I’m taking a social media course at the AGO using the exhibits as food and fodder for our foray into this foreign land of communication. Those were a lot of unintentional ‘f’s’ in one sentence, although it works somehow. Somewhat how I feel about the social media.

We learned Twitter. Opened an account, added our headshot, a background banner, and spoke our first tweets. It took this class of ‘over 50 something’s’ two full hours to get this far.  Then we went to the gallery to explore the Abstract Art exhibit and experiment with how to see things in an interesting way. How to photograph the works of art, making them intriguing, perhaps taking the piece out of context, exposing the underbelly, predicating a social comment, or finding humour etc. Who knew that gaining an ‘online presence’ was such a calculated enterprise.

I mean, I’m sure it’s not that complicated for everyone – like the people who like to ‘share’ with their ‘friends’ every meal, coffee and cat. But, for those of us with general indifference for Facebook, and a flippancy to 140 characters of dribble, welcome to this ‘30,000 leagues’ of what to us is the same as an ‘under the sea’ exploration of communication. And, by the way, we may as well embrace it for all of its irreconcilable charms.

Lynn Crosbie is teaching the course. Lynn – poet, journalist, author, pop culture aficionado. First class. She intuitively has her finger on the pulse of what’s going on, what we are or should be interested in, and what is current before we even know it is. For example, when we were photographing the art she took a picture of Claes Oldenburg’s ‘Floor Burger’ and tweeted about it. Only a couple of days later, on Saturday morning there is the burger on the front page of Globe Arts, as this pop masterpiece returns to the floor of the AGO.

If I were a work of art on display at the gallery, I would probably put myself amongst this exhibit of Abstract Art of the 60’s and 70’s. There is certainly more historic and current art that I relate to, but, I am a product of that time period. It influenced my life, and continues to resonate. So, it is with a giant step that I embark on my moonwalk to social media.

I only have 5 followers. It makes you feel bad about yourself. So, follow me. I’ve posted 8 tweets, and even used hashtags, although still not exactly sure what they are, but I can  #JacquelineMarkowitz #recipeforlifeclub # AGO and  #JackBush …

I’m a work in progress.