Zephyr by Steve Wooldridge; Photo by Lauren Tally

What changed my mind about creating content for the Web? This fall, I enrolled in two courses devoted to contemporary museum practice: Collections Care and Management (CC&M), co‐taught by IMA Objects & Variable Art Conservator Richard McCoy and IUPUI faculty member Jennifer Geigel Mikulay, and Museums and Technology, taught by IMA New Media Director Daniel Incandela. My first assignment for both classes was to create user accounts for Wikipedia, Twitter and Flickr, and then start using them.

In CC&M, our major project was to formalize the artworks on and around IUPUI’s campus into a real collection. In the end, we identified 40 pieces that we dubbed the “IUPUI Public Art Collection.”  Didn’t know that much art existed on IUPUI’s campus? Take a walk around sometime to see an incredibly diverse representation of styles, media and condition qualities.   You’ll also find four sculptures on loan from the IMA: East Gate/West Gate, Mega-Gem, Portrait of History, and Spaces with Iron.  You might remember when East Gate/West Gate was moved to IUPUI early this year:

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I got into a fight with my friend in public the other day.

OK, not so much a fight, as a discussion. And when I say ‘in public’ I mean on my Facebook wall.

It all started when I retweeted @anarchivist (see below) and then it ended up on my Facebook page too. Anyway, the ‘discussion’ played out like this:

ME: I agree. RT @anarchivist hates the phrase “social media.” all online media is inherently social even if you dont want it to be.

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This past Sunday, European Design Since 1985: Shaping the New Century was on view for the last time before the museum shifts gears over to its next special exhibition, Sacred Spain: Art and Belief in the Spanish World. EuroDesign is and was a magnificent achievement and a huge thanks goes out to everyone who made the show possible. Good work.

Even though the show has only been over for a few days now, I thought it would be interesting and a little fun to recap some of the online stuff that happened around European Design. Read the rest of this entry »

Social Media brings the visitors to our virtual door. What have we gotten ourselves into?

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facebook.com/imamuseum – I’m a real trooper. On Friday night, nay, Saturday morning at 12:01 am, Facebook started allowing vanity URLs. As the IMA’s main Facebook logger-in person, you know I was poised at the keyboard right before the witching hour, ready to blast-type in the nine characters that would once and for all slap the collective Facebook faces of our main IMA rivals, the museums for Internet Memes and Artifices and the Iconoclast Museum of Art. Oh yeah, I also snagged facebook.com/artbabble. For you web folk, here’s some geeky Facebook URLs for ya.

EnvironmentalGraffiti.com – Came across this page as I was doing my normal morning search for shadow art made from garbage/junk. Don’t question my queries. Anyway, I’m into clever uses of materials and space so you know my eyes were like “let’s pop out this skull” when I saw a post on their homepage about green roofs. As I’m aware, the IMA has a green roof above its parking garage. Good looking out, EnviroGraff.

BadArtists.jpg – Speaking of graffiti, as reported by CNN, “artist Banksy, famed for infiltrating museum collections without their knowledge and spray-painting public buildings around the world, is holding his first major exhibition in years.” Neat! Here’s a link to some pictures. @dincandela – Check out this show if you have the chance. It’s at the Bristol museum.

Monday Music – “Last Dance” (Demo) by The Raveonetttes.

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