If you happen to be at the Indianapolis Museum of Art later today, say 5pm, you’ll have a chance of discovering Bloggers Anonymous. It’s our third event of BA, and something pretty different from what we typically do regarding technology. We’re actually meeting people face-to-face. At the IMA, we kind of dig technology and spend a lot of time developing digital projects, like this blog, ArtBabble, TAP and a million other things. We really love our work, but I guess there would be one draw back to what we do.
I’m actually talking about Easter Eggs in the technology sense. Hidden tips, tricks, messages and so on. A bunch of us have been working on TAP: Sacred Spain for some time now and it’s been slightly exhausting. With the exhibition, Sacred Spain: Art & Belief in the Spanish World, opening this weekend, it’s been a mad dash to finalize this exhibition experience that features audio commentary, music, polls, videos and high res imagery, all accessible for $5 on an iPod Touch.
In typography, kerning is the process of adjusting letter spacing in a proportional font. In a well-kerned font, the two-dimensional blank spaces between each pair of letters all have similar area. This visually-pleasing blog about design and typography is sure to inspire you.
In this video, Mary describes how the piece was conceived and created. The video also features a section of time-lapse photography, taken over the course of two days of her working at the Museum.
In a few weeks, I begin teaching Museums and Technology (I’m not the only IMA instructor this fall – my colleague, blogger and conservator, Richard McCoy is also teaching - Collections Care and Management with Jennifer Mikulay). Museums and Technology is run through IUPUI Museum Studies and will feature 18 or so, up and coming undergrad and graduate students. They will one day enter the museum community with their own ideas, theories and philosophies. I’m actually excited to learn from them. The class itself is a different story, and for the sake of clarity, here is the official class description:
MSTD A414 / A514: Museums and Technology (3 cr.) This course surveys the growing use of technology in museums. It examines applications for information management in collections, conservation science, and archives. It examines critically the use of technology in the service of education both in exhibit contexts and in the variety of educational programs and web-based dissemination of knowledge.
(I would normally put an image here, but I don’t have a good one. Instead I’m going to plug our latest video, a trailer for our next major exhibition Sacred Spain: Art & Belief in the Spanish World).
It’s amazing how time flies. It seems like yesterday that ArtBabble officially launched, all the way back in April. I remember many of the IMA staff, and even our friends at Art:21 working into the early hours of the night to make sure everything was ready for the launch. I might have even enjoyed a glass of scotch to celebrate when I finally went to bed around 3am. It was a proud accomplishment for many of us at the IMA who had poured a tremendous amount of effort into creating the site. On top of that, we were beyond thrilled to partner with organizations like Art:21, LACMA, SFMoMA, MoMA, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and NYPL.
But, you might be quick to point out, that’s yesterdays news. And you’re right.
