For the last few months I've been building up to the launch of a new project called The You Museum. Today you can sign up and experience it first hand at TheYouMuseum.orgÂ
The project was conceived of in Istanbul during a memorable residency at The Moving Museum that resulted in an exhibition you can read a review of here. The You Museum was inspired by Istanbul's Gezi Park protests, and the ongoing debates and conflations of public and private entities and spaces in Turkey and abroad (notably by organizations such as the NSA) With this in mind The You Museum expresses itself as a platform for delivering personalized exhibitions in banner ad spaces across 98% of the internet using remarketing technology (that thing that happens when you see banners from a website you just visited everywhere you go). It occupies these spaces as pseudo public space for exhibitions tailored to your personal preferences.
Any artwork you see can also be clicked on and purchased through a simple ecomerce storefront who's sales fund the Museum's continued advertising and artwork production costs. Purchased artworks are printed on domestic items such as pillows, mugs and tote bags. In this way The You Museum is able to manifest itself physically in the consumer goods we surround ourselves with in our private lives. You might not have considered your kitchen cupboard or your bedroom an exhibition venue, but now it can be. There is a lot more to say about The You Museum, but I'll save it for another post. Please consider signing up, it only takes a minute.
