At Scope, as can be expected, the pieces are a bit edgier than at Red Dot and Art Miami. Three of the Scope pieces in particular were interesting.

The first, “Dornen” by Marck at Licht Feld of Basel, incorporates sculpture into the image, as a woman moves up and down the video screen in between posts that are physically protruding from the screen. She doesn’t grab the posts, just moves her head, arms, and torso up and down the screen, in between the posts. As she contorts to fit between the posts, you can see her digital body flexing, hair moving, shirt wrinkling when she rubs past the physical posts. The posts appear as three dimensional objects that retreat from their protrusion back into the screen, as deep as the body they are shaping into bended willows. The optical illusion mesmerizes—for a bit. While the illusion of the three dimensional posts, and the depth of the digital image is technically quite well done, the piece could have taken the movement a bit farther. The positions of the posts limits the options for contortion, and when her hands reach the top of the frame, I was disappointed to see them retreating so quickly.

The last two pieces at Scope that were intriguing were a pair of works. The artist begins with Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” and over four minutes, slowly ages the girl to an old woman, with the paint changing ever so subtlety. The second piece is a diptych with a piece of art on one screen and people sitting on a couch in the other. Eventually, the art disappears from the first screen and appears as a framed piece above the couch, with those on the couch seemingly oblivious to the addition of the art above their head. The oblivion continues as oversized insects begin to march across the wall above the couch. The cynical commentary on obliviousness—whether it be art or insects—fits nicely within Scope’s attitude.

Exploring the context of art works continues in two compelling pieces at Art Miami. Gregory Scott at the Catherine Edelman Gallery has two pieces that drew in viewers. Both pieces use multiple media, mostly painting, photography and video, within the video. The different media interact—what is a painting in one frame of the video is a photograph or a video in the next. So as not to spoil the visual illusions, here are hyperlinks:

“Fabrication” is a mind boggling puzzle as art becomes video becomes photo becomes art.

“Myopia” takes place within a gallery setting. With both pieces, gasps are heard and smiles are seen as viewers respond to the changing dynamics of the “art” and the “audience.”

While watching Scott’s video, I was quietly smiling, admiring his ability to play with the concept of art as perception with such insight, while at the same time delivering on a highly polished and aesthetically appealing level. My hat is off to you, Gregory Scott.

The final pieces that caught my attention were by Susie Lee with Myers Contemporary at the entrance to Red Dot. One of few video pieces at Red Dot, Lee’s approach to these video works is contemplative and compassionate. These video portraits are gentle and insightful looks at the relationship of the subject to the camera and lights in the field of portraiture, while at the same time creating a quietly powerful profile of the subject.

Similar to Bill Viola’s works that evolve slowly and subtly over time, Lee’s videos change slowly, rewarding the viewer with subtle shifts or a different image with every glance. Unlike Viola’s slow motion installations, Lee’s portraits are real time, spanning 30 minutes in the life of the subjects. The length of time creates works of depth, revealing themselves over time, offering something new each time they are viewed.

By asking the subjects to hold poses for an extended period of time, as they would in photography, sculpture or painting studios, Lee is recreating the time-honored tradition of portraiture posing. By videoing the session, Lee captures an intimacy in the subject that is not possible in other media. As a young girl moves her leg or an old woman moves her head, the viewer is drawn into an emotional connection with the subject. Less abstract than a captured moment in time, a viewer is drawn more deeply into the subject as they watch them over time, quietly posing for their portrait, blinking, taking breaths, thinking, being.

All of Lee’s poses are based on master works by Picasso and Goya. The lighting and posing is delicate and refined, as are the videos themselves. The sensitivity and compassion with which Lee approaches her subjects is evident in the willingness with which the subjects reveal themselves over time. Susie Lee’s powerful video portraits are best seen in the evening, when light from the entrance to Red Dot does not overpower them.

Scope, the edgiest of the three, Red Dot featured Annapolitan Mark Myers at their entrance,  and Art Miami the most refined (which also frowned upon picture taking). Of the three, I liked the vibe and art at Art Miami the best, and I hope Mark’s art will be in there next year. You can click on these to get a better view.

Myers Contemporary’s art is all online.

More tomorrow–I wrote an essay about the video art I saw …

Obama had to. And the reasons why apply to business leadership, too.

1. Senior leadership, to be effective, needs to be in lockstep. Followers need to know what direction to go in. Especially in a crisis, there needs to one message, maybe coming from many different sources, to guide an organization, a company, a country.
2. Leadership needs to be respected. For McChrystal to be respected, he needs to show respect to Obama. Without respect for leadership, the chain of command crumbles. If Obama had let McChrystal stay on, he was inviting insubordination from others.
3. There is a difference between debate and dissension. Debate is healthy. Sometimes it’s healthy for debate to be behind closed doors, and sometimes out in public, but it should always be held respectfully–with respect for others’ opinions. Dissension is not respectful.

When I heard about McChrystal’s comments, my first thought was that he must not have wanted his job. He’s got too much experience and intelligence to have sabotaged himself like that. One commentator I heard this afternoon surmised that it was McChrystal’s way of dodging responsibility, as in, “Yes, Obama and I are on the same page, but I need more men, more time.” He was passing the buck for the outcome to Obama. Whatever his motives,  he succeeded. He doesn’t have his job any more, and he certainly won’t get the credit or the blame for the outcome in Afghanistan.

Obama’s saving grace in this situation was that he could move quickly because he had an excellent replacement for McChrystal in General Petraeus.

Are you in lockstep with your leadership?

Or is it? Previous examples such as Exxon Valdez shows that time can heal all wounds when it comes to customer loyalty. And Toyota’s recall actually leveraged social media to rec-establish their image.

But remember the “United Breaks Guitars” YouTube video? I love how their anger was fueled into a great song that generated 8 million views. In the song he sings he argued with United for over a year.

So, short-term or long-term, social media does give power to the people. Use it wisely, friends.

And good luck, my public relations friends. It is not getting any easier.

Strategic marketing applies to social media. And there are a couple of concepts about social media that I find intriguing.

• A client felt he shouldn’t delve into social media because his kids used twitter. Now, his kids don’t have the budgt to rent a billboard, but if there were cheaper price points, do you think they might? His kids are using phones and websites, but that’s not stopping his company from using phones and websites. He shouldn’t use twitter the same way his kids do, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t use it.
• What are your goals for social media? Just like every other marketing tactic, figure out why you are doing it, and come up with a strategy and metrics.
• The social media landscape is changing quickly, and so should your strategy. You may want to stop twittering before everyone else already has.
• Original thought and original content is king.
• Saying something just to say something is as annoying now as it was before social media.

So, what is it you are trying to say? And why are you trying to say it?

No matter how long you’ve been doing this, there’s nothing like seeing the final results in print or live on the web.

Voila! Here’s some background on the sites.

Fresh online content helps you you achieve several things:

• stay in front of clients, customers, and prospects
• position yourself and your company as an expert
• increases your website’s value to search engines

You can write thought leadership pieces about your industry as I do in my newsletter, helping your readership better understand your industry and how they can be benefiting from it, with or without hiring you.

You can write about what other companies are doing in your industry–awards, new business, promotions, etc.. And it doesn’t just have to be your vertical, it could be synergistic companies. Here a marketing director for a construction company blogs about what is going on in the architecture and design world–these are the construction company’s clients. 

You could write about companies in your geographic region. A PR firm in Anne Arundel County blogs about business activities in the region.  

Here are some other ideas:

• Become the expert on career development in your industry: career opportunities, job openings, people searching for jobs, interviewing hints, logical career paths, finding or becoming a mentor.
• Be the event expert in your industry: create THE go-to calendar for events–local, regional, and national ones people should be attending, and then get attendees to review them.
• Become the expert on vendors: quality, service, price–give reviews and get others in your industry to chime in.
• Business process: how could your customers do business with you better? Become the expert on optimizing your supply chain to your customers by educating your customers about how to be prepared to do business with you to save themselves money and get a better quality result. “How to hire a marketing consultant/lawyer/architect” “How to get the most out of your designer/engineer/contractor”
• Become a funding/financing/pricing expert–what are the available contract vehicles for your industry, who is offering the best loan rates, what are the pros and cons of various pricing options in your industry?

Thanks to Lance and Chris for sharing ideas this week. Have you seen any other clever online content ideas? Please share–I’d love to be inspired, and I’m probably not alone ….

It’s time to get bold and get out there. Good, let’s do it! So, how do you get smart about getting bold? Some thoughts on strategic boldness and how lessons from sailing can be translated into marketing.

Stickiness is as dynamic as the forces around it including economic uncertainty, brand integrity and personalities. When the economy tanks, big brands (Toyota, GM, and Lehman Brothers) falter, and people have lost or are afraid of losing their jobs, stickiness is going to fluctuate, also.

Some people will shut down out of fear or a sense of being overwhelmed. They will blindly follow those brands that have not blatantly failed them on their brand promise. They will avoid like the plague those that have been publicly flogged.

Other people will become brand skeptics or cynics, and re-evaluate every transaction they are engaged in. These people are as “un-sticky” as they can be.

And many other people will fall somewhere in the middle of this spectrum.

How can you take advantage of this fluctuation?

• Realize that you can’t take your loyal customers, much less your other customers, for granted. You have to live up to your brand promise for all your customers. And you probably need to strengthen your brand promise.
• There are probably some customer segments out there that will be more open to your offer than they were before. Make sure you are exploring customer markets you thought you were shut out of before.
• People that wouldn’t have even considered switching are probably proactively shopping. Make sure you are visible to them—where and how are they shopping?
• You may be able to get more meetings and sales presentations, but it might be harder to win them. Focus on your value proposition and your sales presentations.