You Can Text The San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art And Receive Art In Return, But Can It Send You Meaning?
Like any brick and mortar establishment, art museums have to fight for their relevancy in an increasingly digital age. Of course, given that they're hubs of art and creativity, these museum efforts often eschew simple attention grabbing tactics and lead to new art experiences — such is the case with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's "Send Me SFMOMA" project. You can text the number "572-51" the words "send me" followed by any word or emoji and it will respond with a piece of art.
One of the big pitches for "Send Me SFMOMA" is that it allows the museum to leverage its collection of over 34,000 artworks, of which only a small fraction can be displayed in the museum at a given time. Here's a way Jay Mollica, SFMOMA's creative technologist imagines this working:
Okay, the idea is that the massive collection will lend itself to a personalized experience. Well, I tested it. I texted 572-51 "send me a landscape" and it sent me Robert Gober's "Prison Window" (1992):
First, I think it's a stretch to call this a landscape… or maybe that was my gut reaction because I'm apprehensive about this being my landscape. What does it say about me that my landscape riffs on a prison cell? I figured I'd try it again. Instead of sending me Gober's piece a second time, it sent me C. Seaver Jr.'s "View at Skinnersville" (ca. 1874):
Alright, so SFMOMA didn't cast judgement on me when it sent me prison bars. It probably just plucked a piece tagged with "landscape" in their collection API at random. Fair enough, but it almost spoils the premise of the arrangement, doesn't it? How is texting "Send me a landscape" fifty times in short succession in exchange for fifty different artworks all that more personal than a hasty museum patron spending their average 7 seconds in front of each piece?
I decided this needed to be tested further. Instead of asking for a type of art, I'd ask for something — a noun, a thought, a feeling — and see what it gives me. I sent "send me money" and got this 1930's stock exchange photo from Erich Salomon in return:
Going deeper. "Send me an idea" — and SFMOMA sent Anselm Kiefer's "Margarethe" (1981):
"Send me joy." Response? Henri Matisse's "Éole, one of six etchings for Ulysses by James Joyce" (1934):
These all hold up to my initial scrutiny, but I know in my heart that what really counts here are emoji. If "Send Me SFMOMA" can't convince me that it's interpreting the meaning in my emoji, then it can't convince me it's more than a semi-random response from an API call. Starting literal, "send me 🏈" returned Damien Hirst's "beautiful we love ya Leeds, we are the L.U. the L.U.F.C. painting" (1999):
Bad start — it's not looking for the difference between American football and footy? "Let's get suggestive," I thought. "send me 🍑":
SFMOMA provided! There it is, a big ol' butt center-of-frame in Garry Winogrand's photo. Surely, this is a sign that "Send Me SFMOMA" is doing something magical. I decided to press further. "send me 🍆":
A total failure. I refuse to believe that an American modern art museum has not one phallic object or depiction of an exposed penis in its collection. SFMOMA definitely does — but it didn't even misinterpret my sext and send me an aubergine.
Still, I won't forget any of these artworks any time soon. In that regard, "Send Me SFMOMA" did deliver a personal experience of art. I guess I just wish it was better at picking up what I was putting down.
[SFist]
