1stfans Twitter Art Feed Artist for June 2009: Nick Fortunato

Nick Fortunato is the second artist selected via the open call for the 1stfans Twitter Art Feed. Similar to An Xiao’s work with Morse Code, Nick’s proposal for the feed explores the delivery of news and evolution of communication through the ages. As you’ll see, Nick came up with a great concept that will be a welcome addition to the feed:

The title of my project is “Poor SpumoniNick’s Almanack.” SpumoniNick is my Twitter handle and the Almanack I’m referring to is Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack.

almanack

This project is an attempt to draw parallels between Twitter, a modern day social networking tool and Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack, perhaps the original social networking publication. 275 years after publication of Franklin’s Almanack the form still holds, only the delivery method has changed—a singular voice, communicating to the masses. Then, Franklin’s masses were Colonial America, today it’s the world.

alm2.jpg

My goal is to “skin” the Twitter feed with content directly pulled from the original Almanacks. I believe that there is very little difference between the common observations people post today on Twitter and those aphorisms and proverbs found in Franklin’s texts. I will not modernize the language, keeping it in the older English as a way to reinforce the mashing of times from then to now.

alm5.jpg

The experience for the viewer will be one where my posts, in a voice from the past, are sprinkled in with their friends modern up to the minute updates.

Images:  Poor Richard’s Almanac – 1758 – Franklin, Benjamin (author) – Philadelphia – Library of Congress

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The 1stfans Twitter Art Feed is no longer a benefit of 1stfans membership, but the original feed in its entirety has been archived on the Brooklyn Museum website.

Will Cary

Will Cary

Will Cary was the Brooklyn Museum's Membership Manager from January 2008 to May 2010. In addition to making sure all Brooklyn Museum Members got the most out of their Membership, he also developed the 1stfans Membership program in order to grow the Museum’s community of supporters. Before joining the Brooklyn Museum in January 2008, Will worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Will graduated from Williams College with a degree in Art History and Economics. Will now works in Membership at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine.

Thursday, May 28th, 2009
1stfans, Membership