LionShare (we are so CLEVER!)

Blythe Lancaster & Brittanie Wine
CyberPed-Museum Interactive Proposal

“Don’t stay in the gallery longer than your child’s interest can be sustained,” warns the video on how to make the most of your museum visit with a small child. But have you ever been to the museum with a teen or even an early twenty-something who was not an art student? We are not entirely sure that their interest can be sustained much longer. This proposal is probably a little out there for the Art Institute of Chicago, and for issues of both legality and reputation, they would likely have some trouble implementing it, but we propose it as an alternative and possibly less intimidating way to interact with art and other museum goers.
We give you (drumroll please) LionShare, the Facebook or Myspace for the works in the Art Institute of Chicago. This is a website, accessible through the already established website for the Art Institute, and it would be available to computers outside of the museum as well as on the kiosks within the museum. Users have the option to create a profile and log in as a member, or to post anonymously, signed in as a guest. For those who wish to set up a member profile while in the museum, the kiosks will incorporate a photo-booth feature, allowing visitors to take a quick picture of themselves and superimpose it on a selection of “backgrounds” (artworks from the museum’s collection). Members or guests will view a live-feed homepage of comments and will be able to sign in to post their own.
Each work in the museum’s collection will have a profile page, much like a person would have on Facebook or Myspace. These would be created by highly paid interns from the Art Education Department at SAIC. They will include the information that would typically be found in the wall text that accompanies the work, but this is as “museum” as it gets.
From the live-feed page, members or guests can post a comment directly to the page without referencing a specific work. If a person chooses to reference a specific work, a thumbnail image of the work will be posted to the left of the comment. When others view the page, they will be able to enlarge the thumbnail and click on it to go to that particular artwork’s profile.
Comments that reference a specific work will also be posted directly to the artwork’s profile. Once members or guests are on the artwork’s profile page, they can engage directly in dialogue about that specific work with other site visitors at home or in the museum.
Best of all, there is no overseeing museum censor. Of course, there will be a terms of use agreement, but comments can be quick, personal, humorous or angry. Conversation is sometimes discouraged in a museum, with the notion that it should be a place for study or silent introspection. Perhaps, there is a certain embarrassment to make a “wrong” interpretation out loud in public. We propose a site for silent collaborative and organic meaning-making—it will not disturb quiet visitors and provides a low-risk space for conversation. Perhaps, if people are less intimidated and enter the work though a site that could be entertaining, as well as informative, more people, specifically teens and young adults will be willing to engage with the art. Hopefully this format will be more inviting to people who would do not feel comfortable conversing in the physical museum space with its rules of appropriate conduct and commentary.