9 October: Is the future of exhibition virtual? Discuss (Final Essay)

When talking about Art, Museums, and gallery spaces, we do not immediately think about the internet, robots or virtual spaces. The reality is that we do not need to wait 20 years before we start to see these things. Robots in museums and virtual spaces are already part of the reality of exhibition spaces. But does is stop there? Or is this just a first step towards a completely different experience and view of an exhibition? Is the future of exhibitions virtual?

Expanding our Art interests requires investing energy, time, money and knowledge.

First, we have to choose which type of art we want to experience, and once we have selected a topic we have to locate the nearest museum or gallery. Then we have to carefully plan our trip depending on our spare time, our unexpected commitments and the people who we want to share the experience with. At this stage, many of us will already be exhausted.

Augmented reality at Museu de Matarò linking to Catalan
Wikipedia articles (Kippelboy, 2002) 

In a not-too-distant future, we will visit museums thanks to augmented reality. We will be able to virtually “touch” the most famous works of art in the world or get inside our favourite artists' installations, all from within our living room. But what is a virtual exhibition? According to Wikipedia “An online exhibition, also referred to as a virtual exhibition, online gallery, cyber-exhibition, is an exhibition whose venue is cyberspace.” (Wikipedia, 2014), whereas a virtual museum “..is a digital entity that draws on the characteristics of a museum, in order to complement, enhance, or augment the museum experience through personalization, interactivity and richness of content” (Wikipedia, 2014).
A virtual museum shares the characteristics of a traditional museum. Edwin Coomasaru, in a article on netartnet.net write “..the fundamental characteristic of curating – the valuation of an individual’s judgement, taste or agenda – remains the same whether it is Justin Bieber’s Twitter feed or the Turner Prize.” (Netartnet.net, 2014)

Mona Lisa - Leonardo Da Vinci
(Wikipedia, 2014)

Now that we know the differences, can we decide if the development of visual exhibitions is a good or a bad thing? This topic sparks the most heated debates between Art connoisseurs and amateurs alike.

The conversation evokes a host of hidden fears and hopes that go well beyond the mere idea of art. The debate involves replacing part of our human experience with a virtual reality that we don't really own.

We can already have a little taste of how the virtual world mixes with the artistic world. For many years we have been able to use virtual tours in most of the world's main museums.

We are currently able to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and works at the Vatican Museum on the same day. 

We are able to drive a real robot around Tate Britain in London during the night. (Brown, 2014). Or listen to Valentino's voice in a virtual museum telling us how he created Jackie O's dress (Valentinogaravanimuseum.com, 2014).

Control robots roaming around the Tate
Britain gallery from the confort of your sofa
(Tate.org.uk, 2014)

We can do all of the above while being at home, without spending any money on the journey, which might not affordable to many people. In 2012 in Uk 13 milion of people were considered poor. (MacInnes et al., 2013). Edwin Coomasaru wrote “The public dimension of the Internet has just made many more .. collections visible to a much wider audience at a relatively low cost.” (Netartnet.net, 2014)

We can see works of art without wasting time standing in queues, without losing half a day of our holiday just to try entering a museum. If you want to see artwork abroad, an online exhibition can be of real advantage to you, as a virtual tour allows you to choose your preferred language. In my opinion, these are important factors to consider for the future growth of virtual exhibitions.

Last but not least, all the costs for maintenance of a museum would be drastically reduced if they were replaced by a virtual space. There would be no resources spent on security, no more costs for room maintenance, as well as a total cut of the cost of energy. A big save. (Museums & art galleries survival strategies, n.d.) Arup, a consultancy firm which includes “.. designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists offering a broad range of professional services” (Arup.com, 2014) releases a document called “Museums & Art Galleries Survival Strategies” where it explains how to reduce the cost of maintenance. But it works just for physical exhibitions, of course.

So, is a virtual exhibition a perfect solution?

Shaw, J. (1991). The virtual museum.

In my research I found disadvantages and weaknesses within the current development towards online galleries.
First of all, we have to consider the technological divide between many countries. Not all nations invest the same amount of money in network infrastructure. As we can see in the Networked Readiness Index, the gaps between countries are significant, even amongst European States. (The World Economic Forum, 2014)

Just to make a concrete example, Finland is in the first position. Italy is in the 58th. A very deep gap to fill.
How could a people hope to discover the big world of virtual art if they're struggling to get a decent network? We also need to consider all the issues concerning the elderly or adults not familiar with ICT.

Tate Britain - A guide showing JMW Turner

In my opinion there is another obstacle to the possibility of the future with only virtual galleries. The experience per se. The feeling you have when walking in a Museum or visiting an Exhibition you can not get by sitting in front of a monitor, even if you are on the most cozy sofa in the world.
Standing in a gallery, in front of a work of your favourite artist, listening to comments from the other visitors around you, is an experience you simply can not recreate with software or other devices. Even augmented reality has some limitations.
A video from CBSNews.com Web Extras illustrates my position perfectly. Jane Burton, Creative Director at Tate Media says “You can be on your couch, anywhere in the world, if you've got the right Internet connection and browser, you can come and see what we have in our galleries at night” (CBSNews.com Web Extras, 2014). Mrs Burton takes the point I have made above: it's a great opportunity but assumes you have the right broadband connection, something that's not always possible.

In the same video a tourist from Massachussets, USA, makes my hypothesis even stronger. She says “The robots tours are cool, but don't compare to the real thing” and after “..I'm occupying the same space of the artist did, I had the same relationship, it just moves me” (CBSNews.com Web Extras, 2014).

The combination of the two factors could be the perfect solution. A virtual experience for all the people who can not experience the physical space. Even in the traditional, old-style space in museum and galleries increasing the use of media and virtual installations could be an interesting idea. This way we could still have a choice, in fact a richer one with virtual experiences using devices that would not normally be at our disposal.
In conclusion I think we need to consider all the facts in favour and against the idea of virtual spaces, but with an open mind to avoid succumbing to our deep and unconscious fears. We could simply enjoy the virtual spaces the curators create for us, without losing all the feelings, inputs and experiences only the traditional visit can offer.

Virtual spaces are just a first step towards a completely different experience and view of an exhibition? Is the future of exhibitions virtual? I do not think so. Maybe the future will bring us a perfect balance between online and offline. At best the virtual solutions will become a way for visitors to have a first encounter with art that will then be completed by the physical visit to the gallery or museum. This could help to manage costs for the facilities and maintenance of the works of art themselves better.

In the Arup document I found a beautiful phrase that perfectly describes how the museum and galleries can still have much to give us.

Bill Viola's Martyrs, St. Paul's Cathedral
exhibition preview. (2014)

“Museums are not just about the past and must show they can help safeguard the future.”

(Vanessa Trevelyan, 2010 President of Museums Association. Head of Norfolk museum & Archaeology services)

References

Arup.com, (2014). Home | Arup | A global firm of consulting engineers, designers, planners and project managers. [online] Available at: http://www.arup.com [Accessed 13 Oct. 2014].

Brown, M. (2014). Robots to roam Tate Britain at night. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/feb/06/robots-roam-tate-britain-night [Accessed 13 Oct. 2014].

CBSNews.com Web Extras, (2014). Robots let art fans tour famed U.K. museum after dark. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8Wt259Pj4E [Accessed 13 Oct. 2014].

Jones, J. (2014). Welcome to the art galleries of the future. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/feb/06/art-galleries-future-tate-britain-robots-roam-virtual [Accessed 9 Oct. 2014].

Libraryspot.com, (2014). Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web - Library Site of the Month. [online] Available at: http://www.libraryspot.com/lsom/1999/libsiteofmonth0799.htm [Accessed 12 Oct. 2014].

MacInnes, T., Aldridge, H., Bushe, S., Kenway, P. and Tinson, A. (2013). Monitoring poverty and social exclusion 2013. the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, p.1.

Musee.louvre.fr, (2014). A closer look at the Mona Lisa | Louvre Museum. [online] Available at: http://musee.louvre.fr/oal/joconde/indexEN.html [Accessed 13 Oct. 2014].

Museums & art galleries survival strategies. (n.d.). 1st ed. [ebook] Arup. Available at: http://file:///C:/Users/Sara/Downloads/Museum_and_Gallery_Survival_Strategy_Guide.pdf [Accessed 13 Oct. 2014].

Mv.vatican.va, (2014). Visite Online. [online] Available at: http://mv.vatican.va/2_IT/pages/MV_Visite.html [Accessed 13 Oct. 2014].

Netartnet.net, (2014). (Im)material Museums: Evolving the Exhibition. [online] Available at: http://netartnet.net/news/texts/item/820-im-material-museums-evolving-the-exhibition [Accessed 11 Oct. 2014].

Sil.si.edu, (2014). Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web. [online] Available at: http://www.sil.si.edu/SILPublications/Online-Exhibitions/ [Accessed 12 Oct. 2014].

Tate, (2014). After Dark at Tate Britain. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9aeg4PUxZI [Accessed 13 Oct. 2014].

The World Economic Forum, (2014). The Global Information Technology Report 2014 Rewards and Risks of Big Data. Cologny/Geneva: World Economic Forum, p.xxi - The Networked Readiness Index 2014.

The World Economic Forum, (2014). Global Information Technology Report 2014. [online] Available at: http://reports.weforum.org/global-information-technology-report-2014/#section=the-networked-readiness-index-rankings [Accessed 11 Oct. 2014].

Valentinogaravanimuseum.com, (2014). Welcome - Valentino Garavani Museum. [online] Available at: http://www.valentinogaravanimuseum.com/ [Accessed 13 Oct. 2014].

Web.inxpo.com, (2014). 4 Tips to Engage and Inform Attendees in Your Digital Event. [online] Available at: http://web.inxpo.com/casting-calls/bid/74900/4-Tips-to-Engage-and-Inform-Attendees-in-Your-Digital-Event [Accessed 12 Oct. 2014].

Wikipedia, (2014). Online exhibition. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_exhibition [Accessed 13 Oct. 2014].

Wikipedia, (2014). Virtual museum. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_museum [Accessed 13 Oct. 2014].

World Skin - Benayoun Virtual Reality Installation "A Photo Safari in the Land of War". (1997). [image] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality#mediaviewer/File:Worldskin-01.jpg [Accessed 13 Oct. 2014].