Mobile Giving, Where is it now?

Natural disasters gave rise to the phenomena of donating money via text message to causes but where is Mobile Giving today?  Now that this technology is several years old it deserves review of efficacy as well as analysis of best practices in the field.  Mobile giving may be the province of national campaigns for the most part but there are some notable successes with regards to using this technology for regional or local campaigns.

The growth of the mobile market is well documented as is the growth of the smart phone market.  Some recent surveys indicate that over 95% of Americans have mobile phones and that over half of those mobile phones are smart phones.  Likewise the mobile giving market has fleshed out in the the last three years as there are dozens of vendors for this technology offering services for a variety of different types of clients.  Choosing a vendor can make the difference on the margin of the campaign but more to the point the way that you build your strategy around mobile giving can have an even greater impact.

Mobile giving vendors can take a hefty chunk of the income from any given donation.  Other vendors such as the Mobile Giving Foundation remit 100% of a donation to the non-profit to which it is intended within 30 days but require an application service partner to complete the interface with your donors (costing $90-400/month plus per transaction fees) and won't do business with you if you filed a 990 showing less than half a million dollar gross revenue.

Mobile giving seems to be most effective under the media spotlight.  It helps harness the free marketing of celebrity or press attention into a real action that can be taken by a patron or concerned community member.  The immediacy of the mobile medium allows a community to rally around a crisis quicker than any other avenue and as such makes it much easier to make spontaneous action.

Relatively new developments in mobile giving include higher maximum giving amounts, mobile bar-codes (aka QR codes), and application development for smart phones.  Every year more vendors become available for mobile giving which is driving down economic costs and driving better feature development.  One could extrapolate that before long it will become worthwhile even smaller arts organizations to use this tool as part of development strategies.

Artistic Inspiration and the Fall of Kodak

A new exhibit in our nation’s capitol is as breathtaking in its quality as it is in its simplicity: seven world renowned artists offering up private photographs of their daily lives and sharing them with the world, alongside beautiful works of art. The uniqueness of the exhibit, however, lies in its inspiration. Kodak, the company loved around the world for its handheld cameras and impact on the lives of artists everywhere, serves as the inspiration for the exhibit, as all of the photographs taken are from simple Kodak handheld cameras. Given recent events, however, the inspiration is bittersweet: having recently declared for bankruptcy, and fear of liquidation rampant, artists everywhere face the reality of a world without the company that inspired so many of them to take their first photograph.

The exhibition, Snapshot: Painters and Photography, Bonnard to Vuillard, opened this past Sunday and continues until May 6th at The Phillips Collection Museum in Washington, D.C. Organized in conjunction with the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the exhibit features the work of seven dynamic artists: Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Edouard Vuillard, Felix Vallotton, George Hendrick Breitner, Henri Evenepoel and Henri Riviere.

The idea behind the exhibit is simple: taking their cue from the inspiration of the Kodak handheld camera, first introduced in 1888, all seven artists experimented with the simple device and provided images that captured their daily lives and the world around them. All seven artists captured images of beauty and resonance, and all together compiled over 200 photographs for the exhibit. The artists as a team took over 10,000 photographs with their trusty Kodak cameras, and the great thing about the exhibit is that most of the photos are unpublished and never seen before in public. Most of the images were meant to remain private, and instead of keeping them in their personal collections, the artists have decided to share them with the world.

One of the nice things about the exhibit is how some of the photographs in the collection served as inspirations for later paintings. You can see, side by side, the original photographs next to the paintings. The other parts of the exhibit feature over 70 paintings, drawings and prints from the artists.

The larger point here, at least for me, is how this relates to the recent news of Kodak’s bankruptcy. As reported by the New York Times and others, Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy last month, with many in the business world predicting that liquidation may be in its future. Founded over 131 years ago, Kodak has struggled to remain competitive in today’s technological environment, with more and more photographers going digital and leaving the company’s tried and true 35mm cameras behind.

Kodak is not the first company to struggle in the face of new technologies, and it certainly will not be the last. But as it relates to the arts and technology as a whole, this case takes on additional meaning. So many artists and photographers first fell in love with cameras and taking photographs because of Kodak and their simple 35mm cameras. In the age when film was king, Kodak had a near monopoly on the 35mm business, with competition from Fuji in recent decades. Kodak’s efforts were responsible for creating millions of artists and some of the images that have resonated with us for decades.

Kodak’s lessened stature may not have been noticed by many over the past ten years, as digital cameras have boomed and consumers have been more concerned with LCD screen size and optical zoom size instead of remembering what kind of film to buy. But for anyone who has ever bought a Kodak handheld and been introduced to the wonderful world of photography, it stings a little bit.

Even as Kodak sought to expand its portfolio over the past decade, knowing that this moment was going to come, it could still count on people seeking that old fashioned thrill of the disposable camera. But as more and more people turned to digital, and the company failed to do well enough in the other fields it has ventured into in recent years, including printers and digital cameras, it was only a matter of time until the company was in danger of folding.

I still remember taking pictures with a Kodak handheld when I was a kid, eagerly joining my mother as we went to the store to develop pictures of our family vacations. When I worked in retail in high school and college, I worked with Kodak vendors who introduced us to their latest 35mm and digital cameras. I had friends who worked for Kodak, both at their main offices in Rochester and as field representatives.

So as it relates to the exhibit in Washington, it’s refreshing to see a new exhibit that seeks to capture the joy of artists taking simple pictures with their trusty Kodak handhelds. Even as technology changes, ultimately for the better, a nod to the photograph’s past is especially appreciated.

The beauty of technology is that current and future generations will find inspiration from the arts in new and exciting ways. Digital cameras are becoming extremely affordable and are allowing more and more people to experience the joy of photography. Online editing tools are allowing people the tools to create beautiful, dynamic images at resolutions as large as their imaginations.

Twenty or thirty years from now, will museum exhibits look back on the era of our current technology, digital cameras, as society leaves them behind for something else? It’s too soon to tell, but we do know one thing: the beauty and joy of photography will continue to entertain and capture the imaginations of people of every age and background. As we move forward in an era of exciting technological breakthroughs and products, it’s a shame that a company like Kodak may not be around to enjoy it.

(Photo: courtesy of the Phillips Collection)

TechSoup launches Annual Digital Storytelling contest!

Whether they know it or not, every organization has a story to tell. But sometimes, it just so happens that this story is lost amid the frenetic activities of day-to-day work, and soon finds itself sitting quietly in the old forgotten folder of organizational history. Well, the month of February is the time to retrieve that story and subject it to some digital editing. This is because TechSoup, an organization that enables non profits to achieve their mission through technological solutions, has decided that some stories are best told digitally!

Recently, TechSoup launched its Annual Digital Storytelling contest which, “combines professional instruction and friendly competition into a hands-on media-making project.” Over the month of February,“TechSoup Global will host a series of interactive events including Twitter Chats, live webinars, and trainings designed to help nonprofits produce a one-minute video or five-picture Flickr slideshow that tells the story of its organization.” Yes, a minute or five pictures is all you have!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccCwQeAo4l4

TechSoup will accept submissions through February 29th, and in March, a panel of judges will select the organizations with the very best videos and “take their digital storytelling to the next level.” Another interesting and fun aspect is the Audience Choice Award, where “winning and notable submissions will be screened in San Francisco and live-streamed online through SecondLife as a special “red carpet” event on March 28, 2012.”

TechSoup’s competition is beneficial to not-for-profit organizations because stories are one of the most engaging ways to raise awareness and gather support. If an organization has a compelling story, people will listen. Better yet, if an organization can narrate it digitally, people will not only listen but they will also share it! And if the vast and ever expanding YouTube community is pleased, it might just go viral!

So non profits, make haste! You have a month and at most, a minute!

Connecting to Art with ArtClix

Mobile applications have become the new way to increase interaction between museum visitors and the art hanging on the walls. The High Museum of Art in Atlanta joins this trend with their new mobile app, ArtClix. Produced by Second Story, ArtClix was designed for the High’s modern art exhibition (from the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York), “Picasso to Warhol” which runs through April 29^th of this year. ArtClix is flexible, however, and content can be updated for future exhibitions.

Check out this video on ArtClix from Second Story on Vimeo:

Much like The Warhol: Art app, ArtClix allows users to unlock new details about the works of art, including curatorial details for art buffs. ArtClix also has tools to allow users to share the piece to their friends on Twitter, Facebook, or email, similar to MoMA’s Talk to Me app.

Then ArtClix gets really cool, employing image recognition technology to allow users to do all this with just a photo of the image, just like Google Goggles at the Met. Users don’t have to be in the museum to enjoy the app, I downloaded it my Droid and played around. Lots of great artworks with little blurbs on each. What really fascinated me was the “Add Your Voice” feature to each work, allowing every user to post a comment on the work. This creates a community within the application, and a unique opportunity for discussion, as opposed to showing your friends on Facebook and receiving their feedback. The potential of interacting with users you may never meet is fascinating to me, and shows the global possibilities of mobile applications .

Image recognition technology could be the future of how every smart phone user attends a museum, and it will be an interesting trend to watch. In the mean time, ArtClix is ahead of the game, and a great addition to the High’s modern art exhibition.

Art Hack Day: A Codification of Coolness!

This past weekend, a warehouse in Brooklyn was home to a 48 hour marathon of technologically derived artistic activity. The two day-long event, titled Art Hack Day, was organized by 319 Scholes, an organization that “supports digital arts and experimentation through exhibitions, lectures, panels, participatory workshops, and live performances.” Art Hack Day’s participants were a contrasting group of “hackers whose medium is art and artists whose medium is technology.”

Notwithstanding the title and the foreboding logo of an animated axe, the event was in fact “dedicated to cracking open the process of art-making, with special reverence toward open-source technologies.” And reverential is all that we can remain, because whether we know it or not, we use open-source technologies such as Mozilla Firefox or the Android operating software on a daily basis. Under the grim and inclement climate of SOPA and PIPA, it would be remiss of us to overlook an event that celebrates open-source through digital creativity and art.

Each project undertaken at Art Hack Day was accompanied by a Twitter hashtag, where online viewers could converse with the artists and hackers. Even though the “part-happening, part-hackathon” event is over, the projects can still be viewed online, though the information provided is brief and leaves one wanting to know more. But in all the fairness of open-source, they did provide a live streaming tour of the event last Saturday.

Anyhow, the results of Art Hack Day range from the quirky to the technologically cool! For instance, there is a project titled Bot Zoo, which is essentially a humorous and sarcastic portrayal of spam bots. While malicious bots are those ridiculous advertisements on the web that entice you with equally ridiculous offers (free iPads), the project portrays them as “‘rare, gentle creatures” that “don’t want to hurt us.” Harmless bots aside, if you were tired of surfing the net, why not dive in and start swimming?

Titled SwimBrowser, the project applies Kinect’s ability to recognize body movements, specifically arm motion, in the navigation of the web. In this aquatic browser, you zoom in by swimming forwards, zoom out by reversing the motion of your arms. Moreover, you can also scroll, click, and open up new tabs through a host of  intuitive arm movements. Flailing your arms around has never been more fun!  But be sure to build up stamina because with SwimBrowser, getting tired of browsing the Internet is no longer in the sea of figurative language.

http://vimeo.com/20255369

The project won the 2011 OpenNI Developer Challenge and its developer, David Solarsky even gave a talk about SwimBrowser at CMU last October for Art+Code 3D.

For those who would like a hand at storytelling, there is Story Wheel, a site where you can narrate stories using Instagram pictures and SoundCloud recordings. Another captivating project is OneHolePunch, "an iphone app that collects circles from your environment and keeps them in your pocket." And the codification of coolness doesn’t stop here. 

Take, for instance, Skippable Rope, a virtual skipping rope created out of a pair iPhones that will have you jumping for joy, at least until you get tired or fall out of sync. Or Bike-in Movie, where the movie speeds up as you speed up on your stationery bike! Star Wars fans might want to take a look at Star Wars Uncut GIFs, which is a collection GIFs made from crowdsourced 15 second reproductions of the Star Wars movie, and finally, a project named Aliens That Look Like Skrillex. Yes, Aliens That Look Like Skrillex. In all, there were 35 projects, all of which are worth exploring, because they will leave you in a state of, to quote Eddie Izzard, "techno-joy!"

So if the world of hacking is as alien to you as aliens that look like skrillex, the projects showcased on Art Hack Day are a neat way to begin familiarizing yourself with what open source technologies can achieve in the field of digital and experimental 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!

The Rise of Online Philanthropic Contests

Over the past couple of years or so there has been a steady rise in the phenomena of competitive voting contests for not for profit organizations to receive grants for projects or operations.  These contests are run by large corporations as well as not for profit groups.  Examples of corporate contests take different shapes such as Pepsi's with the Pepsi Refresh Project which gives grants ranging from $5k to $50k based on competitive community voting toChase Community Giving which touts donations over $600 million dollars through Facebook contests.  The National Trust for Historic Preservation has similarly put contests into place by granting to various historic restoration projects based on the number of votes they receive online.

Whether these contests sit well with critic's ethical concerns or not, the volume of web traffic generated for the recipients, the donor organizations, and the organizations who compete but do not win is remarkable.  According to Pepsi, the most recent contest in the fall of 2011 garnered more than half a million distinct registrations with over 3.5 million votes counted on the Pepsi site alone.  If you aggregate this number with all of the site visits, social network hits, and emails then you have a truly noteworthy phenomena.

Why are people so invigorated by these contests?  There are less time intensive ways to earn money in aggregate.  One can point to the idea that the contest is a game and the competition itself is what people are engaging in more than the philanthropic cause.  It could also be argued that the community effort of building a team to go online and vote for the cause for multiple days has an intrinsic value as well and that by the simple act of building this team you are building and drawing constituents deeper into the arts community.

As these online contest continue even more organizations are starting to do them. The Humane Society recently used a online photo contest to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Case Foundation has been running a voter based contest for years, and American Express has also run contests in the past.

The following are some tips that have been gleaned from articles and criticism of various contests mentioned previously:

1)  Make sure that the contest aligns with your mission.  By diverting resources for a potential pie in the sky pot of money you can detract from your organization's true work.

2)  Ask what your organization can gain from competing for these pots of money?  Set forward goals of community building and identify volunteers to assist with these aims.

3)  If you are going to market this to your patrons identify your budget for staff time and delegate a reasonably proportional amount of money to pursue getting the word out.

4)  Don't start mid-steam.  Almost all winners of these contests have strong starts and once you are behind in the voting it is hard to keep up.  If you see a contest in progress that you would have liked to take part in simply put it on your calendar for an effort next year as your opportunity may all ready have passed.

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.

In Case You Missed It - January 2012

Almost a month in to 2012, and we have had some great articles here at Technology in the Arts. Let’s take a look back at our strong start to the new year as this January comes to a close.

Social media was on the forefront of the minds here, as we covered Pinterest, Percolate, and Instagram but all that social media had us wondering: are you really my friend? We also take our gaming very seriously, and this month the Lourve picked up some cool new toys from Nintendo.

Policy in art dominated the news, and we took a look at SOPA and PIPA  as well as challenges facing public works of art. Of course, none of those cities fell on the list of the top ten most artistic cities in the country – where does your city rank?

All in all, we really enjoyed the beginning of 2012. What was your favorite tech and arts story this month?

New in Sight and Touch: Google Goggles at Met, Renaissance Statuettes at Walters Art Museum

There comes a time in life when you must reach into your pocket, and put on your Google Goggles. This moment often occurs when you see something of interest but are at a loss to search for it; a nameless building in San Francisco that you know is iconic but you’re not sure why, a sculpture in Rome that you are unable to identify since it’s outside of the confines of a museum. In these brief but intense moments of intellectual despair, Google Goggles can help steer you away from a lifetime of questioning.

Well, perhaps not a lifetime of questioning, but it can definitely put you on the fast track to your own personal aha! moment. Google Goggles is an app that uses image recognition software to provide information on objects, buildings, or artworks of interest and can be downloaded on Android phones as well as the iPhone. The app can serve multiple purposes (from recognizing wine labels to translating menus in Italian), but its ability to recognize artworks was one of the reasons that the Metropolitan Museum of Art itself decided to don a pair.

It’s safe to say that the Met was pleased with what it saw, because in collaboration with Google, the museum has made a mighty number of works, precisely 76,000 two-dimensional works of art, accessible on Google Goggles. The app will link to the Met’s website to give a user the information they desire about a particular artwork.

The Google Goggles app can help you see artworks both inside and outside the museum. Suppose you notice a particular work on a banner or in a magazine but, alas, your knowledge of art history is currently on vacation in Crete. Well, Google Goggles can help you locate it in a museum, such as the Met, and provide you with the information that had been eluding you. Or say you’re inside the museum but would like more context or history on a particular piece, Google Goggles can once again leave you much more knowledgeable. According to the Met, the need for Google Goggles may just arise out of the unrequited love between you and a seemingly unidentifiable piece of art (see video below).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC4d9e3M-x0

As you sharpen your vision of the Met’s collection with Google Goggles, an upcoming exhibition at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore is letting you experience its collection through touch! Titled Touch and the Enjoyment of Sculpture: Exploring the Appeal of Renaissance Statuettes, the exhibition “explores the implications of tactile perception for enjoying sculpture by melding the research of a Johns Hopkins University neuroscientist studying how the brain reacts to tactile stimuli and a Walters curator interested in the increased appreciation of tactility as an aspect of European Renaissance art.”

The exhibition will showcase 12 artworks along with 22 replicas, which visitors can actually hold in their very hands! Afterwards, visitors can reflect on this opportunity to not only see, but also sense an artwork, and “register their preferences through “touch pads”. The concept of tactility is one that I find interesting and had explored earlier in The Evolution of Touch. Coincidentally, the exhibition at the Walters Art Museum is attempting to gauge whether the draw towards hand-held technologies has its roots in the popularity of Renaissance statuettes, which were “objects apparently made to fit in the hand.”

While I viewed the iPhone or the iPad as our vehicles for tactile appreciation of two-dimensional artworks, the Walters Art Museum posits that our desire for hand-held technology has its roots in art appreciation during the 16th century. A touching twist, I’d say!

Nevertheless, the introduction of Google Goggles at the Met is yet another signal of how our sense of sight, even while viewing art, is supplemented by the devices we carry with us, whereas the exhibition at the Walters demonstrates that at times, we have to return to our art historical past to make sense of the technological present. And we should seize these opportunities to experience the past because, try as they may, the great bankers of 16th century Florence will never know the delight of the iPhone.

Cultivating a More Diverse Audience: The Future of Museums

A 2010 report published by the Center for the Future of Museums, an initiative of American Association of Museums, forecasts the changing face of the United States over the next four decades and the future of museums in light of an increasingly diverse population and “majority minority” society. The report, “Demographic Transformation and the Future of Museums” is a must-read for museum managers and administration- if only for the graphics and statistics projecting the upcoming drastic and rapid shift in demographics in the United States. A concise report, complete with graphics, a call to action, and a list of online resources for demographic information and socio-economic indicators, the American Association of Museums (AAM) analyzes the data on patterns of museum use and trends in societal growth to answer the questions

How will people use museums in the future? And which people will use them?

The forecasted demographic transformation directly affects the museum audience and museum professionals as today’s typical museum goer, a 45-54 year old non-Hispanic white adult, is no longer an accurate reflection of the American public.

Below is a summary of the report’s key findings, surprising statistics, focus group outcomes and suggestions on how to cultivate a diverse, museum audience that’s users reflect the diverse, 'majority minority' communities of America’s future.

Sometime between 2040 and 2050, depending on which projection model is employed, the current U.S. minority groups- African Americans, Latinos (of any race), Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and others, including those identify as multiracial- will collectively become the new majority in the United States. The proportion of non-Hispanic whites will fall below 50 percent for the first time since the country was founded.

The future of American society is one of “majority minority” in which disparate groups and minorities constitute the collective majority of the population. This compares to the data collected from 2008 on the racial and ethnic composition of the U.S. population in which, by both race and ethnicity, Whites and non-Hispanic whites, made up 74.3% and 84.9% of the population.

The AAM recognizes the imperfections of the monolithic and conventional categories of white, black, Hispanic, and Asian as more and more individuals seek a more multi-racial and ethnic option for classification.

While there are many factors affecting an individual’s decision to attend what the National Endowment for the Arts terms “benchmark arts” (attendance at musical plays, non-musical plays, jazz concerts, theater, opera, classical music performances, the ballet and visual art venues), such as distance, accessibility, cost of admission, income and education, the latter two are most often the major determinants of attendance.

Who has traditionally been the art museum user? And who will it be? While the percentage of the U.S. adult population visiting art museums/galleries declined by 4% between 1992 and 2008, non-Hispanic whites, ages 45-54, are the predominant attendees. Consider this graphic:

If the forecast for the next four decades is correct and the current pattern in museum attendance remains unchanged, art museums and galleries will not serve the majority of the American population. There are economic, cultural, historic, educational, scheduling and interpersonal barriers to entry that affect an individual’s decision and motivation to attend; however, these barriers must be broken in order to create a more inclusive and inviting museum experience for the future America.

What can be done to increase museum/gallery attendance among diverse groups and reduce the great ethnic and racial disparities in museum participation? It is up to the museum administrators, managers, marketers, developers, programmers, educators and front-line personnel.

Know your audience. All of them. Know your neighborhood and community. Read the newest research. Many Urban Studies institutes have published reports on why specific demographics do or do not attend museums or visual art venues. For example,

…studies suggest that African Americans are more likely to attend events characterized by black themes and in which blacks are well-represented among performers, staff and audience members. This has been dubbed the ‘FUBU test’ –for us, by us.

Further research indicates African Americans and Hispanics are

More likely than others to list the desire to ‘celebrate heritage’ and support a community organization’ as a reason to attend arts and cultural events.’

Studies specific to Hispanics found

Hispanics with lower education and income levels tend to seek cultural activities that engage extended families and promote family unity, as well as providing broadly defined educational activities for children

The report features six brief case studies on museums  that have studied the composition of their audience and considered what the future of their audience and community will be. In response to their analysis, museum administrators and managers have implemented unique education programs and outreach activities to address the needs of a growing diverse community. Additionally, youth focus groups have helped to identify what deters younger ages from attending museums and what they would like the museum experience to be- their candid answers are published in the report.

Perhaps the most telling graphic is this map of the United States indicating the metropolitan areas throughout the country in which non-Hispanic white children (defined as younger than 15) are now in the minority:

To quote the infamous Whitney Houston, "...the children are our future," and this map indicates just that- a future of great racial and ethnic diversity. As society's make-up changes, so must the institutions that serve it. Listen to the youth in the community. Not only will they be the future constituents of your museum but they also offer valuable insight as to what will get them to and through the door. And let's not forget the Millennials; a generation that cares more about a global community, participatory experiences (a la Nina Simon’s ‘participatory museum’) and engagement, than making distinctions of race and ethnicity.

As a result, their [Millennial] tastes and motivations may be previews of a future that is already taking shape. In this particular future, race and ethnicity may turn out to be less significant influences….What they [Millennials] want from museums are interactive, immersive, and participatory activities. They want to be more than outside observers looking in.

Still not sure how to address the Millennials' need for an interactive, engaging and participatory experience? Consider this standout suggestion for arts and museum managers: the report cites Jane McGonigal’s theory that museums should take a lesson or two from video games and game designers. Here’s what the report say

…museums can learn a lot from game designers, who know how to design attractive, even addictive experiences…unlike the best games, museums often fail to provide visitors with clear instructions or the feeling of having successfully accomplished something.

Looking forward, racial, ethnic and generational changes will require the museum to encourage new users to attend and to implement programming that is as varied as the community in which it exists. The future composition of the United States is vastly different from that of today. And if museums do not grow in reflection of the changing demographics and population, well, I will leave you with this graphic and you can decide what the future of museums in America will be…

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.

The Most Artistic City in America? The Answer Might Surprise You

Merely the question itself is bound to spark controversy: what is the most artistic city in America? It is a difficult question, and the answer is often hard to gauge. Just what do we mean by “artistic?” And how does one measure how “artistic” a city is? Cities across America will often claim their museums are better and more unique, their shows are of superior quality, and their artistic communities are thriving. But when it comes to actually quantitatively measuring how artistic a city actually is, the answers are few and far in between. Thankfully, two writers have sought to settle the debate once and for all: which city holds the crown as the most artistic city in America? The answer might surprise you.

Two months ago, Richard Florida of The Atlantic sought to find which American cities had the highest concentration of artists, along with which cities had the highest concentration relative to their overall population. The data that Florida used was derived from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), a handy site that offers a treasure trove of data about Americans’ professions, income levels, education, and much more.

Florida, and his colleague Kevin Stolarick of the Martin Prosperity Institute, looked specifically at the number of Americans that self-identified their profession in the field of “artists and related workers.” While this is not an exact measurement of all Americans working in the arts field (some artists will naturally label themselves in a different way, and others may not have participated in the survey), it provides a good measurement of how many Americans are employed and self-employed in the arts field today. The ACS found that about 237,000 Americans identified as “artists or related workers,” with the vast majority of these individuals living in cities or metropolitan areas.

There are a couple of ways to measure how “artistic” a city is, and if you just do an overall count of the number of self-proclaimed artists in a given city, naturally, the largest metropolitan areas in the country will populate the top of the list. Listed just by population, to little surprise, New York City tops the list, followed by Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle. The rest of the top 10 is comprised of other large cities/metropolitan areas known for their artistic communities: Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Orange County, California, and Dallas.

If we really wanted to be specific, however, we could take a look at which areas have the highest concentration of self-identified artists relative to their overall population. The ACS is capable of producing this data, by using what Florida describes as a “location quotient,” or LQ, that takes a ratio of an area’s proportion of artists and compares it to the national average. By using this metric, we can take a look at smaller cities that have disproportionately larger artistic communities that may be somewhat of a secret at the national level.

After running the data, some surprises leap out. While larger cities that were present in the original list re-appear here, some much smaller cities make the list as well. Here is the Top 10 list of self-identified artists in the United States, relative to their overall population, in order:

1. Santa Fe, New Mexico

2. San Francisco, California

3. New York City, New York

4. Los Angeles, California

5. Santa Cruz-Watsonville, California

6. Danbury, Connecticut

7. New Bedford, Massachusetts

8. Boulder-Longmont, Colorado

9. Barnstable-Yarmouth, Massachusetts

10. Jersey City, New Jersey

Santa Fe! Not only is Santa Fe at the top of this list, its LQ score is double the score of the #2 city, San Francisco. Some of the other cities on this list, most notably Boulder, are home to universities and have a high percentage of young people living there. Another point: every city on this list except for Santa Fe and Boulder are situated on either the West Coast or the East Coast.

Santa Fe has always been home to a vibrant and proud arts scene, albeit being unknown by most Americans. The state capital of New Mexico is very proud of its arts community, as artists provide an important economic engine for the town in this tough economy: the arts community as a whole provides more than $1 billion in revenues each year and supports more than 17% of all jobs in Santa Fe County.

Every city and metropolitan area across America can certainly make their claim about why their area deserves a spot on this list. While a city may not have a high percentage of self-identified artists, they can still point to unique works of art, groundbreaking museums, or even highly ranked arts schools. This is, after all, only one metric, and there are certainly other ways to measure how “artistic” a given city is. We here at Tech in the Arts would certainly vouch for our home base of Pittsburgh (home of Andy Warhol!), and I have a soft spot for my home town of Phoenix. But by strictly this metric, and information derived from the U.S. Census and the American Community Survey, Santa Fe takes the crown for now. With the amount of change and innovation taking place in the arts community these days, especially through the use of technology and social media, this list could be completely different five to ten years from now. And the more artists that are employed and working in all of these cities, the better it is for arts lovers like us everywhere.

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.

The Future of Cities, in Sculpture Form

As the resident policy nerd here at Tech in the Arts, few things excite me as much as infrastructure policy, especially as it relates to cities and how they will evolve and change in the years and decades to come. The “city of the future” concept has been around for as long as the republic itself, with the same questions often being asked: how will people live? What will our houses look like? And, perhaps most importantly, when will we get the flying car? Instead of futuristic fantasies that have little hope of implementation, I often favor the realistic side of things, and am drawn to concepts of future cities that incorporate existing technologies and the gradual improvements that we will no doubt see in our future metropolises. With mega cities becoming a larger part of the American psyche and gradually accounting for a higher and higher percentage of our nation’s population, the incentive to promote and showcase cities of the future has never been higher.

A new exhibit opened this past weekend in Los Angeles seeks to show what kind of city we may gradually evolve into. Metropolis II, by artist Chris Burden, currently on display Fridays and weekends at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is a living, breathing, working model of a futuristic city designed around transportation and infrastructure. Instead of a computer model or video game, this exhibit is a handmade, painstakingly detailed work of art that shows a city in action.

The scale of the exhibit is quite impressive. In total it is about 500 square feet and is about ten feet tall at its highest point. While there are no flying cars, there are actual miniature cars included in the exhibit, and lots of them: over the span of an hour, over 100,000 tiny cars whiz through the exhibit, speeding between buildings and skyscrapers. There are eighteen roadways handling all of these cars, including a 6-lane freeway. Trains are included as well, with tracks that loop through the exhibit; taken together; all of these cars and trains speeding through the exhibit at such breakneck speed produce a visual and audio experience unlike any other, as the viewer is able to experience the sights and sounds of a futuristic and thriving metropolis.

Designed and built over a span of five years, the exhibit is absolutely worth a look. Here’s a short film looking at the design and production of the sculpture:

http://youtu.be/YqSkRgySAEg

While some may prefer the futuristic futures of films like ‘Blade Runner,’ I enjoy the works of art that look at how cities will evolve and change in the short term. Faster cars, more drivers, taller buildings, denser neighborhoods; these are all characteristics of future cities that seem to be realistic in the short term. The great thing about Burden’s exhibit is how he takes modest changes to our current city structures, like more cars and expanded expressways, and is able to depict the frenzied and bustling future of our cities in a simple and straightforward way.

The exhibit is currently on display in Los Angeles, and if you are in the area, it is definitely worth a look. It may not appeal to futuristic film lovers, but for transportation and infrastructure policy nerds like myself, it is a reminder of why we are so interested in the futures of our wonderful and dynamic major cities.

(Photo credit: Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

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.

It's Game On At The Louvre!

This March, it’s game on in the world’s most visited museum, the Louvre. A delivery of 5000 Nintendo 3DS consoles shall be left at the footsteps of the museum in an effort to revamp its audio guides, which are currently used by a mere 4% of its total visitors.

Not much is known regarding the content or how the in-built 3D capabilities will be utilized but  Mashable reports that visitors will “have access to themed itineraries and commentaries, including child-appropriate ones, in seven languages.”  The content of the tour is being developed by Nintendo in collaboration with the Louvre, who will have editorial control.

With so much emphasis on the Tablet-Smartphone duumvirate, gaming consoles have certainly been overlooked. Even though certain games have surfaced, such as Tate Trumps, they have hitherto, been developed for the hand-held tour guide technology that triumphs; the iPhone, the Droid, the HTC, or the iPad.

Additionally, there has not been much innovation in the field of audio guide technology, and even the audio tours themselves are static because they are based on a one-way communication channel. Thus, the Nintendo 3DS does sound promising as an audio guide technology that can offer 3D visuals and maybe, some playfulness?

So now the question everybody would like to ask; will there be games, intellectually inclined games? Let’s hope so! Last year, Andre asked whether the arts can successfully have a game dynamic? In his article, he argued that games would help arts organizations “overcome certain aesthetic hurdles” and organizations should adopt games because of their “potential for growth.”

And growth there shall be. In fact, an article in the Economist states that “video games will be the fastest-growing and most exciting form of mass media over the coming decade.” Furthermore, the current figures for the gaming industry itself are astounding; “the global video game market was worth around $56 billion in 2010”, which is “ more than twice the size of the recorded-music industry, nearly a quarter more than the magazine business and about three-fifths the size of the film industry...” And this market is expected to reach sales of $82 billion by 2015!

Interestingly, the Economist also notes that the average age of players in America is 37, with 42% of them being female. With the incredible popularity of a bunch of angry birds and virtual farming, it's no surprise that the adult world surely likes to play every now and then. Yet playing on gaming consoles such as the Nintendo 3Ds falls in the domain of a somewhat younger demographic. So the Louvre’s new entry will certainly entice children to go whizzing about the museum, but what about the adults?

Maybe they will, for once, follow in the footsteps of their children. Maybe they won’t. Only March will tell. But one can’t deny that Nintendo consoles are certainly a fun way to begin the auditory odyssey towards art appreciation and knowledge of art history.

Meanwhile in the Louvre, behind her glass enclosure, and with onlookers abound, the Mona Lisa smiles. Gaming is her secret.