Kuitca’s pieces, ranging from small works on paper to large-scale paintings, incorporated much of his experience with theater.  In many of his large paintings, small theatrical sets were placed amongst a dark and blurry yet richly hued background.  These pieces depicted an audience members view of the stage.  However, a true theater background cannot be complete without the actors perspective of the audience.  So Kuitca created a group of pieces showcasing the theater itself.

I have recently graduated and plan on moving to Washington, D.C. in the near future.  There are plenty of museums in D.C. and I hope to incorporate many of them into my blog.  I especially want to visit some of the museums I have previously blogged about,  such as the Newseum, the Smithsonian, and the Holocaust Museum.  Visiting these museums will bring about a new perspective and perhaps I can see for myself the way they incorporate social media into their everyday agenda.

So stay tuned. My blog is taking a turn!

The HBO Pacific Tribute Campaign Kiosks will further the museums interactivity by allowing visitors to record a video thanking veterans and active military. The visitors can record their message onto one of the kiosks that uses a new technology called, MeTV. MeTV is the first ever location-based two-way broadcast platform. It enables users to record 30-second video messages and send them to any location in the connected MeTV world. Users have options after recording their “thank you” message to the soldiers. Users can send their video to any e-mail address, Tweeter feeds and Facebook pages, and even directly to a soldier. HBO will then select videos to be part of a montage that will be aired on HBO.com. The montage will then be sent to troops in efforts to show our thanks and appreciation. 

The use of Web 2.0 as well as new technologies, such as MeTV, has made this entire campaign possible. All stages of the Campaign create interactivity. MeTV enables users of this technology to connect their recordings to social media networks. HBO is using web video to air their video and American Airlines is enabling users to be a part of this phenomenon. MeTV, HBO and the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum have the right idea. What better way to make veterans and active military feel appreciated than a video montage of thousands personally thanking them?

Poster of the HBO new series "The Pacific"

The underwater museum is to be constructed in the shallow waters of the Mediterranean right off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt. This is thought to be the site of the famous Queen Cleopatra’s palace before it sank into the sea due to earthquakes. For years archeologists have discovered buried treasures such as sphinxes and statues of the gods. The proposed underwater museum will be both inland and underwater. Underwater fiberglass tunnels will allow visitors to see underwater structures once belonging to the magical city.

Plans for the proposed museum

Rougerie feels its only necessary to allow the historical structures to remain on the seabed out of respect for the history of the once above-water city. However, he wants visitors to be able to experience such grand artifacts and believes his museum is the perfect way to do so. Funding and logistical concerns are still in the way of Rougerie’s hopes and dreams, yet he has the city of Alexandria on his side. The city believes that the attraction will enhance its tourism industry as well as well as its historical significance.

The proposal of the museum has made headway on the internet and will hopefully do so physically.

It is often difficult to think back to the times when companies didn’t have a Facebook page. It’s actually pretty amazing that such an effective advertising strategy is so cheap. However, strategic planning and continuous use must take place in order for this advertising platform to be a success!

One example of a museum that does a great job promoting the company by using Facebook is the California Science Center. When you visit its homepage, a link to Facebook is in clear view. It reads as the one pictured above does: “Find us on Facebook”. This link is more effective than the usual Facebook icon that is just an “F”. Its size alone draws in more attention and visitors that are unfamiliar with the social networking site may not fully grasp the meaning of just the “F” icon.

The California Science Center’s Facebook page is full of information about the museum. It includes the museum’s Mission Statement,  as well as lists of its fans, favorite pages, events and photo albums. The Facebook page also includes embedded videos and pictures and posts, all of which its fans can comment on. The mechanics of Facebook alone create a conversational atmosphere. Fans can comment on a certain picture, the individual(s) who are in charge of the museum’s Facebook can read the comment and then respond. The California Science Museum is using Facebook to its ultimate good. It understands how to use social media to promote the museum and it understands how to successfully do so. Not only does the California Science Center successfully use Facebook, but it has also entered the Twitter world according to its lasted Facebook post that reads, “we tweet, twitter.com/casciencecenter“.

Mosaic globe at the California Science Center

Picture of the Newseum

When visiting the Newseum’s website, you can find links to its YouTube channel and its Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr pages. The Newseum also has a link to a page that displays the front page of 849 newspaper across the country. This is exceptional because you can click on the link and actually view and read the newspaper’s front page. In the following video CBS News’ Bill Plante takes us on a tour of the Newseum.

In the video Bill shows us just how interactive the Newseum is. He enters the Show Yourself as a Reporter exhibit in the museum. Here visitors can stand in front of a camera and appear before different reporting backgrounds, such as the White House. This exhibit alone is thrilling for visitors and children. But the Newseum takes this excitement to a new level. Once visitors access the Newseum’s website, they can download everything they recorded and email it to friends and family.

The Newseum provides strong interactivity in and outside of its walls. With our country’s news industry delving into the interactive social media world, it is no surprise that our country’s Newseum is doing the same!

Pyramid at the Louvre

Musee De Louvre also known as the Louvre Museum in English is located in Paris, France. Over 200 years old, the Lourve is home to 537 paintings including Leonardo Di Vinci’s, Mona Lisa. It is one of the world’s largest museums and is the most visited museum in the world. After taking this information into consideration, I found the museum’s website to be a bit troubling. While visiting the website, I quickly noticed that it is very simple. I managed to find a option for visitors to sign into an account titled, My Personal Space. Here account holders can donate online, apply for membership of a circle, and subscribe for the Louvre.fr newsletter. These are all great ideas for the Louvre to accommodate the wants and needs of their publics. However, the website lacked some key components that are present in all the other museum websites I have explored in this blog; links to social media networks. These links are non-existent because the museum doesn’t exist in the social media world. The Louvre does not  have a Facebook account, nor a Twitter, Flickr, or even Myspace account. It doesn’t contain an RSS Feed option either. Without being a member of these social media networks, how can the Louvre’s publics communicate with the museum?

This problem is most likely related to the popularity, or lack there of, social media networks in France. According to Jean Thomas’ article, Social media and France – the contradictions, from Multilingual Search: World Edition, in May 2009 81% of French people did not trust social media networks. Since then several social media sites have been translated from English to French. This translation has enabled Facebook for example to become the number one social media network in France within one year with over 4 million users. A press release article in comScore., Social Networking Has Banner Year in France Growing 45 Percent, shows that the usage of social media networks in fact has grown by 45% in France. Because of this significant growth in social networking, perhaps the Louvre Museum should take note and join the crowd!

What’s happening? This simple question answered by so many, has led Twitter to the top when it comes to social media networks. If you are unfamiliar with Twitter this CommonCraft video, Twitter in Plain English, will help clear things up. Twitter was created to allow its users to stay updated with the lives of their friends and families. Answering the ultimate question with simple statements such as “off to the gym” or “cooking home-made spaghetti” allows your friends and family members to know the small things you do throughout your day; information they wouldn’t know about otherwise. Twitter allows for its members to respond to one-another by using the @ symbol. It also allows for its members to retweet and ad links or photos. These mechanics create two-way communication or a conversation between users. Because of this, many companies and corporations have joined the Twitter community. They use the network to keep their followers updated on the company. In the video, Twitter Can Work For Just About Anyone, Shel Holtz, a social media expert, explains how any company can use Twitter to its advantage.  

So, museums have jumped onto the bandwagon. All the museums I have mentioned in previous posts all are active members on Twitter. They use the network to inform their constituents such as employees and visitors, on upcoming events, upcoming exhibits, closings, etc. Not only is Twitter used by museums to communicate their messages to their audiences but it is also used as a sort of advertising platform. Posts can draw visitors to a museum when they read that an interesting exhibit is coming to town. However, Twitter must be used in a creative way. It is a large environment to delve into, so museums must do so in an effective way. In Nina Simon’s Blog, Museum 2.0, she writes about how museums can improve the way they use Twitter.

Jackson Pollock's Blue Holes

There are many options for visitors when visiting the website. Not only can can visitors view the museum’s calendar of events or purchase museum tickets, but viewers can also become a member of the museum, make donations online to the museum, and even shop for well designed great gifts like the Big Love Ice Cream Bowl & Spoon. Giving visitors the opportunity to shop on the MoMA website generates additional revenue for the museum which is never a bad thing considering our current economic standing. This is a great way to gain an online audience that may not have the resources to actually visit the museum, but enjoy modern art enough to purchase it. Like the other museums I have made posts about, The Museum of Modern Art is also present on the usual social media networks. From the museum’s home-page visitors can access the museum blog as well as their Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, and iTunes U accounts. The iTunes U account, software permitted, allows visitors to access the museum’s audio and video programs. Visitors can download exhibitions, educator guides, and of course the top albums of the week. The Museum of Modern Art is a great example of just how far a museum can delve into the web while creating a great experience for its online visitors.

Shoe Exhibit at the Holocaust Museum

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, unlike many other museums, contains a moral message within its walls. The museum serves the purpose of a memorial to the victims killed during the Holocaust as well as an educational exhibition for its visitors. However, its most important purpose is for visitors to leave the walls with a new understanding of respect for humanity. The Holocaust Museum focuses on a younger audience because they are the generation that will soon lead our country. The museum aims to inform this audience about the Holocaust in general as well as any misinformation about the historical event that tends to be quite prevalent on the Internet. In What You Do Matters, a video posted on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website, the Director of the Museum, Sara Bloomfield asks viewers to image the Nazi’s with the Internet and to imagine the power the Nazis’ could have gained with this technology. The power of the Internet paired with young adults can also be very powerful. The Internet is a dangerous atmosphere when it comes to the presence of hate and negativity. There is much room for hate to grow on the Internet, and the Holocaust Museum focuses on getting rid of this potential hate as if it were the hate that accumulated almost a century ago among the Nazis.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has engulfed themselves into the world of social media. They understand that it is important for their content to be found on the Internet and they use certain outlets to make sure of it. On the Youtube video, Social Media Important Tool for Holocaust Museum, Larry Swaider the Chief Information Officer at the Holocaust Museum explains why it is important for the Museum to use social media in order to be found on the internet, as well as how they use social media as a compliment to one-on-one personal communication.