I rarely do this- write a blog post on the hoof. But my hooves are killing me so sitting on a cool marble step in the Reijksmuseum and using their wifi feels ok.
I love technology, what it can do, what it allows me to do. Without mobiles and internet my family reunion in Amsterdam would have been even more chaos than it has been. But my experience of Reijksmuseum has been both enhanced and disrupted by it. As information, it’s great – but some people queue to snap a photo of a picture, then walk off. They don’t LOOK. It’s like digital trophy taking. In a country that founded it’s wealth from colonialism, pillaging for trophies feels very uncomfortable.
I need to think more about this, talk to others…….
On the other side of the coin, I take pics too – because sometimes I need to record things for looking up, or sharing. Sometimes I am so close to tears I need to snap and walk away……then sit and write notes, process, register how I feel, what made me feel it.
I wonder if there is some way of providing an audience experience that can allow for that? Could we ask people not to take photos but enable them to download from the website later? Give them a code, a ref number. Maybe provide computers nearby where people can go and make comments about works, while they are still close to them, while their emotions are still stirred?
There also need to be more seats, not just for resting, but for thinking, for staring, for assimilating experience. I use my iphone to take notes, but the switching on and off disrupts my encounter with the works.
Crowded galleries are always problematic. Feeling you are hogging a work because you really want to look deeply at it is frustrating both for me and others waiting to get close to it.
More soon on this.
Carolyn Black 