The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is going hi-tech for its next exhibition to be titled, "blog.mode: addressing fashion" (lower-case letters intentional, like kd lang). To encourage interaction with its patrons, the museum will be installing a "blogbar" with 10 computer terminals so you can tell the curators just what you think of the show and the various individual pieces on display. That will apparently be the theme of the 40 piece show which will consist of items acquired since 2000. Curator Andrew Bolton told WWD,  "It's something we thought about for a while, observing visitors' behaviors in the different galleries of the museum...In the Costume Institute, it's always so lively and everyone has an opinion about fashion."
Well you know what they say about opinions being like a certain part of the human anatomy where the sun don't shine, but, hey, our comments are open so why shouldn't theirs be? We're not sure if the folks at the Met are aware of the potential can of worms they might open, or the possibility that if they get some of The Times' Cathy Horyn's faithful but long-winded followers, they might have a huge editing job before them, but it's their show, and we have to give them credit for trying something new. Of course, it's also way of disguising the fact that this show is a recent acquisitions survey rather than one of the museum's more cleverly themed outings. The blog will be accessible through the Met's website during the curse of the show, and then select comments will be incorporated into the catalog to be published after the end of the show's run.
This blog thing might just catch on.
Blogging at the Met: Costume Institute Courts Instant Feedback (WWD)