[-empyre-] re: thoughts on the gallery space

[Tamiko Thiel <tamiko@alum.mit.edu>]

Hi Taylor,

I agree very much with your long list of why it is important to show 
this type of work in gallery spaces! Here are some other thoughts on the 
issue:

In many ways publishing an artwork in a book has the same advantages and 
disadvantages as publishing an artwork on the web: larger distribution 
since the object comes to the viewer instead of vice versa.

Sometimes when I see exhibits of photographs in museums I think it 
would've been better to look at them in a book - but realistically if 
they were buried in a book I wouldn't have ever looked at them. In a sea 
of books or websites it makes a big difference if a museum or gallery 
mounts an exhibit that says "let's look at this work as a public group 
experience." And then of course works whose scale naturally exceeds the 
size of a book or the size of a monitor clearly suffer from being 
compressed into that smaller scale. The experience is simply different.

I dislike head-mounted displays as a viewing platform for VR because it 
is so isolating as an experience. Who goes to a museum alone? Most of us 
do it as a social outing, partly because we want to be able to compare 
our impressions with our companions in a synergistic experience. With 
interactive pieces the added bonus is that if you and your companion 
can't figure out how to operate a piece, there is likely to be someone 
else around who knows and can show you (the Japanese position helpers to 
 do this task too - an interesting difference with the Western "say as 
little as possible" approach to art appreciation.)

If you think about the opportunity to show a piece publically in a 
curated show on a large screen as an installation instead of hidden in 
the privacy of someone's home who doesn't have the right equipment 
anyway, it is a clear choice. The drawback in a public exhibit is for 
works - like computer games - that require a long concentrated playing 
time in order to produce a satisfying experience. Here the public 
gallery is not so good, because there is usually someone else standing 
behind you waiting for their turn. But perhaps this problem can be taken 
care of by offering the piece for sale in the bookshop!

- tamiko

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 Tamiko Thiel       Media Artist

 tamiko@alum.mit.edu
 http://mission.base.com/tamiko/

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