New Media will be pretty busy starting today and into the weekend.  We’ll be documenting both days of the symposium and grabbing interviews with some of the biggest names in the Design world.  Pretty cool.  Now that we’re running ArtBabble, we need to work harder and smarter to bring you the best possible video content.  The European Design Symposium is a perfect opportunity to do add to the ArtBabble selections.

Juli Capella's Homepage

Also participating in the Symposium is designer and architect Juli Capella.   His site is delightful, playful, surreal, funny and professional (all things I hold in high regard).  It’s hard to pull that off, but Juli manages to do that in the physical and online world.  His site is a must see and you can stop by the Symposium to hear from him directly.  I promise its worth it.  So why am I singling him out?

This past fall, I had the opportunity to interview Juli for our In the Factory series.  This series can be found on our iTunes U page or on ArtBabble and focuses on direct interviews with artists and designers.  Dan Dark and Danny Beyer in the Nugget Factory, shoot and edit this series in the same style and we use the same line of questioning for every interview.  I love ITF and once ArtBabble gets out of the beta phase (I promise, very soon), anyone with an internet connection can hear directly from people like Juli Capella, Maya Lin, Emily Kennerk, Alfredo Jaar, Orly Genger and more.  It’s about artists talking directly and honestly about their creative processes, experience in the art world and the act of creating.  Dan and Danny do a fabulous job of revealing these insights through their own creative approach to video editing.  It’s the type of content we should all be focusing on.

So I leave you with Juli’s In the Factory (one of my faves).  It may be Thursday, but it already feels like a Friday.  See you at the IMA?

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about plans for The Davis LAB, and shared some early design concepts.  Well, on Saturday it opens and you can see it for yourself.  Phil & Noelle in marketing, just sent out a Facebook invite to all of the IMA Fans.  If you’re free on Saturday, stop by our new space to meet staff, check out the final designs, maybe get some free stuff and…that’s about it.

Computer interface for The Davis LAB -We have some amazing designers on staff.

Actually that isn’t it.  The opening of The Davis LAB is also your first chance to experience ArtBabble — our new online, HD, art video station/website – really, much more – a new way of experiencing video.  It’s currently in its Beta version with many of us (Marketing, Education, New Media, Application Developers and more) still tweaking, writing content, adding videos, finalizing design, etc.  In recent posts, I’ve preached a little about releasing sites or projects in a less than perfect state.  We’re doing the same thing with ArtBabble, but with a twist.

ArtBabble sneak peak - we've got great designers here

The twist is this.  If you visit artbabble.org – you get a sign in screen.  We’re being slightly protective about the site for the time being.  We are still making changes by the hour and importantly monitoring the quality of video delivery.  If you’re going to take the time to watch our brand new documentary on Maya Lin, a conversation with Robert Irwin (featuring our very own Richard), or relive some of the highlights from our Roman Art from the Louvre webis, we want you to experience this in 720p!  So, we’re releasing AB in its Beta state, where membership has its privileges.  Sign up for an account and we’ll gradually release access to ArtBabble with your own set of invites.  You can spread the love – kind of like you did when you got your Gmail account.

Or – if you can’t wait for one of the AB admins to release your account, you have (2) options.  The first, is visit The Davis LAB starting Saturday and beyond.  We will have the unrestricted version of ArtBabble running in the space on a projector or our computer stations.  You can Play Art Loud, select any of our videos, find the official defintion of ArtBabble – and send invites to your friends, families and fans – directly from the LAB.  Option (2) – If you live outside of Indy, have other plans or just want it now, leave me a comment.  I’ll look up your e-mail through Wordpress and send you an invite.  I have plenty.  Babble On.

Don't you want to send some invites?

There are actually more than 10 reasons to visit

What, you haven’t been to the IMA’s new Tobias Theater yet? Consider this your personal invitation…along with ten good reasons to get thee to The Toby to catch a film in the next two weeks:

1. To be surprised: Little Fugitive, a black-and-white beauty made in 1953, is probably a film you’ve never heard of. Let that be a good thing. This 80-minute indie gem is about a boy who runs away to Coney Island. Think of it as Leave It To Beaver infused with art, subtlety, and cinematography to die for. Sneak away and see it at The Toby Tuesday, December 30.
2. The sound rocks: As the museum’s senior AV technician, sound hound Chris Cruz made sure the sound system in The Toby is top notch. Three refrigerator-sized speakers lurk behind the movie screen to give you blasts of aural delight.

3. Because Johnny Depp is the new Santa Claus: To cut the sugar that often accompanies the holidays, we’ve picked out two moody Depp films and are running them back-to-back as part of IMA’s One-Two Punch series. Find out which films and when.

4. To escape your mother-in-law: Had enough family time? Sneak off to The Toby for the dazzling animation of Princess Mononoke the day after Christmas, or see Clint Eastwood turn the western on its head in Unforgiven on Jan. 2.
5. To escape economic woes: According to financial and historical gurus, movie attendance surges during troubled times. What are you waiting for?
6. You can come in your PJs: I will admit you free to any Toby film if you come in your pajamas. At The Toby, you can lounge around AND fathom the images on a 15’ x 30’ screen. Netflix, schmetflix.
7. To canoodle in the balcony or the ComfySacks: We won’t stop you and your honey from holding hands up in The Toby balcony or on the massive red bean bags down near the screen.
8. Beverages are for sale: Wine or beer (for the appropriately aged) are available from the stylin’ Toby concession counter.
9. You’re independent: You could go to Kerasotes or United Artists, but seeing a film at The Toby contributes to the local economy.
10. Because you can also visit the galleries: The visual art just won’t quit at IMA. Before or after the cinema washes over you, you can be transported to Ming-dynasty China in the Power & Glory exhibition, check out the new minimalist exhibition in the Forefront gallery, or ponder the wintry landscape through the veil of Maya Lin’s Above and Below installation on the IMA’s second floor galleries.

If you’ve already been to The Toby, please leave us your impressions and testimonies below.

The X Room, shortly after the IMA reopened in 2005

2009 will bring a new approach to this tech environment, that I hope encourages our museum visitors to talk back to us.

We have a couple of strategies in place here.  For one, we’ll be showcasing a large portion of the video art content we produce, in a theater-like environment.  I’ve always been critical of the traditional museum orientation video space, because I’m not convinced our visitors want to sit through a 10-minute introductory video that essentially, is a one-way, passive form of communication (I know I don’t).  To counter this, we’re going to offer our visitors choices.  You will be able to search our video collection and then hear directly from experts in the art field and excitingly, directly from contemporary artists.  The choices will be at your fingertips, and the viewing experience will go beyond traditional methods (sort of top secret at the moment).  Did I mention that those choices will include artists like Maya Lin, Robert Irwin and much, much more?

We really do want to hear honest feedback from our visitors, so we’re also installing a series of computers that will allow to access our images on Flickr, our collection online (not as good as the real thing, but we have more art viewable online), and access to this blog.  All of these applications will allow tagging and comments.  We also know that we have good readership on the IMA blog, but I’m intrigued to see what will happen when any of our IMA – museum (not online) visitors have the opportunity to read blog posts and comments.  I’m sure a lot of our visitors are unaware that we have such a diverse online presence.

In 2007 for the exhibition Nature Holds My Camera: The Video Art of Sam Easterson, we debuted a similar strategy where visitors could ‘talk back’ in the gallery.  They could, in a blog-style design, ask questions directly to Sam.  It was a big success and I hope we have similar participation in this new environment.

I’ll keep you posted on this space, but in the meantime I would love to hear feedback about your thoughts -

• about art and interpretive technology
• museums that incorporate technology into gallery areas
• and if you think we will get more feedback by providing computers in the museum

…talk back!

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!!

Never underestimate the potential of a bruised banana. Around the office at the IMA, my desk is known as repository for fruit that’s past its prime. Colleagues know—as an obsessive recycler—that I will repurpose their bananas by taking them home, tossing them in the freezer and using them in a smoothie.

The re-use ethic is the foundation of freeganism, the practice of strategic food salvaging. Freegans use their wits to rescue perfectly good food out of the back doors of grocery stores and other venues. Freegans and freecyclers can imagine other uses for other people’s garbage. [If you are an Indy-based freegan, please respond to this post!]

I love freeganism because it raises questions about transgression and imagination—topics with which an art museum concerns itself. What risks are necessary to alter current systems and make the planet greener? Can artists and scientists re-engineer our technologies, and our worldviews—in time to save our skins from climate change? Designer Bruce Mau, whose name gets mentioned a lot around the IMA, put out a book and exhibition called Massive Change. His agenda is to show how the world can be re-designed (think Google Earth, water purification machines, biotechnologies, etc.) to save itself. Creativity is required to re-think bad systems, such as the coal-fired power plants that make Indiana the second most polluted state in the nation.

The IMA is doing its part to reduce our footprint. Our director of facilities has figured out to reduce our average monthly electricity and natural gas usage by over 21 percent since the beginning of 2006. That said, we are still struggling to institute recycling in public places at the museum. We can’t find a local recycling vendor that will accept plastics 1 – 7 and actually recycle them as advertised. The good news is that our frustration caused us to move from plastic plates to china plates in the IMA Cafe.

If you’re looking to green your outlook, check out some amazing events coming up: artist Fritz Haeg, who lived in a geodesic dome, created the Edible Estates garden project, and recently built a beaver dam on top of the Whitney Museum, is speaking at Herron School of Art today, (Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22).

Architect Maya Lin is speaking at the IMA next Tuesday, April 29, about the Indiana geologic inspiration for her installation Above and Below on the balcony of the galleries of Asian art. And as soon as the Tobias Theater opens, watch for Garbage Warrior, a documentary about New Mexico-based architect Michael Reynolds who builds buildings from trash.

In the film, Reynolds refers to himself as “the turd in the punch bowl” of the architecture world. That’s one way to put it. I’ll say: Thumbs up for creative (and green) transgressions.

But please don’t misunderstand…it is not that we aren’t excited. We are. We just have to get excited months before most people outside the museum know a show is coming. We start planning projects like the BTM site really far out so that we can be ready with cool stuff to keep you engaged as the buzz for a show starts building. For BTM we wanted to be innovative in how we presented info, give you some streaming video and create a unique feature for Project IMA, a special fashion event.

New Media still has a few BTM projects to finish. There will be a video trailer coming soon and we are working on video loops that will run in the galleries. But by the time the show opens we will be on to other things, like a documentary about Maya Lin’s work, the new series, In the Factory (look for this in March) and some other super secret stuff we can’t yet mention.

In terms of web projects, we learned some very valuable lessons in this development process that will inform what you will see in future projects. Look for us to keep innovating our presentation of video and we will strive to make every web project engaging and interactive. So take a look at BTM and tell us what you think. We’ll keep it in mind as we continue working on the To Live Forever web site (the show that opens in July)!

Hopefully the title of this blog got your attention. From now on, IMA bloggers plan on using ridiculous or outrageous titles. In the meantime, know that on this occasion this title is in fact accurate and not a cheap attempt to get your click. Read on.

A few of the IMA new media team recently visited picturesque Walla Walla, Washington to continue work on a pretty exciting documentary. This past summer, we began a video piece that will document Maya Lin’s sculpture Above and Below, coming to the IMA later next month. In WW we were given incredible access to this large work of art coming together. Before I get too carried away and take too many paragraphs to explain the project, please read this to-the-point and informative excerpt from the official press release:

“Above and Below will continue an ongoing conceptual theme in Lin’s work, using technology to probe and interpret the form and function of the natural world. Using aerial, satellite, and sonar views of the varied landscapes that make up the earth’s surface, the artist creates works that reinvent those landscapes as sculptural forms. The design for Above and Below was developed by Lin through a series of visits to the underground White River, located in the Bluespring Caverns in Bedford, Indiana, as well as collaboration with scientists at Bluespring Caverns State Park and USGS Indiana Water Science Center. Working with the scientists, Lin used ultrasound technology to map the complex structure of tributaries and caves that run beneath the state. Photographic and bathymetric surveys of the region were used to capture images of both above-ground and underwater terrain in the caverns. The 2,000 square-foot project will be completed this summer at the Walla Walla Foundry, Wash., before its installation at the IMA.”

Our involvement in this project has taken us from the cold and dark Bluespring Caverns, to the busy and hot NYC, and recently the vineyards and rolling hills of Walla Walla. In the past, we have created a number of pieces involving artists and artwork, but this will be the first time we’ve been involved so early in the process. It’s an added bonus we got to see such different parts of America.

Our work won’t be complete for at least a couple of months – we still need to document the installation process, interview some more people and edit hours and hours of HDV footage. But when it is wrapped up – you can expect a comprehensive behind-the-scenes look at Maya Lin’s new work, including interviews with the artist, curators and a variety of appearances from IMA, Maya Lin Studio and Walla Walla Foundry staff. Additionally, there will be cavern, studio, foundry, and installation footage that will present the entire story.

Much of the content we produce is about telling a story and in this instance, we’ve been fortunate to witness so many stages that most people would never see. Viewers will be able to visit the IMA to see and experience the piece installed, but if interested, discover the how, why, when and where it all happened. I’ll provide updates along the way and if anyone wants to talk Walla Walla with me, please leave a comment.

Some related links for you:

Our flickr account with pictures from Walla Walla.

The Walla Walla Foundry.

IMA’s .pdf press release.

And finally, the IMA now has free wireless in select locations! What are you waiting for?