Class Picture Day on Flickr

Groups on Flickr are often hard to seed.  Like a lot of the digital content, an audience does not flock to a website, just because it is published.  It takes a connection with an audience, an innovative or compelling idea, sometimes a bit of luck and great timing or me urging in a blog post.  In our Class Picture Day group, a few IMA staffers (Despi, Noelle, Ruth and Sarah) were brave enough to post their own class photos, to initiate the process.  I was amazed by their commitment to the cause and willingness to put their brilliant pictures from yesteryear online.  I hesitated and used an excuse now echoed by many throughout the halls of the IMA: I can’t find my yearbook.  Come on!

I and others continue to harass our colleagues to submit.  It does take commitment – you have to find a yearbook or the actual photo, you have to scan the image, you have to login to Flickr and upload (you might even need to create a yahoo username to do this) – so I get the time involved.  But, now that even I submitted an image, that excuse is no longer valid.  I uploaded a terribly embarrassing image of myself this morning.  I guess I am committed to the cause and I think you should be too.

As we all age, our class pictures lose that relevance of the pop culture and time period, so when they are viewed years later, well, they appear funny or outdated or slightly embarrassing.  I personally love them.  So I’m challenging our readers, find your Class Picture Day images and post them to our group.  You’ll become part of an online community that was willing to laugh in the face of potential humiliation and just go for it.

Can you do it?

Check out this photo on Flickr to see a diagram of my crazy.

This is a super-busy time for the Nugget Factory and it just sort of happened.  For a couple of days last week, Daniel was out of the office with Dan shooting some video in San Francisco for the upcoming show, Power and Glory: Court Arts of China’s Ming Dynasty. I found myself sitting at my desk, working at a normal pace…and bored out of my mind.  Two days later, with the full factory back in action, things sort of erupted, with new tasks flying in at every angle.  I guess I prefer it that way…Check out this selection of stuff we have coming soon:

• A new Flickr project giving you a look at some conservation work done by IMA conservators in conjunction with the exhibition, Preserving a Legacy: Wishard Hospital Murals (coming January 2009)
  
• The website for Power and Glory, which will integrate video in a way we have never tried before (coming October 2008)
• A full length documentary on Maya Lin that is in the home stretch, we hope you can see this late 2008
• The special web presence featuring Type A, in the final stages of editing, getting ready for the Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park groundbreaking on September 18th
• A new Flickr group called “Class Picture Day” – submit your own class photo inspired by the exhibition, Class Pictures: Photographs by Dawoud Bey (You should submit your class photo, but even if you don’t you can find mine on there!)
• Two audio tracks recorded by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra for you to enjoy, inspired by works of art in the American Galleries

So that is a just a taste for the next couple of months.  We’ll keep you posted as new things come up.  Next year will be bringing some super exciting things that you will definitely hear about here, so stay tuned!!