMA bringing a small piece of the world to you through this collaboration is sure to be an eye-opening experience. (It also includes a film by one of the IMA’s own staff, be sure to check out Type A!)

3. A certain buzz has been generated from the unveiling of the enigmatic Miller House and Garden in Columbus, Indiana. This acquisition marks an expansion that the IMA knows no bounds and will restore and display art of many forms while also showcasing Indiana’s architectural gem, the city of Columbus itself.

2. Summer Nights is a summer film series that has been widely received by the Indianapolis community. Not only can you sit amongst your friends, and enjoy a great film in the evening, but you can lounge in an amphitheatre setting reminiscent of the ancient Greeks and enjoy food and refreshments. This series is widely popular and lets you escape from the air-conditioned doldrums of the standard blockbuster while enjoying an acclaimed film and a nice summer breeze. Are you convinced yet?

1. In the words of a beloved YELP reviewer: “…an art museum that’s free? Must be a joke or not worth going to. Turns out that I was wrong.” You heard right, to everyone’s utter amazement and enjoyment, admission is FREE! VOTE NOW for the IMA as the BEST Museum in Indianapolis!

So what are we up to back in the motherland? A few things really…

While our traveling cohorts organize and gather the documentation materials, a team of us are ready and on-hand to help get that content to you (and our friends in the media) as quickly as possible. Working within a system that includes a 6 hour time difference isn’t always easy, but multiple process meetings prior to the trip has made for smooth sailing (knock on wood).

Most of my job entails getting the content out to you, our online audience. From updating the website with videos, images, and information to managing our Facebook and @imamuseum Twitter account, my work is 90% online and 10% meetings about the online material. I sincerely love this job and it’s because of this job that I feel like I am in Venice along with everyone else.

Closely following all of the @la_biennale and @USPavillion11-related tweets, I am inundated with updates, sightings, and picturesque views. I could open my Hootsuite account now and virtually connect with the city of romance and its temporary visitors. Tweets from everyone in Venice and the subsequent correspondence with those from all over the world have really been fascinating.

Another part of my job (web management) means that I’m one of the luckier ones who gets to see the new IMA content the second its published to our website. I don’t think this really hit me until I was able to publish photos and videos of the US Gymnasts performing on Body in Flight (Delta) and Body in Flight (American).

Slideshow: Allora & Calzadilla, Body in Flight (Delta) and Body in Flight (American), 2011. Photos by Andrew Bordwin.

Tethered to my computer, I’ll be anxiously waiting all week for our Publishing and Media team to send over their latest creations. If you aren’t following @imamuseum or @USPavilion11 – now is the time to stay up to date on the latest. Also, be sure to “like” us on Facebook (a behind the scenes photo album coming soon) and browse our Venice Biennale microsite. There is a page for each of the six commissioned artworks, which includes videos and photos (stay tuned for some installation shots and full performance videos).

It’s because of all of these things (and the workings of a lot of people) that I can actually feel the energy radiating from the US Pavilion, 4,500 miles away. Reading tweets from the US gymnasts (@USATeamGloria), I sense their anticipation before opening performances and share in their pride for this wonderful opportunity with which we are all involved.  Watching rehearsal videos I can see the hard work and collaboration needed to pull it all together, while the final installation shots show me why it’s all worth it.

As I write this, I did just finish a nice glass of cabernet so while I may not be riding a vaporetto to work or rubbing elbows with international elites, my focus and heart (along with many others still in the building) is 100% Venetian this week.

Who’s up for some gelato?

Kyle Jaebker is the applications developer behind First Impressions. “Coming from a non-art background, it’s interesting to see if I’m looking at what everyone else is . . . and any art interaction is valuable.”

So what do people see? Well here is one of the presented images -

Lozowick, Louis (American, 1892-1973), "Winter Fun."

and here is where everyone clicked (the warmer the color, the more clicks received).

The viewer did bounce around a little but mostly kept to the figures in the foreground and the center of the painting. But are these people looking at the right things? Or are there even right things to look at?

Marty Krause, Curator of Print, Drawings and Photographs, weighs in on this idea, “There aren’t wrong answers. People’s eyes tend to go to the middle—that’s how eyes work.” The artist knows this and builds their composition around it. You’ll look at what the artist intended you to look at first; it’s part of their job as a visual expresser.”

What about a more complex image? This painting has its most eye-catching elements towards the center. The artist has an idea of where they want the eye to go – the fact that viewers are seeing the most important details first comments on the beauty and effectiveness of the composition.

Utagawa Hirōshige (Japanese, 1797-1858), "Nihonbashi in the Snow."

This print had more going on. John Teramoto, Curator of Asian Art, explained the above work. It shows off the three most important aspects of the Shogun capital in Edo, Japan—Mt. Fuji, Edo Castle and Japan Bridge. These are also three very important symbols for the country as a whole, however, they aren’t represented evenly in the composition—as we can tell by where the clicks fell.

The viewers shifted focus from the bridge to Mt. Fuji and back. Little attention was given to the Edo Castle (seen back, right). Why would viewers not notice the castle – one of the most important elements of the print? Well, because it’s in the back and to the right. It’s important for the work, but with this busy composition you just aren’t gonna see it at first.

Most of the participants were consistent with what the artist had in mind as to the important aspects of their compositions. Some participants appeared to be distracted by less intentied elements. However, to re-visit Marty Krause, “There aren’t wrong anwsers.” So even if what you are looking at is not what everyone else is, the responsibility lies with the artist, as a visual communicator, to create an effective composition, no matter where you’re looking. Through this experiment it seems that individuals are viewing art however they want to view art, which, is exactly correct.

I first became aware of Hanneorla around 2007 when I was looking for Flickr users that were photographing artworks on the grounds of the IMA.  The set made for the IMA has 61 images in it and most of the contemporary outdoor artworks are documented. Although the sheer number of photos is impressive, what also interested me is the way the photos were taken: many of the works are shown from multiple sides, demonstrating that Hanneorla is skilled at looking carefully at art.

It was also around this time when Clay Shirky was getting a lot of attention for talking about how the Internet was ideally suited for us to spend our cognitive surplus doing something productive, rather than just watching television in the evening (Shirky estimates today this cognitive surplus is around a trillion hours a year for the adult population in the developed world).  Trying to harness but a sliver of a thumbnail of this surplus, we created the Wikipedia-and-Flickr-based project Wikiproject Public Art. While this continues to slowly grow, I’m always on the lookout for museum-based projects that tap into the cognitive surplus in a meaningful way.

So, to get to know the most productive art photographer in world better, I invited Hanneorla here for a discussion.

Richard McCoy: Will you tell me about your user name?

Hanneorla: We are a wife/husband team, so Hanneorla = wife (Hanne) + Orla (husband).  Original name, eh?

RM: What is your training as photographers?

HO: Well, we don’t have any. Our work has really been learning by doing all along.

We got our first digital camera in 2002 as a wedding present (a somewhat bulky Canon thingy) and were fascinated by the then-novel prospect that you could just shoot away, transfer, save, and view the images on a PC.  I remember taking our first digital pictures at a Gay Pride Parade in San Diego, standing on a chair in front of a café and trying to focus on the floats and (of course) the spectators.

Gay Pride Parade, Hillcrest, San Diego, California. Image: Hanneorla.

But we really got into photography when planning a trip to Santiago, Chile. Hanne was trying to find good images on the web of Santiago, but could only come up with old grainy ones.  We decided to take matters into our own finger-clicking hands, only to have our camera stolen on the last day in Santiago by a couple of very fast running teenagers. So from our debut as awesome globe-trotting photographers we don’t have a single shot!

RM: Can you talk about your favorite subject or photographic theme?

HO: We started out with a deep interest in modern architecture, especially skyscrapers and we still photograph those if they are spectacular enough.  Having been to places like Hong Kong, Singapore, and of course Shanghai, we have seen a few really breathtaking examples. Of course we also have images of a lot of boring bank buildings.

We have often been seen squatting on the pavement in front of a building pointing the camera towards the sky—and enduring people looking at us like we’re cuckoo.

UOB, Singapore. Image: Hanneorla.

RM: Do you remember when and why you first started uploading images to Flickr?

HO: That’s easy; it was in August of 2005. And why Flickr? Well, a friend found the site and thought it might be a good idea, so we checked it out and have been using it ever since.

RM: I really love the fact that you spend so much time creating detailed captions and descriptions for every single photo you upload, which makes your images tremendously useful to folks interested in the arts, and easy to find through search.  Can you talk about your methodology and purpose for this?

HO: That’s the hard and time-consuming part. Before we go anywhere, I (Hanne) spend many (really many!) hours researching the location, especially about sculptures (public and private), art museums, private galleries, and architecture.

I eventually collect the pictures and descriptions of all these objects in our own “guidebook,” so we know what to look for and where.  At this point, Orla usually groans when seeing this phonebook-sized guide book, or “to do list,” but usually ends up appreciating the research when we are on location!  But on many occasions, we have been out driving for hours and getting lost a lot before we find some measly piece of rusty iron that looked like a cutting-edge sculpture in our homemade guidebook!  After having gotten used to GPS technology we now find the artworks a lot faster. We often thank God (or whoever it is) in the sky for leading us in the right directions.

One thing that really irks us though (start of rant!): If you are a city, business, or person that commissions an outdoor sculpture or architectural masterpiece: maintain it and keep it clean!  In other words: TAKE CARE OF IT!  Many South American countries fail at this, as do several Southern European ones. For example, the absolutely magnificent Oscar Niemeyer-designed capital, Brasilia.  It’s a daring beauty in concrete.  A true wonder.  But it is dirty, unkempt, and really a disgrace. I think I’ll write to the new female president Dilma Rousseff and complain. Hey, they have enough money now, and certainly also well-deserved national pride. Asian countries are much better at this and they also have the courage to ask the most progressive artists (yeah, we know about Ai Weiwei and censorship), but modern Chinese art is a unique experience. And we cannot forget: The U.S. also generally has good maintenance of its outdoor artworks.  (Okay, end of our rant on that.)

RM: According to your Flickr stats, you’ve taken and uploaded 41,491 items.  This is beyond impressive.  Can you talk about why you like photographing art and museums?

HO: Allow me to quote from the Flickr profile:  “I am fascinated by contemporary visual art, cutting-edge sculpture, modern architecture, and futuristic designs.  To me the power of art is that it creates concepts and ’becomings’ intellectually and aesthetically. I’m always searching for the shock and delight of the new.”

About our ridiculously high number of photos: Well, it almost looks like a neurotic obsession, doesn’t it?  But it’s driven by pure delight and excitement.  Case in point: after having walked, and in the end crawled, for many miles in Valencia, Spain, we were suddenly dancing, footloose and fancy free, when we saw the contours of Santiago Calatrava’s City of Arts and Sciences.

Here are some more numbers: this week we passed 7,100,000 view counts of our images on Flickr. Boy, that’s more people than live in our own country of Denmark!

Hemisférico, Museo de las Ciencias Príncipe Felipe, Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias, arquitecto Santiago Calatrava 1998 y 2000, Valencia, Spain. Image: Hanneorla.

RM: Will you talk a little more about the division of labor in your documentation work?  Who takes the photos, who uploads the images and who writes about them?  Do you each do a little of this or does one person?

HO: Well, Hanne is the slave. She does all the hard work pre and post. I play the Nietzschean part of the mastermentality while really being the slave. When we started out I usually said, “Why are you taking pictures of THAT, I already photographed it.” And she (very sensibly) replied, “Yeah, but sometimes your images are better than mine, and (most often) mine are better than yours”. So we both take pictures of the same pieces of art and then select the best shots to put up on Flickr.

RM: What if there were, say, 25 Hanneorlas out there documenting art and museums?  That would mean right now there would be approximately 1 million images about art and museums.

HO: That’s a great idea. Google Art Project is trying something, and they are to be commended for their efforts, but so far they have only about 12 museums.  It’s a good start. I guess we are trying to create a global, virtual universe of art. Presumptuous? Yes, of course! But we’re doing the best we can. We just need the 24 other Hanneorlas.

(Another rant!) Why, oh, why is it that so many museums around the globe are stuck in the digital Stone Age? Why don’t they allow visitors to take photos of their art? Instead they have these clueless bosses and guards clumsily preventing excited people (the Hanneorlas of the world) from sharing and spreading the pleasure of art!  We will drive MORE PEOPLE to visit your museums and boost your ticket sales and reputation by wetting the appetite of the more than 7 million people who have looked at our pictures from YOUR museum on our Flickr site. (Yes, we’re exaggerating a bit, but a LOT of people will get to know your museum—think about it).  We just don’t get it!

RM: Do you think it possible for there to be a kind of crowd-sourced documentation project in which all of the world’s art is documented by individuals?

HO: Oh, yes. Let’s just corral a couple of dozen Hanneorlas.

RM: Okay, this is a cruel question, but what would happen if Flickr suddenly went away and your account ceased to exist (as rumors have suggested might happen)?

HO: OMG! You mean a virtual Armageddon? Well, we have about 80% of our Flickr pictures on DVDs, so we might survive.

RM: Another tough question: Out of all of your photos can you come up with a top 10?

HO: Any of our many photos of the works of Claes Oldenburg, Fernando Bottero, Santiago Calatrava, Oscar Niemeyer, photorealistic painters, Chinese sculpture, and Tom Otterness. Plus a few more hundreds.

Claes Oldenburg 1976 "Clothespin," Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Image: Hanneorla.

RM: Care to say where you are going next?

HO: We’re already packing. We’re off to Paris, France. And probably thousands more photos.  And the hard part we forgot to mention: The demanding work after we get home. We have to do a lot of organizing, indexing, and captioning of the pictures which takes up an enormous amount of time. We are always two or three trips behind. Let’s see, there are Sao Paulo, Brazil, Dallas, Texas, and Iowa plus a few other states to do.  We need another holiday!

Richard B. Gruelle, The Canal-Morning Effect, 1894 (detail).

So far, I’ve tried to be engaging. My blog posts were all a stab at that and I think I’ve done well. Largely, I’ve written on how you don’t need a degree to enjoy art. However, one can’t deny that knowing background information surrounding a piece does enhance its story. When you don’t know anything about the work or the artist the only context you have is the nail it’s hanging on. Personally, I feel this should be enough and museums spend countless hours developing ways to make “you are in a museum” the only context one needs – but it is nice to know more. So. I’ve posted a handful of images from our permanent collection on the IMA’s Flickr account. I cropped the images into detail shots and gave a little background information. One of the best things about my internship is that I get to learn a lot “fun facts” about our works, so I shared a few. My goal was to provide context, be engaged and (as always) have a little fun with art.

Ai Weiwi, "Remembering," installed at the Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2009.

Prominent Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was detained by police in Beijing’s airport on April 3^rd while attempting to board a flight to Hong Kong. He continues to be held in police custody, with little information released about the events surrounding his arrest. (Learn more about the accusations here.) A longtime human rights activist, Ai openly criticizes the Chinese government and risks his personal safety to expose governmental misconduct. Active since the late 70’s and early 80’s, he has become increasingly more outspoken throughout his 30-year artistic career, which has caused him to become the subject of sustained, intense scrutiny by the Chinese government.

Ai WeiWei is one of dozens of activists taken into custody by the Chinese government since February. Fearing an uprising akin to those in the Middle East and North Africa, the government began to preemptively take into custody the most prominent human rights activists in China.

To show support for Ai and hopefully hasten his release, a petition has been created by an international group of art museum directors. Sign the petition here. In London, Tate Modern is currently exhibiting a 2010 installation by the artist entitled Sunflower Seeds, and has become a location for outcry against his arrest.

Ai Weiwei’s activism is tied to his art. In 2008, an earthquake in Sichuan, China, caused poorly built schools to collapse, killing thousands of local school children.  When the government failed to publish the names or amount of deceased students, Ai and other activists began to investigate to uncover the truth—that Sichuan officials allowed for the construction of unsafe schools. Ai was beaten by the police in 2009 while preparing to testify in the trial of Tan Zuoren, a writer and activist who was also conducting research about the events in Sichuan. Despite this act of violence, Ai WeiWei continued to commemorate the students that died.  His installation tiled the façade of the museum with backpacks, which spelled out in Chinese characters “She lived happily for seven years in this world,” a statement by a mother of a victim in the Sichuan earthquake.