A screenshot of At the Circus, one of the Pinterest boards Carlos created as a part of his social media internship. Image courtesy of the author
«Throughout my summer internship in social media as a part of the Met's MuSe Internship Program, I have been fascinated by the interaction between our everyday digital practices and the museum experience. In what ways can social media supplement the Met's physical setting and present the experience of its collection to a global audience? This question guided my journey into the Met's digital world, where I spent the summer experimenting with the inventive potential of technology and how it can recreate a museum visit online. Now a month past the end of my internship—still thinking of social media's unknowable possibilities and still challenged by 140-character limits—here are my reflections on the experience.»
The Met's timely embrace of digital technology as part of the Museum itself initiated my interest in its social media program. I am captivated by the idea that the Met's online presence is considered its fourth location (in addition to the Main Building, The Cloisters, and the forthcoming Met Breuer). This strategic vision rethinks the ways in which users can interact and identify with the Museum's collection online. The Met's social media presence exemplifies the interactive possibilities of experiencing art in today's photographic and computerized landscape.
I was fortunate to have the flexibility of tailoring the majority of my work this summer to my personal interest in modern and contemporary art. Moreover, I was surprised by the extent to which the process of writing social media content is more challenging than it endeavors to appear. The experience enriched how I identify with the Museum's collection and altered my understanding of the digital possibilities of audience engagement.
Due to my enduring admiration for the work of artist Pierre Huyghe, a project that I found particularly compelling was drafting Facebook and Twitter content for the exhibition The Roof Garden Commission: Pierre Huyghe (on view through November 1, 2015). The challenge of distilling Huyghe's complex installation into a concise yet substantive tweet helped me identify what I found fascinating and enjoyable about his work so that I could clearly communicate it to the public. Perhaps the 25,864 digital visitors who engaged with this tweet appreciated being able to experience Huyghe's linking of our geological past and global future through Twitter's juxtaposition of image and text.
Evoking an archaeological dig, Pierre Huyghe’s #MetRoof installation links the geological past with our global future pic.twitter.com/UzACOvvMmw
— metmuseum (@metmuseum) July 15, 2015
I also experimented with crafting digital Met experiences on Pinterest, where I curated new boards that centered around modern and contemporary art. Once a platform that I viewed as enigmatic and a tad inane, Pinterest has gradually garnered my respect. My Pinterest boards have become the exhibitions that I likely will never curate at the Met (for now at least!), and I enjoy the agency and responsibility required to produce thematic boards that reflect the Met's commitment to encyclopedism and cultural diversity.
My newly released circus-themed Pinterest board examines circuses throughout history. While the circus is traditionally thought of as a creation of Western modernity, my journey throughout the Met's Collection Online led me to discover historical and cross-cultural predecessors across various Museum departments, including Greek and Roman Art, European Paintings, Drawings and Prints, Asian Art, The Costume Institute, and Photographs.
Thinking of this Pinterest board as an exhibition challenged me to excavate transhistorical connections of art with rigor and playfulness. It further led me to realize the empowering potential of new and unexpected aesthetic experiences that are made possible by the digital mediation of culture.
So what's to come in social media? Just recently, during my internship, the Met surpassed one million followers on Twitter. For me, this thrilling moment proved that translating the Met onto social media serves the broader commitment of making the museum experience accessible, relevant, and relatable across networks and cultures. I am excited to see how the future of social media continues to transform museum experiences and connect the Met to its global audience.