Taylor Nuttall wrote about how unhappy he has been with his encounters with
new media (eg: computer based work) in the gallery.

It is the responsibility of the artist (to a degree in liaison with the
curator - but they are secondary to the issue) to define the context within
which their work is experienced. The artist determines how important to
them control of the context is. For me, particularly off-line, this is very
important...but I can understand that some artists will not, on a point of
principle, wish to take any responsibility for how their work is seen -
similarly to how some net artists refuse to have tags in their pages that
determine things like colour or font, prefering to leave these factors to
the vagaries of end-user browser preferences (HTML version 1.0 is
seductive).

Vuk's example of people (ab)using the computer in the gallery (using it for
their own email rather than for looking at the work on it) is a good enough
example. If it bothers him that this happens then he should do something
about it (although appreciating Vuk's humour I doubt he would want to, as I
am sure he enjoys the deus ex machina of such encounters). But, if he did
wish to address the issue it would seem there are two basic strategies
available.

Firstly, our imaginary Vuk could choose to take control of the gallery
situation and come up with an installation strategy that would solve the
problem. This is not difficult to do, and there are so many ready examples
out there which we are all familiar with that there seems little need to go
through the options. During the 60's and 70's video artists ran the gamut
of options. The development of things like video projectors, touch screens
and unencumbered devices expanded the possibilities further and they are
all now part of the standard technical vocabulary we have all learned to
read (eg: we know how to recognise something as part of the work or as an
unpleasant but necessary accoutrement). Then again, the fact that this is
well worn territory might put many off going this route.

Secondly, our virtually (or tele-) present Vuk could choose to not show
said computer dependent piece in a gallery at all. In respect of net based
art this seems a valid, even logical, solution. As is so often pointed out,
the net is closer to a publishing paradigm than the visual arts. Just as
conventional net based work (eg: work designed to be encountered within a
browser or similar system on a single computer by a single user) does not
show well in multi-user physical environments (galleries, cafes, whatever)
so do books not do well. There are many ways and contexts within which to
read or experience books, but the gallery does not strike me as the
likeliest. In bed is good...so is in a comfy" chair, or even by the pool
(if I lived in Tuscany or California). Libraries are OK, although I would
never choose to read in depth there, and bookshops are sort of nice in a
perverse kind of way (I always feel like a voyeur when looking at books in
bookshops) but unless one really enjoys shopping (I think the human
population roughly divides in to those that do and those that don't - I
don't) then the bookshop always represents an eternally postponed
satisfaction, or satisfaction only gained through exchange.

But looking at a book in a gallery is quite unpleasant. Usually this means
it is encased in a plastic box. One of my favourite artifacts is the Book
of Kells, and when in Dublin I always go to look...but primarily to pay
homage rather than to "really" look. I do my looking at home, where I can
enjoy a high quality facsimile, turning the pages as often as I want
(rather than once a day, or however often the page turners do their thing
in Dublin).

I wonder if the way in which we are forced to experience something like the
Book of Kells (the real thing...not the copy) tells us something highly
relevant about how museums work (think preciousness, aura creation, etc)
and whether we understand this to always be in the interests of art and
artists intentions.

This is not at all an attack on museums...just an observation of the limits
of an institution.




Simon Biggs

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http://www.littlepig.org.uk/
The Great Wall of China at http://www.greatwall.org.uk/

Research Professor
Art and Design Research Centre
School of Cultural Studies
Sheffield Hallam University
Sheffield, UK
http://www.shu.ac.uk/