Art and Activism at Museums in a Post-digital World

Once quiet places protected by walls, museums are increasingly besieged by activist groups. Spurred by social and political causes, they storm the gates bypassing the gatekeepers, to deliver their message and insist that museums become relevant, participatory and interactive, and give voice to their communities and audience. With no place to hide in a sea of digital connections, museums are challenged to find new directions and strategies for the post-digital world. This paper traces these trends, illustrating them using recent examples of art and activism at museums in New York and London, and explores strategies for museums to collaborate with their community and find common ground.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Tula Giannini: Role: Professor https://sites.google.com/view/tgiannini/

Jonathan P. Bowen: Role: Emeritus Professor http://www.jpbowen.com

Conference

Publication date: July 2019

Publication date (Print): July 2019

Pages: 27-35

Affiliations

[0001]Information

School of Information

Pratt Institute

New York, USA

[0002]Computing

School of Engineering

London South Bank University

London, UK

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2019.4

SO-VID: 7abd9f58-c182-4c14-91e0-d0425f990fcc

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of EVA London 2019

Conference acronym: EVA 2019

Conference number:

Conference location: London, UK

Conference date: 8 - 11 July 2019

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2019.4

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Akbild 2019 PhD in Practice. Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Austria https://www.akbild.ac.at/Portal/studium/studienrichtungen/phd-in-practice

[2] ArtForum 2019 Hundreds Protest BP Sponsorship of British Museum ArtForum News February 18 2019 https://www.artforum.com/news/hundreds-protest-bp-sponsorship-of-british-museum-78655

[3] J. P. BowenG. DiproseN. Lambert 2017 EVA London 2017: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts BCS, Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC) http://www.bcs.org/ewic/eva2017

[4] J. P. BowenT. Giannini 2014 Digitalism: The new realism? In K. NgJ. P. BowenS. McDaid EVA London 2014: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts BCS, eWiC 324 331 DOI: 10.14236/ewic/eva2014.38

[5] J. P. BowenT. GianniniG. Polmeer 2017 Coded Communication: Digital senses and aesthetics, merging art and life Bowen et al 2017 1 8 DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2017.1

[6] J. P. BowenT. GianniniG. PolmeerC. GannisJ. GardinerJ. KearneyB. WandsJ. Weinel 2018 States of Begin: Art and identity in digital space and time Bowen et al 2018 1 7 DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2018.1

[7] J. P. BowenJ. WeinelG. DiproseN. Lambert 2018 EVA London 2018: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts BCS, Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC) http://www.bcs.org/ewic/eva2018

[8] M. Brown 2018 British Museum shines light on Assyrian ‘king of the world’ The Guardian, UK June 19 2018 https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/jun/19/british-museum-shines-light-on-assyrian-king-of-the-world-ashurbanipal

[9] M. Brown 2019 British Museum chief: Taking the Parthenon marbles was ‘creative’ The Guardian, UK January 28 2019 https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/jan/28/british-museum-chief-taking-the-parthenon-marbles-was-creative

[10] D. Cannadine 2019 ‘Audacity Is the Only Ticket’: How Winston Churchill, an Amateur Artist, Treated Painting as a Battlefield Artnet News February 18 2019 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/how-amateur-artist-winston-churchill-amateur-saw-painting-1456174

[11] S. Cascone 2018 MIT Researchers Are Using Artificial Intelligence to Make Some of the Most Convincing Reproductions of Art Ever Artnet News December 5 2018 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/artificial-intelligence-is-reproducing-art-masterpieces-1405558

[12] Q. Fottrell 2018 People spend most of their waking hours staring at screens MarketWatch August 4 2018 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/people-are-spending-most-of-their-waking-hours-staring-at-screens-2018-08-01

[13] R. Frost 1923 Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stopping_by_Woods_on_a_Snowy_Evening

[14] T. GianniniJ. P. Bowen 2016 Curating Digital Life and Culture: Art and information J. P. BowenG. DiproseN. Lambert EVA London 2016: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts BCS, eWiC 237 244 DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2016.46

[15] T. GianniniJ. P. Bowen 2017 Life in Code and Digits: When Shannon met Turing Bowen et al 2017 51 58 DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2017.9

[16] T. GianniniJ. P. Bowen 2018 Of Museums and Digital Culture: A landscape view Bowen et al 2018 172 179 DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2018.34

[17] T. GianniniJ. P. Bowen 2019 Museums and Digital Culture: New perspectives and research Series on Cultural Computing Springer

[18] C. Goldstein 2019 ‘It’s Time, Guggenheim’: Nan Goldin Launches a Surprise Demonstration at the Guggenheim Museum to Protest Its Sackler Funding Artnet News February 9 2019 https://news.artnet.com/opinion/metropolitan-museum-artificial-intelligence-1461730

[19] G. Harris 2019 Exploitation and injustice’: London gallery show protests BP sponsorship at British Museum The Art Newspaper February 1 2019 https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/bp-p21

[20] R. Hell 2018 Downtown Legend Richard Hell Interviews Nan Goldin About Art, Opioids, and the Sadness of Life on the Fringes Artnet News November 8 2018 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/nan-goldin-richard-hell-interview-1387933

[21] A. KaunJ. Uldam 2017 Digital activism: After the hype. New Media & Society September 19 2017 DOI: 10.1177/1461444817731924

[22] I. Kaplin 2018 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would return the Elgin Marbles to Greece if elected Prime Minister Artsy June 4 2018 https://www.artsy.net/news/artsy-editorial-labour-leader-jeremy-corbyn-return-elgin-marbles-greece-elected-prime-minister

[23] N. Kenny 2019 Met unveils its AI experiment with Microsoft and MIT – Teams produce five digital prototypes for acquainting people with images of museum objects online The Art Newspaper February 5 2019 https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/met-unveils-its-ai-experiment-with-microsoft-and-mit

[24] E. Kinsella 2018 London’s National Gallery (Finally) Buys a Painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, Pioneering Female Artist of the Italian Renaissance Artnet July 6 2018 https://news.artnet.com/market/national-portrait-gallery-shells-record-4-million-artemesia-gentileschi-self-portrait-1314446

[25] J. Pes 2018 The National Gallery’s New Artemisia Gentileschi Should Be a Triumph—But Clouds Are Forming Over Its Ownership During WWII Artnet News December 12 2018 https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/national-gallery-artemisia-gentileschi-provenance-1417675

[26] N. Rea 2018 Has Artificial Intelligence Brought Us the Next Great Art Movement? Here Are 9 Pioneering Artists Who Are Exploring AI’s Creative Potential Artnet News November 6 2018 https://news.artnet.com/market/9-artists-artificial-intelligence-1384207

[27] N. Rea 2019 The British Museum Says It Will Never Return the Elgin Marbles, Defending Their Removal as a ‘Creative Act’ Artnet News January 28 2019 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/british-museum-wont-return-elgin-marbles-1449919

[28] T. Schneider 2019 The Gray Market: How the Met’s Artificial Intelligence Initiative Masks the Technology’s Larger Threats (and Other Insights) Artnet News February 11 2019 https://news.artnet.com/opinion/metropolitan-museum-artificial-intelligence-1461730

[29] Whitney 2017 An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s collection, 1940-2017 Whitney Museum USA August 18-27 2017 https://whitney.org/Exhibitions/AnIncompleteHistoryOfProtest?section=4#exhibition-artworks

[30] J. Wolkoff 2019 The Avant-Garde Art That Was Made for TV Artsy January 23 2019 https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-avant-gardaert-made-tv

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