Julianna Yau’s blog

This afternoon, there was a workshop presented by Rowley Mossop: When Virtual Worlds Collide - Challenges for the Arts in the Hypermedia Age. It was a much more focused presentation and discussion on some of the things discussed by Eli and John this morning, but with a much stronger marketing slant (comments with ~ are mine):

-songza.com

-new media –> impact on:
–concept of rarity
–production, distribution, etc
–behaviour & expectation

-the experience –> the emotional investment
-price/value of distribution & experience is shifting

-incumbent media are innovating to protect the value of their existing experience & products
-entrant media are innovating to build new businesses from new experiences & products
-innovations will impact how audiences expect to experience culture

-how can we use emerging technology to create something of value to attract and retain users/buyers?
-what is valuable to users? buyers? advertisers? funders?

-concept of RARITY
-emerging technology combinations are replacing rarity with ubiquity
–songza
–youtube
–the real news (broadcast out of Bathurst St in Toronto; technology has made it possible to reach a wide audience with a small budget)
-being able to find things
–rarity used to be a value because things were hard to find; ubiquity now more prevalent and effective
~~> but, again, what about Barney?

-”we all know now that intellectual property doesn’t mean much”
~~> what?!?!

-asking why people would go to concerts which were formerly sold on rarity if everything is available online
-need another strategy if your work is based on rarity (again, what about Barney’s success at forcing rarity?)

-market definitions based on geography
–no longer apply
–used to NEED to have geographic footprint & monopoly due to technological restraints
–because of reach, loss of local ads & personalities as value
–also loss of value for scheduled programming to reach specific audience

-users don’t pay content creators for access
~~> no, they pay the companies who provide access to the content, which is causing a whole host of problems between creators and those companies

-cost of content creation & distribution dropping
-boundaries of IP are dissolving
-offline, the cost of production is often higher than the price people are willing to pay for it

-new tarrifs, new ways to pay, new products
-ad-supported content

~it’s easy for people to make money by creating content in new formats and media, but what about people who are offering traditional things? how do we bridge the two? esp with physical objects?

-it’s all about “the experience”
-how to make live experience valuable rather than simply a replacement
-people find there is a higher engagement level online
-incorporate audience into the art!
-sampling ~~> not just for beauty products and food!

-metropera.com/metroperafamily.org
–haven’t changed the core of what they do or offer
–created impression of rarity
~~~>how does that fit with all the talk about rarity disappearing? I think there are two models here…
–redefined their market
–made themselves THE opera house of the world
–multiple formats of broadcasts; many ad-supported

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John Darlymple from the Textiles Museum of Canada had a great presentation, Connecting Cloth, Culture + Art, on what they have been doing for the last 10 years.

Notes (and Flickr images)

-museums piggypack on technology developed by corporations
-the role of how the money is made
-focusing on the public and the programming; start with the inward looking, but the focus is on the outside
-three themes: reconsidering the role of collection management; keeping/setting pace with technology; how important a really conceptually strong program is for online presence

1997
-concept of shooting digitally was different
-digital cameras were inferior to 35mm cameras
-slides and indexes
-slides were scanned and saved onto CDs
-everything was still very physical
-did have website, built by a volunteer’s son
-very amateurish website
-just getting online, didn’t care what it was
-Museums Assistant Program
-collection management driven

phase 2
-grant from Virtual Museum of Canada
-trying to create a virtual museum –> recreating real world
-John felt this was the wrong decision because the internet is not the real world, but the internet can provide options which aren’t available in the real world
-gallery is decontextualized setting
-Cloth & Clay website –> archived on the Textiles Museum website
-online identity can be bigger than physical presence
-sites were static HTML because that’s all they know
-John attended course where it was taught by a web designer and a curator, but there was no link between the two
Cloth & Clay did as much as they could with static HTML
-requirement for digitalization of work —> Collections Manager
-requirement for better collections management and images

phase 3
-create online destination
-entrypoint to collection
-relevant themes
-told government they needed to digitalize collection and have a database of the images
-creating something online that we can’t do in physical space –> moving objects around; didn’t use quicktime
-also allowed people to zoom into images
-Zoomify
-plugins –> something that’s open and that people would already have
-challenge to store and backup images (highres source images) and space online –> changed much since then
-slides taken by many different people (volunteers, proffessional photographers) and scanned at different resolutions
-need to take the different shots; need to not reshoot images every time; not just file format but relevancy of images
-has style guide for how to shoot images of textiles!
-government funding insisted on digital images
-shot images from a camera on the roof
-MimsyXG vs archaic Access DB
–different levels of consistency of data input, tagging
–need to investigate how to transfer data –> rebuild vs import
–just access isn’t enough –> NEED consistency of data
–needed a fundamental shift of definition/concept of collection management
-60% of collection photographed
-not just adding all sorts of little notes on db info (resulted in inconsistency with use of fields; nothing was publication-ready)
-kept fields simple –> much to document, not many curators to sign-off; wanted to do everything in French (don’t -operate in French, but wanted to be able to offer the information in French online); built thesaurus for terms and used that for standard English data input and translated to French
-Textile Museum: collection; contemporary art & exhibition program (most dynamic part of their programming); educational programming (other programs had educational aspects, but they also have a specific ed program)
-use web to exhibit work for longer than the few weeks they can keep stuff on display due to the fragility of the work
-Digital Threads
-asked artists to create digital art – artists asked were not digital artists; had to work closely with them to make this work
-theme grouping of work, rather than chronological
-Joanna Berzowska
-didn’t want it to be a database experience
-serve researcher, but should be usable for general museum going audience and teachers
-clearest terminology and titles for users

(no, I don’t know what happened to the phase 4 notes…I’m guessing they’re the tail end of the phase 3 notes)

phase 5
launching a new website soon
In Touch (hoping to change name)
deliver online project
create hands-on learning experience
move things, feel the weight, etc
computer animation –> molecular reaction of textile
–> like SL?
take apart a textile online and reconstitute work
physics-based technology
increase level of immersion for users –> cultural journey
mgmgrand.com –> type of immersion textile museum is looking for
–time-out in the immersion experience to get more detail

questions
-level of skillset – challenge?
–had to identify target audience
–design site for target audience and user behaviour

-finding the right partner for these projects, esp for people who are not big on social media

-connection between online presence and marketing
–rely on emarketing
–online museum brings people to the physical museum

-concept of draft publishing versus polished publishing; Sebastian from Australia (forget the gallery…)
–more interactive publishing when things are draft; wikis, etc
–having everything polished only is not necessarily the best option, and they are welcome to feedback

-YorkU –> Kate Fletcher (?) –> takes digital and almost hologram

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Eli Singer had a great presentation on How is the web transforming the arts?

Here are my notes (Flickr images here):

-memes
-diy culture, share culture
-democracy
-blogs – self publishing
-web breaking down hierarchies
-screen real estate equal for all publishers
-graffiti research lab
-public art and the web
-how to take graffiti to the digital life?
-companies taking grassroots graffiti art and using it for ads
-library of congress
–no histories behind images; put them all on Flickr, and through crowdsourcing, piece together history of the photos
–taking images out of libraries and putting them on the web for everyone
–tags an images
-how to weave yourself into a community or conversation on the web?
–not the same for corporations and arts institutions
–reputation within community
–bringing legitimacy to others by inviting participation
-The Power of the 2×2 Matrix
-casecamp.org –>!!!!!
-focus on the social, not the tool
-how can people connect with each other?
-”the network is the hub”; network can be anything
-strategic use of tools to create experiences for individuals, communities, and brands
-Broadcast model - source: cymfony
-peer to peer model – source: cymfony
-platform ==> community ==> content
-integrate into existing community vs building your own
-when integrating in an existing community, plugging into existing numbers
-who do you want to reach out to and who do
–”head” –> everyone; broadcast
–”tail” –> very specific number of people
–”shoulder” (Eli’s target) –> the mid-ground; not just about broadcast, but dealing with “meaty issues”
-which community are they in?
-word of mouth happening more online (blogs, social networking)
-whippersnapper
-curotatoral podcasting
-whippersnapper also on FB (group)
–art is for dead people show
–whippersnapper also has videos to explain how to participate (feels like Drupal instructional vids)
–uploading photos and tag with gallery name!
-SickKids hospital –> radiothon –> social media
–web is built for storytelling
–radiothon videodiary –> daily video; shot on-site; co-branded; rleased online; drive donations
–content –> how to maximize use of small size of screen and closeness to screen
–syndication!
–SickKids hospital widget; share button, donate button; allows websites to customize look of widget and add their own logo
-MoMA –> everyone else taking photos an videos and posting online… where was MoMA? they joined in when question was posed to them

Questions from audience

-permissions forms for people who were interviewed (esp when children involved)
–with SickKids, they already had an existing process and agreement form; added internet to form; contained location for filming

-what about getting off the internet? (dying communities) how to shut down a FB page?
–data owned by FB/YouTube/etc, not you
–control issues with own vs other community
–recognized of an issue; islands and walled communities are issues; OpenSocial
–whippersnapper –> difference between their own website and their presence on others
–own website is official voice; limited community
–most of the community lives on FB

-how to build a list of bloggers?
–technorati?
–local blog indexes
–flickr –> look for photoblogers in city
–follow linkbacks/trackbacks
–build human relationship first

-street teams for independent music community —> are there incentive-driven activities for online community? offering fans incentive to help? is it happening?
–can happen, but more for companies sending free stuff for reviews
–backstage access for blogging
–TIFF –> blogger for them; site listed on TIFF; on both TIFF website and own
—incentive was the affiliation
—real-time feedback
—connection with related ppl
—community, not volunteers
-incentive without alienation

-performance art; unions; limit of how much can be shared–how to address?
–Andy Warhol show –> no photos allowed; had Cronenberg talk about Warhol
–Shakespeare Theatre, Washington –> backstage access; interiews; gave bloggers access to their own images rather than bloggers’ images
–Stratord’s blog

-authenticity — how to achieve?
–err on the side of community
–flat hierarchy
–don’t just start broadcasting
–PARTICIPATE
–connect with leaders of community

-online prescence overshadowing brick-and-mortar gallery? (whippersnapper)
–their events are always packed
–made it about participation in the real space too

-engagement process, not just advertising
-people helping each other and having conversations with each other
-supporting social networking with staff –> resource intensive –> start small
-change in cultural experience

-some people don’t want to be involved because they don’t want to give away their story; ho to create more content?
–culture of secrecy
–Apple
–mystique
–Steve Job’s product launches!

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I attended three sessions today, and am back home temporarily (instead of attending the keynote speech) because I need some down time to collect my thoughts. Tons of information coming at us, and it wasn’t long before I got the hang of sending updates to Twitter and Flickr. I’ll be posting the mostly raw notes I took from the sessions, with some linkage (esp to the Flickr images after they’re tagged and captioned).

It’s been a draining day, and I honestly don’t know whether I’m returning for the networking reception and dinner. Unlike CopyCamp, the TIAC was spread across two buildings and several rooms. The university was not the easiest to navigate (especially for a directionally challenged person like myself), and the construction that was happening didn’t help. Lunch was a bit of a headache for me because I took [myself and some unsuspecting victims] the long way to the university plaza. Even without that, I think I would have felt rushed (despite what another person had mentioned to me)… maybe it’s just because I like to really take my time with meals. At least with CopyCamp, food was provided and lunch was more of a break than an interruption.

I also did notice a big difference with the networking. Part of the issue was the size of the group. It was somewhere between the number of attendees at the Visual Arts Summit and CopyCamp. I found that with the BarCamp model that CopyCamp followed, and the smaller group, I was able to not merely meet but have more real conversations with the other attendees. I suppose that’s why TIAC is having the networking reception I may not attend

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The Technology in the Arts conference starts at 10, and I’ll be heading over soon. I’m hoping to send updates to Twitter, but I’m not sure how well that will work. I miss having a Blackberry, but the plans are still too expensive for me.

I haven’t heard back on whether I’ll have internet access at the conference, but I’m assuming not. I may be pleasantly surprised, but we’re not getting free parking, so free internet may be a stretch. I’ll probably have lunch at home and hopefully intercept my new business cards, which should arrive today or Monday. Of course, Murphy will probably have his way and I’ll not get them until Wednesday.

To cut costs, I enrolled as a volunteer. I have three tasks, and one of them is taking people between buildings for the first session after lunch. I’m a bit apprehensive about that one, because I have a tendency to get lost easily. It’s been years since I’ve been properly on campus, and because of the program I attended, I wasn’t on campus much and when I was it was only to three buildings: the psych building, the library and the student life centre.

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