Dan Dark, Senior New Media Producer

It’s the first time I’ve been doused by coffee in a creative meeting, but I’ve also been pranked countless times by my colleagues.

1) Phone in the ceiling, ringing incessantly. 2) My door closed and unable open because of a clever door stop. 3) 100′s of water glasses covering my desk. 4) The wheels from my desk chair missing and hidden. 5) Lowering my desk. 6) Co-workers writing down everything I say. 7) And at least ten more. I’ve never snapped.

I’m not trying to tarnish the good reputation of the IMA or new media. And I’m certainly not trying to give the impression that we never work.  We do work, a lot. In fact, it sometimes difficult to find the division between work and our personal lives.  But that’s because we make work a fun and open environment for ideas and expression. That attitude shows in what we produce, and ultimately, we hope our visitors experience the same feelings. It  reminds me of the Jack Torrance quote – “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

Our approach to content creation is fueled by a creative environment from within our department and our collaborations with our museum-wide colleagues. We are fortunate to work with every IMA department, producing a variety of digital projects that support their voice. And we are lucky to have the freedom and support to simply be ourselves. Talk about lucky. (and did we really get to produce this video?)

I talk a lot about creating technology with a personality. This can only happen if there is a real personality behind the idea, the development, the implementation of our projects. In many ways, I’m often surprised that we are given the freedom to express ourselves creatively, which often involves a certain amount of humor or cheekiness. It shows tremendous trust by a large organization and I try to never take this leap of faith for granted. Fortunately, the projects usually turn out well.

And really, the reason our projects tend to do well, is because of the content, the voice of the experience – the personality of content.  I look back on all the time, weekend work and late hours, it takes to create some of our work – videos, ArtBabble, this blog, exhibition sites, TAP and so on – and the quality or success always comes down to the people involved. It’s the people we get to work with on a day to day basis (think about all that are represented in this blog), artists (think videos), exhibition teams (think curators, registrars, educators) and so many more talented colleagues in other institutions that provide a unique, honest point of view. This is translated directly into engaging, thought-provoking visitor experiences. Our role in this is to think of creative ways of presenting the stories – hence the soccer ball, coffee on my sweater and moments of spontaneity.

So, I thought I would start 2010, by sharing some of my favorite examples of projects we’ve produced featuring a variety of internal and external personalities. They are the stars.

- One of my favorite blog posts is by Richard McCoy, when he challenged our readers to write wikipedia articles. The result? The participants enjoyed lunch with Maxwell Anderson.  It’s a great example of someone speaking from their own area of expertise, point of view and voice, creatively.

- Still a favorite video of mine – Moving East Gate/West Gate by Helicopter. A massive project and we just showed up with cameras and watched colleagues from security, public affairs, exhibitions, photography, registration, conservation do all the work. It came off beautifully and is one of our most viewed videos on ArtBabble.

- Woody Woodpecker.  Sort of. A bird cam out in 100 Acres? You bet. We’ve been working with our grounds and horticulture team for over a year on this one. But I guess the real stars are the hungry critters.

- And one of the best examples, would be our Director’s Journal video series featuring Maxwell Anderson and interviews with staff from a variety of departments. It brings the world of a museum straight to your video player.  Check out one of my faves below.

So, just a few projects – I could keep going and going and going (ArtBabble is up to 21 partners now!).  But it’s a good indication of what’s around the corner in 2010 and a hint at the types of projects we’ll be producing. You’ve already read about a new IMA website launching in the near future and we have some amazing things planned for 100 Acres.  We’re also developing a brand, spanking new idea called IMA TV. More to follow on that.

In the meantime, keep a close eye on your coffee and feel free to share some of your favorite IMA blog posts, videos and how you get inspired at the office. Or wanna share some good pranks?

To give you an overview of what someone who works in museum marketing does , I thought that I’d outline my typical day. In order to do that, I recorded my activities throughout the past Monday. While some of you were relaxing (or partying) on your Columbus Day off, I was hard at work with my fellow colleagues at the IMA.

Image taken from ugotbling.com

COLUMBUS DAY, OCTOBER 12, 2009*

8:27 Arrive at office. Plug in laptop.

8:35 Sip coffee and respond to emails sent over the weekend.

8:50 Research the 100 Acres: Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park for IMA  Magazine article.

9:15 Write interview questions for article to send to Ed Blake, the  landscape architect for 100 Acres.

9:32 Email interview to Ed Blake.

9:37 Discuss signage in Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion with Marketing Manager.

9:42 Register for Next Audiences Summit.

9:52 Review marketing budgets from last 2 years.

10:22 Read NYT’s article about the Louvre’s attempt to ‘Loosen Up.’

10:34 Get distracted by Jamie Oliver article in NYT’s Mag.

10:39 Review Web site content. Put together work plan to present in the afternoon’s Web team meeting.

11:22 Read Geoff Von Burg’s blog entry.

11:31 Email this week’s TV schedule for Sacred Spain commercials to Max, curator Ronda Kasl, and Nugget Factory.

11:38 Check attendance numbers from the weekend.

11:39 Organize opening weekend debrief meeting for Sacred Spain.

11:45 Polish up communication pieces for potential Winter Nights and Summer Nights media sponsorships.

12:18 LUNCH (Lean Cuisine and Fage Yogurt).

12:38 Watch Gentleman Broncos movie trailer.

12:41 Send movie trailer to Dan Dark.

12:44 Change Twitter name from @IndyArtGirl to @MegLiffick.

12:50 COFFEE.

1:00 Catch up on emails from the morning.

1:30 Web Team!

2:50 Review and edit Group Tours corporate mailer for Sacred Spain.

3:15 Respond to email from Contemporary Curator Lisa Freiman about the prestigious national award that her husband received. Congrats, Ed!!!

3:17 Create an initial inventory of marketing materials that can include media/corporate sponsor recognition during 2010.

4:02 Continue to draft 2010 marketing plan for Public Programs.

4:48 Brainstorm about communication ideas for TAP.

5:21 Respond to remaining emails.

5:42 Leave office. Head to gym.

6:13 Check email while running on treadmill at gym. DANGEROUS!

6:16 Attempt to respond to an email while on treadmill at gym. EVEN MORE DANGEROUS!

8:15 Read IBM’s social media guidelines while watching Will Ferrell on Man Vs. Wild.

8:30 Close laptop. No more work for the day.

*Please note that I have left out some details such as phone conversations, specific email correspondences, bathroom breaks, and Facebook and Twitter checks.

Next up (Oct. 28), I’ll tackle the ginormous topic of branding a museum. Stay tuned.

The first in-house video I worked on at the IMA was re-editing an African Pottery Techniques documentary shot in Burkina Faso.  At the time, it was a pretty big step for the museum – to actually do this in-house, quickly, easily and for free.  When I compare that to our latest  video release on Orly Genger’s installation “Whole”, I kind of laugh.  We shot this video in HD, incorporated Time Lapse, used a lift for certain shots and then published to YouTube.  Check it out below.

My colleague Dan Dark recently recorded the Christmas at Lilly House tour with the LH Director, Bradley Brooks in an afternoon.  Dan then finalized and edited in the space of a few hours, then uploaded it to our Guide by Cell account.  Visitors to Lilly House can access this content by using their cell phone. Our first Christmas at Lilly House involved a lot more time editing and recording, and incorporated the Dell DJ Ditty mp3 players.  I am actually laughing….but it worked at the time.  We plan on increasing our audio content across all of IMA’s collections in 2009, and I am incredibly excited about some of the concepts we are planning.  But I can’t discuss those yet…

imamuseum.org/blog is almost a year old.  It’s been a really exciting year for the blog with some superb posts from all over the museum.  I’m proud when I think that internally, the IMA supports a variety of areas blogging.  Where else can you go and hear directly from conservation, security, horticulture or an artist duo?  We’ve come a long way from the Felix Gonzalez-Torres blog (did anyone ever see that?) we setup a few years ago, and our imamuseum.org drupal based blog just a year ago.  Sometime we get it wrong.  Sometimes we get it right.

I’m also reflecting on past projects because I can’t quite share some of the upcoming projects in 2009, yet.  I’m dying to, and the second I can I will post.  The main change in the digital content we produce is an increased focus on the contemporary world.  The Toby, Contemporary department as well as the opening of 100 Acres in 2009, presents access to cutting edge artists, performers and academics.  That means content opportunities that will become audio guides, videos, and web projects.  It’s gonna be a big year, and we plan on making ’09 the best for the museum visitor and technology-focused experiences.  It’s all about keeping the momentum.

And in closing, this is Despi’s last day at the museum.  She’s been an integral part of the IMA and New Media, a dedicated professional, supportive colleague, and more importantly, a friend.  Best of luck Darnell!

It’s been mentioned in past blog posts. It’s been described in IMA press releases. It’s used regularly by staff. It’s listed on the IMA internal phone list. It’s a space. It’s a way of thinking. It’s The Nugget Factory.

Simply put, The Nugget Factory is IMA’s New Media department – a team of four. The longer story is this – it’s the creative approach to creating digital content. It’s the process of finding the perfect ‘nugget’ in revealing a story. It’s this process that gave birth to the Nugget Factory. It may sound ridiculous (actually it does) but it’s this approach to developing audio, video or web content that drives our department and many of our colleagues cross-departmentally. It’s a creative and fun approach – but don’t get me wrong, we take our nuggets and work very seriously.

Two of the four Nugget Factory members blog regularly (Despi and I), but what about the other two – Dan Dark and Danny Beyer? In true Nugget Factory style, we decided to sit down and create a short audio interview about their roles in the Nugget Factory and much, much more (don’t worry, we’ll get Despi in an audio interview soon).

Take a listen below.

thenuggetfactory.mp3