Community: bloggers@brooklynmuseum

For 1stfans, we are attempting to go as paperless as possible and this has been an interesting challenge for us. The first major shift is that we’ve ditched the customary palm cards and, instead, are using these shirts from Reactee (above). Reactee shirts are powered by TextMarks and are designed to text you back, so rather than us handing out all the paper, people can txt for more information and get it right on their phone. These shirts have the added benefit that we can use them over and over again at every event, so you’ll see the entire Membership staff (and a few of the Tech staff) wearing them at Target First Saturdays.

The next thing we had to think about was signing up 1stfans on-site and keeping that line moving as quickly as possible. We needed an electronic solution that would be both small (the membership desk has limited space) and cheap, so we settled on using Netbooks or, more specifically, Asus eeePCs running Linux. The Netbooks will be using the Firefox browser pointing directly to our e-forms site which is powered by Wufoo (something we just started using and highly recommend). There is one potential pitfall with these—they have the smallest keyboards you’ve ever seen. I’m very curious to see how these work in practice—typing even a limited amount of information (name, phone number, e-mail) could be difficult, so we will have to see what comes of this. Another thought we had was to utilize Safari on the iPod touch via wifi, but that keyboard seemed like it might be even more problematic if we really wanted to keep the line moving at a quick pace.

Full disclosure, there are some exceptions to the paperless rule. First Saturdays are often crowded and when you have this many people in the lobby you’ve just got to have some directional signage to help people find you and stanchion signs are the only way we have to do that, but we will be recycling them as we go along. Also, we are prepared with backup paper forms in case those Netbooks turn out to be problematic, but you’ll be happy to know we’ve maximized the paper with more than one form per page and have utilized both the front and the back of the sheet. As I write this, I can’t help but think of Francesca who had to deal with distributing all those Click! cards, so F., I dedicate this post to you!

With the New Year almost here, I’d like to give you a quick preview of what will be coming to the blog in the next few months. Richard and Mary will be off to Egypt soon, so the Dig Diary will be starting up again (yay!) in January. For all the art lovers who have been bored stiff by the recent slew of Technology and Membership posts, we are working to publish more about art and conservation (double yay and whew!) on the way soon. We appreciate your hanging in there, and here’s to even more stimulating and varied content in the New Year! Have a Happy New Year, everyone and we hope to see you Saturday!

In the same spirit that we asked Swoon to launch 1stfans in person (that is to say, with the Museum’s existing community in mind), we are delighted to announce that An Xiao is going to be the first artist on the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed. We’ve known An for a while and were ecstatic when she decided to submit a proposal for the 1stfans Twitter. Many of our community may already know An because her work was in the top 25% of Click! and perhaps you’ve seen her blog or her Twitter feed (both of which Shelley and I follow). I would be remiss if I didn’t mention her work is part of the Micro-Macro exhibition in NYC running through the end of this year, so hurry, go quick. But none of these reasons are why she was selected (lest you think that we are granting anyone favors). An’s proposal for using the Twitter Art Feed simply blew us away and when we forwarded it to curators Eugenie Tsai, Patrick Amsellem, and Lauren Ross, they were equally enamored. Since I’m not a curator, I’ll spare you my analysis and simply share with you how An will be using the Twitter Art Feed in her own words:

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In January 2006, Western Union put to rest the telegram, the groundbreaking new technology that allowed nearly-instant intercontinental communication and enjoyed almost two centuries of communications usage. Two months later, a new medium emerged, similar in many ways: Twitter. In a world of email, AIM and cell phones, it made barely a blip, but its importance is quickly becoming clear.

I propose using the 1stfans feed to tweet in Morse code. As writer Nicholas Carr noted, the parallels are apparent–speed, brevity, and a need for acronyms–, but the purposes are almost entirely separate. Whereas telegrams were used for business and important personal communication, tweets generally act as wide broadcasts and rarely contain substantive information per se, which emails and blogs are better suited for. In other words, telegrams conveyed news of deaths, deals and diplomacy; tweets convey breakfast habits.

Through tweeting Morse code, I aim to explore instant communication’s new direction by recalling its history. Rather than important issues, I will communicate daily minutiae, such as “Brushing my teeth” and “Tired. Need coffee.” Such usage of telegraph technology would have been inconceivable in its heyday. In so doing, I want to encourage 1stfans viewers to examine the evolution of instant communication and what purpose, exactly, is served by sharing such minor details of one’s life.

Samuel Morse, in his first telegraph, asked, “What hath God wrought?” His invention changed the world, especially with its influence on politics and business. What have Twitter, and other microblogging media, wrought upon the way we connect with others? What doors have they opened in the realm of personal and business relationships, and how have they expanded our sense of identity?

You may have read about the departure of George Oates in the media, but if not check out Seb’s blog post on the subject for starters. The thing that I worried about most with George’s absence was the idea that our cheerleader—the person who had a very personal connection to each Commons Institution, the one who spread her enthusiasm for our collections to the Flickr crowd—was suddenly gone and how does a gaping hole like that get filled? Well, I learned something very valuable. When community is strong, shifts can take place that fill the gap and in this instance, that’s exactly what happened.

To my relief, a few days after we found out about George, I came in to work one morning to a message in the Brooklyn Museum’s Flickr inbox. I won’t quote the whole thing here, but BigBean sent a lovely note asking us to join a group - “I was very surprised to find that there was not one single flickr group devoted to the Commons! In true flickr tradition, I decided to start one. On flickr, groups is where it’s at!”

Boom! In the simplest way, using Flickr’s existing structure, suddenly we have a fantastic group run by some really committed admins and the participation that is going on there is as rich as it gets and it’s only been two days. This new group provides a direct link to the people within the Flickr community who really love The Commons and this was something we had been missing. Previously, we could make one-on-one connections, but the group allows for much greater interaction among all participants.

As most of you know, we’ve got a set of challenges we have to think about as we move forward in The Commons and, now, the feedback from this group will help us greatly. To say we are looking forward to following and participating in this group is, well, a bit of an understatement.

Looking for something fun? How about this thread where Brenda Anderson is curating mail delivery across Commons collections? Awesome.

Though the launching of 1stfans is being done mostly online, one of the critical goals of the group is to get people to come and enjoy the Museum in person more often. 1stfans is different from of our other Membership categories in many ways, but one way in which it is similar is that Members receive special benefits when they show up to the Museum. Since 1stfans is launching in person at Target First Saturday on January 3, 2009, we wanted to be sure that 1stfans had something really, exceptionally cool to do that night. I think you’ll agree that getting Swoon’s studio to do a print exclusively for 1stfans Members live that night is a good way to kick things off.

Pictured above, four of the designs that Swoon’s studio will be bringing with them to Target First Saturday on January 3rd, 2009. Prints will be made live that evening for all 1stfans members!

Swoon appealed to us as an artist for many reasons. We knew we wanted to do something with an artist that fit at least one, and preferably all, of the following criteria: an artist in the Museum’s collection, someone with a connection to Brooklyn or our Museum community, and whose work has a strong following one of the social networking websites we are using. In addition to being an artist that Shelley and I both admire, Swoon fits those criteria. Her installation piece, on view in 2006 and early 2007, was a huge hit with visitors. Her work literally covers the streets of Brooklyn and the rest of NYC, and prompts art enthusiasts to spend their weekends keeping their eyes peeled. The icing on the cake was her incredible presence on Flickr (18,000 images and growing), a testament to her following and to Flickr’s utility as an art resource. With all of this in mind, we nervously approached Swoon with our idea and asked her if she’d be willing to help us out. To our incredible delight (there may have been some high-fiving involved), she said yes! And that’s how we arrived at the Swoon interactive printing event for 1stfans on Saturday, January 3rd. We should fully disclose that Swoon herself is NOT going to be here. She is traveling (far) outside of NYC, but has dutifully overseen the production of the screens you see above and she will be dispatching four of her studio assistants to do the actual printing.

Swoon’s work uses a lot of found materials and she is encouraging people to bring their own paper for their print. I may spend hours looking for the perfect piece of paper for my print, but I’m enough of a realist to realize that not every 1stfan Member will do the same. That’s where Materials for the Arts comes in. In the video below, you can watch me and Shelley take a field trip to Materials For the Arts, which is a non-profit organization, partially funded by the city, that gives away recycled supplies to other non-profit arts and education organizations. Materials for the Arts is based in Long Island City, Queens, and we had quite a trip to and from their warehouse in Shelley’s bug. There, we were able to pick up a wide variety of materials on which 1stfans get their Swoon print. Carpet and fabric samples, framing materials, poster board, all kinds of paper, signs, you name it. We’re not sure if the print will turn out well on everything we picked up, but at least we have plenty of stuff to work with!

We hope to see you on January 3, and if you have any questions please e-mail me here.

You may have seen Carol Vogel’s article in the New York Times about the exciting news concerning the Brooklyn Museum’s costume collection, and our collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but if you haven’t, please have a look.

Charles James (American, born England, 1906-1978). Dress, Evening, 1952. Silk. Gift of Mrs. R. A. Bernatschke.

I am taking questions about this collaboration this week via our blog. However, I am also on vacation, away from the Museum, with a slow dial-up connection. So please bear with me, as I try to respond as soon as I can.