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Judging by the number of re-tweets Nick’s “Poor SpumoniNick’s Almanack” project received, I think it’s safe to say that 1stfans enjoy Twitter Art Feed projects that mix language and wit with a little interactivity. This month, we ramp up the interactivity to create the first ever work of art by 1stfans themselves. Ranjit Bhatnagar, whose personal website has been around since 1993 (!!), submitted a proposal for the Twitter Art Feed that demonstrated his great understanding of how twitter works and what creative possibilities lie within the daily interactions on this platform.

Screenshot of the original “Exquisite Sonnet” project in 1992, a collaboratively-produced sonnet.

Ranjit’s proposition is actually an updated version of a project he did a long time ago (at least in internet years), and Shelley and I are convinced it’s going to work really well with the 1stfans crowd we have on twitter right now. Here’s Ranjit’s proposal:

Long ago in the dark ages of the internet I conducted a version of the surrealists’ language games. In the “Exquisite Sonnet Project” (1992) I had participants write a sonnet, one line each; each person only knowing the preceding line and the rhyme they had to match. I edited the entries slightly for meter and posted the results of each sonnet as it was completed I’ll do a similar project for the 1stfans feed, constructing a group sonnet over the course of the month. 1stfans members can submit candidate lines for the sonnet by posting to @1stfans, and every two days I’ll choose a line and re-tweet it.  Submissions which follow the meter and rhyme constraints of the sonnet form will have the best chance of being chosen, and I might edit them slightly to fit.  People who want to talk about the project should use the hashtag #exquisitesonnet. I’ll also make a web application which creates random sonnets from all the submissions that at least come close to fitting the sonnet rules (launching mid-July).

In the 1992 “Exquisite Sonnet” project, the entire process was done over email. This time around, the sonnet will be composed entirely via Twitter. 

If the concepts don’t seem straightforward, they will soon after the tweeting begins. You’ll get the hang of it, and Ranjit (@ranjit) and I (@willcary) will be able to help out with any questions that may arise throughout the month. What’s exciting is that at the end of the month, we’ll end up with a 1stfans-produced sonnet that everyone can enjoy. If you want to be part of this project and are not a 1stfan Member, you can join here.

Nick Fortunato is the second artist selected via the open call for the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed. Similar to An Xiao’s work with Morse Code, Nick’s proposal for the feed explores the delivery of news and evolution of communication through the ages. As you’ll see, Nick came up with a great concept that will be a welcome addition to the feed:

The title of my project is “Poor SpumoniNick’s Almanack.” SpumoniNick is my Twitter handle and the Almanack I’m referring to is Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack.

This project is an attempt to draw parallels between Twitter, a modern day social networking tool and Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack, perhaps the original social networking publication. 275 years after publication of Franklin’s Almanack the form still holds, only the delivery method has changed—a singular voice, communicating to the masses. Then, Franklin’s masses were Colonial America, today it’s the world.

My goal is to “skin” the Twitter feed with content directly pulled from the original Almanacks. I believe that there is very little difference between the common observations people post today on Twitter and those aphorisms and proverbs found in Franklin’s texts. I will not modernize the language, keeping it in the older English as a way to reinforce the mashing of times from then to now.

The experience for the viewer will be one where my posts, in a voice from the past, are sprinkled in with their friends modern up to the minute updates.

Images:  Poor Richard’s Almanac - 1758 - Franklin, Benjamin (author) - Philadelphia - Library of Congress

Did you know that we have 1stfans residing in 17 countries around the world?  Outside of the United States, we have the most 1stfan representation in Australia, so we couldn’t be more thrilled to announce that Australian-born Tracey Moffatt is joining us in May for the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed.  Tracey has several works in the Brooklyn Museum collection—you may have seen Tracey’s Lip as part of the exhibition Burning Down the House: Building a Feminist Art Collection or Love, which had been on view during Global Feminisms.

Since video is something that we see people posting frequently to Twitter, we thought it would be cool to get an artist that works with video to take over the feed for a month to post some clips. Tracey agreed, and rather than posting deep, brooding avant garde art films (that people on Twitter probably wouldn’t have time to watch), Tracey has decided to post her favorite YouTube clips with a bit of commentary about each. Some clips will be funny and familiar while others more obscure, but all will say a lot about Tracey, so we hope our 1stfans will have a fun time watching and getting to know her through them.

In keeping with the interactive vein, I’ll re-tweet some of the 1stfans @replies with their own related video clips on the feed (look for the “WC” at the end of the tweet so you know it’s me posting and not Tracey). We’ve seen a preview and this is going to be pretty wacky and fun!

It was about 4:30pm on Saturday when Shelley called me. Interestingly enough, I was here at the Museum giving a talk to our Student Guides on Membership and leading a group from my college’s alumni association through our Caillebotte exhibition. Now, if you know Shelley you won’t be surprised to hear that she has no problem calling anyone she works with anytime, including nights and weekends.  This time, she was calling to say that something crazy was happening. “A support revolution is getting started online,” she said. Sure enough, she was right.

Friday was an up and down day here at the Museum and on Saturday afternoon, 1stfan Member Nina Simon seized the moment when delivering her closing plenary at the Museums and the Web conference by encouraging anyone who cared about the Brooklyn Museum to join as a Member. Roughly around the same time, New Curator put out a similar call to action.

Then, 1stfans and colleagues from other institutions lit up twitter with the same message. Within hours, 21 people had signed up for 1stfans Membership, many of them from around the world. In New Zealand, Courtney Johnson joined and wrote a spectacular blog post in which she volunteered to buy 1stfans Memberships for four people who would comment on her post or would pass it along to others.

In tough times, I find that Members often can help the Museum with the important work that needs to be done. Not only do they contribute much-needed financial support, but they bring friends when they visit, they shop at the Museum and share their experiences in a variety of ways.  This weekend was no exception, but the support generated online was so swift and heartfelt, that it took us by total surprise. We continue to be extremely grateful for the support of every one of our members: thank you all.

When we announced Mary Temple for the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed in February, one of the things that Shelley mentioned was our collaboration with the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh. If we can find a way to feature artists whose work has been or will be seen elsewhere in different forms, then we’re providing a way for more people to access this work. That’s part of the reason we are happy to collaborate with THE THING and Brooklyn-based writer Jonathan Lethem. THE THING is an object based quarterly publication that was created and is edited by two visual artists.   For each issue, a different writer, artist or filmmaker is invited conceive of an everyday object that somehow incorporates text.  This object is then reproduced and sent to the subscribers.  All issues are a kept secret until they arrive.

When Jonn and Will at THE THING mentioned that Jonathan Lethem was going to do Issue 7 in in May, we knew it would be great to try to get Jonathan to do the Twitter Art Feed for April as a way for fans of his work so see him in two different formats back-to-back, all in anticipation of his new novel, Chronic City, which comes out in the Fall. Jonn and Will said something striking that inadvertently convinced me that we should try to get him on the Twitter Art Feed: “We both felt like much of Jonathan’s work dealt with objects…or in some case the language felt like an object itself.” Since we’re using the Twitter Art Feed as a way for artists to explore ideas about language, artistic production, and other new concepts, Shelley and I saw no reason that a writer couldn’t be on the feed, and Eugenie Tsai, our John and Barbara Vogelstein Curator of Contemporary Art, agreed.

Jonathan Lethem lives in Brooklyn, and Brooklyn is the setting for two of his novels: Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn.  Shelley caught up on his work recently during a layover in the Sydney airport.

After that, it was just a matter of seeing what Jonathan wanted to do on the feed. When we spoke on the phone, it became clear to me why he agreed to collaborate with us. Here’s Jonathan, in his own words:

“For the last few years (and in another sense, for my entire life), I’ve been concerned with fictions that among other things present human encounters with “impossible objects”, a description that encompasses instances as diverse as Henry James’ The Golden Bowl, Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama and Dr. Seuss’s On Beyond Zebra. I’ve finished a novel, to be published in October, called Chronic City, in which the object in question is called a “chaldron.” During the years of this book’s writing I found myself by chance repeatedly drawn into collaborations with a series of other artists or art-presenters (see: Jennifer Palladino, Matthew Ritchie, and THE THING) and in each case I used it to further the foolish postulate that “chaldrons” were a part of the world outside the novel, an error shared by my book’s characters. On the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed you’ll overhear tweets from a group of deluded aspirants to chaldron-ownership, as they debate strategies for winning a chaldron in an on-line auction.”

You can look for Jonathan’s tweets on the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed for the entire month of April, and then if you’re interested you can subscribe to THE THING at www.thethingquarterly.com to see Jonathan’s issue in late May.