Technology-driven art that changes with the speed of an electric charge presents special challenges and opportunities for museums that draw fans with timeless works such as those by El Greco, Titian or Dali.
If the computer-generated image changes by the second, how can art lovers take home a coffee-table book or a poster that makes a connection for them? Will an Internet hookup be required for tech-savvy young people who want to experience art away from a gallery?
"I think it does have a future in museums," Kurt Kaufman, 23, a student at the Cleveland Institute of Art, said after seeing the eye-catching "All Digital" exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Cleveland. The exhibit, which opened on Friday, continues through May 7.
The exhibit, co-sponsored by the tradition-bound Cleveland Museum of Art, which is closed for expansion and renovation, has a different look at every turn: There's Charles Sandison's Index with jumbled encyclopedia entries projected on the floor, ceiling and walls; Lynn Hershman Leeson's computer-generated "talking head" that responds to questions; and Paul Chan's Happiness, a sometimes idyllic, sometimes X-rated digital animation.
The show reflects "objects that have their own lives," said Kristina Hooper Woolsey, who has developed interactive multimedia with Apple Computer.
The items have their own behaviors and characteristics, she said.
Take Leeson's DiNA, for example -- if you're willing to step up to a microphone and address a wall-sized computer image of a woman's face, which gently nods in anticipation of a computer-generated conversation.
"Is it smelly in Chicago," a museum visitor asks.
"Not if I can help it," DiNA responds.
With the ice broken, more people step forward to try their hand at holding a conversation with a pleasant face projected on a wall.
"Whom do you love," one asked.
DiNA, perhaps misunderstanding, responds, "Thank you for telling me."
Leeson, speaking at a symposium marking the exhibition opening, hinted that the "artificially intelligent virtual" people that she has pioneered in art have sometimes taken charge. "I think they've used me," she said.
The high-intensity, fast-moving tech world is the way young people experience life, Barbara Tannenbaum said by phone from the Akron Art Museum, where she is chief curator and head of public programs. Museums need to respond in kind, she said.
"To attract younger people, they need to show videos, they need to show interactive works. That's a direction museums will inevitably follow along," she said.
Art moving from canvas-based paintings to computer-generated light shows may seem odd, but other progressions through history -- like moving beyond paintings on bowls -- were just as striking, Tannenbaum said.
"Each age has a different way of looking," she said. "What looks normal and realistic to one age seems abstract and unrealistic to another age."
Margo Crutchfield, senior curator at MOCA, makes a similar point.
With the development of photography and other modern technological advances, "The convergence of art, science and technology has enriched, transformed and, in many cases, revolutionized artistic practice," she said in the exhibition catalog.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2