Category / Class 13

by Jessica

reading | the museum interface

merging the real and virtual

thoughts on:
new conventions of display that alter the conditions for viewing art
“applications such as Instagram and Vine are also enabling new phenomenologies around the way art is encountered, experienced and considered.”
“what does it mean for us to encounter an artist’s work for the first time via Facebook or Instagram or Vine?”

maybe it has something to do with how we learn about art, through representations of art. we subconsciously assume that our works will be remembered by their documentation, rarely the actual work itself.
the museum also opens itself to new forms of public interpretation. This is a true form of institutional vulnerability.

“The museum building, you might say, is a certain platform for social interaction organized around viewing art. Transferring this concept to the Web is more complex: what if certain artworks from a museum are stolen, damaged, sold or repossessed? If these works disappear from the museum’s walls, what are the implications for that museum’s digital audiences? These works could still be displayed on its website. But something would be different.”

web design = museum curation

there is a thrill in the fact that what you see online exists in real life. the web as an alternative *option* is what makes it so exciting and widely accepted.
this can also be seen as a transition phase we are moving out of, as it is hard to maintain both ‘platforms’, probably for many reasons.

by Joya

Depth

I found this article very interesting because recently I have been thinking a lot about how we experience moving through spaces. I think the legitimacy of the interaction is often placed below the interest founded in moving through time. However I believe that our ability to move through space is infinitely more interesting than moving through time would ever be. Because we already move through time at the pace we are at it is only the speed that would change. Just the idea of there being depth in spaces is amazing. That we can move forward and back through spaces that we create is incredibly interesting. The three diminutional then being interrupted into the two dimensional is a tough task. Certain nuances are bound to be lost. The feeling of the ground beneath your feat and the brush of the air around you is gone however the most interesting aspect, the experience of depth is achieved.

I decided to try to create depth using boxes. As you click through the colors rotate to simulate depth.

depth depth2 depth3 depth4

by Ashley

Is allowing artwork to appear online degraded its integrity?

In this insightful article, there is a deep conversation based on what web designers can do to find a balance between the real artwork versus it being placed virtually. Giampietro discusses that some viewers explain the sculpture with the smell of Walker’s installation having an impact. If someone views the artwork online none of that can be observed other than through comments on the web. However with the fast paced world that we live in today, digital databases are much more convenient than traveling an hour away from the city or on across the country to see a specific cultural art piece. Additionally, for museums to do audience research social media becomes that source instead of doing the mega slow in-person surveys. Additionally with the increase in technology, technological advances becomes an artwork and would me nothing in a 2D frozen photo. However for works that date back to the 1800s, I believe there is a disservice to the artist but possibly even more to the viewer because they don’t get to experience art by only going on online databases.

by isabela

Class 13 reading

Question: Did the internet kill the artist? 

 Sure, there are benefits to having a presence on the web; being able to conveniently make something visible to a large number of people at one time.  In my opinion, the internet ruins a lot of amazing human experiences. The act of going to an art museum in itself is an amazing human experience. To a lot people though, this experience seems pointless when they can just view the work online. I’m guilty of this; not wanting to pay to go to movie when I can just wait to torrent it online. This is especially true for books as well. Why would a person buy a book in paper form, when they simply download it onto their ebook, or better yet find it for free online? I think performing actions online instead of having to do it in person takes away a lot of substance and authenticity of the action. The reason work is in a museum is for people to go and view it. The internet is necessary in some ways, but in other ways it is detrimental. This is why I have a conflicted relationship with it.