Turn Up the Volume--Audio Tours

I've been doing a little research on audio tours in museums. I don't like them, in general, mostly because for me, the timing is never right. The narrator either goes on way too long, or he (or she) talks about aspects of the artwork that I don't particularly find interesting, or assumes I know a heck of a lot more about art than I do. And sometimes the audio tour does all three: goes on way too long, name dropping about periods and people that I haven't heard of and telling me about every single aspect of work, when a little drive-by information would have suited me just fine. So when we decided to experiment with adding short audio tours to some of the works on Open Museum, we agreed that the few essentials would be that they'd be short, interesting, and talk about what you see in front of you.

We've started with some of the installations in the Likeness collection in the Mattress Factory museum. Most of the objects in this collection are room-sized installations that are best experienced in person to really appreciate the concept behind them. But with a combination of still images, video, and a short audio tour, we think we're doing the exceptional installations justice in their online form. Next up for audio tours are the objects in the Hood Museum of Art's European collection. Our plan there is to add audio tours that focus on the interesting activity that's going on in the painting, and maybe add a little gossip about the painters and their subjects. After all, what was a painting back in the day but People magazine on canvas?

So when you get a chance, click on an audio tour or two and let us know if you like what we're doing. If not, they are easy to fix and we'd like to get it right.

Technology and Humanity: "Likeness"

What does it mean to be human in a technology-driven age? How does technology affect the depiction of humans? These are the questions explored in "Likeness", the newest collection in The Mattress Factory on Open Museum. The Mattress Factory is a contemporary art museum located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that presents art in room-sized exhibits. "Likeness" is its most recent group exhibition, and is being simultaneously shown in the bricks and mortar space in Pittsburgh, as well as online at Open Museum.

"Likeness" explores how technology affects, distorts, confuses, and even deceives our perceptions of the attributes that make us quintessentially human. The artists in "Likenesses" toy with our ideas of humanness through a variety of media: LED lights, filters, projection screens, even Powerpoint presentations. Jim Campbell's"Liz Walking" , for example, uses LED lights, filters, and screens to explore the limits of human understanding--Campbell's work asks, what is the least amount of information a human brain needs to understand and interpret movement? Peter Demarinis's work, "Dust" focuses on facial recognition and similarities, and how technology can enhance and distort them. Tony Oersler's Vampiric Battle"" explores how we use technology voluntarily to distort our own images, and focuses on the concept of "lookism," what he considers the most socially acceptable form or prejudice today. And Jonn Herschend's "Self Portrait as Power Point Proposal for an Amusement Park Ride" looks at both sides of a personal narrative (or person): the polished, public persona, and the messy, unfinished private side that is hidden from the public.

The Mattress Factory's Likeness exhibit runs from October 10, 2009 to March 21, 2010 in its bricks and mortar location, but will be perpetually available here on Open Museum. Thanks to technology, of course.

Membership Has Its Privileges

The Museum Computer Network listserv recently posted a request for comments from museums that had collections that allowed comments or generated discussions. Jeff responded with the following, which is an excellent explanation of what we think is one of the most important assets of Open Museum: the sense of community that is fostered by membership.

"Registered users can comment on Open Museum objects, chat on museum walls, and even create their own walls to communicate with other users. We've found that people comment less frequently on objects than we expected, but are nevertheless interested in content-centered and creative interactions with other visitors.

One of the big challenges we are interested in is trying to influence the general quality of comments. This has led us to provide common spaces for interactions (e.g. walls in addition to object comments) to give users other venues for socializing, hopefully preserving object comments for more content-focused interactions.

However, and this may seem kind of counter-intuitive, comments aren't visible to non-registered users. One of the problems of scaling social networking is deciding how to provide the gradients of intimacy the people need to feel a sense of place. Nina Simon talked recently about the appeal of secret places in museums. We've been thinking a lot about how to provide that kind of intimacy in an online museum setting. (Other than just not having very many visitors - which clearly doesn't scale.)

Because we are focused on using web exhibits for digital outreach and community building, we are putting a lot of energy into trying to optimize the experience of repeat visitors: friending individual museums, favoriting objects, commenting, rating other comments, and even playing educational/creative games.

If a comment on an object is really good, the museum curator can "promote" the comment to the status of a contribution - it becomes visible to unregistered visitors, and a mention is added to the user's profile. Users can also rack up "kudos" (represented as gold stars) for comments that other visitors deem valuable. It provides fairly low-key but gratifying recognition for particularly valuable participation.

Here's a comment that was posted on the Strafford ARTWORKS wall today that pretty much sums up what we would like to be for more of our visitors:

"Open Museum may save my creative life. I work alone in the studio listening to NPR or to Balkan or Gypsy music.It can get a little lonely. Now I allow myself breaks to see what is happening on Open Museum. Thanks for the interactions."

Our user numbers are still pretty low (We are in alpha, entering beta around the New Year) so it will be interesting to see how the "gradient of intimacy" theory stands up to increasing traffic. We read today that Facebook is trying to force everybody OUT of the closet, so it may sound insane to be heading in the opposite direction, but our sense is that more is not always more. Lets keep in mind that, much as we want to pump up visitor numbers at the brick and mortar museum, most of the support (financial and moral) that museums receive comes from a pretty small slice of the community. The 90-9-1 rules holds in the real world too. There may be something to be said for catering to the nines and the ones."

The Show's Over--Now What?

What do you do when the lights come up, the curtain comes down, and your show's over? Or in the case of the artist, when the gallery needs its walls back? We've created a museum on Open Museum called Ephemera , dedicated to collections of works that were exhibited together in a gallery or museum at one time, but are now dispersed--at least in the real world. On Open Museum, the collections in Ephemera have a permanent, virtual home.

For some of the collections, the Ephemera museum is the only place the works will ever appear as a collection again. In 2008, the family of late, famed illustrator Trina Schart Hyman organized a show of her oil paintings at a gallery close to Hyman's former home in Lyme, New Hampshire. Hyman's family, friends and collectors from around the United States and abroad loaned the works they owned of Hyman's to the exhibit, which lasted for two weeks. When the show closed, the paintings scattered, but Hyman's images are still very much together in The Paintings of Trina Schart Hyman collection in the Ephemera museum.

Similarly, sculptor Scott Knorlein's zany installation of memorabilia from life in America, "Tales from the Blue Pedal Car," was exhibited for several months at a small Vermont exhibit space, and then dismantled. Components of the piece may be sold individually, but "Tales" will live forever in Ephemera in all its odd, fun glory.

One of the most heartening--and paradoxical--aspects of virtual exhibit space is that it offers transitory exhibits a permanent home, something that most bricks and mortar galleries and museums just can't do.

Come experience all the collections in Ephemera. You'll be glad you did!

Playing Games Is Good For You--You Should Try It

Winning Image Round #7
Candidate for Round #8

We've been playing the Association Game here at Open Museum for about a week or so, and one thing is clear: Open Museum members are really creative. The rules of the game are really simple--one image starts the game, and players post another image that reminds them of the original image in some way. Any registered member of Open Museum can vote on the image they like the best, and the image with the most votes after a certain time period (we usually do it on a 24-hour cycle) wins the round. That winning image is the starter image for the next round. In theory, the object of the game is to eventually circle back so that the winning image of the last round is also the first image that started the game. We aren't nearly there yet, but it will be interesting to see how long it takes us to finish one full game. Several members of Open Museum are playing individual one-on-one games, too, which go a bit faster (see Maureen's wall for an example of a finished game).

To make the game easier to find, we've created a new navigation button called "Play." It's at the top of the screen as part of the main navigation bar on every page on Open Museum. Just click the Play button and you'll be taken right to the game.

We have had a couple of questions about image use. Although we maintain a certain preference for the use of public domain and creative commons licensed images in this game on esthetic grounds, we believe that the use of this image qualifies as Fair Use under United States copyright law. Let us know your feelings on the matter.

And finally, one thing we are working on now is a new name for the game. "The Association Game" seems kind of lame. One Open Museum member suggested the name "T.A.G." (Among other things, an acronym for The Association Game). We like it--but would also like to know what you think. Any other suggestions? Join in the conversation here.

Do you like this new play option? Let us know--and join in the game!