Posted in Internationalism, Presentism on 27. Feb, 2009
When the winter flees from migratory birds by Maf Räderscheidt
When the winter flees from migratory birds. Copyright Maf 09
A Tree at 4AM by Maja B. Hold cursor over thumbnail for artist explanation.
Poetry Pants by Cagney King
Beyond Swimmers by Stella Gassaway
Beyond Swimmers by Stella Gassaway. Hold cursor over thumbnail for artist explanation.
Posted in Individualism, Presentism on 27. Feb, 2009
I do this every Friday. I call out on twitter to artists of any kind to tell me what they are up to or what have just completed. Every Friday I am blown away.
If you want to take part in Art Friday, email pete(at)newcurator.com.
Trees with Mormon Temple, 2009, ©Jeff Gates
Mark Barry shows us what he’s working on.
www.markbarryportfolio.com
Mind of it’s own poem by Peter Cicceriello. (You have to see this in full)
Mind of it's own poem by Peter Cicceriello
Three works 2008 (youtube) by Andreas Templin
Posted in Individualism, Politics, Presentism on 26. Feb, 2009
Amy Fox (of @museumtweets) blogs about an email she received that is endemic of a real problem in museums today. After applying for a job at a local museum and not hearing anything, she decides to follow up with another email. This is what she got in reply.
I have received many applications. Yours was not given consideration because you do not have any significant length of employment (3 years or more) with any employer. Stability is very important to our organization.
[Museum director's electronic signature here]
There is one good thing here that I wish to get out the way first. The reason for rejection was (brutally) given. We asked for three years, you don’t have three years, that’s the breaks. I only point this out because of my hatred for rejection letters that say, “Thank you for you’re application. Unfortunately, we had many applications and you were not successful. Please try again.”
I’ve had many a fight about the need for proper feedback. You have to give reasons for rejection. Otherwise, what are you saying? “Sorry, but we chose people at random”? Without a reason, you look like a bunch of amateurs. Amy, in all fairness, did get a reason.
Unfortunately, the reason is absolute nonsense.
This is the lie about “experience”: That it matters at all. Three years experience, I hate to tell you this, isn’t much difference than one years experience repeated three times. Experience in normal conversation only matters when you reach double figures (i.e. I’ve been doing this for FIF-TEEN years).
This is the truth about “experience”: it’s a cheap HR trick to cull applicants and to make the job sound more important than it is.
Here is the contradiction about “experience”: This happens a lot with lower level positions. You offer an average wage, yet ask for several years of experience doing that job. This means the only people you will consider are those already doing that job somewhere else. Who in their right mind is going to make a massive sideways jump in their career? You want to to apply for a better job for feel you deserve rather than the same job in a different location? Right?
Which means, think about it, the people successfully applying (by definition, already doing this job) are those with stalling careers, and want to move because other people won’t promote them. Or were already fired. Ask yourself why that happened. I don’t see this as a stabilising factor.
Okay, okay, sometimes people do go sideways for changes of scenery/moving house etc. But I refuse to believe the entire industry is set up to cater for these people.
This is also part of a greater problem: the restrictions in place of this culture of hiring. New talent and creative thinkers are not able to get started in this industry. This is not about being a “competitive industry”. You know what industry is competitive? Oil. To come through the ranks of the oil industry, you have to be intelligent and ruthless. The oil industry therefore only hand picks the best graduates to train them up.
The museum/culture industry isn’t the oil industry. It’s not competitive. it’s “closed”. They are so slow to bring in new talent and so reluctant to get graduates in that this only spells disaster. You know what other industry is “closed”? Journalism. You could only become a journalist if you knew a journalist or were related to one, no matter where your journalism degree is from. Otherwise, you just make a living doing freelance. And look now, all the creative and innovative writers went and set up blogs or small start-ups just to keep writing and print media is hemorrhaging profits and readership.
Same thing with the nepotastic music industry, who are resorting to suing their own customer base.
Unless the museum/culture industry wants to suffer the same way, some serious reform is needed. Creative and innovative people aren’t the type to be sitting in an office for seven years. If someone like Amy Fox can’t get a job in a museum, then its a sad day for museums. Simple things like GIVING A PROPER REPONSE TO APPLICATIONS. Not only is it good manners, it will honestly help people to be better.
To the commentor who said they shouldn’t be giving personalised responses. YES THEY SHOULD. To all 75. Otherwise, don’t offer the job. If you can’t be bothered to reply to people who have given up their time to apply (probably after agonising days to get it right) then you don’t deserve to be in a position to offer it. Hell, I wouldn’t mind if this was all automated. You get a email receipt saying “Thank you, we got it” and if you’re rejected, an email saying “You were rejected because of:…” then you put the list of things to why off a checklist. It could run off a MySQL database just like I use to deal with spam on this blog. Check all, approve/delete.
Question time to all you museum professionals out there who read this: How did you get started? How did you get to be were you are now? I know a lot of students and grads who read this who are probably feeling worried by all the news of museum job cuts. Give them some advice/hope with your own stories and advice.
Posted in Museum Expansionism, Technology on 25. Feb, 2009
Thanks to Tyler Green for giving me the invite to ArtBabble.org, Indianapolis Museum of Art’s project.
On first impression, it seems like a re-skinned art channel on YouTube or Vimeo. Then you see that all the videos come directly from institutions (at the moment, IMA). In this 2.0 world, its good to see the user relegated to the role of viewer, but one who can comment and still have the social experience with other users. The creation of content is left to the professionals so everything is good rather than having to wade through rubbish to get to it .
The other thing is that it works. Yes, it’s still in beta (what isn’t?) so I imagine the categorisation will continue to be built, but the FLV player is just a delight compared to others. Skipping around is easy, sharing and embedding is easy, watching the video is just easy and therefore enjoyable. Creative Commons licensing, mp4 (iPod) downloads and transcripts make this very special. The design of the site is just so damn pretty. You get the idea this is a social-video site with the intention of a professional resource as well as expanding museums.
As I spend the rest of my evening watching things, I leave you with something I found: Hirokazu Kosaka’s Calligraphy Demonstration. Perfect viewing for an already hard week.
Babble On.
QUICK ADDITION: You can’t see it on the embedded video, but when watching the video on the ArtBabble, the video playback bar along the bottom has blue lines over it. At first, I thought this was for subtitles. I’ve just noticed that when the video moves over these blue lines, there’s a menu to the right that you can open up and be given more information. Like the above video has lots of pages that link to other calligraphy-related content, like collections, other videos, pictures of objects etc.
THAT’S DAMN CLEVER.
Posted in Presentism on 25. Feb, 2009
Selling copyright? Theoretically, all of her life’s work will belong to someone else if she doesn’t keep up repayments so it’s not quite the same as selling, but collateral is by definition a valued asset, possibly to be sold at auction.
With museum’s selling art or closing down or cutting back being very much in the news, how long before some enterprising museum will sell the copyright to an object/artwork but not the object itself? Part of the deal could be an indefinite license to use the copyright. The object isn’t sold, it stays in the museum. I imagine stricter anti-photography measures will be brought in though.
A company then could use a piece of art for their company logo or cover their product with the image etc.
I say it’s a matter of time.
Posted in Politics, Presentism on 25. Feb, 2009
Donn Zaretsky of the Art Law Blog has a quote from Hugh Davies, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (via Tyler Green’s Modern Art Notes):
“We museum directors can huff and puff about how once we bring these artworks into our collections that they no longer have value because they’ve been removed from the market, that they become this special trust that is the patrimony of our cities and that they’re held in trust for future generations. It’s B.S. We go on and sell them and the rule is the proceeds from the sale can only go to replenish the collection.”
Read the original article and the article that started it. It’s something I’ve not thought about before: loaning/renting objects to a commercial company who will make money off them.
But didn’t most museums start off as some venture for capitalists? Guggenheim? Rockefeller?
Posted in Internationalism, Politics, Presentism on 25. Feb, 2009
The New York Times has a brief article about the Metropolitan Museum of Art closing down seven more of its satellite shops. The plan is to concentrate on its online shop and mail-order catalog and to cut back on staff expenses. It seems the Met is using the current financial situation to really get themselves in order. This was announced by James R. Houghton, Chairman of the Met as well as a Director of Corning Inc. and Exxon Mobile. Business credentials are showing more and more in museums as efficiency is becoming a better answer than lay-offs.
This bring me onto this article by Chosun Ilbo columnist Kim Tae-ick about living in the age of the ”CEO Museum Director”. The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea has appointed ex-government minister and former CEO of Daewoo, Bae Soon-hoon as its director. The dropping attendance numbers means that they needed is for a business-minded, financially motivated director.
Museum directors these days must be management-oriented, sociable and business savvy with an international network of contacts. They must also be adept at gathering donations, in order to hold better exhibitions.
I’m intrigued by what Bae Soon-hoon’s idea of “tankism” in a museum would look like.
Posted in Individualism, Presentism on 24. Feb, 2009
Maybe I’ve been reading too much museumssuck.com and William’s ascerbic criticisms of terrible exhibition practices has really got me thinking (and laughing).
Time to start my own crusade and in the highest form of flattery, I’m stealing borrowing his “Desuckification Tips“.
I would like everyone to understand and accept the following rule:
Intentionally hiding information is not a substitute for interactivity or a “hands-on experience”.
I am, of course talking about a sin too many museums are committing: Flaps. Why? Why do you do this? It’s often done as some kind wall mount, where there are a series of flaps what some kind of inane question with the answer underneath. Or something like a picture of a badger on top of a pictures of what it eats. Sometimes, it could take the form of a large spinning wheel with a bit cut out, so whoever has to turn the thing to get told stuff.
I see no reason why this kind of exhibit design still exists in this day and age. I would understand if it was a method to get as much information as possible into one space (say, like a book) or an actual use for a flap (like a cupboard door) but it’s not. It’s just a way for museum’s to “appeal to children” by assuming everyone under the age of 12 must think the same. This really is preschool, isn’t it? Like a cheap pop-up book. Most kids nowadays have better mobile phones than ever, use computers and Xboxes and probably know a lot more than we do. Time to give them a little credit.
The idea of a simple flap, writing on top and writing underneath, is just a waste of space. It is just hiding information and creating an unnessecary task of lifting. It seems so pointless when actually analysed yet too many museums have them.
Posted in Museum Expansionism, Technology on 24. Feb, 2009
What I’d like to talk about is 5 reasons why Flickr is teh Roxxor for Museums and Art Conservators, plus 1 reason why it sucks.
Teh Roxxor!
1) The kayak restoration project at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
2) Have you met “hanneorla” and seen all the amazing artwork she looks at on her travels? I’m not only impressed by her beautiful images, and the fact that she seems to totally geek out on individual sculptures, but she also adds lots of meta data to each image she uploads. Take note. She’s doing it up right. And what she’s doing is basically documenting the condition of mostly outdoor sculpture. Imagine if someone would plug her into Wikipedia Loves Art. She’d win every competition at every museum! Check out her sets.
3) I don’t suppose I even have to list this one, but I will: The Commons
a) Everyone has their favorite stat from this report. Mine?
More than 500 Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) records have been enhanced with new information provided by the Flickr Community.
b) The Brooklyn Museum uses high res images of 19th century Egypt, and shows early documentation photography. I can still here one of my favorite art history professors reminding me the importance of photo documenting historic sites, because “you never know when it’s not going to be there anymore.”
4) I can compare the Hepworth at the IMA to one in Yorkshire, England. Now, where are the other 6 sculptures in this edition? Wouldn’t I like to know…
5) Go ahead and watch a cherry being removed from the spoon in Minneapolis.
The Reason Flickr Sucks
It’s owned by Yahoo! and it could be gone tomorrow and there’d be nothing we could do about it.
Richard McCoy is Assistant Conservator of Objects at Indianapolis Museum of Art
Posted in Individualism, Technology on 24. Feb, 2009
Buzzeum.com posts about the use of Bluetooth in the Palais de Toyko for the exhibition entitled Gakona (post is in French). Video or audio content relating to what you are standing next to in the exhibition is sent to your phone via Bluetooth.
Nice to see Bluecasting being used for something other than bluespam. Although this is another one of those technologies which is a few years old but is still considered “new” because of the limited application. Connecting phones to transfer files (normally ringtones), connecting phone-to-pc, connecting some kind of game or Bluecasting and that’s about it for uses. Personally, I turn Bluetooth on my phone once every two months because of the power drain. So I may be missing the point entirely.
What makes this exhibition innovative is the introduction of choice at the start. By holding your “Bluetooth enabled device” (I’m guessing phone) near a section of wall, you can choose what language and what kind of content you want. The system will remembers your preference as you walk around the exhibition.
What would be interesting would be the choice of difficulty levels. Say, “Children”, “Teens”, “Adults” and “Experts” so that the language and the style could be tailored to allow for more inclusive distribution of information. Children don’t get lost, adults don’t get bored and teens and “experts” don’t feel patronised. Of course, you’d still need a Bluetooth phone that can play the media files, so it may not be that inclusive.
Posted in Technology on 23. Feb, 2009
A small digest of what I’m reading today. All similar as they all involve technology in some way.
Posted in Technology on 23. Feb, 2009
The Creative Review blog has a post about Sony’s World’s Largest Zoetrope in Italy to show off their Bravia television. Built on a giant spinning ring, the televisions show a single image of Brazilian footballer Kaká that looks like he’s passing the ball to himself when the ring reaches 50kph.
This got me thinking: often museums want to introduce interactivity and movement into museum but dont have the resources or budget for any kind of technology, nor are they thrilled with the idea of the public actually using the objects.
So why not a zoetrope? Or even a flipbook? It’s the ultimate in low-tech interactivity to show something in motion. All you need in a camera, a printer and some craft skills. I remember dropping this idea in a meeting with a curator, an artist who had no budget and didn’t want the displays to be static considering the topic. She became quite excited by the idea. When I visited, the exhibition had little flipbooks on string that the kids seemed to love.
It must be the easiest answer to having to put something on without any extra money that adds a little flair and the chance for people to get their hands on something.
Just an idea I’d thought I would throw out there.
Posted in Individualism, Presentism on 23. Feb, 2009
Let’s ignore the “…and finally” tone of this BBC report about musicians making music inspired by a museum’s collection and focus on what the project is about.
The seven museums of the National Museum Wales invited bands from the local music scene to create a track for as part of the Music 09 programme of events. The report talks about the band Circa Regna Tonat’s track Atta that came about from the museum’s leaf-cutter ant colony, but so far two other bands have released songs. Pulco’s Caban draws from a magazine about a organisation of the local quarrymen. Little My’s track Panic at the Museum responds the the museum as a whole.
What the museum is involved in here is a conceptual album, released over time, free to download, on their website. Despite the BBC’s jokey language describing music about ants, the Respond project is in fact a very clever addition to the curatorial process, giving museum objects and collections a much greater depth of engagement.
“Not just for the oldies” indeed. I swear…
Posted in Individualism, Presentism on 20. Feb, 2009
Black Storm in the Bedroom by Patricia Freeman-Martin.
Black Storm in the Bedroom by Patrica Freeman-Martin
NO PHOTOS: 200 HUF in my pocket, 5300 HUF short by Seldon Yuan
NO PHOTOS: 200 HUF in my pocket, 5300 HUF short by Seldon Yuan
Graphite drawing by Victoria Trinder
Graphite drawing by Victoria Trinder
Coney Island Then and Now: May 2007 and February 2009 by An Xiao
Astroland Park by An Xiao
See everything truly amazing (thoughtography) by Nick Fortunato
Mirror by Barbara Levine
Posted in Design, Museum Expansionism, Presentism on 19. Feb, 2009
Empty shop: Cambridge UK by Prisoner 5413. Used under Creative Commons
72,000 retail outlets are predicted to close in the UK during 2009, but there are artists and curators who have taken the initiative of putting up artwork in these otherwise unused commercial properties, know as ”Slack Spaces”. The article mentions a group of artists who were “allowed” to put art into some shops in Margate. One of them is Emily Firmin (THAT Emily) who says the purpose of Slack Spaces is to not only to promote artists but to help the local economy.
“Rather than letting lots of pound shops appear, we are encouraging people to start up businesses. We know recessions are awful but can be a good time for artists as creative ideas start appearing while otherwise redundant people are sitting at home fiddling and doing creative stuff.”
Another empty shop in Sidcup High Street by davepatten. Used under Creative Commons
What better way to encourage economic stimulus than making sure commercial properties don’t fall into ruin and improving the image of the surrounding area?
I wonder what a slack space could be for the wider museum industry? One thought is part of a project’s community outreach, especially if a museum is outside the city centre. Or it could be temporary exhibition space for more of the collection to be on display, hopefully allowing some of the more crackpot objects museums tend to have in their storerooms. Hell, maybe even temporary storerooms where groups of volunteers can gather in a space to get stuck into a collection management project.
The way to really make this work would be a scheme set up by the local government to force work with property developers to make this happen. Very short-term minimal-or-no cost leases for creative and cultural purposes.
Posted in Internationalism, Politics on 19. Feb, 2009
It seems for every act of international relation that involves museums, be it Neil MacGregor acting as a cultural diplomat in Iran or the Beijing Palace Museum loaning artefacts to Taiwan to thaw out relations a bit (despite Taiwan National Palace Museum not returning the favour yet. Early days), there appears to be an equal nationalistic response. Sarkozy’s Museum of French History, for instance, which would probably include Sarkozy’s approach to foreign nationals. Gordon Brown’s idea for a Museum of “Britishness” may have been shelved, but the fact he came up with the idea is slightly baffling.
Now there’s the issue of museums becoming diplomatic problems between nations. Poland are criticising Germany over their plans for a “Museum of Expellees”. After World War II, borders were redrawn, and 12 million German nationals were displaced. But it seems the appointment of politian Erika Steinbach to lead the committee seems to be a major problem, with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying that Poland would never accept her in such a position.
Guys, guys, World War II was a big piece of history for the whole world. Museums are no longer in the trade of being utter propaganda machines or centres of historical revisionism. Twelve million PEOPLE having to move, probably great distances, probably into a different one culture and probably into a very different political system has to be an important part of history, right? Such a museum would be a centre documenting a massive shifts in Europe during a time of massive shifts. And since there are museums dedicate to almost everything, why must this become so politically divisive? I’m sure approaching delicate issues isn’t beyond a museum’s staff.
Let’s remember, there two sides to every war: Soldiers and non-combatants.
Posted in General on 18. Feb, 2009
100 posts in 49 days. I would like to take a moment for this small landmark achievement for me. Thank to all those who visit and commented and all those who follow me on twitter and retweet my stuff. Big shout out to Julia Kaganskiy (@juliaxguila) who seems to give me five more followers every time she mentions me. I would struggle if I knew nobody was reading this. Thanks to the guest posters who account for six out of the 100. Thank to all those who link to me, especially Nina Simon, who when she first mentioned me in her blog absolutely destroyed my bandwidth for the month.
In order to keep this post relevent, here’s some links I’ve been reading and from interesting today and can’t add any additional comments.
Posted in Technology on 18. Feb, 2009
I love finding these kind of videos and working out in my mind how to use them in museums. (Ignore the advert at the beginning)
This Wearable Computer Display from the students at the MIT Media Lab replaces the camera and view screen version with (from what I can tell) a backpack, a mini projector and coloured tape on your fingers so people can act out that Minority Report scene anywhere.
I like how this system can present information (Hell, Tom Cruise manages a 7 month long investigation in about 15 minutes using it) and there’s another video showing how it can work as pretty functional operating system. (Click on menu on the video above, it should be the first related video).
Only snag, it does seem to require a lot of blank wall space to work, something I imagine to be in short supply in museums. I’m also not sure I would want to be looking at a painting as another person scribbles over it. But a bit of redesign can you could be manipulating information all over the place inside a museum.
(Via Luke)
Posted in Museum Expansionism on 18. Feb, 2009
MOMA in Brooklyn by aolin. Used under Creative Commons.
The lines between museology and marketing will certainly blur in Museum Expansionism. If you took a museum exhibition out onto the street, you’d certainly want it branded to make people aware of who is behind it as well as promoting your museum. As museums explore further beyond their walls, what battlelines will be drawn?
This question comes from MoMA’s advertising campaign/exhibition in a Brooklyn subway station that’s pretty close to the Brooklyn Museum. They bought every single possible advert space and put either “MoMA” on it or a painting from the MoMA collection. The website is promoted at every opportunity, where you can download audio guides or watch the video tour, there’s also lots of attempts to get you to buy a membership package. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority call it a “station domination”.
Pacific Atlantic MOMA by David Overholt. Used Under Creative Commons
Both sides are being pretty diplomatic about it. Chief Communications Officer of MoMA, Kim Mitchell (notice, not a curator) calls it an experiment coming from a marketing advisory committee. Brooklyn Museum spokeswoman Sally Williams says “There’s room for us both.”
Nice words between people who probably all know each other. This is the cutthroat world of advertising, so will it last forever? Marketing departments may appear as slightly separate entities to the more central curatorial and conservation staff within museums. Yet they are increasingly able to draw upon museum collections in grander ways as Museum Expansionism becomes an increasing part of a museum’s mission.
It gets loads of great press. I’m not sure a subway station ever looked so good. I guess the public gets what the public wants.
Posted in Museum Expansionism, Presentism, Technology on 17. Feb, 2009
Tinker it now has a blog post that comes with this video explaining the intent: creating a software platform for museum to expand outside “kiosk interactivity”. This video uses an RFID tag, a wifi system and programs built for the iPhone.
I’m just imagining this idea linked to the previous video: a handheld that can act as information enhancement as well as exhibition controller.
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