{"id":2003,"date":"2012-11-06T09:06:03","date_gmt":"2012-11-06T14:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/?p=2003"},"modified":"2013-01-17T12:26:04","modified_gmt":"2013-01-17T17:26:04","slug":"lets-give-them-something-to-talk-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/main\/lets-give-them-something-to-talk-about.php","title":{"rendered":"Let’s give them something to talk about"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SOURCE: Flickr user ohhector<\/p><\/div>\n

Cartoonist Hugh MacCleod’s post about ‘Social Objects for Beginners<\/a>‘ is many years old (like an ancient rune in webtime), but I keep going back to it. It’s an issue so central to the cultural manager’s work and leadership that it deserves recurring attention.<\/p>\n

MacCleod builds on the insights<\/a> of anth\u00adro\u00adpol\u00adogist and social software maven Jyri Enges\u00adtrom, and\u00a0defines the concept this way:<\/p>\n

The Social Object, in a nutshell, is the rea\u00adson two peo\u00adple are tal\u00adking to each other, as oppo\u00adsed to tal\u00adking to some\u00adbody else. Human beings are social ani\u00admals. We like to socia\u00adlize. But if think about it, there needs to be a rea\u00adson for it to hap\u00adpen in the first place. That rea\u00adson, that ”node” in the social net\u00adwork, is what we call the Social Object.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are thousands of examples of ‘social objects’ in use. MacCleod offers seven of them. From bowling, to books, to Star Wars trivia, to a socialite’s charity ball, social objects give people something to talk about, to gather around. Every post or status update or video or article posted on Facebook is a social object — it’s purpose is to start a conversation, or continue one (through comments, or ‘likes’, or sharing, or timelines). And most of the social network sites we use everyday use ‘objects’ to advance social goals — YouTube uses videos, Flickr uses photos, Pinterest uses clippings and snapshots from around the web. Wine is a social object, so is coffee, and food, and on and on and on.<\/p>\n

MacCleod’s first essential point about social objects is that ”social net\u00adworks form around social objects, not the other way around.” Social networks are just systems of potential connections, a marketplace ready for transaction. Social objects activate people within those networks, they are the magnets of connection and interaction. His second essential point is that ”social objects by them\u00adsel\u00adves don\u2019t mat\u00adter in the grand scheme of things.” That is, without one thing to talk about, people will find another thing.<\/p>\n

Obviously, none of this is revelatory to the arts. Arts events, objects, experiences, and opportunities are clearly social objects, and we have often considered them as such in our building design, our program design, and our experience design around live arts engagement. But we often forget, somewhere in there, that the art is not the center of that universe. The connection is the center: the conversation, the shared construction of meaning or purpose or identity or community.<\/p>\n

We are all social subjects, in search of social objects to draw our attention and give us something to talk about. Discuss amongst yourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cartoonist Hugh MacCleod’s post about ‘Social Objects for Beginners‘ is many years old (like an ancient rune in webtime), but I keep going back to it. It’s an issue so central to the cultural manager’s work and leadership that it deserves recurring attention. MacCleod builds on the insights of anth\u00adro\u00adpol\u00adogist and social software maven Jyri […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/artfulmanager\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}