Darling you send me...art!
July 11, 2017 8:50 AM   Subscribe

Like most museums, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art can show only a fraction of its collection at once, largely due to space constraints. In its case, only about 5% of its treasures are on view at a time. To increase accessibility to its nearly 35,000 works, the museum has a really neat tool that literally places artworks in the palm of your hand: Send Me SFMOMA, a text messaging service that sends you images of artworks in response to your personal interests. [via]

Text 572-51 with the words “send me” followed by a keyword, a color, or even an emoji and you’ll receive a related artwork image and caption via text message. For example “send me the ocean” might get you Pirkle Jones’ Breaking Wave, Golden Gate; “send me something blue” could result in Éponge (SE180) by Yves Klein; and “send me 💐” might return Yasumasa Morimura’s An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Collar of Thorns). Each text message triggers a query to the SFMOMA collection API, which then responds with an artwork matching your request.
posted by Room 641-A (21 comments total) 29 users marked this as a favorite
 
Delightful! I thanked it even though I knew there was no human back there.
posted by thesmallmachine at 9:12 AM on July 11, 2017


Requests for "pie" got me two pictures of different "piers".

A request for 🍰 got me Display Cakes by Wayne Thiebaud, which is exactly what I expected.

(Too few artists focus on dessert.)
posted by elsietheeel at 9:12 AM on July 11, 2017 [4 favorites]


Haha: "Send Me A Cat" got me Robert Rauschenberg's Catastrophe.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 9:31 AM on July 11, 2017 [3 favorites]


I didn't think it would, but just to confirm this doesn't work with Canadian carriers. It's okay, I found my own 🌋.
posted by wreckingball at 9:50 AM on July 11, 2017


Also disappointed that this doesn't work in Canada, so here's a Morris Graves bird being angry about technology.
posted by ZaphodB at 9:59 AM on July 11, 2017




Does not seem to recognize names of artists, e.g. Ed Ruscha, Sol Lewit, which is rather surprising. And when I asked it to "send me an Eames," I was sent a chair by Tom Price instead.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 10:16 AM on July 11, 2017


Many museums have way more stuff than they can display.

I live in the USA but a couple years ago I visited relatives in Scotland. We visited a transportation museum in Glasgow. And since it is owned by the city, a city resident can request to see any of it. My brother-in-law knew who to call, and we got to go to their warehouse and see the things they had in storage.

We were escorted by a guy who took notes on everything my husband (an antique motorcycle geek) knew about the items in there, many of which were barely catalogued. I never thought about it but it makes sense that museums don't just know what everything is when it comes into their possession. An active museum gets new acquisitions all the time and is always playing catch up. Someone has to research each item, and when an enthusiast amateur turns up on your doorstep and starts babbling, it's worth paying attention to them. You don't have to take it all as gospel, but it could include a lot of valuable leads, so they write it down.
posted by elizilla at 10:31 AM on July 11, 2017 [2 favorites]


I just texted "send me ruscha" and it sent me Wlilliam Wegman's Holding It so I guess it's like an ironic genie?
posted by Room 641-A at 10:40 AM on July 11, 2017


I texted 🍆 and wasn't sent any Mapplethorpe so I declare it broken
posted by donatella at 10:41 AM on July 11, 2017 [9 favorites]


(Seriously tho, I ❤️ SFMOMA and I ❤️ this)
posted by donatella at 10:43 AM on July 11, 2017


SFMOMA is a beautiful museum with a great collection, but it's easily the most hostile museum of its kind towards general accessibility that I've ever seen. Tickets are $25, there's no free day, and they don't participate in the AMA membership program, unlike every basically every museum of renown in other cities. I guess that's San Francisco for you, but damn is it galling. I guess this is probably their overture in that direction.
posted by invitapriore at 11:49 AM on July 11, 2017 [3 favorites]


I think we broke it.
posted by FritoKAL at 5:22 PM on July 11, 2017


I said "send me frida" and got a Diego Rivera instead.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:19 PM on July 11, 2017 [1 favorite]


The next SFMOMA Free Family Day is July 16, 2017.
Admission is always free for visitors 18 and under. On Free Family Day, general admission is also free for up to two adults accompanying each visitor 18 and under.
posted by blob at 10:26 PM on July 11, 2017


I texted "send me love" and got nothing.



*sob*
posted by MexicanYenta at 10:52 PM on July 11, 2017 [1 favorite]


I would like to thank the SFMOMA for this delightful piece, which is my new phone wallpaper. (send me cat).
posted by spinifex23 at 11:20 PM on July 11, 2017 [2 favorites]


I guess it's not the best of the web exactly, being SMS, but it's still what ubiquitous information networks are best at and I love it so much. Thanks for sharing.
posted by brett at 4:56 AM on July 12, 2017


Does not seem to recognize names of artists, e.g. Ed Ruscha, Sol Lewit, which is rather surprising. And when I asked it to "send me an Eames," I was sent a chair by Tom Price instead.

I just texted "send me ruscha" and it sent me Wlilliam Wegman's Holding It so I guess it's like an ironic genie?


The reason you can't request an artist by name is a legal one. Museum works are tangles of public domain work, work under rights agreements, and works still controlled by artists, their descendants, their estates, or their foundations. There are a lot of restrictions that govern the reproduction of certain works - not all, but many. And there are super-arcane legal distinctions between being served up a work at near-random based on a tag, and being able to call up a work by requesting a reproduction by name, along with other distinctions between presenting a work and promoting it for financial gain. You can often get permissions for the first - educational purposes - but not the second. Based on my experience with these issues developing print and web pieces to engage people with museum collections, that's why you can't just say "Show me a Calder." This goes at it sideways for two reasons - one, because it's fun, and two, to get around the notion that a particular work is being used to promote the museum.
posted by Miko at 5:15 AM on July 12, 2017 [3 favorites]


Thanks Miko, that's interesting. "Here is your art. 😉"
posted by Room 641-A at 11:22 AM on July 12, 2017


I had to do it—I texted "send me nudes." This is the one time that it should be okay, right? The answer:

'We could not find any matches. Maybe try "Send me San Francisco" or "Send me 🌊" or "Send me something purple".'
posted by ejs at 10:07 AM on July 13, 2017


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