While not specifically mentioned in this Chicago Tribune article, this here Grocery List Collection is featured in the video linked at the end of the article.
The economic downturn has taken its toll on traditional museums with cutbacks and closings, but one corner of the collecting world is flourishing.
Virtual museums, just a few years ago seen as a curiosity, are gaining legitimacy as collectors open online galleries to share their passions.
Cereal box covers. Matchbook designs. Grocery lists. Record album covers. Motel signs. Prison escape tools. Toothpaste. Stewardess uniforms.
Whatever the obsession, the Internet has provided a limitless digital curio cabinet for sophisticated and novice collectors alike…
The Museum of Online Museums, a Web site created by Chicago design firm Coudal Partners, does its best to track online museums and serve as a gateway. The firm has collected about 1,200 links and puts up about 150 to 200 links at a time on its Web site, rotating the galleries quarterly. The firm has produced a video about online museums called “The Curators” due out this spring.
Last summer I was interviewed by Coudal Partners for that upcoming Museum of Online Museums documentary. Check out this preview clip. Awesome! I love how the YouTube video ID starts with “aSS.” Perfect.
Update: The film has been posted! Embedded below is the Part 1 with me. Watch Parts 2 and 3 to learn about Brian Collier’s Very Small Objects and Jennifer Sharpe’s The Kriegsmann Files. Fascinating stuff. Big thanks to the Coudal crew.
The Museum of Online Museums’ “The Curators” (Part One) from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.
About this MoOMumentary: For all these years we’ve been curating the Museum of Online Museums, one persistent question has been with us from the beginning: “Why?” It’s one thing to collect stamps or coins and have some association with a like-minded community. It’s something else entirely when you’re likely the only person on the planet scouring thrift shops for Fanta bottle caps. And it takes an extra special breed to then take their one-of-a-kind collection and building a dedicated online museum to share their odd passion with the world. We’ve been enjoying and collecting these collectors’ work for so many years, but it was high time we learned some origin stories. So we hit the road, camera in hand, landing in three cities and three states, seeing three collections up-close, interviewing each curator, and asking, well, “Why?”
Oh, and here’s a bonus grocery joke.
And this highly refined individual with impeccable taste is looking for a special someone.
That is all.