Miranda And You And Everyone We Know
Posted by Steffen Böddeker
In the spirit of looking elsewhere for interesting ideas to apply in a museum context (see Learning from Rem), I went back to another favorite. Let an artist conceive her own website, and you will likely have an excellent example of something with a clear character. Miranda July uses just about any medium in her art, and her websites are a tightly integrated component.
Miranda July captures what I miss in most museum websites - a sense of personality. Perhaps the term “institutional character” is an oxymoron, but I don’t think so. While mission statements (and grant applications) attempt to clearly distinguish a museum from its sister institutions, the websites often don’t. Most museums overemphasize the website’s technical role of providing access to information. What needs more attention is how - with what voice - that information is delivered. In the coming days I will be publishing a two-part interview with the Indianapolis Museum of Art's Director Maxwell Anderson and his former Director of New Media Daniel Incandela. Both have strong feelings about this topic, and Anderson makes a clear case for the need of the museum and its online initiatives to reflect specific values.
Obviously museums can’t write their websites on kitchen appliances (as July did for No One Belongs Here More Than You), but there is a lot that can be done to give the website a voice that will speak to - and connect with - its visitors. A startling example is this 2006 Webby Nominee, which after several years remains lodged in my memory because of the choice its opening screen forces on visitors.
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Miranda July
artist website
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