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February 12, 2010
 

Content vs. Interface, 1:0

Posted by Steffen Böddeker 

Since its launch in November 2009, the Whitney Museum website, has been steadily adding great content in its Watch & Listen category. Of most interest are the exhibition-related videos, which give voice to the artists and provide excellent insight to their work. The videos are produced in a way that makes them worth watching if you saw the exhibition or not. Some are occasionally funny advance teasers like the series leading up to the opening of the 2010 Whitney Biennial; others are more serious, produced later to capture the artist reflecting on the work or installation, as in the small group for Roni Horn aka Roni Horn. (Although why these Roni Horn videos, for example, are found only under Watch & Listen and not on the dedicated exhibition page and remains a question.)
 
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Event-related video and audio files (here) are produced with less flair, but provide an interesting resource and there is already enough content to make a relevant reference archive. A great example is Richard Nonas speaking about Gordon Matta-Clark and the broader 1970s art scene in SoHo, New York (here).
 
Etb-5_whitney-watchlisten-nona
The fundamental critique of the site still stands (read original post here), and my assumption is that improvements to the interface design will be made, hopefully soon. At the same time it is worth noting that the Whitney team is very busy producing and pushing excellent content, and that the new site serves the Whitney well as a platform to publish this media.

While the Whitney RSS feed gives too many updates to static pages (Visiting Information, general Education pages, etc), it will also drop these worthwhile event and exhibition media uploads in your Inbox. I recommend adding the subscription, because you just don’t want to miss this:

Rashaad Newsome: Jasmine, Dawn, and Aaliyah, 2010

Filed under  //   media   video   whitney  

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November 29, 2009
 

New Whitney Museum Website

Posted by el tercer brazo 

by Steffen Boddeker

The Whitney Museum of American Art recently launched its new website. The Whitney famously struggles to distinguish itself on the highly competitive Manhattan landscape against institutions like the Met, MoMA, and Guggenheim – a group that now also includes the coming-from-behind New Museum. The New Museum initially put itself on the cultural landscape by filling a vacuum with its original programs and exhibitions, and was able to galvanize its presence with the opening of its own building in 2007. The Whitney’s self-described problems with its 1966 Marcel Breuer building are well known, as are its various attempts to add on or branch out over the years via Michael Graves (an outrageous proposal for sure, but was it so bad that there is no image record online and Graves himself buries the only reference deep inside a PDF download on his website?), Rem Koolhaas in 2001, and the more recently rejected expansion effort by Renzo Piano and his follow-up proposal for a new Downtown location). In the context of this inability to gain ground in the physical real estate of Manhattan, the opportunity to expand online by launching a new website is all the more tempting.  With a genuine investment – of not only time and money, but ideas, daring, innovation – this kind of a project can actually help the institution overcome the limitations of its physical place. At stake is the opportunity to clarify the identity of the institution, create a viable new space for it, and serve a new and growing audience in ways the building itself can’t.

How the Whitney missed this opportunity has been discussed quite a bit, and at times in great detail, elsewhere. The design of the site is deeply flawed, in ways that are particularly well outlined in posts on Perry Garvin’s PLOG and on Vincent Roman’s Permanently Uncached. As they point out, the good news is that many of the navigation and design issues are fixable. That poor design can slip past the guards is possible, but what about the attitude behind it?

The content itself holds great promise. The media and collection objects online are good, and many of the past exhibitions are nicely documented. But content itself is not enough, it has to be delivered in a thoughtful way. If the website should rise to the level of a true venue, the user needs more. Even though the site offers nice, timely collecting and sharing features, the overall structure feels old in its segregated, hierarchical organization. This is not a question of how a menu is designed, but how a menu is conceived – if it is necessary at all.

As Edward Tufte notes in his comment about the site, “why are museum websites hierarchical and concealing instead of flat and revealing?” The challenge for the museum is to invent a site that functions as its own place, rather than a mirror of the museum’s internal organization or even its physical place.

One particular aspect I find telling of the larger issues at hand is the changing background color on the homepage. Switching from white to black to indicate day versus night in New York is relevant to the Whitney’s online audience at best in a purely romantic sense. This intervention is an artist’s project, and I should admit that I like the notion of putting art right at the front door – physical as well as virtual. But there is a need to have a clear identity of your place before installing such a project. The problem is not so much the idea of changing the background on a certain cycle, but what triggers that change. This gesture could have been worth associating with something more relevant to either the museum or its users, ideally both. The opening versus closing hours of the galleries come to mind, or, even better, the color shift might reflect when the website is active – with programming, blogging, publishing content, responding to emails, etc. When the Whitney team goes offline, the screen inverts to black. I assume this would cut back drastically on the dark hours and result not only in increased legibility but a more flattering reflection on what I know must be a significant effort behind the project. By giving the gesture some meaning, taking it from decoration to communication, the site would better serve the Whitney in building a connection with its audience.

Filed under  //   museum website   online art   whitney  

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