#artbabble

Oh my goodness I have been drawing so long and am so tired I can no longer see strait. But I have some exciting art news, which shall be presented in three parts.

1. I started a series type thing, it even has a name, very fancy. The name is pale bald skinny naked men taking their faces off. I think the name really showcases my creativity.

2. I get money for art supplies soon, so you will be seeing new mediums and techniques shortly.

Interesting overview on the lithography process. Produced by MOMA, discovered on ArtBabble.org.

Every once in a while, I like to share outstanding websites I come across in my art-web travels.  Recently, I discovered ArtBabble.org, a website dedicated to spreading the word of art through video.  Launched by  the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Art Babble  showcases video art content in high quality format from a variety of sources…

In my previous post, I mentioned one of Launchpad's features that I found to be the most enriching. Above is the Launchpad video that supplements the Latz clock. It puts the object in an atmosphere that gives it new perspective.

For many more videos produced for Launchpad, go here: http://www.artbabble.org/topic/series/launchpad

ArtBabble was launched in April 2009 as a showcase for high-quality art video content from a variety of sources. It pools resources from different institutions to serve a large collective audience as a one-stop venue for watching videos about art, artists, exhibitions, and museums (including how-to about conservation, education, etc). The website just received a redesign.

Before:

After:

The original ArtBabble was designed to look friendly. The new interface gives it a more serious look while actually making it more friendly. The former goofy, child-like character has given way to a “young professional” look. In spirit it is the same, and the growing international group of contributing partners is a testament to its success. The site was initially developed in-house by the Indianapolis Museum of Art and launched with content from only a handful of partners. The number of international contributors has grown to 54. While some important institutions remain absent, it is fair to say that the site is doing well in meeting its objective of becoming the go-to venue for art video online. (See this early assessment in The Guardian)

The success is due, in large part, to the emphasis on content-delivery over other institutional constraints. ArtBabble is wonderfully free of hierarchy: Where else can the Tang Museum at Skidmore College play equally alongside the Metropolitan Museum of Art? All partner institutions are on the same footing. The selection of most popular videos, for example, does not reveal the institution that created the video. Only a thumbnail and video title serve as the preview, with the full information appearing only after it is selected. And while it is possible to quickly browse all of the videos created by any given institution, the site is clearly designed to emphasize content-based relationships among all videos.

Another great outcome of the shared platform is a general raising of standards – regarding both the technical quality and the originality of content. The museums can no longer operate behind a veil of regional isolationism. Geography loses relevance as they all speak to the same potential audience in the digital realm. This will reduce duplication of overexposed subjects and in turn forces each institution to focus on its unique qualities and abilities. For example, a search for artist Catherine Opie yields six video results from four institutions. Each offers a particular angle that contributes new information, and I am sure that the availability of this material on the same page will influence future videos produced about the artist. The healthy competition created by ArtBabble not only requires museums to broaden their definition of peer institutions but should also influence programming decisions in the physical realm.

A lot more can be said about this site and its content beyond the affects of its collaborative concept. Of particular interest is the cross-tagging of content over five main browsing menus: Theme, Medium, Period & Style, Location, and People. Additionally one can select Museum Practice, Video Type, and Language. The subjects under Theme are worthy of an investigation in itself, but I have to leave that for another day. These browse menus function very well in organizing content based on areas of interest, although it is unfortunate that only one filter can be applied at a time. Especially as content continues to build up, it would be useful to apply multiple browse filters. Already the Theme of “Being an Artist” yields 186 results the order of which isn’t revealed and cannot be further sorted. Options such as sorting by popularity, posting date, institution, or any of the other browse categories such as Period and Style, Medium, or Location would make the results much more manageable. 

This week's Modern Art Notes Podcast features Carrie Mae Weems. A new retrospective exhibition of Weems's work titled, "Carrie Mae Weems: Three Decades of Photography and Video," opened last week at Nashville's Frist Center for the Visual Arts.

Weems' best-known work is almost certainly "The Kitchen Table Series" (1990), a series of photographs that tells a family story. While the piece includes text panels, Weems doesn't tell us precisely what's happening in the pictures, she just shows us the images and a broad narrative and allows us to fill in specifics. It may be her strongest, most open-ended work. In this Art21 video on ArtBabble, she discussed what motivated the work. The picture from the series included here/above is in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The entire series and a set of installation pictures is on Weems's website. 

Download the program to your PC/mobile device. Subscribe to The Modern Art Notes Podcast via iTunes or RSS. See more images of artworks discussed on the program.