Solve for X

Try not to have horrible flashbacks of high school algebra! In this case, Solve for <X> is a new Google initiative, defined as “a forum to encourage and amplify technology-based moon-shot thinking and teamwork”, and <X> is defined by as the intersections of “huge problem”, “radical solution”, and “breakthrough technology”. http://youtu.be/uDDy7QSdt6A

While the website is fairly vague, Solve for <X> sounds like a hub for crowdsourced solutions with a focus on innovative thinking and technologies. The website already has some brilliant talks online – as a visual person, I found Mary Lou Jepsen’s discussion on “Imaging the Mind’s Eye” fascinating.

http://youtu.be/SjbSEjOJL3U

Solve for <X> has a Google+ page to encourage and facilitate discussion; anyone with a relevant talk is invited to share it on the page as long as it meets the criteria (huge problem, radical solution, and breakthrough technology). Solve for <X> even hosted a conference in the beginning of February to bring together innovators to discuss major problems and solutions of the modern world. There’s a YouTube channel with more videos from the site and their conference, with presumably more on the way.

Crowdsource thinking like Solve for <X> and the TED talks certainly provide an interesting set of viewpoints on a wide range of topics. You can bet we’ll be watching to see how Solve for <X> has an affect on culture and the world of art.

Videos to make your Wednesday less like Wednesday and more like Friday

It's Wednesday, sigh. To help with your mid-week blues, here are a few humorous and just plain cool videos. Ever wonder… …what it would be like to work for Twitter? We regularly emphasize the benefits of Twitter and other social media networks for arts managers, fundraisers, developers, marketers, PR personnel, etc. So today I offer a break from the usual discussion about Twitter and instead, an “over-budget,” under-informative and comical video highlighting the Twitter office experience featuring Twitter CEO Dick Costolo…

[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vccZkELgEsU[/embed]

…how much video is uploaded to YouTube a day? Then check out this website that visualizes just how much video it is in comparison to other worldly and environmental phenomena.

[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHPfc6whaSk[/embed]

…about a popuphood? It’s exactly what it sounds like, a neighborhood or block of pop-up stores. But these aren’t your typical, temporary pop-up stores. In an urban initiative to revitalize the historic Old Oakland neighborhood in Oakland, California, popuphood is providing six retail store owners with free rent to occupy vacant storefronts in the neighborhood. The ultimate goal is for the six stores to be successful enough at this location to sign a long term lease upon the close of the first six months. Innovation in economic and urban development at its very best.

[embed]http://vimeo.com/evakolenko/popuphood[/embed]

Hope these ideas make your Wednesday all the more pleasant!

Welcome to the World of Old School 3D Photography

Over a hundred years before 3D technology invaded movie theaters and living rooms, another form of 3D image technology was incredibly popular around the globe. The images were called stereographs, and the technology was quite simple: two pictures of the same image, shot from slightly different angles, were viewed through a narrow device that only let you see one image with each eye, giving the appearance of a 3D image (remember playing with a ViewMaster as a kid? The technology is quite similar). Now, thanks to the work of the New York Public Library, you can view over 40,000 stereographs, most of them over a century old, and create your own animated GIF that offers the illusion of a 3D image. In addition, you can also create modern 3D photos of the same images, viewable through those hokey blue-red 3D glasses. The best part? Sharing your creations with your fellow arts lovers!

As reported by the New York Times last week, the NYPL Lab’s site, called the Stereogranimator, is simple to use. To create an animated GIF, first, you select a pair of similar looking pictures from a collection of over 40,000 images, some of which date back to the nineteenth century. Second, you choose your focal point within the image and the speed of the animation. Finally, you can share the animated GIF on social media sites or embed in your blog. You can see my custom image below!

GIF made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

The process for the 3D anaglyph image is similar. After choosing a pair of images, you choose your focal point within the image and hit the create button. You can see my 3D image below, which can be aided just in case you have those old-school blue-red 3D glasses!

ANAGLYPH made with the NYPL Labs Stereogranimator

As I scrolled through the photographs, it surprised me how many images were taken back then that look so similar. As artist Joshua Heineman, the brains behind the operation, describes on the NYPL Lab site, this was intentional: looking at both pictures, the viewer could be provided with a sense of depth that simply was not possible by looking at one image. With so many of these image pairs being captured, the public would use the stereograph, the ultimate entertainment device of the late 19th century, to see a very early form of 3D technology for themselves. Like video games or movie theaters today, the technology was a hugely popular for several decades.

The New York Public Library’s site is another example of an encouraging trend: more libraries opening up their vast collections to an online audience for free. While some library systems have been hesitant to open up too much of their catalog to online audiences, the NYPL has been a leader in embracing the online community: in addition to their stereograph project, the library also has a project titled “What’s on the Menu?,” where people can help the library transcribe historical restaurant menus to add to its data of food prices and trends.

Even better? Improving the experience through technology, in this case with animated and 3D images. While the technology is far from groundbreaking for today’s audience, it does offer a unique historical look back at a technology that was so popular a century and a half ago.

We here at Tech in the Arts have written before about all the cool things happening today with 3D technology, and none of them have to do with the latest films hitting the movie theater. Through collaboration, open source technology and access to historical materials, the New York Public Library and others are embracing a new movement towards more social interaction between institutions and their patrons, a movement we strongly embrace and encourage.

Performing Arts Legacies Online

Recently the Merce Cunningham Dance Company shut down following the death of Merce Cunningham.  The action taken by the founder are somewhat unique in the world of the arts and there have been observations of what this means.  Meanwhile the content of the Merce Cunningham Company, at least in part can still be found online through various video projects and the archive left by the company through the Living Legacy Plan and maintained by the Merce Cunningham Trust.  The continued availability of this content is carrying on the legacy in the true spirit of its founder who frequently wrote of the transitory nature of his performance and was a student of Buddhist philosophy.

Further performances have resided online for years through projects like On The Boards TV which is currently celebrating its two year anniversary with a sale of online content.  The content can be accessed through one time rental, purchase, and through subscription and is high quality, having been shot on 4-5 hi-definition cameras.  Through content providers like On The Boards TV  and do it yourself online venues such as YouTube and Vimeo the amount of online performing arts content has grown significantly.  Artists are gradually recognizing that real content online is critical for accessing new audiences and maximizing market penetration.

Innovation in the field of dance and theater can go deeper than this.   Critics have noticed a trend at fringe festivals of micro-performances and intimate theater.    While artists seem to be taking advantage of physical spaces for the time being, the possibilities for using digital spaces are increasing everyday.  The idea of doing live performances online has certainly received attention.  The growth of services such as Skype make interfacing virtually and therefore using these same services as a performance venue more likely every year.

Coming Soon - MOCA TV

Wanna check out a documentary on street artists? Maybe an interactive, educational art program? Turn your dial to YouTube, and check out the new channel from the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) in Los Angeles, called MOCA TV. Part of YouTube’s original programming initiative, MOCA TV is the first contemporary art and culture channel in the programming. It will be “aggregating, curating and generating the strongest artistic content from around the world” according to MOCA TV Channel Executive Jeffrey Deitch. MOCA TV original programming will feature global art news, art and music, art and fashion, artists in the studio (think MTV “Cribs” style), and aforementioned educational pieces in a series called “MOCA Univerisity”.

Deitch referred to MOCA TV as “the ultimate digital extension of the museum”, which has us curious about this growing digitization of art museums. The Walker Art Center’s new magazine-style website, increasingly sophisticated web exhibitions around the world, and MOCA TV point to general embrace of modern technologies.

MOCA TV has a July 2012 release date, so we have a while before we start streaming any shows. Shepard Fairey’s design studio is doing the graphic identity and an extensive social networking campaign promises MOCA TV will be cool and on point with tech-savvy Millennials. In the mean time, what original arts programming do you like to enjoy on YouTube?

Pinterest, Instagram, and Percolate: The Latest in Social Media

Today’s social media networks are engaging in covert retrospection. Even as the world preoccupies itself with its future, social media platforms are becoming uncannily reminiscent of the past. Twitter is the modern day telegram, Facebook the diary that is no longer hidden, and recently, there has been a flurry of activity on Pinterest and Instagram, both of which are equally retro savvy.

A board where you can pin up your favorite ideas and images. A lens that lets you transport your photos back to 1977. Yes, Pinterest and Instagram are definitely retrograde in their outlook, and more importantly, incredibly popular. In fact, so many have taken an interest in Pinterest that last year it was “one of the top ten most visited social networks.” Hence, a host of organizations have begun to use these networks to visually engage with their readers, customers, or audiences.

Pinterest is a virtual pin board where you can “organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web.” Users can categorize their interests into boards and subsequently build on that interest through pinning up images that inspire or appeal to them. Moreover, each pin can be re-pinned, liked, and commented on, leading to the creation of a social dialogue.

Recently, there was an informative article in Outspoken Media about how to effectively use Pinterest.  In her article, the author mentioned that while it is against the Pinterest’s etiquette to use the site for self-promotion, brands could nevertheless use it to narrate their own story, rather than the story of what they sell.

“Pinterest works best when brands show customers what’s going on below the surface. When they allow consumers to see the spirit of their brand by showing them not what they do, but why they do it – what inspires them, what moves them, what the company culture is based on. They do that all through topic-specific boards.”

Given the entirely visual motivations of Pinterest, it’s striking that not many arts organizations are on the site. There is even a whole category of pins under Art! If your organization’s mission, vision, passions, and inspirations can be conveyed visually, then you may want to check whether Pinterest is hiding behind more significant pins (Facebook, Twitter) on your social media brown board.

While Pinterest is teeming with inspiring and beautiful pictures, the social media app Instagram, may just be the source of those pictures. Instagram is an app that lets you filter your images in a variety of styles, which can then be uploaded to the Instagram site and shared with other users. The filters, which are remarkably, aesthetically attuned, have probably redeemed many a picture from the depths of Dante’s photographic inferno, (if one were to exist).

And for an app that is used, even by the President of America, for politically strategic if not aesthetic reasons, Instagram has certainly gained a lot of momentum. Arts organizations can use the app for sprucing up images they’d like to share and publish them on a wide variety of sites, including Instagram itself. The app can also work as a marketing tool and was recently employed by Tiffany & Co in their ad campaign titled What Makes Love True.

Finally, if the muse of social media content generation has marooned you on the island of blankness, Percolate is here to help. Percolate helps brands generate content through the process of online curation.  As stated on their website, “Percolate bubbles up interesting content from around the web and presents it back to a brand editor to add a comment and publish back out to social channels and websites.” As of now, the site is invite only, but brands can get in touch and learn more about the dissipation of social media content on their website.

So before you despair at the idea of building yet another social media platform, wait a while. Let the possibilities that these sites open up... percolate.

Are you really my friend? The Facebook Portrait Project

I went to elementary school with her- confirm request. He is the son of my mom’s friend from work- confirm request. She’s a friend of a friend that also likes Amos Lee, Portland, Maine and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, but we’ve never actually met- confirm request. The word “friend” is now synonymous with Facebook and its meaning has been redefined to incorporate relationships formed as loosely as in the situations above. Regardless of how intimate your real world relationships are with your newest virtual “friends,” they receive the same amount of information and become privy to the innermost private details of your life through your Facebook activity, statuses and photos.

Yes, you can “poke” others on Facebook, but Maine photographer Tanja Alexia Hollander, has discovered through her own Facebook friendship odyssey that Facebook cannot replace human interactions

Social media has become a fundamental part of our society in the 21st century. Its convenience allows us to instantaneously communicate and share a level of intimacy with those we know well and many we don’t know at all. Despite its presence in our lives today, social networks cannot replicate human interaction. It is arguable, however, that the online environments we’ve created and the resulting reduction of human interaction have an impact on our relationships.

Since the beginning of 2011, Hollander has embarked on a journey to meet (some for the first time) and photograph all 626 of her Facebook friends, traveling across the state, country and world to reach them in their most intimate and private space: their home. Hollander’s photographic and personal journey grew into the project and upcoming exhibit “Are you really my friend? The Facebook portrait project.”

More than just an exploration of virtual social networks and humans’ dual existence in a cyber space and physical, real world space, Hollander’s project and exhibition explores the evolution and modern-day role of formal portraiture, the meaning of home and the future of human interactions and American culture in an increasingly virtual world.

My project is an exploration of friendships, the effects of social networks and the intimate places we call home. Facebook seemed an ideal forum for this exploration. Though we are in the initial stages of understanding the effects of social networking on American culture and photography there is a pervasive feeling that it is changing our interactions with each other and building a false sense of community.

But do not misinterpret Hollander’s project or exhibition- she is neither defaming Facebook nor purging herself of it upon completion of the project. Quite the contrary, actually. As a result of visiting with and photographing each of her friends, Hollander discovered they do in fact pay close attention to her life online and wanted to follow up about what they saw or read. To Hollander, this gave greater merit and value to the relationships she maintains via Facebook and lessened the gap she was questioned between our simultaneous existence in cyber space and the real world.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Hollander before the holidays as she approached the final stages of preparing for the exhibition. Since her project has received wide coverage and media attention, I wanted to discuss Hollander’s relationship with social media as co-founder of the self-serving, fine arts photography studio, the Bakery Photographic Collective in Westbrook, Maine. As a manager and artist, Hollander is in the unique position of successfully managing the studio and doing so with a great sensitivity and passion for the arts.

Hollander is admittedly still overwhelmed by the possibilities, perks and opportunities of blogging and social media, though she now considers herself a Facebook expert (and if you have been following Hollander, the project's Facebook page and photographs, you would most definitely agree).

I asked Hollander specifically about the use of Facebook as both an artist and co-manager of the Bakery Photographic Collective

Now I’m obsessed with it. I’m learning as I go. It has been a process of realization of the perks Facebook offers. It has created an audience. Facebook is really important for an artist promoting their own work. In this down economy, artists can’t rely on galleries for sales- that model is shifting.

Hollander plans to turn her Facebook love loose on the Bakery Photographic Collective’s page once preparations for her February exhibit are complete. For Hollander, Facebook has helped her maintain 626 “friendships,” locate each person geographically and most impressively, create a virtual exhibit to complement her real world exhibit at the museum, as each of her photographed friends were asked to upload their portrait as their Profile Picture.

What started out as a personal documentary on friendship and environmental portraiture has turned into an exploration of American culture, relationships, generosity & compassion, family structure, community building, storytelling, meal sharing, our relationship to technology & travel in the 21st century, social networking, memory, and the history of the portrait.

The possibilities of Web 2.0 for artists as creators and managers promoting their work are endless- Hollander says

I am able to post work as I make it, have a dialogue with a global audience, and market - in one location.

Hollander's exhibit opens February 4th at the Portland Museum of Art in Maine.

(Photo Credit: Tanja Alexia Hollander)

SOPA and PIPA - Fighting online piracy or stopping innovation? Open source alternatives to common utilities.

This Wednesday, 1/18/2012, Wikipedia, Reddit , and Boing Boing will go dark in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act that is being considered in US House and the Protect Intellectual Property Act in the US Senate.  These protesters are asking for the US public to call or write to their elected officials regarding the proposed legislation.   Bloggers in this forum have taken a stance against limiting open source and net neutrality in the past and these two bills pose no less of a threat to the innovative culture that is open source.

Although there has been a healthy open source community for decades, legislation like SOPA or PIPA would exclude open source software opportunities to developers in the US if passed.  These bills would essentially lock down portions of the internet to users in the US by creating a federally kept blacklist of internet sites that internet service providers would in turn prevent from being served to their US customers.  This would prevent the US public from accessing the steady stream of free content from the open source community that has been continuously redefining the online world for decades.

Open source has been the frontier of technological innovation for decades and by passing this legislation the US Congress will simply ensure that the next Facebook, Google, or Amazon simply never get off the ground from US soil.  In celebration of Open Source a list has been compiled with some great open source alternatives to common commercial software packages that can be downloaded for free:

1)  OpenOffice:  Similar functionality to MS Suite with modules for word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentation and drawing

2) Dia:  Produces charts and flowcharts like MS Visio.

3) WordPress and Joomla:  WYSIWYG web page builders that compare favorably with aspects of Adobe Dreamweaver.

4) paint.net:  An image editing program with much of the some of the same functionalityof Photoshop.

5) Pidgin:  A messaging aggregator, useful in communicating with all the disparate messaging programs out there.

*) Foxit:  A pdf reader that won't bog down your system and won't update every six hours like Adobe Acrobat does.

All things 2.0: Web, Museum and Photo

Before I introduce Maine artist Tanja Hollander in a soon-to-be-published post, take a look at these persuasive and content-rich lectures addressing certain topics of Hollander's project Are You Really My Friend?: the impact, opportunities and shortcomings of web 2.0 for artists, museums, cultural institutions and art venues. Not sure what exactly Web 2.0 is or how museums can best use it? Start here, with Nina Simon’s informative and practical explanation of what it is, what it is not and how the museum exhibition can be used as platform for user generated content. Additionally,  the video allows viewers like you to leave voice comments following the presentation.

I believe that museums have the potential to undergo a similar (r)evolution as that on the web, to transform from static content authorities to dynamic platforms for content generation and sharing. I believe that visitors can become users, and museums central to social interactions.

If you are well-versed and comfortable with Web 2.0, Andy Adam’s lecture explores the many possibilities for photographers through Photo 2.0 and the role of Photo 2.0 in redefining photography as a medium.

Photo 2.0 – Online Photographic Thinking / SPE Conference at Light Work from Light Work on Vimeo.

Stay tuned for next week's blog featuring Hollander and her upcoming exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art in Maine which celebrates, challenges and responds to the future of a Web 2.0 society.

The Website Exhibition: Old and New

Open, explore, type to enter, and browse; ever notice how the Internet's functioning, even jargon, is quite similar to that of a museum, where websites appropriate the role of continuously changing exhibits. Moreover, with the Internet steadily acquiring a past, websites have become historical databases and locations where this past continues to surface, as long as it is deemed relevant by Google or Bing. In the art world, knowingly or unknowingly, this phenomenon of virtual longevity has led to the rise of online exhibitions, where the artworks never have to be shipped, mounted, dismantled, and sheepishly monitored by security guards.

SPACE

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One of the best online exhibitions was created in lieu of the Monet exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris in late 2010. For the virtual component, the exhibition designers were faced with a both a challenge and an opportunity; how could they affect a lasting impression on the viewers through the artworks of one of the most ubiquitous artists of Impressionism? How could they ask viewers to look past the commercialization of Monet? (You can buy impressionist laptop sleeves and coffee mugs).

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The answer lay in the development of a virtual exhibition component that reminded us that the brilliance of Monet cannot ever become part of the everyday vernacular. The exhibition takes us on a journey through an impressionistic world set against the backdrop of a canvas. In this journey, which begins with the spill of Monet’s inkwell, we travel through the medium of color as it makes it’s way across a virtual albeit realistic canvas. A series of gradual and beautiful spreads of color transform before our eyes into changing land/city-scapes , where we see ink-cloud shaped sections of Monet's paintings.

SPACE

Moreover, playing in the background and transporting us to another era, is a wonderful piece by Debussy. Thus, as we glide from from one image to the next, we are given a chance to view not an impressionist painting, but an entire impressionist world! And all along the way we are encouraged to take part through a series of interactive sections, some of which involve waving and even blowing air into our microphones!

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If impressionist artwork of the 19th century can be so wonderfully exhibited online, surely there are contemporary art mediums that can be displayed within the virtual bounds of a website. Maybe digital and new media art, which requires digital space, not wall space. This is where Art Micro-Patronage comes in, digitally.

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Art Micro-Patronage is an experimental online exhibition space featuring monthly curated shows of digital, new media, and intermedia work. As visitors navigate through the exhibitions, they are encouraged to become micro-patrons of the arts, associating their appreciation of the works with small monetary values.

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In Art Micro-Patronage, a visitor can navigate through a series of artworks, all of which have been adapted to the website format. Their current exhibit is titled Dériving An Imaginary City: Virtual Psychogeographies, which “looks at the use of digital tools in mapping the interplay between psychological states and urban environments.” The exhibition was surprisingly easy to follow and some of the artworks were truly interactive, while others were video exhibits displayed via YouTube or Vimeo.

SPace

A nice twist to Art Micro-Patronage is that instead of simply liking an artwork, viewers can become micro-patrons by pledging a small sum of money (.50 cents to 20 dollars) to a particular artwork. The use of crowd-funding to support an artist is not entirely novel but Art Micro-Patronage removes the intermediaries. Moreover, viewers may be more likely to pay for completed project rather than one that is still in the conception phase. Yet, the figure for the amount of money pledged to the exhibition is not exactly stellar: $83 dollars. In due time, perhaps teems of micro-patrons will be able to make difference at the macro level. Nevertheless, Art Micro-Patronage has some intriguing exhibitions planned for the upcoming year!

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In both the Monet and the Art Micro-Patronage exhibitions, the website exhibition format was employed in a manner that enhanced a visitor’s interaction with the artwork. While the Monet exhibition used the virtual aspect to draw visitors and facilitate interaction, Art Micro-Patronage is simply using the medium of the artwork to display the artwork! And as the Monet exhibition continues to exist beyond the physical, tangible exhibition, it has become encased in the museum that is the World Wide Web, while Art-Micro Patronage is the latest gallery that raises money through the very act of a visitor opening, exploring, entering and browsing their space.