It was one year ago today that we launched the current version of IMAmuseum.org. We are admittedly still proud of our website as it took a large group of IMA staff six months of dedicated work to create what you see today. In a blog post, we introduced the world to the new set of features of the site. Today, we thought we would take a brief look back at those features and see what worked and what needed a little adjusting throughout the year.

Front page of IMAmuseum.org as seen on 2/1/2011.

With the exception of changing images in the blocks, the front page has seen virtually no changes during the last year. We originally toyed around with the idea of making the main banner image somewhat dynamic, with rotating images, but eventually opted to let it remain static until a true need arises.

The interactive calendar on IMAmuseum.org.

The calendar is among the most novel features of the website, providing a simple “month-at-a-glance” interface. This has seen little change in its first year as well. Museum calendars can be littered with complication, and we like to think this clean approach brings a sense of clarity to users.

The IMAmuseum.org collection search showing advanced options.

Another feature that has held up fairly well is the collection search. You can see the set of advanced search options in the screenshot above. While looking through search logs, we can see that most users don’t seem to use the “Department”, “Materials”, or “Object type” search filters. We have received a lot of positive feedback and seen moderate use of the slider tool for accession and creation date though.

Live search results when searching for "superbowl".

The Apple-style live search, sprinkled with a little bit of administrator search boosting, has proven extremely useful. We watch our website analytics heavily and try to understand what users are really searching for based on their terms. Using this information, we can boost specific content for specific search keywords. Above, you can quickly find our losing Super Bowl bet from last year. (Be sure to follow this year’s bet as well).

Three major exhibition sites created within IMAmuseum.org in the last year.

We decided that we would produce all major exhibition sites (commonly called microsites) under the IMAmuseum.org umbrella once we launched this new site.  The site was designed in such a way that dramatically different designs could be “sandwiched” between the header and footer. This can especially be seen in the new and visually impacting Thornton Dial exhibition site.

The IMAmuseum.org shopping cart.

I’ll admit. Up until this point I have been a little self-congratulatory. When it comes to the eCommerce features of the IMA website though, we have had to do a fair amount of updating and improving. I don’t know that any of us quite expected the amount of work behind running, maintaining, and supporting an online store. We also took quite a risk by providing the ability to purchase memberships, retail, tickets, and give donations within a single cart system. Here are some of the lessons learned from the first year:

• Applying membership discounts online is hard! We are still actively trying to make improvements to ensure members can quickly and easily log on to the site and have their account aware of their benefits. Building a system that is capable of respecting the many nuances of our specific membership rules is also a continuous effort.
• Users do not like to leave the site to pay. When we originally launched the site, all payments were made through Google Checkout, which involved the user leaving the IMA website to pay and then being redirected back to the IMA site. While we had good reasons for using this at the time, the frustration experienced by users did not account for those. We have since switched to a payment provider which allows users to checkout completely without ever leaving the website. Since this change, we have seen a huge decrease in the number of shopping carts abandoned.
• Have support processes in place. The software development team didn’t quite realize that they would be acting in a custom support role. While many of the features of the website “run themselves”, an eCommerce operation definitely requires the offline touch as well. We are just now getting formal support chains in place for online customers that need assistance with online purchases. This isn’t to say there wasn’t anyone to help in the last year. It was just a matter of bouncing around e-mail and involving too many people.

Let us know if there are more ways we can improve our site in order to better serve the needs of the online visitor.

Florida State University research scientist, Michael Davidson, combined alcohol and microphotography to come up with the imagery you see below – a microscopic print of chablis.

What started as nerdy slides has turned into quite a little business called Bevshots Microart. The images are made by first crystallizing the drink of choice on a lab slide. Using a standard light microscope with an attached camera, the light source is polarized and passed through the crystal, which creates the bright array of colors. What I love about this is the relationship between a favorite drink versus a favorite image. I might be drawn to the aesthetics of one drink while my actual tastes appeal to something else. It’s also a fun gift idea for a relative who considers themselves a connoisseur of one type of alcohol. For this reason, my grandma Beverly might just receive the print below as she considers herself a connoisseur of vodka (no need to point out that her specialty is cheap vodka).

There’s even an iPhone app so you can explore the drinks while sipping them at your favorite bar.

With the ever changing and improving world of technology, Bevshots is just one example of the rising interest in digital art. A few weeks along, former IMA blogger Noelle Pulliam sent me an article on David Hockney’s instant iPad art. The artist began creating works on his iPad to send to friends and within weeks there was more than a nice little collection.

While the images, like the flowers above, are really nice, I can’t help but wonder if I would miss the texture that comes with paint on a canvas. There was also an immediate problem Hockney faced with how to display his work. The solution, as you can see in the video, was a series if iPads along an exhibition wall.

I’m sure there are many who would argue against the artistic value of iPad art and most certainly the artistic value of Bevshots. However, Hockney’s description of capturing an early morning sunrise more effectively with his iPad than he could with a pencil and paper is very intriguing.

While this method would certainly save a lot of time and cleanup hassle for artists like Hockney, digital art is also commonly practiced by many who are not making a career as artists. Kris Arnold pointed out his post, Making fake HDR images in Adobe Lightroom, that the new iPhones will produce stunning HDR images and I know several friends who are snapping very nice photos with their phones. Plus, there are all sorts of camera apps you can download to easily modify and stylize your photos. A professional photographer and friend of mine even joked the other day that she might start specializing in iPhone photography because she was so happy with a photo she captured using her phone.

Have any of you captured a really great photo on your phone or created your own iPad masterpiece? Upload your digital masterpieces to our Digital Art Flickr group.

Their massive installation at the IMA, titled Gravity’s Loom, will be composed entirely of colored string draped from an aluminum hanging system affixed to the wall.  Gravity’s pull causes the strings to become an arc shape, and an accumulation of various lengths of string in the Pavilion will converge to form a shape reminiscent of an inverted architectural dome. Ball-Nogues’ installation is an intervention into the expanse of the Pavilion—hanging a mere 3.5 feet from the floor at its lowest point, the form of Gravity’s Loom creates wide pathways through which visitors can navigate the space.

Gravity’s Loom is composed with over 30 miles of string, dyed and cut by a programmable machine called the Insta-llator 2 with the Variable Information Atomizing Module. Designed by Ball-Nogues, the Insta-llator applies paint to each individual string in precise locations and cuts each string to a prescribed length determined by an integrated custom software system. Fabricated in Los Angeles, the strings have arrived in Indianapolis on small spools organized according to the location where the string will hang. Each spool contains one length of string which will span the Pavilion at varying dimensions to create the swooping, inverted dome attached to the walls near the Pavilion’s forty foot ceilings. You can see a similar installation in progress here.

If you come to the museum between now and September 2, you’ll be asked to enter through a temporary alternate entrance due to heavy equipment necessary to construct Gravity’s Loom in the Pavilion. But you’ll be able to see the progress as the installation nears completion from behind stanchions on the 1^st floor or from the 2^nd floor balcony.

To hear the Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues discuss their work, come to the IMA on September 2.

See you there.

While previous movies like Sin City have done a great job borrowing static elements of graphic novel design, this is the first film I’ve seen that makes such fine use of dynamic elements. Speed and impact lines are used to convey energy in many of the battle scenes, sound effects are enhanced with fleeting text and graphic representations to give them more impact, and intangible forces are stunningly visualized as they become devastatingly tangible for the characters involved.

And these are all enhancements that pull the audience into the alternate reality of the film when they could have been overdone or done poorly and resulted in the opposite (similar to the uncanny valley effect I wrote about earlier). I’m looking forward to learning how the special effects were thought up and pulled off in the behind-the-scenes goodies.

And speaking of graphic effects, we’ll be showing a variety of animated films at an event called Generations of Animation this weekend in The Toby. The techniques used in the films varies from traditional cell drawing and stop-motion to computer generated imagery. We’ll also have hands-on activities in the art labs and three experts in the field demonstrating their skills.

Comment below to let us know what other movie effects you’ve been impressed by lately.

As with every year, the program takes on a slightly different feel. This summer, the MAP students’ objective was to welcome and encourage 100 Acres visitors to interact with the Park’s natural environments, and its installations through games and activities which they facilitated.

Adam Ames and Andrew Bordwin of the art collective Type A helped kick off spring training by talking with the MAP teens about their work and teaching them some of the team building initiatives used with Museum staff during the development of their piece Team Building (Align).

These games set the tone for a summer that was largely about helping people lower self-erected barriers to art and nature, while allowing them to connect with their surroundings and the people around them in fun and sometimes unexpected ways. I’d have to say, if visitors’ smiles and laughter were indicators of success, then the MAP teens did a nice job!

Thanks again to all the IMA staff who shared their time and passion for what they do to make this place so “tight!” …that’s a little MAP teen imprint oozing out.

Today (yes, Friday the 13th) a couple dozen Andy Warhol look-a-likes dashed around Monument Circle to the rockin’ sounds of The Velvet Underground’s ‘Run Run Run’ for a little thing we like to call a flash mob.

That leaves two kinds of people in this town: those who saw it, and those who didnt.

You were there? Awesome! You can upload your pics and vids to using your Flickr account. Missed the action? Don’t get your wig in a twist. Stay tuned for great footage and images here.

Security Guards.

Okay, so security guards might seem ubiquitous, keeping guard over every gallery room from sea to shining sea. How could I consider them overlooked? I’ll even admit; I’ve never seen a security guard leap a tall building in a single bound.

Yet, if you’ve ever been lost in a maze of galleries in a huge museum, searching in desperation for the loo, I think you’ll agree that those ever present staffers can be life savers.

We can all appreciate their role in preventing little hyper Johnny from drawing mustaches on the poor Serruys Sisters

.

While I was visiting the Tara Donovan exhibit a couple of weeks ago I saw a security guard swoop in just in time to stop a man from touching Donovan’s mammoth mylar sculpture.

Look beyond their abilities to guide lost souls (to the loo) and their blind willingness to throw themselves in front of a barreling train (sic 5 year old) heading straight for a collision with a priceless piece of history, and you’ll see friendly security guards have knowledge to lend. On many an occasion I’ve been given a gem of knowledge from a passing guard about a piece I’m pondering.

I’ll never forget a nice uniformed gentleman who told me that one of the large paintings in the European Gallery at the IMA was once cut in half and sold as two separate paintings. Luckily the two halves were restored to one, and most viewers are none the wiser.

On another occasion, while visiting a museum in D.C., a young guard shared with me that she had seen a grown man cry upon seeing the Mark Rothko that hung before me. She went on to say that the museum gift shop had a print of the very painting that I was so obviously enthralled by. When she added that it was on sale and I had to restrain myself from running over and hugging her.

That man’s dogs were probably barking from standing around in the IMA’s European Galleries all day, and that young woman probably endured more than her share of odd vibes from people who felt awkward under her watchful gaze.

Despite that, they, and many others, go above and beyond the call of duty by making the experience of visiting a museum brighter and more enlightening for those who are open to it.

Superheroes are just the stuff of fiction- to qualify as one, you’ve got to catch Lois Lane mid-free-fall, thus saving her from certain death. But, if you’ve had a great visit and learned a little something to boot, thanks to one of the awesome museum staffers (not just the guards!), maybe you’ll think superheroes are real, too.

You’re invited to bring a flashlight and blanket, to make your way out to 100 Acres, and settle in for a free light show.

The shower is called the Perseids because it appears that it emanates from the constellation Perseus, the original tough guy of Greek mythology.  What you’ll see, barring clouds or rain, is a trail of cosmic boogers left by the streaking Comet Swift-Tuttle.  This comet is the largest object known to make repeated passes near the Earth.

The gang at NASA is pretty excited about this year’s show.

To complement your viewing pleasure, the Sea Krowns will be making some spacey sounds with the theremin, the instrument that provided the wavy music toward the end of The Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations, as well as the haunted tracks from many a Scooby Doo cartoon and B movie.  Take a listen.

100 Acres begs for programs that showcase the aesthetics of nature.  Dis is it!  Want more season-specific programs out in 100 Acres?  Like a poetry reading in the snow?  Leave your suggestions here.

P.S. Don’t forget the IMA’s Summer Nights film series, also Friday.  Stand By Me will be playing at around 9:45 pm, then you can come out to the Park to be showered with meteors…

What’s coming to take it’s place? Architecture and design fans, rejoice! Los Angeles-based design team Ball-Nogues Studio will create an immersive, site-specific installation called Gravity’s Loom.

Ball-Nogues Studio, Feathered Edge, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

The space will be filled with multicolored strings configured in catenary curves, arcs naturally assumed by the strings as they respond to the force of gravity. Trained as architects, Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues are working with the pavilion’s architecture to develop an installation related to the function of the space as a thoroughfare and meeting point for visitors.

Check out this wicked installation video from The Arts Council for Long Beach: