Museums

Recently, I read these 2 very contrasting articles on the future of museums. The first one was by Eric Gibson. Aptly titled The Overexposed Museum, he described what he considers the omnipresent threat to museums: smartphones and their ability to take photos.

But surely, this isn’t a new “threat”, is it? Didn’t we always find hordes of (mostly Japanese) photographers at the Mona Lisa in the pre-smartphone era? No, says Gibson, there is one big difference: the smartphone pic can be “instantly shared”. Combine that with the selfie and the purpose of the museum visit changes, or so argues Gibson:

“The most revolutionary innovation of all, however, has been the inclusion of a second, inward-facing lens. It allows a person to hold the device at arm’s length, frame the image in the viewfinder-screen and snap a self-portrait—a “selfie.” The result is the introduction of a new culture of photography into the museum. Rather than contemplating the works on view, visitors now pose next to them for their portrait. In pre-digital photography the subject was the work of art. Now it is the visitor; the artwork is secondary. Where previously the message of such images was “I have seen,” now it is “I was here.””

And the “I was here” mindset means that:

“Visitors now regard a museum’s treasures as mere “sights”

That’s “sights” as in the Eiffel Tower or the Leaning Tower. That mindset sounds the death knell for “the art experience”, laments Gibson. And isn’t the “art experience” what museums are all about?

Fiammetta Rocco, on the other hand, argues that museums are changing from being places that were “old, dusty, boring and barely relevant to real life” into “pits of popular debate and places where children go for sleepovers”. (That last part applies to the British Museum!) Based on the increasing visitor count, Rocco feels that the “new-look museums are doing something right”. The “something right” list of change includes:

“Now they have to enchant visitors rather than lecture them. Museums offer narratives in their exhibitions, provide a context for objects by linking them to other people and other places, work with digital experts to enable visitors to participate as well as watch and listen, and create innovative public programmes to bring in the young and the inexperienced.”

In other words, more and more museums have adapted themselves to provide entertainment (you can almost feel the “art experience” snobs shudder at that change).

I guess Gibson should realize that it’s up to the museums to figure out how to treat technology, as friend or foe.