Jen + Gina Talk Shop Part One

Posted in: interview    On: August 28, 2009    posted by: sara

As promised, here is the first installment of Ms. Jen Bekman + Ms. Gina Trapani's conversation about art, computers, geeks and collecting. We'll follow up next week with the rest of their chat—the two discuss swimming and other sports, Brooklyn nostalgia and the view from above.

And now, I'll let the brilliant ladies speak for themselves.

Jen: Aloha! How are you?
Gina: Doing well, thank you! And you?
Jen: Really good. I had dinner with the president of your fan club last night.
Gina: Oh really? Who is that?
Jen: Anil.
Gina: Oh cool! I *love* that guy!
Jen: He is pretty rad, I do agree. Alaina and Anil are new friends, it's kind of awesome. I have a major friend crush.
Gina: Oh, that's so cool y'all are hanging out.
Jen: How's your summer going?
Gina: Really well, been enjoying it, not traveling, doing the "staycation" thing here in San Diego. The weather's been outrageous, been doing a lot of body-boarding and lounging around outside and at the beach.

1639_artworkimage.jpg Brooklyn Morning (17"x22") by Youngna Park | Globe (8"x10") by Rachel Hulin | Apple 1 (16"x20") by Mark Richards | Howon (11"x14") by Hosang Park | Houndstooth Pattern in Parking Lot, at Disney World, FL (16"x20") by Alex MacLean | Untitled (Bondi Baths, Sydney, Australia) (20"x24") by Carlo Van de Roer | iSketch104 (14"x11") by Jorge Colombo | The Office (17"x22") by Rebecca Loyche

Jen: OMG, love your selections!
Gina: Oh, thanks! I had so much fun doing this. Normally, I'm looking at (often, pretty bland-looking) software, so this was really fun.
Jen: Well, as I've said to the other curators, it's REALLY fun for me to see the selections that our guest curators make. And I was keen to have you do it because, as you're well aware, I DO consider you a curator! I was day-dreaming about our dinner before the Curating the Crowd-Sourced World panel just yesterday. How much fun was that?
Gina: OMG, SO fun. I still think about that dinner too!
Jen: Yeah, actually one thing that Nion said (I'm almost sure it was Nion) which I found deeply flattering, is that I had done a great job of curating people for the panel.
Gina: Yes, you did.
Jen: And, I do enjoy an opportunity to get together a diverse group of super-smarties who might never cross paths otherwise. In many ways, the preparation for the panel was the reward. Plus, [we ate] DONUTS. And oysters!
Gina: Yum. Next March, in Austin, I'm taking YOU out for dinner. Or maybe in NYC sometime!
Jen: Aren't you due for a trip here? Let's shoot for both and I'll pick up the check at one or the other. I was just polishing up the description of the talk I pitched for SXSW 2010!
Gina: I pitched a panel myself for SXSW; we must vote for each other's panels.
Jen: Yes, we will vote. Mine's called Inbox Hero and it's about how newsletters are awesome:
Want to forge real connections in this era of always-on social media? Send email. Yes, email! A well-crafted, thoughtful newsletter campaign can boost sales, generate buzz, expand your market and drive traffic. 20x200's newsletters—essential to engaging its devoted, passionate audience—are key to the site's success.
Gina: Love it! GREAT title. That's fantastic.
Jen: I am fond. I pitched it as a solo talk which is a little nerve-rattling. What's your panel?
Gina: Mine's called How'd They DO That? Secrets of Web Superstars:
Everyone starts out on the internet as a douche-bag. Then you do something that moves you above or below that line. - Ben Huh, SXSW 2009. How did the people you idolize online become internet rockstars? Hear a few of your favorite web content creators and tool developers discuss how they got started, lessons they learned along the way, and how to stay sane, inspired, and awesome when you work on the web.
Jen: Yay! That is really great. Love the quote too, parfait. Who's on it?
Gina: Well, I haven't gotten definite yeses from everyone yet, but hoping for... [Ed. Note: It’s a secret!] It's my excuse to interview my idols, should be fun!
Jen: Nice. Well, it's sure to be the mutual admiration society. So, I remember when I met you at Foo last summer—OK, actually, when I was fan girl and introduced myself to you—I was SO excited that you knew 20x200.
Gina: I do remember that, it was so cool to meet you in person: one of my favorite Foo connections ever.
Jen: [blushing!] Aww, seriously? That is rad. I don't remember the conversation exactly, but there was something specific you said about art on 20x200 that made me feel like, OH MY GOD it's WORKING. I think maybe you said you hadn't gotten any prints but enjoyed looking and figuring out what you did and didn't like. (Tell me if I am imagining things entirely.)
Gina: Yes, that's absolutely true. I love how it makes art accessible, easy to browse, affordable, less of a snob thing and more of a regular people thing.
Jen: One of the other things we discussed is that I really believe the process of looking is what helps someone refine his/her taste. I was super excited that someone like you felt comfortable looking/browsing 20x200. Figuring out how to engage people, how to get them to really look, is something that I think about a lot. Because once they've made an authentic connection with an image, I feel like it makes them more interested in art overall.
Gina: YES. That's why I really liked choosing my pieces today, I dove even deeper into thinking about why I liked certain pieces and what the patterns were overall.
Jen: It's like a Rorschach to see what people choose.
Gina: It is! It's so revealing about you as a person. I feel kind-of naked, actually.
Jen: Well, you look good naked if one is to judge you solely on your selections. You chose a lot of photographs—BUT only a couple of them are actually figurative, a lot are abstractions.
Gina: Haha, thanks. It hadn't even occurred to me that I went heavy on photographs, but that makes sense. I worked with photojournalists for a few years on a web site I helped produce. I think I developed a taste for photography then, though I don't work there anymore.
Jen: Ahah! Yeah, that'd do it. I also think that almost any citizen of the modern world feels that they have a certain fluency with photographic images. When did you work there?
Gina: Hmmm, must've been from 2003 'till 2006 or so, I was the "webmaster" and helped lay out the galleries, format article HTML, basic stuff.

officespace_artworkimage.jpg The Office by Rebecca Loyche

Jen: WEBMASTER—old skool. I think it's hilarious that Rebecca Loyche's photo is your favorite, by the way.
Gina: I love that photo. It made me laugh out loud. That is totally me, on many days of the week.
Jen: It's a really great photo and it gets better and better as you dig into the details.
Gina: It's true, all the gadgets and computers everywhere, her outfit, the shoes.
Jen: I'm actually particularly fond of the newsletter I wrote for that one.
Gina: Love the wicked witch death hint. Hahaha, your newsletter is great; I love that it was about an irrational fear of fiscal management for you.
Jen: I honed in on the accounting software myself since that kind of operational/administrative thing is my entrepreneurial nemesis. I have gotten MUCH better, for the record. It remains true that I am good at other things. I also like the photo's discordant color palette.
Gina: The pink windowsill outlines are so great!

1211_artworkimage.jpeg Apple 1 by Mark Richards

Jen: So, are you trying to start a nerd war by choosing Woz's Mac instead of the IBM mainframe?
Gina: Yes! Macs are prettier! This proves it!
Jen: LOL.
Gina: Can I just tell you how much I love computer innards? I built my first computer from parts late last year. The first time I held a naked CPU in my hand, well, it was kind-of a religious moment.
Jen: Whoa. That is some serious geek cred. Does it, um, actually work and stuff?
Gina: I'm typing on it right now! It’s actually much easier to do than it sounds. Modern stuff is all clean and perfect.
Jen: Wow!
Gina: That's why I love old computer parts, we get to see the evolution.
Jen: Mark Richards has an entire BOOK of photos of computer innards. I think you'd enjoy it.
Gina: Oh yeah, I think I saw prints from it at the Computer History Museum. I was mesmerized.
Jen: Yeah, he recently got a commission to document their entire collection, I do believe. I love the project! I released his editions when I was in SF for the Web 2.0 conference there. I did so on purpose because I wanted to have something to appeal to all the webby folks I'd be interacting with—based on my "if I can just get people to CONNECT" hunch. And hot damn, it worked! At least a few people had this experience of, "Wow, I didn't know that something interesting/important/beloved to me could be considered arty. Maybe there's some other art here I'd be into, too."
Gina: That's fantastic. You have so much good stuff for geeks. I love it.
Jen: Well, I am pretty geeky as art dealers go, perhaps among the geekiest. But also, I am very intent on engaging that audience with the artz.
Gina: This is why we pretty much became friends instantly.
Jen: One of the things that made me crazy during my time in Silicon Valley was that it was all PowerPoint and mountain bikes.
Gina: Ah, yes.
Jen: And what I like about 20x200 is that there are prints that are affordable enough for folks to tack up in their cubes to enrich their day-to-day life. But also, they are the real thing, so they can frame them up and put them in a place of pride in their homes. It's totally up to them. I'm really interested in enabling the experience...

I think we all agree, Jen is the best kind of enabler out there, right?

Till next week!

03:19 PM

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