With Life on Mars we are trying some new things on the web. Our main web site, www.cmoa.org, offers a collections search tool, information about exhibitions, and upcoming events listings, but it does not yet offer opportunities for virtual visitors to interact with the museum and with eachother.

Here you will find a rich repository of information about Life on Mars, the 2008 Carnegie International, along with multiple ways to participate. We encourage you to explore these tools to engage with the exhibition, with the museum and its staff, and with each other. It is a work in progress--thanks for bearing with us while we continue to improve both the content and the performance of the site.

Life on Mars on the social web

Stay in touch with what's going at Life on Mars in some of the popular social web communities. In addition to this web site, we have a flickr photostream and Life on Mars flickr group, a YouTube channel, and pages on del.icio.us, MySpace, and facebook.

Participate on the Life on Mars web site

Comment on works of art
Each work of art in the show has its own page, with at least one image, descriptive data, and in some cases additional information about the work. You may comment on any of the works of art using the comments form. Comments may include text, images, links, and audio/video content. We have some tips for users who have never done this before; we hope they are helpful.

Tag works of art
Each work also has ‘tags’—words or phrases that describe the art work and help other visitors to find it. We encourage you to add tags to any of the artwork pages. To prevent spam from cluttering the tags, we ask that you log in to your account; if you don’t have an account you will be directed to a brief registration form (see below).

Blogs
There are four blogs on this site, each serving a specific purpose.

Signals represents views from inside Life on Mars, the “official” voice of the Carnegie International. The posts are contributed by museum staff and guests invited along the way. Topics for this blog might include anything from curatorial statements to announcements, personal experiences, behind-the-scenes images, descriptions of some of our initiatives through this project, and so on. You are welcome comment on any Signals post. Comments may include text, images, links, and audio/video content.

Soundings is intended to permit members of the community, near or far, to publish their thoughts about the show, its theme, related news, and so on, not necessarily in response to the “official” voice of the Signals blog.

While public commenting on blogs is standard web fare, public blogging on a web site is highly experimental and we are not aware of other museums offering this opportunity. To blog on Soundings you must first register to create an account and log in with your username and password whenever you wish to post to the blog. Posts may include text, images, links, and audio/video players. Commenting on Soundings posts is available to all without registering or logging in.

Ideas and Updates is a blog for teachers to exchange thoughts, experiences, and ideas about Life on Mars. While the blog is open to public commenting, it is really meant for a focused discussion of educational activities and teaching as related to the exhibition. Teachers register for the blog using a special form for teachers, and they must log in each time they intend to publish a post. A common confusion is that registered teachers sometimes log in to the Soundings blog rather than the Ideas and Updates blog, so their posts do not end up where they want them.

Commenting on Ideas and Updates posts is available to all without registering or logging in. Posts and comments may include text, images, links, and audio/video players.

Zero Gravity is a blog generated by participants in the Zero Gravity Life on Mars High School Audience Engagement Project. Anyone can read the Zero Gravity blog, but only teens who have been invited to participate in the program are permitted to author a blog post.

In addition to the above, we host a number of classroom blogs on the Classroom Resources page. These are blogs we set up for specific teachers with their students, by request, and most are just now ready to get started. The policies of these blogs vary. In some cases they can be read by anyone. Some are completely private, though they may be listed in the Classroom Resources blog roll.

Feedback:
If you have ideas or suggestions about our web site, we welcome your feedback by email.

Registration/Log-in Help

Commenting on blogs or art work pages is permitted without a passworded account. A commenter can enter their real name or an alias, and any email address that looks like a real email address, though it need not be. A commenter can return to the site multiple times to comment and need not use the same name every time, unless they wish to.

To author a blog or add tags, a passworded account is required. The registration form asks for the following:

Username. This is the name you will enter when you log in. This name is not displayed so if you wish it can be your real name, but it need not be. Whatever it is, you need to remember it exactly if you expect to post again in the future.

Display Name. This is the name that will appear as the author of your post. It can be your real name or an alias, pseudonym, or nickname. You don’t need to remember this, and may change it in the future if you wish. Using this name to log in will not work.

Email address. This must be an actual email address where you can receive mail, because you will be sent a confirmation email and must use that email to confirm your registration. The email address is only used for confirmation purposes; we do not collect email addresses from the accounts or share them with third parties. [We have had some problems with registrants’ spam filters blocking the confirmation emails. We suggest you use an email address with a service such as gmail or hotmail]

Password. You have to remember this exactly if you expect to log in again in the future.

Password recovery phrase. This is a phrase that you would provide to the system should you forget your password and have to apply for a new one. The phrase should be one that you would easily remember.

Web site (optional). This address will be linked to the Display Name on your post. If you don’t want readers to visit your web site, you should leave this box blank. If you enter an address, it must begin with http://.

Share Life on Mars

Click the ShareThis link in the side bar to share what you find here with others on a wide range of social web sites such as Reddit, Digg, delicious, MySpace, StumbleUpon, facebook, and many others. Or send Life on Mars content to your friends with email or messaging. Click on the RSS icon at the top right corner to subscribe to our RSS feeds in every section of the site.

Terms of Use

Access to and use of text, artwork, photographs, audio, video and other files on this Web site are subject to the following terms and conditions:

All Content is Protected by Copyright Laws
Images, text, software, documentation, electronic text and image files, audio and video files and clips, and other materials are protected by copyright laws and may be covered by other restrictions as well. Carnegie Museum of Art (CMA) retains all rights, including copyright, in data, image, text, and any other information contained in these files. Copyrights and other proprietary rights in the material on this Web site may also subsist in individuals and entities other than, and in addition to, CMA. CMA expressly prohibits the copying of any protected materials on this Web site, except for the purposes of fair use as defined in the copyright laws, and as described below.

Fair Use is Permitted
Fair use of copyrighted material includes the use of protected materials for noncommercial educational purposes, such as teaching, scholarship, research, criticism, commentary, and news reporting. Unless otherwise noted, users who wish to download or print text, audio, video, image and other files from this Web site for such uses are welcome to do so without CMA's express permission. Users must cite the author and source of this material as they would material from any printed work; the citation should include the URL "http://blog.cmoa.org/ci08".

By downloading, printing, or otherwise using text, audio, video, image and other files from this Web site, whether accessed directly from this Web site or via other sites or mechanisms, users agree that they will limit their use of such files to fair use, and will not violate CMA's or any other party's proprietary rights.

Commercial Use is Restricted
Unauthorized publication or exploitation of CMA's files is specifically prohibited. Anyone wishing to use any of these files or images for commercial use, publication, or any purpose other than fair use as defined by law, must request and receive prior permission. All requests to reproduce works of art should made using the online Rights and Reproductions Electronic Order Form at http://www.cmoa.org/collections/rights_form.asp.
 

Images from top:

Doug Aitken, Migration, 2008. 4 projection outdoor video installation. Courtesy of 303 Gallery, New York; Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich; Victoria Miro Gallery, London; and Regen Projects, Los Angeles

Sharon Lockhart, Pine Flat Portrait Studio: Breanna, 2005. Framed chromogenic print. Carnegie Museum of Art, The Henry L. Hillman Fund

Rivane Neuenschwander, I Wish Your Wish, 2003. Screenprinted textile ribbons, drilled holes in wall. Collection Juan and Patricia Vergez, Argentina, and Thyssen Bornemisza Contemporary Art Foundation, Vienna