"For example 'send me the ocean' might get you Pirkle Jones' Breaking Wave, Golden Gate; 'send me something blue' could result in Eponge (SE180) by Yves Klein; and 'send me [flowers emoji]' might return Yasumasa Morimura's An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Collar of Thorns)," Jay Mollica, SFMOMA's creative technologist, said. "Each text message triggers a query to the SFMOMA collection API, which then responds with an artwork matching your request."
While the project was being beta tested, Send Me SFMOMA received 12,000 text messages through four days and generated 3,000 individual pieces of artwork.
"Send Me SFMOMA returned such a deluge of responses that the original number was blacklisted by major mobile carriers - they thought SFMOMA was spamming people with art!" Mollica said.
After the success of the beta, the museum secured a five-digit code that carriers would know not to blacklist and the SFMOMA's head of digital, Keir Winesmith tweeted the museum sent out 385,000 texts as of 5:30 p.m. on Monday.
The program is currently only available in the United States, but the museum said it is looking to extend it to other locations throughout the globe.
In the beta period alone, Send Me SFMOMA generated more artwork than is currently on display in the museum and Mollica hopes the program will continue to give people the opportunity to catch a glimpse of art that is currently in storage or rarely seen by the public.
"When you say 'Send me a landscape' you won't get 791 landscapes, you'll get a landscape chosen just for you," he said. "You may one day be able to visit your landscape in SFMOMA's galleries, or you may be the only person to see it for years to come."
