In the March 6 Sunday New York Times Book Review,
Bernard Sharratt of the University of Kent (England)
reviewed the CD-ROM version of The Collection of the
National Gallery in London, published by Microsoft.
 
This version of the National Gallery contains approx.
2000 paintings from their collection in an interactive,
hypertext catalogue.  One can call up the all paintings
by an artist in their collection, reference
biographical data about the artist, cross reference by
genre or subject matter, etc.  In a similar version on
computer at the Nat'l Gall., one can select up to ten
paintings, and the computer will print out a map for
your selected itinerary.
 
Sharratt says:
"I can explore the full ramifications of this
extraordinary labyrinth of vivid color images, soberly
authoritative biographies, history, commentary and
glossary.  I can browse through a million words,
construct a continuous slide show of every painting,
gaze for however long I like at my favorites, discover
works and artists I haven't registered before."
 
What, however, would the impact of such resources
 be on the experience of artworks?  While it is impor-
tant to see an artwork in a context: historical, stylistic,
or otherwise; the already diminished role of directly
experiencing of the work of past artists needs, I feel,
to be better addressed by such innovations.  Such
devices as the CD-ROM (and, as Walter Benjamin has
already argued, mechanical reproduction) can serve to
distract the attention (with information) from the
experience of being in the presence of an artwork.
 
As Sharratt points out in the review, "a digital
depiction of a Duccio altarpiece is very different
from standing in front of the object itself, of course.
Though that too, as Benjamin has argued, is a
profoundly different act from taking part in the
religious ritual that gave altarpieces their meaning."
 
So, is the virtual museum a--our--cultural framework for
viewing artworks of other eras?  Or, merely a tool for
informing the viewers to a higher degree about what
they are looking at?
 
A further, neat thing about this particular CD gallery
is that it has an electronic clipboard that allows for
the viewer to download images (or text) to Photoshop
(or WordPerfect) and provide the opportunity to collage
artworks.  As an aid to studying composition, or for
taking apart a painting to study it.  Obviously,
there's a downside to this as well: when would fair use
allow for the manipulation of an image for its free
use?  Is this the beginning of the Hip-Hop age in art
history?  Rap-art?!  :-}
 
Sharrett finds himself revelling in content, "the
marvelous diversity of subject matter that preoccupied
or entranced previous generations...reappreciating the
lost functions of art."  Looking forward to the
contributions of virtual reality, he savors the
possibility of eventually being able to view the
aforementioned altarpiece in a church during high mass.
As a speculation, it's an interesting expansion of the
potential for a work of art from the past to better
provoke experiences in a museum visitor.
 
I too look forward to the uses of computers in
expanding the potential of artworks (and thus, museums)
to touch us in some way, and I wonder if anybody out
there is working so with computers?
 
Such uses of computers would truly revolutionize the
use of technology in exhibits, rather than making
another encyclopedic, exhaustive History of Art on CD.
 
I remember an exhibit at the American Museum of Natural
History in NYC a couple of years ago on Pacific
Northwest Indian artwork and ritual (the Kwiakutl
Potlatch), that--using computers--allowed viewers to
open up the masks of the Kwiakutl from the Museum's
collection to see how they work (they are sort of like
a mask within a mask: pull a string, and the front mask
opens to reveal the inner mask).
 
If anyone is interested in a copy of this book review,
I would be glad to forward one via fax or snail mail.
Respond privately, please.!
Ed Bridges
[log in to unmask]
American Museum of Natural History
212 769-5277 fax
212 769-5740