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Zhang Zikang: Digitalization of Art Museums
2021-06-30 ICCSD

Zhang Zikang: Digitalization of Art Museums

Zhang Zikang:Director of the Art Museum, Central Academy of Fine Arts

Art museums are committed to developing cultural value and artistic value, and the place where the value of museums is generated has traditionally relied on the corresponding physical space, providing collectibles, education, research and services to the society. The rapid development of computer and network technology endows traditional art museums with multiple development possibilities beyond physical space. According to the latest information from Internet World Statistics in April 2019, 56.1% of the world's population have access to the Internet. As of March 2020, the number of netizens in China was 904 million, an increase of 75.08 million from the end of 2018, of which 897 million were cellphone netizens, accounting for 99.3%. with the Internet penetration rate up to 64.5%. [4] The digital technology revolution has fundamentally changed the times, making the Internet a remarkable and practical symbol of globalization. It not only involves all cultural forms, but also makes technology and culture highly integrated. In addition, it has conducted a significant impact on all non-material production areas, including art creation and museum operations, and also changed the way people think and behave. Martin Heidegger argues that "technology creates framing, or Gestell, and we have been the subject to experience the world which serves as objects and images. [5]" Boris Groys holds that the framing determines our relationship with the environment and invisibly guides us to experience. [6] Even during the quarantine and cold war in the "post-epidemic era", political "unfollow" cannot change the fact that "being in it" and "everything is interconnected".

With the development of big data and artificial intelligence, a new circle will be formed, in which the original knowledge barriers are eradicated and new knowledge is reconstructed. In order to promote the asset management and knowledge dissemination of art museums, the digitization of art museums, on the one hand, covers the collection, storage and upload of high-definition images of works of art - the establishment of a database of images and documents - a process of gradually completing the digital asset management system; on the other hand, it should include the construction of a full range of digital systems including the virtual construction of space, the preservation of virtual artworks, and system construction. During this process, the establishment of the basic database of digital information not only provides information for basic research work on a daily basis, including exhibition planning, creative product development, etc., but also helps complete the pre-planning, selection and other relevant work through the data provided by digital images of works of art, and thus provides image preparation for the virtual display at the next stage.

For art museums around the world, to continually increase investment and efforts in digital strategies is an effective way to adapt to a networked society. There is another way to build different channels to develop the imagination of physical space and access artistic resources, so that a new space that connects with the audiences could be expanded. As a result, a different way of experience that complements the traditional art museums will be formed. In 2008, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) established the Center for the Future of Museums. Since 2012, AAM has published TrendsWatch every year to summarize the keywords involved in the annual exhibitions at major museums around the world. Keyword of Augmented Reality (AR) emerged in 2012; keywords in 2013 were 3D Printing, Micro-credentials, Internet of Things and Disconnected Digital Experience; keywords in 2014 were big data, robots; keywords in 2015 were Public Data and Wearable Technology; keywords in 2016 were Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality; keywords in 2017 were Artificial Intelligence and Agile Development; Suspension of Publication emerged in 2018; Blockchain emerged in 2019. The digital technology revolution has profoundly and distinctly affected the field of museums. [7]

Especially after the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, museums all over the world have been on " leaped to the cloud",  virtual exhibitions, live webcasts, social media interactions and so on have become important public channels. Through "Cloud", the powerful attributes of the museum across time and space and the non-material characteristics of its mental and spiritual state that enriches human experience are strengthened. With the increasing intersection of museum physical state and digital state, the interaction between artificial intelligence, big data system and human brain system constitutes the basic framework of human thinking mode in the "post-human era" and has been the essential approach to promote the development of museums. On the basis of serving the audience in physical space, more and more art museums have been carrying out the digital transformation of collection resources and intellectual resources year by year.

Zhang Zikang: Digitalization of Art Museums

New technologies have changed the audience's "viewing" patterns, participation modes and thinking modes, which represent the first and most direct changes in the field of art museums.

The concept of visitors introduced by traditional art museums has been expanded by new technologies as "[ls1] audience[ly2] ", that is, visiting museums alone is not sufficient to indicate people's all gains from art exhibitions. Benefiting from the development of virtual reality, big data, smart wear, augmented reality and other technologies, the audience have more opportunities to participate in and interfere with works of art in a variety of ways. On the other hand, in order to attract more audience, museums are actively expanding in-depth cooperation with different fields such as game, film, intelligent industries. Through such cooperation, a new relationship has been established between the audience and museums as well as the art creation. For example, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has a brand linkage with Animal Crossing, the longest-running Nintendo Switch game with 13 million players. By clicking the share button on the museum's official website, players can add the collections from the Metropolitan Museum to the game.

The Walker Art Center transforms its website from content marketing into a place where visitors can find interesting stories, interviews, and links about artworks of interest, integrating different ideas, words and art far beyond the museums. [8] Through "participation", the audience may be inspired by the artists’ works, leading to unforeseen knowledge achievements. It has become the most basic form of the [ls3] Intellectual Mechanism of art museums, which is fed back to the art development process through the museum platform and involves in the construction of the Intellectual Mechanism of the whole society through audience. Although museums may not directly solve the problems that are still confusing to humanity in the 21st century, they play an active role in seeking for the ultimate solutions by providing opportunities for innovation [9].

Zhang Zikang: Digitalization of Art Museums

At a deeper level, the construction and improvement of a series of digital platforms will impact and change the art creation itself. As information dissemination technology becomes more convenient, many changes have taken place over the last decade. For example, in 2019, the Central Academy of Fine Arts launched the "Leandro Erlich: The Confines of the Great Void." The artist set a number of possibilities in his works to enable the audience to participate in the creation. The relationship between audience viewing and works being viewed no longer takes effect in Ehrlich's works, in other words, the artist Ehrlich himself is no longer the only creator of the works. Since the audience interact with works and spread them through their respective social media to the wider online world, it can be said that the audience and the artist jointly completed the final creation of the works. Originally, the artists were the subjects for creation, artworks were the objects of being viewed, and the audience were the subjects for viewing. However, since the artificial intelligence, interaction and other technologies were introduced, this art creation mode is in a situation of being abandoned and reconstructed in a more diverse form. Participatory Art, a brand-new creation mode, has attracted much attention of art museums around the world. At the scenes of Participatory Art, artists and the audience often act as co-producers and observers of works, and the start and end time of artistic activities has become more flexible.

Zhang Zikang: Digitalization of Art Museums

Zhang Zikang: Digitalization of Art Museums

Leandro Erlich: The Confines of the Great Void

Secondly, the application of new technologies in art creation (artist creation, artworks presentation mode, art ecosystem) is becoming more and more common.

Artists are increasingly free from the limitations of materials, time, space and other traditional factors to make creations.

The means of contemporary narrative art (photography, films, television, animation, multimedia, Internet, etc.) continue to penetrate and expand each other. Under the influence of the increasing complexity and inclusiveness of the media, the art world presents a complex interconnection. New technologies have been continuously promoting the formation of new media and media modes. New media has the functions of making presentation and communication. In this sense, the media is not only the carrier of information dissemination, but also the information itself. Different forms of media created by mankind previously, such as books, radios, films and television, are presented in a digital form - digitalization has assimilated all the presentation modes made over the past eras. Events that occur in physical space are quickly reflected in Cyberspace, and vice versa. The fact that the world is increasingly interconnected and free from border constraints requires a corresponding shift in our thinking modes. [10] Howard Baker argues that "the scope of art is determined by society". Art is constructed in society and also contributes to the construction of different social behaviors [11]. Since the boundaries of the roles of artists, designers, engineers and technicians have been unclear, art is explored from different perspectives and conceptual frameworks that science has never anticipated. [12] Poller holds that works of art were no longer involved in sociological analysis, which unwittingly undermines the most meaningful achievement - "art is the object of society". [13] In the current social life, intellect is constructed tenaciously in a conscious manner, which is generally the solution chosen by the art world.

Zhang Zikang: Digitalization of Art Museums

New technologies have been applied in all kinds of presentation modes of works of art.

In the art site of the new era, big data, information technology and cloud technology have set new rules for works of art - they belong to no one, everyone can use/appreciate them, and everyone can improve them - for the art site, the certain complexity resulted from the three rules  is not only their feature, but also a source of intellect for innovation. [14]

Zhang Zikang: Digitalization of Art Museums

The Suomen Kansallismuseo in Helsinki, Finland opened a VR exhibition in 2018, in which Visitors can enjoy the painting The opening of the Diet in 1863 created by the artist R. W. Ekman. In the process, they can wear VR headsets as if they were walking into the painting. Looking around the Hall of Mirrors from a 3D angle, they can find themselves in the scene and even talk to the Russian emperor and other characters depicted in the painting. This exhibition shows people the life and politics of Finland under the Russian Empire in the 1860s in detail.

In the UK, the Tate Modern in London also hosts a fascinating VR exhibition where visitors can be immersed in the 3D models of the artists' studio.

In October 2019, the Louvre Museum in Paris launched the VR Experience Exhibition "Mona Lisa: Beyond the Glass" to explore Renaissance paintings. With interactive design, sounds and animated images, visitors can discover details about this painting. You can visit the exhibition by downloading it in VR application store VIVEPORT, iOS application store and Android application store.

Zhang Zikang: Digitalization of Art Museums

The art ecosystem is increasingly dependent on the Internet.

With the accelerating pace of life, people are likely to overlook some art exhibitions and art museums that are worth spending time and space to visit. This is one of the inevitable and objective influences on art and culture caused by the "Global Village" phenomenon under the influence of "Information Highway" [15]. Over the past, art exhibitions and art museums were based on physical forms and physical space to share intellect, but this mode has been challenged as humans have more information available, more control over time, and become less demanding on the localization of communication. Cyberspace has been an objective factor that art museums and art curation have to seriously face and consider. At the beginning of 2020, since COVID-19 epidemic broke out on a global scale, the demand for cultural and artistic information through nonphysical contact has been further strengthened, and the desire to visit art exhibitions in physical space has also been weakened. No matter curation, collections, fundraising, cross-border cooperation of museums or the research, teaching, media interviews, primary and secondary marketing, and transactions in different academies have stimulated “Online” and “Cloud” practice of art ecosystem in all aspects. As a result, there is an active integration of new technologies in the art world. For art museums, the change mainly lies in the fact that their physical space is multi-dimensionally linked to Cyberspace [16]. During the epidemic, online exhibitions beyond the physical building space are no longer just complementary to the exhibition, but even an alternative to sharing works of great artistic value with more audience. According to Carly Straughan, an expert in Art Museology, online exhibitions enable art lovers all over the world to experience unprecedented connections with museums and interact with the new members of the entire art world. [17] Amy Schaffman, education manager at Augusta Museum of History, said, "art museums can play a role in the final solution by providing opportunities to make creations and acquire knowledge.” Laura Wilkinson, Programme director of a new museum project of the Museum of London, holds that "Museum of the Future is a deconstructed form of its current self"[1] Museums will be in a position to translate the grim realities of their communities in to international platforms,"[2] said Goabaone Montsho, an anthropologist at the National Museum of Tswana.“

Zhang Zikang: Digitalization of Art Museums

Here are some specific examples. In 2013, the National Museum of Australia tried out a virtual museum tour, allowing online visitors to control the robots equipped with cameras, speakers and microphones. This approach enables remote visitors to interact with museums online and is highly popular with schoolchildren across Australia. In 2017, to advance its digital strategy, Wellcome Collection in London, UK, actively enriched the functions of its website, attached importance to the connection between the audience and the museum, where visitors can tell their stories with different artworks, whether they are accessible to the physical space of the museum or not. [18]

In 2020, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic, the Central Academy of Fine Arts took the form of an online virtual exhibition to exhibit the annual graduation works. The number of views exceeded 10 million on the day the exhibition went live, and the online exhibition has more viewer than the field exhibition. Therefore, to change the conventional approaches and experience, and tap the advantages and effectiveness of online exhibitions from the aspects of art creation, art dissemination, and art experience will be the challenge that art museums face in the future.

Digital images and virtualized exhibitions are certainly not substitutes for physical observation and exhibitions. However, the digital approach can provide us with many new opportunities. For instance, with the surge in audience traffic, art museums/galleries have received unprecedented attention, and in the planning of exhibitions in the future, the audience can be invited to participate in the creation, dissemination and experience of works relatively quickly and effectively.

In the future, art museums need to consider how to attract, listen to and accept different "voices" and guarantee their own development through the improvement of management mechanism, but it is more important to maintain the advantages of art museums in professionalism and independent judgment on cultural value.

References

[1]. Zhang Zikang, Luoyi, Art Museum, Culture and Art Publishing House, 2017, p. 5: “The renewal of the definition of museums can highlight the cultural initiative of museums, especially art museums, and the creativity of culture”.

[2]. Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, London: Routledge, 2002.

[3]. In this paper, the concept of "reagent" uses the concept of chemical reagent for reference: chemical reagent is a relative standard substance for chemical research and component analysis, widely used in the synthesis, separation, qualitative and quantitative analysis of substances.

[4]. The 45th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China, released by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) on April 28, 2020.

[5]. Vorträge und Aufsätze, Martin Heidegger [Germany], translated by Sun Zhouxing, The Commercial Press, 2018, pp. 19-23.

[6]. Curation in the Post-Internet Era, Boris Groys [Germany], translated by Li Xin, from Issue 94 of e-flux magazine.

[7]. TrendsWatch, American Alliance of Museums, https://www.aam-us.org

[8]. Museum Dynamic Newsletter[ls1] [ly2] , Walker Art Center, March-May 2020.

[9]. From Amy Schaffman, education manager of the Augusta Museum of History.

[10]. Mitchell, William J., Me+ +: The Cygorg Self and the Networked City, Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003.

[11]. Sociology of the Art, Victoria D. Alexander [UK], translated by Zhang Hao and Shen Yang, Jiangsu Fine Arts Publishing House, p.308.

[12]. Magnussan, Thor, Processor Art, Currents in the Process Oriented Works of Generative and Software Art’, August 2002, http:www.runme.org/project/#processorart/

[13]. Bowler, Anne E, Politics as Art: Italian Futurism and Fascism, Theory and Society, December 1991, Vol.20, No.6, pp.763-794.

[14]. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Don Tapscott [Canada], Anthony D. Williams [UK], translated by He Fan and Lin Jihong, China Youth Publishing House, 2008, p.95. This statement draws on the open source code described in Wikinomics: "Three rules of the open source – it belongs to no one, everyone uses it, and anyone can improve it". Open source mainly refers to the basic program or program thinking mode of open source code like LINUX.

[15]. Information Highway is essentially a high-speed information electronic network, which is a complete network system that can provide users with a large amount of information at any time, consisting of communication networks, computers, databases and daily electronic products. In 1992, Al Gore, Senator and former U.S. Vice President, introduced the U.S. Information Highway Act. In September 1993, the U.S. government announced a new high-tech program - the National Information Infrastructure (NII), which aims to build an Internet-based highway in the information age - the "Information Highway", so that all Americans can easily share massive information resources. China is also committed to developing an information highway. In the past five years, a series of policy measures, such as the "Broadband China" strategy, the "Internet +" action plan, speed-up and fee-reduction work, and information consumption, have promoted the popularization and upgrading of information highway in China. At present, China has made important contributions to 5G standard.

[16]. Cyberspace is an abstract concept in philosophy and computer science, referring to a virtual reality in computers and computer networks. The term Cyberspace, a combination of cybernetics and space, was first introduced in 1982 in the short story of Burning Chromein omni magazine by William Gibson, a science fiction writer living in Canada. Later, this term was popularized in the novel Neuromancer.

[17].Carly Straughan,'What does the Straughan, 'What future of Museum fundraising look like?', May 16, 2019,https://www.museumnext.com/article/the-future-of-museum-fundraising/

[18].Jim Richardson,'Long-Form Digital Content? Here are three museums doing it well', March 28,2020,https://www.museumnext.com/article/long-form-digital-content-in-museums/

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