This week we discussed strategies related to new media art curation. Unlike the traditional art works, digital media art works have some special characteristics. For the curation of traditional art works, the collection method is no longer applicable to new media art works. The most obvious difference is that traditional works of art are static, and new media works of art are often based on time. On the other hand, in terms of space, traditional works of art are relatively independent, and there is no excessive demand for space. However, computational art works often appear in the form of topics such as space or environmental relationships. Therefore, these kinds of works have relatively high requirements on the space layout of the exhibition hall, and it is not suitable for the space such as the traditional white box.
For new media art works, the process is often important. The final result does not express the concept that the work itself wants to express. It's like you can't use a frame of still pictures to cover the narrative of the entire movie. Of course, it may be an extreme example. Take the art of generation, the exhibition to which I went during the last term’s reading week. Each piece is like a traditional painting in a picture frame, and hanged on the wall of the white box space, each picture is the frame that the author thinks is the best in the whole process, and it is displayed. However, a single picture is still. I can't know what happened in the process, such as how the picture was drawn, or what the algorithm behind the picture is. Despite the written description, it is difficult for me to imagine his entire movement.
Regarding the curation way of new media art, I would like to apply the strategy of the digital exhibition hall, like the homepage of Studio Olafur Eliasson (http://www.olafureliasson.net/uncertain), I think it is a good example, and my personal layout of the home page is novel. I also like it very much. Compared to the common flat-display website, this website creates a sense of space and interactive methods also gives people the feeling of walking around in a space. Exhibiting through digital platforms not only can solve space requirements, such as immersive space devices, each piece requires a lot of space. Secondly, but also can solve the problem of collection of new media art works as well. Because of the large size and requirements on techniques, it has high demands for collectors’ abilities. New media art works cannot be like traditional art works, such as oil painting and sculpture and so on, which are convenient to collect.
(Screenshots from Studio Olafur Eliasson)
Going back to the strategy of this digital pavilion, the application of technology in the curatorial strategy is in line with the development of the times, but for the audience, are they separated by the screen and influenced the experiences? For example, in a traditional exhibition, the audience can approach the painting very much and observe each of its strokes, every texture, and the most important is the atmosphere which is created by the entire exhibition, such as physical conditions. This is going back to the immersive topic. Can we create a real immersive space? Using VR immersion glasses? In this case, we are missing the feeling of being in the pavilion.
References:
Paul, Christiane. Digital Art. Third edition, Thames & Hudson, 2015.
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