For those of you who have a taste for the technical and an appreciation of process, begin reading here:

Art Directed Photography

Unfortunately for me (and I would argue the patron), this is what I get to do the least.

Art Directed photography requires a fair amount pre-planning and time to explore an approach to photography of an object or setting.  It requires the input of multiple parties, is of high quality, and has a distinct “look” to the final image.  These images are generally intended for more targeted uses in magazine and catalogues.

The images below of Alberto Meda’s Light-Light chair were taken with a Mamiya 645D and a Phase One P45 digital back. The inspiration came from our Senior Curator of Design Arts Craig Miller, who wanted to focus on the texture of the material. The silhouette of the chair legs emerges from the darkness to reveal the back and the carbon fiber texture.

Alberto Media, "Light-Light chair (prototype)," 1988, carbon fiber and Nomex composite. Purchased with funds provided by James E. and Patricia J. LaCrosse.

Here’s another example of an art directed photo shoot:

Allesandro Mendini and Alessandro Guerriero, "Side chair from Ollo Collection,"1988, plastic, laminate. Frank Curtis Springer and Irving Moxley Springer Purchase Fund. © Alessandro Guerriero.

Publication Photography

Occurring much more frequently than art directed projects, publication photography is what you will typically find me doing day to day. It generally consists of high quality documentation photography, which requires more setup time and use of higher end equipment. The background may be white or gradated. Publication photography fulfills the need of catalogues and other external requests that require large image sizes.

Below are images of a more straightforward nature.  A generic gradient background is used rather than something more dramatic. Therefore the background or lighting does not become a distraction or a more obvious component of the image.  We have recently moved away from using the gradients.  Much of our work is shot on a plain white background to give all the attention to the art object.

Documentation Photography
This approach is similar to publication photography, however the intended results are more focused on a specific collection.  The drive behind this type of photography is to get a clear visual record of the object.

 Documentation photography is a systematic approach to photographing objects in the collection. The image is captured in a very generic setting (usually with a white background). Although quick snapshots can also be utilized as documentation, the goal of the Publishing & Media department is to acquire a clean, representative image of the work of art.  The resulting image can then be utilized for 80-90% of image needs (small press, newspaper, online, magazine, some catalogue uses).

We tend to create these images with Canon 5D Mark IIs and similar full frame digital cameras. A group of photographers are usually involved with any systematic documentation of the collection, along with staff from other departments coordinating the object movements.  See image below:

The role of the museum photographer is an exciting and rewarding one, and – as with many jobs in the museum – you frequently have the opportunity to get up-close with a variety of artwork.  And as a photographer, we get to see the work in its best light.  Future posts from me will be dealing with specific objects and how we shoot them, including images of our setup and some trial and error photographs, if I can get them by our editor.  Stay tuned!

I am currently in the “D’s” for District of Columbia and I continually find little gems along the way. Some catalogs have the signature of past curators, directors of the IMA, or others who have donated materials over the years.  Like this one from Wilbur Peat, found inside the exhibition catalogue American Processional held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and published in 1950.  Peat served as Director of the IMA from 1929-1965, and set the foundation for documenting Indiana artists.

This one says it’s “From Mr. Evans Woollen 2/2/1910″ and is from the Corcoran’s Augustus Saint-Gaudens Biography Exhibition of His Works and Memorial Meeting in December 1908. While a famous architect by the same moniker currently lives in Indianapolis, the Evans Woollen who likely donated this catalogue was president of the Fletcher Savings & Trust Company in 1912, currently Bank One, and also served as president of the board of the Art Association of Indianapolis, currently the Indianapolis Museum of Art, from1907-1941.

Today I found this amazing publication about the architectural and decorative features of The Library of Congress:

This has a copyright of 1901 and includes 22 images, plus the cover image mounted on dark green paper.   Being a librarian, I might be a little biased, but I feel that it’s not too difficult for most people to appreciate the uniqueness of such a publication.   It’s always a little thrilling to log into OCLC Worldcat (the Online Computer Library Catalog) to find that you are holding a publication that only a very small number of libraries likely own.   It’s a great feeling that we are making the information therein accessible to our patrons.  Only 119 shelves to go!

Despite its significance, the exhibition recently has been under fire by a small, vocal group of politicians and the Catholic League, who have denounced it, criticizing the film A Fire in My Belly (1987) by David Wojnarowicz. Wojnarowicz made A Fire in My Belly shortly after his companion and muse, the artist Peter Hujar, died from complications related to AIDS. Aggressive, macabre, and distressing, the film contains metaphoric footage meant to express loss and anger about the fact that the AIDS epidemic devastated the gay community while mainstream society largely ignored the problem.

The original A Fire in My Belly contains 13 minutes of footage, with an additional seven minute chapter. Both versions are without sound and composed of short shots of 8mm film captured by the artist in Mexico. For Hide/Seek, exhibition curator Jonathan Katz worked with editor Bart Everly to shorten each segment of the film so that it would total four minutes in length. Katz also chose a recording of an ACT UP rally found on an audio cassette in Wojnarowicz’s archives to serve as a soundtrack to the film. The video editor has posted this version of A Fire in My Belly on Facebook.

Opponents of the exhibition have targeted three brief segments of A Fire in My Belly, which depict ants crawling on a crucifix. Ants, which were seen by Wojnarowicz as having a social structure parallel to humans, were used to reference the artist’s perception of society’s indifference at the suffering of others.
Due to political pressures, mainly from House of Representatives members John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Eric Cantor (R-VA.), Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough removed the video from Hide/Seek on November 30, 2010.

Censorship of artists is an ongoing issue, major instances of which resurface every decade or so. While not limited to these instances, the key players in this current act of censorship have been linked to similar debates in the past.

This isn’t the first time the Catholic League, and specifically its president William Donohue, has promoted censorship of contemporary art. In 1999, the group protested the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s exhibition Sensation and urged for the withdrawal of public funding for the museum. Then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani threatened to withdraw funding, but the Brooklyn Museum of Art resisted, and continued the exhibition with all of the originally planned artworks on the basis of the First Amendment right of free speech. The litigation of the Brooklyn Museum of Art by the city of New York lasted six months, but was eventually dropped, and the museum continued to receive public funding.

In 1989, Wojnarowicz was subject to criticisms for an essay he authored for the catalogue of the AIDS exhibition Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing, in which he criticized politicians for their lack of action in response to the AIDS epidemic. The National Endowment for the Arts, under the leadership of John Frohnmayer, demanded that the organizing gallery return the NEA’s funding of the exhibition due to Wojnarowicz’s charged essay. After an intense public outcry, Frohmayer withdrew his demands, and the catalogue continued to be funded by the NEA. Hear Wojnarowicz discuss the controversy.

Additionally, Wojnarowicz’s exhibition Tongues of Flame was subject to criticism by the American Family Association in 1990. Organized by Illinois State University Art Galleries, this exhibition explored the subjects of AIDS and homosexuality. The Association cropped images of Wojnarowicz’s, rendering much of the content out of context, and distributed these altered images in a mailing list to every member of Congress and 3200 church leaders. Wojnarowicz reacted by filing and wining legal actions against the group, which had to correct the initial mailing with follow up letters. Similar to A Fire in My Belly, Wojnarowicz’s work was misrepresented by those opposed to it by the singling out of specific imagery within a larger work of art.

Obviously, these are just a few of many examples of attempted censorship related to politics, funding, and religious ideologies.

Wojnarowicz’s passed away from AIDS related causes in 1992. In his spirit of activism, the New York-based gallery P.P.O.W. is organizing a nationwide protest in response to the removal of his work. P.P.O.W. encourages everyone to print a copy of Wojnaorwicz Untitled (One Day This Kid…) (1990), a self-portrait by Wojnarowicz that describes the homophobic struggles he faced throughout his life, and post it in a public place. The poster of Untitled (One Day This Kid…) is currently on display by the IMA’s front desk as a gesture of the belief that museums are places for the exchange of ideas, the promotion of dialogue, and the representation of all aspects of our culture, free from censorship.

To find out more about the posting of Untitled (One Day This Kid…) in public spaces, visit P.P.O.W.

This is a crown, but not the actual crown that the winning blogger will receive.

And the Nominees Are…

• Jessica Hancock
• Katie Neville
• Crystal Hammon
• Jenni Clarkson
• Heather McAllister
  

So What Happens Next?

Every Wednesday for the next 5 weeks we will post the submission of each of the finalists listed above. On March 3 we will then take it to a public vote in order to let our blog readers decide the individual who gets to be the IMA’s next blogger.

What’s at stake?

For the winning blogger – You will get a free membership to the IMA as well as complimentary tickets to select public programs and events. In addition, you will receive the opportunity to blog on a monthly basis through the end of 2010. As and added bonus, I will also fashion a special crown for whoever wins.* AND as a super special added bonus – The Social Media Committee of Excellence will buy you lunch at Nourish Cafe to celebrate your success.

For our blog readers – You will receive the opportunity to pick the voice that you want to hear throughout 2010. Who makes you laugh? Who intrigues you? Who has a point of view that is unique and relevant? It’s up to you to decide. Choose wisely.

Good luck to our finalists, cheers to our future voters, and let the best blogger win!

Oh, oh. And one last thing…If you aren’t following the IMA on Twitter, I think you should.

*Wearing the crown is completely optional. However, if the winner decides to not wear the crown, I will (obviously) be required to wear it myself.

Audience at The Toby

We have a lot to offer at the IMA: permanent galleries, Lilly House, 152 acres of gardens and grounds, exhibitions, public programs, web projects, and community outreach. After a while, it’s easy to take for granted all of the ways that the museum serves its mission. Every week I write ads, print pieces, Facebook updates, and blogs that focus on the opportunities for visitors at the IMA, but I often don’t take advantage of them myself.

Just 30 seconds from where I sit, I have an amazingly impressive collection of the world’s art, and I rarely take the time to see it. I’m not sure if it’s my hectic schedule or laziness, but it’s shameful to me how little time I spend in the galleries or at the IMA’s public programs. As a marketer, I spend my day encouraging others to experience the IMA, but I wouldn’t be doing my job well unless I do it myself. Therefore, I have recently decided to attend two public programs each month and spend at least 30 minutes in the galleries each week. It’s still not enough, but it’s a start.

As part of my personal mission to experience the museum, a week ago Sunday, I attended an event at The Toby. On November 1, the IMA hosted the string quartet Osso, the singer-songwriter DM Stith as well as Sufjan Stevens and his film, The BQE. The eclectic event entertained a sold-out crowd of 600. As I sat in the balcony of the theater next to a 16-year-old hipster in buffalo check plaid, skinny jeans and black framed glasses, my heart swelled. He and his fellow high school friends were completely engaged in the experience. They were giddy with delight. (In a cool, hipster sort of way, of course.)

DM Stith on stage at The Toby

I loved the event, because Osso was the most bad@ss string quartet that I’ve ever seen perform. I loved the event, because DM Stith has a hauntingly gorgeous voice. I loved the event because The BQE was a devastatingly beautiful film. But, most of all, I loved the event because everyone else loved the event.

As a marketer, I often focus on the cause. “What will make a person attend the Museum?” But not often enough do I focus on the effect. “What happens when a person attends the Museum?” Attending public programs, walking through the galleries, and experiencing the IMA as a visitor are all critical to doing my job well. By taking time to enjoy the mission of what I do, I am better able to serve it.

So, with all that said, I have a challenge to my colleagues in the field – not just marketers, but registrars, curators, designers, IT specialists, and accountants. EXPERIENCE YOUR MUSEUM. Don’t take for granted that you work at an amazing place. Be amazed by the place at which you work.

It’s hard, I know. We have all have priorities that pull us away, but I implore you to take the time. For just a little while each week, stop working and start experiencing. I guarantee you, it’s worth it – and I’m not just saying that because I work in marketing.

One of the most frequent comments I hear is about how we are located in a “strange place,” way up on 38th street. It’s true, we do not sit on “museum row” in downtown Indianapolis, but I think the current location gives us many different opportunities that the museum would never be able to explore if it remained downtown. There are many benefits from being slightly off the beaten path: the latest is a current project everyone is very excited about- 100 Acres, the Virginia B Fairbanks Art and Nature Park.

The local arts and culture community in Indianapolis is vibrant and thriving, in spite of the economy and our community’s singular sports focus (No judgment, I’m a huge Colts fan, 14 days ’til preseason starts, etc. I just don’t think sports need to come at the high price of culture) The Indianapolis Museum of Art’s current location has the potential to give us the feeling of a destination, a calm refuge in the heart of a bustlng downtown.

But why does it matter where we are located? Is the difference between downtown and 38th St. such a great one?

Other museums have explored different options for their unique needs of “place,” for different reasons. Several museums have opened up satellite locations: the Guggenheim spread to multiple countries, including Spain and Germany, (and Las Vegas!) increasing the international audiences the museum is accessable to. The Getty has the Villa, which specifically houses their Roman and Etruscan art collection, so that location can focus on that one subsection of their collection. Other museums operate without physical locations, such as The International Museum of Women. It doesn’t yet have a physical site, but builds community through exhibitions online,  lectures and events as they work toward a physical building.

All of these museums are reacting to their visitors and what they need from each institution. The most important aspect of location for museums and cultural centers is visitors and community. Physical space is a large part of what defines communal identity, and concepts like nationalism and even the sports team you favor arise from where you were born. We as humans like what we know, and we know what’s around. Shouldn’t our closest neighbors love us and visit the most? Yes, but often, they don’t.

Museums are defined by who comes to visit them and who they are reaching, something all museums should have a firm grasp on. We want to know who comes, and more importantly, know who doesn’t. This is where it gets tricky. I feel that ultimately, the current model of visitor-to-institution relationship comes down to the same patterns. Museums seek out new and different audiences, but they don’t come, regardless of the effort. Generally, the same people who care about the museum keep coming, and the museum continues to tailor it’s exhibits and activities for that same group. I suppose it’s only up to us to change this… more on that next time.

I sat down with IMA Senior Graphic Designer Matthew Taylor last week in the Design Studio to take a hard look at our current IMA membership magazine (Previews) and talk content and design. A bit of history: The magazine has been around since 1988 with its current name.  (Before that, it was called the Quarterly Magazine. A bit of an improvement?) Matt was kind enough to hang out with me for a few minutes after our redesign brainstorming session to answer some questions:

Do you have a design philosophy?
I feel like George Bush in the movie “W.”. You know, when he was asked what he would consider to be his biggest mistake…I’m kidding.  As a designer, you can’t help but put something of yourself into every project. But I think the less of yourself you put into it the better. A piece can be clean and beautiful without shouting “Matt Taylor did that.” My philosophy is stay true to the project.

How does the design department at the IMA work?
The environment of the Design Studio is truly collaborative. We have exhibition designers, graphic designers, a lighting designer and a technical designer. It’s a multifaceted team. Everyone has a specialty, but we work together on projects that aren’t necessarily in our own area of expertise. We work with every department in the Museum to make well-designed, cohesive exhibitions.

What are the challenges of designing in a museum setting?
The biggest challenge we face is over-designing. You are working with a museum brand and an exhibition brand. Everything here is an art form and design itself is art. The challenge is to find a balance in your work. Part of my job is to get people to come see an exhibition, but at the same time know when to pull back and not overshadow the art with my design.

What upcoming design project are you most excited about?
Redesigning Previews magazine, of course. I’m excited about incorporating the new IMA brand that we are rolling out now into the magazine. The old magazine doesn’t live up to our new mission of art, nature and design. I would like the new design to be true to that mission and the new brand, as well as be more engaging and exciting than it is currently.

Can you describe the new IMA brand? (above)
The new IMA brand was designed by Indiana native Abbott Miller and his team at Pentagram in New York. We discussed our needs with them and why the old brand wasn’t working. They came up with something conversational, welcoming and inclusive. Using two new typefaces, Taz and Brioni, the brand has the flexibility to say the right thing at the right time. It’s got personality. We’re doing a soft roll-out of the logo to be green, economical and smart.

What’s your favorite magazine?
I.D. (The International Design Magazine)—The design is beautiful.  Great layout, typography etc. The magazine as a whole (from design to content) is always fantastic from cover to cover.

Design Inspiration

And so the conversation continues… With a content strategy that’s mission-consistent, flexible and collaborative and two full boards of design inspiration, we will bring you a new and improved quarterly IMA magazine this winter. Your thoughts and title suggestions will be considered—please add them below!

Currently, biking to work is more difficult. However, last year I heard about Bike to Work Day, which occurs during Bike to Work Week in the middle of May (you guessed it, Bike to Work Month). I knew that I was not quite in shape for it then, but made it a goal to take on the challenge of biking to work this year during Bike to Work Week.

Don't worry mom, I've already stopped

As spring came around this year, I was back in the morning workout groove. I had lost a few pounds, but more importantly, I was feeling more fit – feeling up to the challenge. The time had come to do some research. I looked at bike routes in the area, and did a weekend trial run on the shortest commute using Indy Parks bike routes that I could come up with.

Unfortunately, I have a hybrid-style bike (not a road bike), which limits my speed, and I’m not comfortable riding on the street. The quality of the shoulder varied from good to poor to non-existent. Fortunately, I have a hybrid, but this was not really the experience I was hoping for. So, I reworked my route to use higher quality, well-used paths, extending the length of the commute to about nine and a half miles but improving my safety.

Gooselings out for a morning swim

During Bike to Work Week, I decided to ride on the day with the best weather forecast. It was a little cold when I started, but the skies were blue and it wasn’t long before I was enjoying the cool breeze. As I came to the canal that eventually runs by the museum, I rode past ducks sleeping along the water in the morning sun. Further along I rode past geese, and I can only assume that both parties were wary of any sudden movements. The toughest section is the climb up to the museum from the bridge… I’m glad I have plenty of gears.

While the morning commute has a serene quality to it, I enjoy the ride back even more. My drive back home can be fraught with decisions about which route will have less traffic, and I see examples of poor driving behavior just about every time. Although there’s just as much need to pay attention whether driving or biking, I feel that it’s easier to attain a peaceful awareness when cruising on two wheels.

Starting out for home

This is why I’ve done the commute four times already. The ride is still pretty exhausting, so I can’t do it every day, but I think once or twice a week is a good goal. It’s a great way to keep in shape, reduce stress, and minute though the effect may be, it reduces carbon dioxide emissions. I couldn’t help working the equations, so let’s take a look at the numbers.

My biking offsets 9.0 miles of driving. I’ve been getting about 48mpg lately, so that’s 0.38 gallons saved per commute. At $2.50 per gallon that saves me 95 cents. According to the EPA, burning 0.38 gallons of gas emits 7.4lbs of carbon dioxide. So assuming that any additional respiratory exhalation of CO2 is negligible (biochemists, is this true?), I’m eliminating an amount of carbon dioxide emissions that would weigh almost as much as a gallon of milk with each commute.

That seems significant, on a personal level, considering that annual per-capita emissions are estimated to be on the order of 16 tons (working out to about 88lbs per day). Of course, eliminating hundreds of millions of metric tons of emissions with a new emissions standard is much more significant on a national level. Someone getting the average 35mpg in 2016 would still save 8.6 cents (at $2.50 per gallon) and 0.55lbs of carbon dioxide per mile if they biked instead. Someone getting around 20mpg could save 13 cents and 0.97lbs of CO2 per mile today. Feel free to check my math… that’s what peer review is all about.

Better health, less stress, less traffic, less carbon… seems like a win-win to me. Are there any other bikers out there? What are your thoughts?

But it’s not only individuals using these sites. Here at the IMA, as most of you know, we embrace social media as a useful tool in reaching our audiences and fulfilling our mission. And we’re not the only ones – LACMA, SFMoMa, and Walker Art Center are just a couple of our peers actively engaging online audiences. Even the Art Institution of Chicago recently announced here, that they’ll soon be launching a Twitter account.

But as museums and museum employees continue to grow their online activity – both personal and institutional – we’re faced with the challenge of exploring policies and guidelines online activity. Should there be employee policies in place for personal use of such sites? Should museums implement a clearly detailed policy for institutional use of such sites? And if so, what would either one of these policies look like and what purposes would they serve?

In researching the topic, I can tell you for sure that there are several people asking these questions, and I can also tell you that nobody really seems to know the answers.

So what are some of the issues to think about? Well, there are a lot of them. Museum 3.0 suggests the following issues are all important in considering your strategy to online networking: technical concerns, how to archive online museum activity, implementation planning, policy development, training, and a how/why to guide for media sites.

Museum 2.0 blogger Nina Simon discusses what might be included in a social media handbook. Her list includes things like rules on what should or should not be shared, how get a new initiative approved by your manager, what is considered appropriate for internal and external distribution, and a reference guide to social sites that would include recommendations, stylesheets, etc.

While I think these are all important items to consider, I can’t help but wonder if some topics should just be covered in ongoing discussions instead of binding them into a manual. Why? Well, by the time a policy or manual was organized, there’s a pretty good chance that the certain components (like a ‘how to guide’) would already be obsolete. In other words, the web changes so much that consistent updating might become a daunting task.

Three seemingly stagnant issues that I see as most important in policy making or strategic planning for social media include: information release, content quality & content control.

Information Release – A problem might arise here when someone inadvertently releases sensitive information about the museum. An example of this might be tweeting in excitement that a new acquisition has just arrived to the dock (which might jeopardize the safety of the work), or announcing an event on your facebook page before it’s been announced by your museum. This issue is one that might arise more frequently when an organization’s employee is using a personal account that wouldn’t be filtered by a colleague. The question to be asked here is: should museums tell their employees what they can and can’t discuss on their personal sites?

The release of certain information can also be a problem even on an institutionally controlled site. For example: Let’s say Daniel, our New Media Director, comes back from Spain next week and blogs about something regarding an artist in an upcoming exhibition that he interviewed. Let’s also say that the curatorial department was waiting to release that information for whatever reason – we might have ourselves one unhappy curator, or even worse, maybe an unhappy artist. (With effective communication amongst departments, this issue should not be as difficult to manage as the issue of personal Facebook, blog or Twitter accounts).

Content Control – With so many departments/individuals managing various sites and social network accounts for the institution, who’s the gatekeeper of information? For example, if multiple writers are contributing to a blog (as is the case here at the IMA) how do you filter or should you filter content? Is there someone that gets final say on what goes up where?

Content Quality – Because it’s so easy to post things on the internet and incredibly cost efficient how does an institution refrain from overloading their audiences? Even worse, how do we keep from putting up information (that might not be very good or insightful) just because we can? Here is a short post by Matt Yglesias that suggests that while non profits are increasingly enjoying the captivity of online audiences, the quality of information on the web is a growing problem.

Like most everyone I have come across, I do not have answers to all of these questions nor do I have a suggested policy or manual. But I will leave you with some additional links that I have found useful in the discussion of social media and museums.

IMA’s Blog Guidelines – which is posted directly on our blog.

Powerhouse Museum’s 2007 Blog Policy

BBC’s social media policy – this is a good example of a fairly extensive policy.

Brooklyn Museum’s Shelley Bernstein discussed various ways to use social media sites in Where Do We Go From Here? at the 2008 Museums & the Web conference. I would be shocked if the topic of social media policies were not discussed at M&W 2009, which is here in Indy, next week.

And finally – On the lighter side, this article entitled The 14 Types of Twitter Personalities might help you pinpoint some possible problems or areas of concern for your workplace.

“This is really cool,” he said timidly, referring to the space. Daniel showed him the new animated trailer for ArtBabble, to which he replied, “That was not cool…I mean that was not long enough.” 

Another visitor asked if he could take a nap in the corner because he found the furniture and atmosphere so relaxing. It was a pleasure to watch kids, teens, parents and docents use the computers and ArtBabble video Web site as tools for learning and for fun.

This leads me to a larger question I’ve been asking myself (and some of you): What are the pros and cons of interactive games in art museums, and how far should we go with the concept? The Davis LAB doesn’t include games per se, but getting on a computer and exploring ArtBabble is, like a game, a lot of fun. For the purpose of this post, I’ll classify interactivity as anything from paper scavenger hunts to computer kiosks in the galleries. All these activities turn upside down the traditional museum experience of walking through galleries and looking at the art on the walls with an element of relational interactivity between the visitor and the art.

NPR recently explored the topic in a piece called “Interactive Games Make Museums a Play to Play”, by Elizabeth Blair, which highlighted the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Luce Foundation Center for an alternative reality game they created. A teacher I know testified that interactive games in museums prompted her students to look more closely at the artwork. NPR noted happiness, clear instructions, feedback, shared experience and being part of something bigger as benefits to interactivity.

I wonder if some museum visitors find interactive games disruptive or cause them to focus less on the physical art as they attempt to check off a work they just found through the interactive game and rush off to the next masterpiece. Should museums use interactive technology like video or audio tours as a revenue generator at the risk of taking attention away from the physical piece of art? Or is it our duty as museum professionals to ensure that the technology only enhances the connection? Are games a marketing tool to woo new audiences to art, or are they the future of art? I have heard the argument that “high brow” art clashes with “low brow” games. Do we need to be entertained at an art museum by something else, or do we go to let the art entertain us?