The Pharmacy prescribes the following links to combat Monday online anemia.

Blog: Scanwiches

Jon Chonko, a New York graphic designer who has been scouring the local deli scene, has a scanwich blog for his findings, replete with delectable cross sections to satisfy your every sandwich desire. If you’re not hungry now, you’re about to be.

(via npr)

ArtBabble Video: Behind the Scenes: Tim Burton

IMA Work of Art:

Alchemilla vase by Alessandro Mendini (Designer)

Tweet:

RichardMcCoy: Finishing up my next @Art21 post. Sneak peak: there’s talk of Futuro House by Matti Suuronen http://bit.ly/2jIqHg

But, you might be quick to point out, that’s yesterdays news.  And you’re right.

Goodies on ArtBabble

On Tuesday Kate wrote a brief news story on ArtBabble’s front page, so I thought I would expand on that.

What have we been doing since April?  A lot.  After the launch, we received a tremendous amount of requests on how to become an ArtBabble partner.  It was slightly overwhelming, but also inspiring.  We went through the process of assessing all of the requests, working closely with our original partners as advisers (actually setting up an Advisory Group), to identify the next steps and next batch of video content.  Since IMA staff run ArtBabble (kind of like a second job) we had to figure out the balance of growing ArtBabble and keeping up with all the other projects at IMA – the blog, exhibition(s) planning, video production, Flickr, an iPod Touch tour, grant writing, Bird cams, office pranks, meetings, you get the picture…This meant instead of adding 40 new partners at once, we had to consider adding in stages.  Somewhere in the middle of this, we added a new Goodies page on the site, and started a Play Art Loud Flickr group featuring AB bumper stickers.

So, the next step is a Phase Two launch of ArtBabble on Tuesday, July 28. Mark your calendars!  We’re talking lots of new partners, lots of new videos, and a more diverse selection of art content.  This Phase Two launch will be followed with more rolling launches as we’re able to manage the new partner relationships and content preparation for AB.  It’s all leading to what we hope will be the premier destination for viewing art videos online.

So, please feel free to help spread the word about July 28.  I would love to hear any comments, theories or suggestions for next ArtBabble steps. And we still have lots of bumper stickers.

More ArtBabble Goodies

In the midst of writing this post, I announced it on Twitter, soliciting questions about ArtBabble.  Below, you’ll find the list of some of those questions, with my responses.

Why create something new instead of just using a channel on YouTube? Long list of reasons – improved art search results, the prospect of creating an art-focused video community, the ability to create a space managed by museum professionals, incredible video quality, transcriptions, the Notes that appear to the right of each video, a chance to seize a real opportunity online….

How did ArtBabble get championed in-house and how did it get funded? We already had a successful  in-house video team, and were already developing Web sites in-house.  Max Anderson, Rob Stein and I had been talking about some version of IMA TV for a couple of years – ArtBabble seemed like the best approach (something more relavant than just IMA content).  Since video and web development were already a big part of IMA efforts, it was a pretty straight project forward to initiate. The site was developed entirely in-house by IMA staff, with support from the top down, and was funded by a grant from the Ball Brothers Foundation.

If y’all got any do-overs w/ respect to ArtBabble, what would you change? Such a tough question. More videos, and more partners, but this will take time.  And, I would love some Robot Art content (but that’s me).

How will the site evolve? In terms of content and partners, it will evolve through these rolling launches as quickly as IMA staff can handle this process.  The actual site will evolve with new features…but that’s further down the line.

Could a visitor contribute? Not right now (except for comments), but it’s something we’re thinking about.  So, who knows in the future…

Babble On!

]]> http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2009/07/09/what-next-for-artbabble/feed/ 6 http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2009/03/19/what-is-interact/ http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/2009/03/19/what-is-interact/#comments Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:13:03 +0000 Daniel Incandela http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/?p=3909 The IMA blog staff is filled with all types. Some of them know their blog topics weeks ahead of time. Some work at a steady pace and figure out an idea a couple of days in advance. Some (me) usually wait until the last minute. I realized this yesterday and turned to Twitter and Facebook for inspiration. Some suggestions were inappropriate for an IMA post, some were funny, some were thoughtful, and I had a lot of people suggest blogging about IMA’s Deaccessioned artwork page.  Yes it’s cool….it’s transparent….it’s many things….but I had absolutely nothing to do with it.  If you do want more info, bug Charlie or IMA’s registration department- bravo to everyone involved in that project.

Thinking about that page led me to think more broadly about IMA’s main website.  Inside the museum, the IMA site is a major topic of conversation amongst the web team.  We’re in the planning stages for a web redesign of imamuseum.org.  This will include a better calendar system, better integration of digital content, a new collection page and lots more bells and whistles I can’t mention right now.  This process has really made me consider one word and one section: Interact.

IMA's Interact Section

What is Interact?  It’s togetherness, it’s action, it’s a mutual or reciprocal action, it’s technology.  Is it?

For the past 18 months, we have placed much of our new media content in a section called Interact.  You can access it directly from the home page and find yourself immediately faced with options like ArtBabble, Facebook, Tagging, iTunes U, Blog and Dashboard.  It’s one stop shopping for those of you interested in technology at the IMA.  But I’m not convinced that Interact is the correct word for this section, or even the right approach to offering this content. Here’s a quick scan of approaches other museums have applied:

Similar to IMA but putting the active in interactive, MoMA’s new site features Multimedia (check it out below.) The cool Walker Art Center has it’s own channel.  And the ever impressive Mattress Factory Art, playfully offers Friendship Version 2.0.

MoMA Multimedia

Front and center. Brooklyn Museum is simply, brooklynmuseum.org (you have at least 10 links on the home page devoted to technology and new/social media projects) and community-based interaction is weaved throughout the site (are you really surprised?):

Brooklyn Museum

Layered within the site, The Tate Modern, has its Tate Player, TateShots and The Great Tate Mod Blog (below).  The Getty Museum has a video gallery, is getting Twitter right and does lots of other tech related projects. There’s no specific section like MoMA and others, is not fully integrated like Brooklyn, but offers superb content.

The Great Tate Mod Blog

Interact: So what to call it and where to place it?  It’s a challenge we face in the coming months to bring you a new site that is interactive, engaging, educational and focused on art.  We can create a dedicated section for technology.  We  can integrate it in all areas of the new site.  Or we can place it in various sections of the site based on a navigation structure.

We’ll be looking at lots of sites online – like the one’s mentioned above, but I would LOVE to hear your input.  What approach do you think is best? What would you do?

#6. IMA's Six Degrees of Separation

LACMA did it, everyone on Facebook is doing it, and now the IMA is turning it up a notch with blog “tagging”. Here it is…what you all have been waiting for…25 Random Things about the IMA. 

The Rules (according to Facebook, of course): Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged in your post.

1. General admission to the IMA is FREE!
2. Percival de Luce’s oil on canvas painting, An Anxious Mother, was the Museum’s first acquisition.
3. One person in all of Samoa visited our Web site in 2008. That person looked at five pages and stayed for just over two minutes.
4. Last year, 2,671 visited our site with an iPhone and 36 visited via a PlayStation 3.
5. One person visited the IMA Web site with a 1 bit screen resolution. How is that even possible?
6. Six Degrees of Separation: IMA staff member and blogger Anne Laker is cousins with the America’s Top Model Winner Adrianne Curry, who is married to Christopher Knight (aka Peter Brady), who once guest starred on That ’70s Show with Debra Jo Rupp (Mrs. Forman), who played Phoebe’s sister in-law on Friends, which starred Jennifer Aniston, who played a love interest of Kevin Bacon in the 1997 romantic comedy, Picture Perfect. Whew!
7. There are approximately 164 fluorescent lights mounted to the wall in the IMA’s Pulliam Great Hall. The lights are part of a three-story fluorescent light installation by Robert Irwin entitled Light and Space III, which was specifically designed for the museum’s main 60-foot atrium.
8. The largest painting in the IMA’s collection is Rosy Cardita by Larry Zox, measuring 69” 252”.
9. The smallest painting in the IMA collection is Portrait of Paul Peckham by Lewis Peckham. It measures 1 in. x 1 ¾ in.
10. Nancy Reagan and fashion designer Bill Blass (an Indiana native), donated a red silk, chiffon and taffeta evening dress worn by the former first lady to the Museum’s Textile and Fashion Arts Collection.
11. There was actually a vending machine in the building that sold art – Gallery of the Machine by Matt Eickhoff and Artur Silva. (The vending machine is making its way back to Artur’s studio at the Harrison Center for the Arts for some repairs.)
12. The IMA’s collection includes Vincent Van Gogh’s Landscape at Saint-Remy, which was painted during the final year of the artist’s life.
13. The IMA recently acquired the landmark Miller House and Garden in Columbus, Indiana. Designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2000, it is considered one of the country’s most highly-regarded examples of mid-century Modernist residences.
14. The IMA has its own in-house Nugget Factory which conceptualizes, films, produces and delivers high quality art video for ArtBabble.org.
15. The 52 acres of the IMA campus currently open to the public comprised the town of Woodstock in the early 20th century.
16. Encompassing 152 acres of gardens and grounds, the IMA is among the 10 largest encyclopedic art museums in the United States.
17. Last year, 508 IMA volunteers donated more than 26,000 hours of their time.
18. According to the Dashboard, the IMA’s Horticulture staff planted 30,443 new plants on the IMA grounds in 2008.
19. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is one of the most popular days for the IMA. In 2007, we welcomed 4,500 visitors on MLK day.
20. Within two years of beginning an engineering-based, detailed approach to reducing its energy consumption, the IMA’s average monthly demand for electricity and natural gas was reduced by about 40 percent. The energy conservations also reduced the IMA’s greenhouse gas emissions (CO2) by more than 6,700 tons.
21. The IMA’s Stout Reference Library has more than 100,000 items of information on visual arts including books, periodicals, museum publications, auction catalogs and individual artist files.
22. As one of the 10 oldest general art museums in the country, the Indianapolis Museum of Art was founded during American history’s most remarkable movement in creating museum institutions, starting in the 1870s when New York and Boston established their museums.
23. The Toby was built using 23,642 pounds of recycled material.
24. In 2010, the IMA will open 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, which will be one of the largest contemporary museum art parks in the country. The Park will feature artworks commissioned from both emerging and veteran artists, who will create temporary and permanent works in response to the site’s varied geography.
25. The Indianapolis Museum of Art offers FREE general admission! Oh, wait…did I already mention that?

This phenomenal example of entrepreneurship and arts marketing was brought to my attention this weekend by my should’ve-been-a-geneticist mother. It’s every marketer’s dream — the big idea — and together Web consultant Adrian Salamunovic and biotech imaging specialist Nazim Ahmed found it in a string of DNA. They started a company called DNA 11 that catapulted them into the media spotlight with personalized portraits of people’s DNA images. Clients first choose a color scheme, size and frame option. Several weeks after submitting their DNA sample, they receive an original, one-of-a-kind work of art.

Co-founders Salamunovic and Ahmed started their business in a small apartment with $2,000 and netted a $1 million the first year. They’ve received international press coverage and were featured on CSI:NY. They also sell their service in The Museum of Modern Art stores, in both New York and Tokyo. They’ve branched out into FingerPrint Portraits and KISS Portraits. I’m intrigued by the innovative idea, the comprehensive Web site (with blog) and DNA 11’s goodwill efforts which have accompanied its success.

Clearly, the popularity of DNA 11 comes from a new idea and the ability to execute it with state-of-the-art technology, but will a DNA Portrait from DNA 11 ever hang in the MoMa? Or is this just a novelty, a contemporary decorator’s dream? What if it were a DNA Portrait of the Dalai Lama or the Pope? Or another twist — how about a FingerPrint Portrait of O.J. Simpson? Would that elevate the status of this art to museum worthy or just increase the demand for reproductions of an even more novel product?

Note: The title of this post is a branding slogan by DNA 11.

(struggling for an image, I decided to show my favorite Pioneer HDJ-1000 headphones…courtesy of pioneerelectronics.com)

So what happened recently to cause this shift? It’s been a convergence of experiences really, and it all occurred kind of like this:

I was on 38^th Street…
This past week I found myself standing in Best Buy, initially contemplating a purchase of a Wii or PS3 (I bought neither). After a few minutes I wandered into the music aisle. I typically download from iTunes but occasionally I buy a CD. I stood in the rap section and an entire world of 80’s old school opened up. I walked out with 2 CD’s – KRS-One and Eric B. and Rakim. I’m listening to Follow the Leader, right now. This set the tone for the rest of the week and the audio coincidences followed.

Meanwhile back at work….
Think of music online and it’s a hard not to think of iTunes. My colleague Despi spent the past week preparing, organizing and finalizing our audio and video content for a new partnership with iTunes, called iTunes U – essentially content from universities and cultural institutions, such as museums. She’ll be blogging about it later, so I don’t want to reveal too much. The IMA on iTunes, pretty cool and it’s kind of a big deal.

Thinking of LOST and Copland…
Previously on…..not LOST (but I can’t wait for the season to start). In past posts I’ve mentioned a project we’re working on with musicians from the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. This project will become an audio guide for our American Galleries, featuring performances from ISO musicians. So when I’m not listening to 80’s hip hop, I’m also now into Debussy, Stravinsky and Barber. We’re in the selection stage for what songs will be recorded and will begin this process very soon….

Local music…
For an upcoming fashion exhibition Breaking the Mode, we are acquiring runway footage featuring work from the designers in the exhibition. You can’t really have runway footage without music, so our web and flash designer Matt Gipson suggested a local band he knows, The Sound Defects. I recommend visiting their site and listening to Kick Stand. We’re working with them to feature some of their sounds in the videos we will produce online (I know – it’s a video…but there is a good audio connection here). Coming soon to imamuseum.org….in some form.

For a totally new experience…
If you’re in iTunes, search for ‘spurse audio tour’. It’s an audio guide we produced with the artist collective spurse, a couple of years ago. Their exhibition is long gone, but the audio tour lives on and might make a comeback. Check it out – I did recently and had a chuckle. It’s not your typical audio guide.

So what does this all mean…
Well, these were my experiences for the week of Jan 21-25, 2008. We may never be an audio powerhouse like MoMA or SFMOMA – but you will begin to see some new and unique audio experiences – and we haven’t given up on audio yet. In the meantime, if you have any audio project ideas, please leave me a comment.

Now who’s ready for The Buggles?