Technology is reshaping art museums, blurring the line between art appreciation and self-presentation.
What happened to art museums? Do we go to appreciate the art or to appreciate ourselves? My fear is that technology is making us lose the value of the world around us, art museums being a part of that. Whenever I visit a museum, it seems as though people use it as a photo opportunity; more time is being spent looking through a lens rather than our own eyes. Almost like an aesthetic pursuit, many visitors prioritize taking pictures of themselves over engaging with the art itself. These pictures raise questions about our newfound relationship between art, people, and technology.
The rapid advancements made in technology during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic introduced a new way to see museums. Several art museum websites moved their collections online, allowing viewers to pick and choose the artworks they want to see and get as close as possible. Virtual tours, high-resolution images, and interactive platforms allow individuals to explore art from the comfort of their own homes. The National Endowment for the Arts’ Survey of Public Participation in the Arts reports that since the early 2000s, there has been a decline in art museum visitation among adults. Furthermore, “nearly three‐quarters of U.S. adults (almost 176 million adults) used electronic media to consume artistic or arts‐related content” (Carter 55). As we grow more attached to the internet, more parts of our culture will become digitized.
Even though people value the connections made digitally, it is as though we all recognize the value of taking time to connect with the world without the internet. These art museum pictures come across as a sense of cultural sophistication that is then used to promote ourselves. Such as showing off when someone visits an important statue or an established institution. It is as if since more things are moving online, if you can be the one to see it in person, you are now more digitally relevant. So, as the attendance numbers are decreasing, the visitors become more made up of art devotees and individuals looking for more likes on their socials.
Douglas Rushkoff, a media theorist, picks up on this idea of identity in his explanation of ten different ways digital media shape our social norms and expectations. Identity online means that we have this unique ability to reshape who we are without the restrictions of civil society. Taking pictures in art museums, tapping into that cultural sophistication, can refine someone’s online identity. Especially with the trends popular today, going to museums and other culturally enriched places is being shared more often than before.
As the internet becomes more integrated into our lives, will art museums work to increase their visitors by offering photo and technology opportunities? Or will they lean more towards having that personal experience without the implications of social media?
One museum that worked with these new relationships with technology in a campaign was the Art Institute of Chicago. Wanting to increase attendance rates, the museum looked for new ways to interact with visitors. They created the exhibition “Van Gogh’s Bedrooms” and invited people to become a part of the painting in life-size recreations of three of the painter’s most famous works. By having this photo opportunity, not only did the museum achieve its attendance goal but also showed a different way of looking at art.
The rooms were created to convey Van Gogh not only as an artist but as a person. The Art Institute of Chicago realized that sometimes people become intimidated by art and need a more welcoming way to interact with the works. Through people posting images online, that message spread, encouraging people to attend art museums and view art in this more personal way. The individuals who went to the “Van Gogh’s Bedrooms” exhibit truly experienced what this new relationship between technology and art can become, we can appreciate ourselves because we are now seeing ourselves in the artwork.
Despite the trend of art museums as aesthetic, there’s hope that the internet can be used for good in allowing access to these galleries for folks to connect with art in a way that may otherwise be impossible for them to access.
Interested in learning more?
U.S. Patterns of Arts Participation: A Full Report from the 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts