IMA's ArtBabble: Get your babble on

Art-Bab-ble [ahrt-bab-uhl]
noun; verb (used without object) -bled, -bling

1. free flowing conversation, about art, for anyone.

2. a place where everyone is invited to join an open, ongoing discussion - no art degree required.

After talking about video in the previous two posts I wanted to highlight an exciting new experimental video undertaking by the Indianapolis Museum of Art: ArtBabble.org. It’s still in private Beta, but if you’re interested in checking it out, I’ve got about 50 invites to give away. Just leave your email address in the comments.

ArtBabble can best be described as a social network based around high-quality art video content. The video content is not itself art; rather, it is educational and expository in nature. It ranges from forthright interviews with the artists featured within IMA’s walls (In the Factory), offering users insight into the artist’s sources of inspiration, creative process and vision, to staff profiles (Employee Profiles) and recordings of museum talks (Talks). There is also a series of webisodes shot on location at the Louvre highlighting the Louvre’s Roman Art collection and discussing the pieces in the context of Roman history (Roman Art from the Louvre).

The content is masterfully produced, engaging and informative. It’s not the kind of dry, academic, dusty tweed jacket content one would expect from a museum. One of the Roman Art webisodes is called “I love the A.D.’s” and is inspired by the popular VH1 series “I love the 80s.” In it, scholars discuss Roman-era fashion and epicurean trends. Their sage commentary is spliced with hilarious asides by a toga-wearing J Noland (a young IMA staffer?) like, “Juvenal, ah, the Roman scholar! I believe it was Juvenal who said, ‘Girl, you look good. Why don’t you back that a$$ up. Wobbidy, wobbidy.”

My favorite feature, however, is the additional links tab that appears on the right-hand side as you watch any video. The links direct you to any number of additional resources meant to supplement the video content and enrich your viewing experience with additional information and a deeper sense of context.

While watching the video on Orly Genger and her project “Whole,” for example, I was directed to Orly’s IMA blog post about the work, the IMA’s Flickr set on Orly’s installation, as well as a short YouTube video of Orly’s previous work, “Mr. Softy,” in which Orly pants and heaves as she struggles to crawl under the massive, heavy rope structure while ice-cream truck music plays in the background—an image at once mesmerizing and strangely unsettling. There are also some cheeky, seemingly random clips, like one of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his Mr. Universe days and a look at the Earth’s layers (this all makes sense in the context of the video, I promise).

ArtBabble’s design is slick and easy to navigate, allowing users to easily download videos onto their iPods, share them on external social media platforms and embed them on their blogs. As far as social networking capabilities though, the options are kind of limited at the moment. Users can post comments on videos both within the video stream and in comment boxes below it, but there doesn’t seem to be any way for one user to friend another or to engage in a conversation beyond the comment stream. It’s also unclear whether users can upload their own videos, or post things like video comments, though this type of functionality may be in development.

Overall though, it’s an interesting project and a great educational tool. Kudos to IMA for taking the initiative to try something new and building a space where people can have intelligent conversation centered around smart art videos. I’m looking forward to watching this project grow!

Online Video and what it means to be "vitterate" (Pt.2)

In the previous post, I outlined several interesting statistics I picked up at Social Media Week NY. Now, I'm going to relay a few the content creation tips. I'll then look at some examples of good uses of video in a following post.

So...how does online video apply to cultural institutions?

If people like Andrew Rasiej are right in their predictions that the rising “vitteracy” rate could eventually make video the predominant mode of communication online, cultural institutions would do well to experiment with video now while they have an opportunity to find their “voice.”

With the advantage of a built-in audience of patrons, scholars, students and art enthusiasts, they can test out different approaches to online video—Should the content skew more educational or entertaining? What’s the appropriate balance for online? And does it vary from platform to platform (ex: iTunes “vodcast” vs. YouTube video)?—these are just a few of the questions they should be asking themselves.

If there’s one thing cultural institutions have the opportunity to excel in, it’s in the quality of their content. Even if the videos are shot on a Flip camera (which, by the way, has a program that provides non-profits with free cameras), the information and research will naturally be top-notch, and if it also happens to be conveyed in an captivating manner, it will absolutely be watched and appreciated. It may never go “viral,” but that’s ok. Getting a steady 100 or 200 views a month still makes the effort worthwhile in the long run by building awareness, generating exposure, engaging with your audience where they live and in their preferred “language,” and further cementing your institution’s reputation as an authority and valuable resource.

A few content creation tips from SMWNY:

1) Create content that adds value to your target audience’s life. Of course, if you haven't yet, you’d have to first identify your target audience and determine what kind of content will add value to their lives. Beyond the traditional modes of demographic research—surveys, focus groups, etc.—some interactive ways of collecting and tracking questions and impressions from patrons could be useful here. Perhaps setting up a Ning network or using Twitter could be effective here. Or trying something like the Mattress Factory’s SMS campaign and video confession booth, or the Brooklyn Museum’s electronic comment kiosks.

2) Story-based content is better at engaging an audience. Use video as an opportunity to tell stories and create a rich contextual image as opposed to just presenting dry factual information. Personal stories give the audience something they can relate to and are magnetic for that reason—if nothing else, we are usually transfixed by humanity on display (ahem, reality television?). If story-based content doesn’t fit with your project, consider at least implementing a conversation-based model where the information is communicated via a casual dialogue—Smarthistory.org does this really well.

3) Involve the audience in the creation process. By “crowdsourcing” your content ideas, you increase the engagement level of your audience and give them an opportunity to become invested in the project. Your viewers become collaborators and their contribution in your project gives them a stake in the content, as well as a feeling of importance and recognition.

4) Pair your content with a relevant topic of discussion and become part of the conversation. Is there some sort of controversy or heated discussion happening in an area related to your field? Use video as an opportunity to join in the conversation. Create a short video response, or a podcast that provides additional information or context to the discussion. Joining the conversation further establishes you as a member of the community with a valuable contribution. 

This is not, by any means, an exhaustive list. Please add your own tips and examples!

Online Video and what it means to be "vitterate" (Pt.1)

[Note: I've been writing this blog post for-freaking-EVER. I started it the week after Social Media Week NY--and that was about two weeks ago! Granted, preparation for (and anxiety over) last week's meetup didn't leave much time for writing. Still, it's pretty clear I've hit a bit of a road block, so in the interest of getting things moving I'm just breaking it up into two posts in the hope of generating some inertia.]

I’ve wanted to write about video for a while, but didn’t really feel myself qualified to do so. I’m not a vlogger, and though I manage the Unigo.com YouTube account at work, I don’t produce most of the content that goes up there, save for a few random quirky videos from around the office. Still, I haven’t been able to shake the topic and it seems like these past couple of months, I can’t enter into a conversation about social media without it inevitably turning towards online video.

There’s no denying it: video is HUGE, and if you’re not paying attention to it, you definitely should be.

Two weeks ago I attended a few panels during Social Media Week NY (SMWNY). As can be expected from a conference bearing that name, online video was on everybody’s lips. Some interesting facts that I picked up:

The number of searches being performed on YouTube each day is second only to Google. People are searching for entertainment, yes, but also for practical information, how-to’s, educational videos, etc. Having a slice of that pie, even if it’s just a tiny sliver, should be part of every institution’s online marketing strategy. (via For Your Imagination's Social Entertainment panel)

There are 15 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute. The pace at which video is becoming one of our most popular modes of communication is astonishing, and nowhere is this more apparent than online. I can’t tell you how many times I have wished, or even contemplated, sending a video instead of answering a particularly lengthy question via email—idea courtesy of Saul Colt of Freshbooks, who actually does answer client emails with video responses occasionally. Let’s face it, watching a 2-minute video is far quicker, easier and arguably more engaging than reading a 1,500 word blog post. At the Innovation in Politics, Policy and Social Change through Social Media panel, Andrew Rasiej posited that as communication platforms online are evolving, it’s possible that video could eclipse text as the preferred medium as our society becomes increasingly “vitterate.”

The average number of views for a video on YouTube is two a month. Considering all the videos with views in the hundreds of thousands and millions, this means that the majority of content on YouTube is unwatched. This raises questions (at least for me) about the nature of the majority of content populating YouTube (What is it? What purpose does it serve? What purpose was it intended to serve and has it succeeded?), the sheer volume of content you will be competing with means it’s got to be good to get noticed. For cultural institutions, which are serving a clear-cut niche audience and typically have a much higher standard of excellence than your average YouTube user, I think this particular statistic need not be a deterrent. If they create and distribute the content, chances are it will be seen, even with little or next to zero promotion.

.......

Ok, so now while I fine-tune the second half of this epic post and work on getting over my writer's block, I'm going to leave you with the video footage from the Innovation in Politics, Policy and Social Change panel. It was without a doubt the best panel I attended at SMWNY. I highly recommend watching it. I believe Rasiej's comments are in the second portion of the video segment.

Please let comments or questions below! Answering them might be just the thing that helps me get out of this funk.

Social Media Week NY: Innovation in Politics, Policy, and Social Change through Social Media Pt. 2 from Panman Productions on Vimeo.

Social Media Week NY: Innovation in Politics, Policy, and Social Change through Social Media Pt. 2 from Panman Productions on Vimeo.