Students’ craving for "tech cool" made the iPod a world success for Apple, a phenomenon regularly cited by Alan Middleton, marketing professor at York’s Schulich School of Business, as a prime example of understanding the marketplace. The point hasn’t been lost on the folks at the Art Gallery of York University either. Along with their new state-of-the-art Web site, gallery staff have launched Podcasts, digital audio transcripts of interviews and discussions of exhibits compatible with the iPod and other MP3 audio players.
Podcast is the gallery's latest Web-based project to investigate and extend the education potential of digital content. By making some of AGYU's on-site events and public programs available for download, the gallery hopes to develop and disseminate critical resources on contemporary art that can be accessed by its listeners/visitors with ease and portability. All new Podcasts will be announced and published on the AGYU Blog and an archive of these presentations is listed on the Multimedia section of the AGYU Web site.
"The addition of the Podcast continues to keep us at the forefront of contemporary Canadian art Web sites," said Philip Monk (left), AGYU director. "Together with the blog, it allows us to respond immediately to our exhibitions and audience by actively participating in the process of thinking about contemporary art."
Currently, there are two Podcast items available: a two-part recording of the Performance Bus talk by Steve Reinke, recorded on Nov. 24, 2004, about filmmaker Mike Hoolboom, whose work was featured at the AGYU last fall; and a four-part archive of the panel discussion held March 8, 2005, on Istvan Kantor and his Machinery Execution exhibit which just wrapped up at AGYU (Feb. 9 -April 3).
The Podcasts are just one feature of the new AGYU Web site, which was designed by York alumna Janice Leung (right) (BA Hons. '04). Leung created the AGYU Blog as a means for Monk and others to have discussions about the works of the gallery’s exhibiting artists and record public comments. She also initiated the site’s multimedia archives, e-newsletter, online bookstore and the soon-to-be-launched media section that will give journalists access to media packages and high-resolution images from shows.
For more information about the gallery, visit the AGYU Web site.