Mindfulness and the Museum: Can Digital Delivery of Cultural Heritage Contribute to our Wellbeing? (original) (raw)
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Open-air museums: digital cultures, aesthetics and everyday life
Vista, 2021
At a time when everything becomes art, art no longer belongs to itself, to the point of overflowing from the frames that have enclosed it for several centuries-museums, galleries, churches-with unprecedented effects not only in the field of aesthetics, but above all in ordinary life. To understand this in depth, it is necessary to take into account the digital reproducibility of the work of art as a dynamic that upsets the relationship between work and spectator, subject and object, politics and everyday life. From the second half of the 18th century onwards, we saw a dynamic of "aestheticization of the public" parallel to the birth of the cultural industry and, therefore, the transformation of culture into merchandise. It is an ambiguous process, as it implies the emergence of the mass as the central subject of our culture, but also its definitive reification. What about aesthetics in such a condition? This study explores the genology and history of this process by updating Walter Benjamin's thinking in relation to the cultural emergencies of our time. In particular, it seems essential to understand what happens to the aura in the context of a condition in which the aesthetic object, the work of art and, more generally, the area that concerns beauty is available, used and consumed in everyday life, to the point of placing our cities as "open air museums".
2019
The distinguishing characteristic of digitalism is its focus on human behavior in cultural and social contexts. When we think of the developments of computer science and “information theory” that spawned the digital revolution, the focus generally defaults to digital tools and technology, as opposed to its effects on human life and culture and how advances in computing, digital communications and technology are transforming our ways of doing, seeing, knowing, learning, living and loving, to name a few examples. The impact of digitalism is all encompassing, touching all disciplines and human pursuits. How will museums change and transform themselves to connect in authentic ways with their communities while remaining relevant in a world transformed by digital culture that is moving full speed ahead, advancing in a state of constant change and development? While museums have been cautious and relatively slow to challenge traditional ways, they are surely noticing that we are reaching a...
Art, Museums and Digital Cultures → Rethinking Change
2021
Barranha, H. and Henriques, J. S. (eds.) (2021). Art, Museums and Digital Cultures – Rethinking Change. Lisbon: IHA/NOVA FCSH and maat. DOI: 10.34619/hwfg-s9yy [EN] Following the International Conference on Art, Museums and Digital Cultures (April 2021), this e-book seeks to extend the discussion on the concept of change that is usually associated with the relationship between culture and technology. Through the contributions of 32 authors from 12 countries, the book not only questions how digital media have inspired new artistic and curatorial practices, but also how, conversely, critical and creative proposals in the fields of art and museums have opened up alternative paths to technological development. Acknowledging the different approaches to the topic, ranging from retrospective readings to the analysis of recent issues and projects, the book is divided into seven sections and a visual essay, highlighting collaborative territories and the crossovers between different areas of scientific knowledge. Available in open access, this publication is the result of a collaborative project promoted by the Institute of Art History of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University of Lisbon and maat – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology. Partner institution: Instituto Superior Técnico. Sponsor: Millennium bcp Foundation. Media partner: Umbigo magazine. [PT] No seguimento da Conferência Internacional sobre Arte, Museus e Culturas Digitais (Abril 2021), este e-book pretende aprofundar a discussão sobre o conceito de mudança, geralmente associado à relação entre cultura e tecnologia. Através dos contributos de 32 autores, de 12 países, questiona-se não só a forma como o digital tem motivado novas práticas artísticas e curatoriais, mas também o inverso, observando como propostas críticas e criativas no campo da arte e dos museus têm aberto vias alternativas para o desenvolvimento tecnológico. Assumindo a diversidade de perspectivas sobre o tema, de leituras retrospectivas à análise de questões e projectos recentes, o livro estrutura-se em torno de sete capítulos e um ensaio visual, evidenciando os territórios de colaboração e cruzamento entre diferentes áreas de conhecimento científico. Disponível em acesso aberto, esta publicação resulta de um projecto colaborativo promovido pelo Instituto de História da Arte, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa e pelo maat - Museu de Arte, Arquitectura e Tecnologia. Instituição parceira: Instituto Superior Técnico. Mecenas: Fundação Millennium bcp. Media partner: revista Umbigo.
The Museum in the Digital Age. New Media & Novel Methods of Mediation
The Museum in the Digital Age. New media & novel methods of mediation, Bonnefoit Régine and Rérat Melissa, eds, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing Ltd, 2017
The current "digital revolution" or "digital era" has affected most of the realms of today's world, particularly the domains of communication and the creation, safeguarding and transmission of knowledge. Museums, whose mission is to be open to the public and to acquire, conserve, research, communicate and exhibit the heritage of humanity, are thus directly concerned by this revolution. This collection highlights the manner in which museums and curators tackle the challenges of digital technology. The contributions are divided into four groups that illustrate the extent of the impact of digital technologies on museums: namely, exhibitions devoted to new media or mounted with the use of new media; the hidden face of the museum and the conservation of digital works of art; cultural mediation and the communication and promotion of museums using digital tools; and the legal aspects of the digitalisation of content, whether for creative purposes or preservation. Hardback and e-book: 2017 Paperback: 2021
Renewal of the Museum in the Digital Epoch
The Future of Museums
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, digital technologies are radically changing the way young people communicate, learn and spend their free time. Museums, in order not to lose the next generations as visitors, must conform to the new expectations and needs. On a large scale, the museum must address young people, provide a forum for self-expression and participation and advertise itself by new means. On a smaller scale, the style and means of individual exhibitions must change, providing space for activity, emotions and multiple modalities besides text, personalized visits, interactive explorations and self-expression, evoking emotions but meanwhile also fulfilling educational objectives. Digital technologies-by the yet smaller, cheaper and more and more pervasive devices and services-provide ample means to reach these goals. In our article first we provide a conceptual framework, focussing on the Internet generation as new audience and traditional and new functions of museums. We show how digital technologies may be used to reach six major and general goals. For each issue, we discuss concrete recent examples, from international and own projects. Finally, we address the roles in the complex process of design, development and daily operation of digital applications, in the context of a digital strategy for the museum.
HANDS-ON! Subverting Museum’s Untouchability though the Digital
2022
Let's Get Digital embraces the timely opportunity to critically reexamine the impacts of digital technology and the barrage of information on our perceptions of reality. Specifically, this panel focuses on digital art, emergent platforms, and forms of creative care and curatorial strategies. In bringing together a panel of artists, scholars, and curators, we hope to collectively reflect on our present post-internet age, to borrow Byung-Chul Han's term, 'the age of like', and what it means to engage with the digital realm, over half-a-century since its inception. Part 1 looks at the transformation or augmentation of analog collections to digital forms of expression, the considerations, challenges and breakthroughs, and how the recent pandemic acted as an impetus. Part 2 examines and draws on examples of the use of digital platforms as a means to share, advocate, connect, and communicate art, ideas, and creative practices.
Emerging Technologies and the Digital Transformation of Museums and Heritage Sites, 2021
This paper will explore fresh insights into the ways we negotiate our ideas about the digital being. I suggest that digitization needs to be understood in the broader context of ontology from a phenomenological point of view, and is also crucial in curatorial practice. I find that the potential and challenges arising from the use of technology, and the value of the virtual gallery object, emphasise the need to recast traditional notions of digital ontology, digital materiality and aura, as normally detracting from authenticity.
Exploring the Digital Atmosphere of Museums: Perspectives and Potential
Technologies
This paper contributes to the field of museum and visitor experience in terms of atmosphere by discussing the “museum digital atmosphere” or MDA, a notion that has been introduced and found across museums in Greece. Research on museum atmospherics has tended to focus on physical museum spaces and exhibits. By “atmosphere”, we mean the emotional state that is a result of public response adding to the overall museum experience. The MDA is therefore studied as the specific emotional state caused by the use of digital applications and technologies. The stimulus–organism–response or SOR model is used to define the MDA, so as to confirm and reinforce the concept. To that end, a qualitative methodological approach is used; we conduct semi-structured interviews and evaluate findings via content analysis. The sample consists of 17 specialists and professionals from the field, namely museologists, museographers, museum managers, and digital application developers working in Greek museums. Ult...
35th CIHA World Congress in History of Art, Florence, Villa Vittoria, 1-6 Sept. 2019
What happens when a project for artwork is refused? Or when an artwork is destroyed, stolen, lost? How can the institution exhibit this ephemeral heritage, its memory? Does the ontology of this kind of artwork change? In the last few years, in the wake of the virtualisation process (Levy, 1995), the idea of the ephemeral (the immaterial) has turned in a theoretical object to be exhibited. Thus, one can recognise a series of exhibition and artistic dynamics that have investigated the heuristic potential of the intangible within the creation process. Our paper aims to reply to the above questions through the deepening of three specific cases: - A museum: The MoRE Museum (Museum of Refused and Unrealized Arts Projects) - An exhibition: The Gallery of Lost Art (Tate Gallery, London, 2012) - An art project: The Incompiuto Siciliano (Alterazioni Video) The MoRE Museum is a digital museum which has appropriated the digital language to make it a heuristic device. It digitally collects, preserves and exhibits, refused and unrealised art projects of the 20 and 21st centuries. The Gallery of Lost Art was an immersive, online exhibition that told the stories of artworks that had disappeared. It was divided into ten categories representing ten types of missing works: stolen, destroyed, rejected, unrealised, put aside, disappeared, degraded, reworked, censored. The Incompiuto Siciliano is a non-profit project, based in Milan, and founded by the artist group Alterazioni Video. For ten years now, they have described the phenomenon of the unfinished public works in Italy from a new perspective, by collecting, mapping, and photographing more than 750 unfinished architectural works. The cross-study of these three cases allows us to offer a particularly composite picture of the current condition, where the idea of immateriality is experienced in different ways and represented in various forms. In particular, the case of the MoRE Museum not only offers the possibility of re-interrogating the value of the ephemeral heritage, by insisting on its collection, valorization and conservation; but also suggests the ontological turn experienced by the idea of the project (which loses its nature of preparatory work to acquire the status of full-fledged artwork). Besides, the study of the London exhibition offers an occasion to rethink modes to exhibit the ephemeral through a digital perspective, by questioning the digital modalities of spectatorship apprehension and experience. Finally, the case of the Incompiuto, as a material witness to the current socio-cultural context that permeates everyday life, enables us to insist on the “aura” of the unfinished and its heuristic potential.