Act/React just closed recently at MAM; it was an extravaganza of new technology, bright colors, moving things, and cameras aplenty – very high tech, very fluid, very engaging in terms of the expectations the art casts on the visitor. For those of us in a contrarian mood and not up for dancing in front of the camera in order to have your silhouette thrown into a composition (rather à la early ipod ads), it become a space for watching the art and watching others – your fellow museum goers interacting and casting themselves as part of compositions.
There is much that is about “me,” or “you,” or “us” as a collective, inherent in our so-called ordinary lives. Reality TV and the ubiquity of social networks sites and devices tell us that whatever quotidian activities we’ve got going on, there is something interesting/distracting/or simply voyeuristic that someone out there wants to see.
(But here’s a thought – who/where is the absolutely most boring blog in the world? I mean, something that is REALLY about nothing? Seinfeld was on to something, as a show about nothing became brilliantly compelling and encompassing of everything in a superficially contemporary way. I digress greatly…)
About this idea of interactivity as a way of engaging with art – I think it’s also an attempt at making some sort of connection, emotion, or memory; to make it as easy as flipping a switch, engineering meaning through experience. But what is “meaning” really made of?
NPR recently aired a piece on museums and interactivity, and I don’t disagree that this is the way of the future, at least in the American museum environment. We like bells and whistles, novelties and anything new, shiny and sexy. Buttons, especially electronic blinky ones, are quite sexy. Here’s the NPR story:
Interactive Games Make Museums A Place To Play : NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99244253&sc=emaf
Pressing Czech Buttons
Speaking of buttons, there have been a few pressed with a new sculpture by David Cerny. His work, “Entropa,” was commissioned by the Czech government in honor of the recent shift of the EU presidency to their hands.
There are a few sly maneuvers in this work; rather than comprised of the efforts of 26 artists as originally expected, it’s all by Cerny. The imagery is a giant lampoon and scathing critique of member countries, exposing dysfunctions, stereotypes, and less-than-glamorous ideals and national identities.
Slideshow of sculpture & commentary from Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/template/2.0-0/element/pictureGalleryPopup.jsp?id=5516098&&offset=0&§ionName=VisualArts
Times Online article
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article5512107.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=2015164
World Focus (with links to artist’s blog and other commentaries)
http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/01/14/czech-artwork-creates-stir-across-europe/3603/
