Guerrilla docents?
The people at Art Mobs have a project to Remix
MoMA. If and when we visit MoMa, instead of renting the earphones that permit
us to hear explanations of the various works on the walls, they invite us to log
into a podcast that they (or anyone else who sends them an audio guide to works
in the museum [as a podcast, of course]) have prepared. On the face of it, this
would seem to be a desirable experiment in the democratization of art. Who, after
all, is to say that a particular interpretation, because we receive it via the
earphones that we've rented inside MoMA, is the correct interpretation?
Were we to find graffiti on the wall of a museum telling us to call a certain
number for an "underground" discussion of a particular painting, we'd
probably view this as some sort of anti-establishment protest. But by making this
a very public project, the new docents seem to be shooting themselves in their
anti-establishment foot. Today their artistic podcasts are free. Perhaps tomorrow
we'll be invited to rent them. And what are we left with? A web site about art
objects. There are already hundreds, if not more, of these, and all we really
have here is yet another.
And after additional consideration this seems less an underground reaction to
the concept of artistic expertise, and more just another ho-hum, not particularly
original, idea camouflaged in up-to-the-minute technological garb. Well before
the podcast, if we wanted to give an interpretation to a particular work of art,
or an exhibit, we could quite readily type out our thoughts and post them to a
web page. If and when someone visited MoMA he or she could print out the page,
take it with them, and read it while gazing at the art. And of course it wouldn't
be very difficult to link to images of the art on the web, and in that way we
could "visit" MoMA, and pick and choose among the numerous interpretations
of the art available to us, while sitting at home.
But an additional, and perhaps more problematic, issue arises here. If we choose
to visit MoMA, do we do so only in order to view
the art exhibited there? Part of the MoMA experience is (or should be) also
the expertise that comes with MoMA - the selection of the artwork, the way it's
displayed, and of course the interpretation. It would be bad PR for MoMA to block
the usage of podcasts with different interpretations of the works on display.
My guess is that in the dubious event that this actually becomes a popular activity,
MoMA should, and would, encourage it. But if I want to visit MoMA, taking their
tour seems to be the most logical choice.
Go to: Taking to the streets