Call for participation

Steve Bradley, one of our illustrious speakers at next week's conference, sends the following invitation: cell stitch an open participatory mobile media project by URBANtells

Call for cell phone based photographic and textural contributions. Create a series of photographs that best describe the place where you live, work and play. Take as many images as you like focusing on details that make the place you live perhaps unique, mundane, or like every other city in the U.S. Include one to twosentencenarratives along with your pictures and send them to: urbantells@wintermute.org

It takes anywhere up to 5 minutesfor the image to show up on the page, http://urbantells.net/cell-net/

Reload the page until the image appears within the grid.

PDA Gambling in Vegas

Here is another way for-profits are cashing in on creative uses of technology. Read this article posted on wired.com about how The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas plans to implement handheld devices for gambling anywhere. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71466-0.html?tw=wn_culture_6

Hexagram

I came across Hexagram while searching for arts and technology related material. Lucky them, they just won a fat grant from their mother state. Hexagram reaps rewards and recognition

Check out some of their projects. Hmmmm... Maybe they would be interested in presenting a session on technology based art???

Carnegie Museum of Art in New York Times

More great reasons to visit Pittsburgh this fall...the museums, pleasant autumn weather, and Technology in the Arts. For our out of town guests, sadly you'll miss the exhibition “Fierce Friends: Artists and Animals, 1750-1900” featured in the New York Times this week, but you will have an amazing choice of exhibitions to explore if you so desire. The Carnegie Museum of Art and Museum of Natural History are less than a five minute walk away from the Carnegie Mellon University campus. You can read more about upcoming exhibitions by clicking one of these links:

Carnegie Museum of Art schedule of exhibitions

Carnegie Museum of Natural History schedule of exhibitions

Or if you prefer to sit in a quiet area and decompress, visit the main branch of the Carnegie Library, also within walking distance from the conference.

As an aside, I'm from Texas where there are only two seasons: "humid" and "hot". Fall is a great time to be in the 'Burgh, especially for those of us from warmer climates...who knew seasons actually changed?! Last October, I saw for the first time in my life the changing of seasons from summer to autumn. It was a truly amazing display of color and shape, and perhaps something taken for granted by people who have seen it many times. May this October in Pittsburgh also bring you unexpected beauty.

Online Art Communities- Sales or Support?

Interact with Other Artists / Buy & Sell Artwork Like Never Before The Vision Grove is more than an online art gallery. Here you can also get involved in a vibrant art community and interact with artists and buyers from all over the world.

It begins with the above subheading... emphasizing the community aspect of the site, but then the release continues to inflate the sales potential of an online gallery. Although I understand the that the E.D. is directing his business to attract people interested in sales, the mission on his website seems to suggest the opposite:

From the press release: "The reasoning behind using art communities is fairly obvious: absolutely no pressure, gorgeous original art for sale, and instant connections with top-quality buyers and sellers."

From "Our Philosophy," it doesn't mention the sales opportunities once... It references an idea of growth.

I think this person is making the mistake of focusing on sales. The sales will happen through networking... but I doubt online. Art is about a tranformative experience. I cannot fathom the idea of buying a piece of art without having it in front of my face. Moreover, lots of artists like to establish relationships with the people they sell to, and vice versa. Art enthusiasts bask in a glory of superstarness when they can say they "know" the artist. Will this be accomplished over a web portal? I doubt it.

The website is sophisticated and clean... a rendition of a visual artist MySpace. The E.D. should generate enthusiasm about the aspect of networking and community and let the sales happen on their own. Web art communities are great and I think tech-saavy artists would really embrace this type of support. If it develops organically and with integrity, website advertisers will find their niche as it's represented on the site- not as it's projected.

What other web art communities are out there? Could we do something like this locally, with each arts agency acting as a host... beyond artist rosters?Š

Your English professor will catch you!

With the incredible amount of content on the web how do we know if we’re just repeating ourselves? The Internet has given many a chance to publish their thoughts in a public forum where many were never able to before. It’s become easy to publish a blog or a personal web page with services such as My Space or Word Press. With as much content on the web there has to be a blog or two or a web page or two where the content is similar or almost identical. It may be highly improbable, but can it happen? What I really wonder is, can my brief ramblings I posted on a blog end up in someone’s term paper or book report? I don’t claim to be an expert on anything you would want to turn in to your English professor, but I would find it humorous and a bit incredible.

Here’s an interesting article I found on the high tech battle on plagiarism.

Don’t copy any of this without proper citations. Your English professor will catch you.

Art in the future

An interesting article from last Wednesday's online edition of The Guardian

And a happy morning to you too

I consider myself relatively internet savvy, but admit I am hesitant to utilize some of the more recent computer based media. For example, I don't own a digital camera or mp3 player, my cell phone is pretty basic (no camera or Wi Fi capabilities) and my myspace profile is average at best (no video clips, rotating pictures or artistic graphics). While my technical skills could be significantly updated, it doesn't prevent me from enjoying the intelligent and clever accomplishments of others, particularly when it involves marketing methods and young audiences. Folgers has a snappy video clip on youtube.com that resonated with my typical morning -- I'm a full time graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University with frequent late night study sessions.

Folgers' commercial, called "Happy Morning", may never receive air time on television as it is only available on the Web. It's intended specifically for a younger demographic and those who count on the internet to supply the majority of their news and information. Dare I suggest these are the same folks attending our concerts, exhibits, workshops and performances?

I realized for-profit businesses are riding the technology wave for all its worth...what are non-profits and arts organizations doing to remain competitive? I'd personally love to see what your organizations are doing to attract new audiences, so if you have a neat video clip, Web site or blog to share, please send it to us!

Blogs?

Some of you may be new to blogging. I know I am. This is the very first blog I’ve been involved in. I’ve stumbled across some blogs on my Internet travels, but I never really thought too much about it. Now that I am a blogger I wonder…What is a blog and where did they come from? I’ve attempted to research the history of blogging on the Internet and there doesn’t seem to be a clear path of how blogs came to be. I did find out that blogs evolved from online diaries. Once upon a time someone decided to make their personal diary public to friends and anyone who stumbled across the web address. These online diaries evolved into online journals and then web logs, or something like that. Web logs are what we know today as blogs. Blog is the shortened version of web log.

This only leaves me with more questions. Why did blogging become so popular? Is this all just a fad? What comes next after blogs?

If you have the answers to any of my questions your wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

Here's what I found when I entered "blog" in the Google search engine.

Guggenheim expansion

Guggenheim Foundation builds its largest museum in Abu DhabiThis article really highlights some fundamental issues that art organizations will face in the coming decades as our world continues to forge through Middle Eastern issues and globalization as a whole.

Some questions that come to mind:

• Was the money simply available, or did the Guggenheim solicit the UAE based on extensive marketing research?
• What benefits does the Guggenheim Foundation receive in positioning itself in Abu Dhabi?
• What type of curatorial concessions, if any, will the Guggenheim make to successfully market their collection to the Abu Dhabi patrons?
• If concessions are made, is this considered censorship or cultural sensitivity?
• Will the development strategy be focused on monies in that region, or will most donations be solicited from the U.S. and the Guggenheim's current contribution sources?
• How are other large arts organizations positioning themselves in the global economy?

And I feel as if I might be able to question the relevance of the Jewish associations in the Arab country- but that might be just too trite.

I'd like to hear of other's impressions of this event, in addition to examples of other arts organizations taking on new frontiers.

What is Web 2.0 anyway?

The concept of “Web 2.0” has been touted as the “solution” to any number of non-profit management issues. Though the term has been used to mean a wide range of things, in general, it’s the idea that the Web is no longer about one-way information flow, but a dynamic portal where users contribute, comment on, revise and maintain data contained on Web sites. Think of the difference between the Encyclopedia Britannica Online (first generation Web site) and Wikipedia (Web 2.0).

TechSoup, through its NetSquared project, is categorizing the tools most commonly associated with Web 2.0 (blogs, RSS feeds, wikis) as the “social web” because of their ability to affect social change. Although I wasn’t able to attend, I heard wonderful things about the conference they held in May -- we had a MAM grad student who came back revitalized and excited by the possibilities for of Web 2.0 for the arts sector.

As John Falk and Beverly Sheppard point out in their excellent new book, Thriving in the Knowledge Age, the dawning of the “Knowledge Age” has resulted in increased public interest in museums and other cultural institutions. The book points to the new challenge for cultural institutions: can we adapt to this new landscape and become “bottom-up” entities?

The Web is a good place to start.

How do we “customize” arts experiences so that users feel the same kind of buy-in as they do with their other leisure activities? NFL.com has a “My Team” section on its front page that I can customize, when I browse over to Fandango.com I see “Cary’s Favorites” on the right side of the screen, and Amazon has been giving me recommendations for years.

How do we reach the people who truly care about our missions? Google has based its business model on only advertising to people who have indicated interest in a product or topic while MySpace links bands with their fans in a very personal way.

Blogging allows us to communicate frequently and informally with our constituents; creating an “Audience Reviews” section on our Web site allows our visitors to have a voice; hosting discussion forums lets us tap into what’s top of mind for our members.

What works for one organization may not work for another – we all have different audiences who will each have a unique response to an initiative.

One final word… It’s important to carefully consider the time commitments involved in starting any Web 2.0 initiative. Planning new online initiatives should be done just as strategically as for “bricks and mortar” programs.

We’d love to hear about how your organization feels about Web 2.0… Please comment.

It's a claim to fame

Bringing literature and art to the city of Steel Pittsburgh ranks as eighth most literate city and as third best mid-sized arts city

Pittsburgh was also ranked recently as one of the top livable cities in some report I read, in addition to having one of the highest rankings in cultural and arts organizations per capita. Over the weekend, I even heard that we have one of the best city fireworks show in the nation.

I'm always dubious of such statistics, but I do concede there is an essence of truth to such claims. Since moving here from California, I can attest to the following:

• Pittsburgh is affordable, pretty and in a great location.
• For a small (mid-sized?) city, there is an incredible amount of performance and visual venues, well-supported by the community, coupled with events and education outreach programs.
• The fireworks show was, well- average.

Statistics, reports, data or not... I am finding Pittsburgh to be a hospitable and fun home.

One hundred years from now...

Will your organization's files, images and records still be around? And if so, will people be able to view them? I highly enjoyed these thoughts by Momus in wired.com about the creation and demise of the formats with which we store our music, photos, film, literature and more. As paper documentation succumbs to the proliferation of digitized formats, cultural and art institutions are joining the race to keep up. A decrease in office paper may be great news for the environment, but what will happen to these gigabytes upon terabytes of historical data 100, 50, even 10 years from now when the technology we used today is a relic?

Colonial Attraction Using Latest Technology

At Colonial Williamsburg you expect to see a true historical representation of what life was like over two hundred years ago. At a living historical museum butter churns, horse drawn carts, and triangle hats are usual sights, but how about iPods? Colonial Williamsburg is one of the latest museums to use iPods to lead visitors along tours of the grounds. This device that has only been around for a few years has had a huge impact on how tours are conducted and accessed. Visitors can now hear the portrayal of Thomas Jefferson on an iPod as they cross the grounds as well follow audio tours. Pretty savvy for a museum that shows how life was without any modern conveniences like electricity. Read an article here. What do you think of the latest trends using iPod technology? Let us know!