Ahhh, a trip to the museum. Hushed voices, the clicking of heels on marble floors, necks craning to see that big picture.
'It's as if I suddenly have a living, breathing catalog. This goes beyond the audio headsets'
-- Ralph Bond, Intel
Just like everything else in today's high-tech world, computers are changing the way we experience art. Web sites and multimedia tools are letting museums add context and depth to their exhibits, while also allowing them to reach legions of people that they never could before.
"New technology can provide unprecedented access to ideas about art," said Joel Ehrenkranz, president of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
The Whitney is one of several museums that are using the Internet to promote their exhibits. With the museum's newest exhibit, 'The American Century,' the Whitney has taken things a step further, working with Intelto develop a multimedia Web site that adds context and content to the art displayed online.
But that first step -- displaying art online -- is still a major step for the art world.
In the past, viewers would have to travel to the museum where the exhibit was being held if they wanted to see the works. While that was fine for people who lived in major metropolitan areas, it didn't work for everyone else.
"Museums are open a finite number of hours during the day," said Matthew Yokobosky, curator of film and video at the Whitney. "For people who can't come during those times, or who live outside the city or the state [displaying art online] gives them an opportunity to exhibit major events in art."
And in some cases, it allows art which would have been extremely hard for anyone to see to be made accessible.
The Museum at the Carolina Redeviva University Library at Uppsala University, in Sweden used technology from Cycore Computer to create a digital image of the Codex Argenteus, known as the "silver bible." The bible, written around 520, is illustrated with silver and gold letters on purple vellum. Because of its fragility, the museum is unable to lend it out to other museums. But using the 3-D imaging, it was able to set up a "virtual" exhibit online, and at other museums.
Technology can also allow museums to attempt to put art into context for a viewer, giving historical or artistic background at a level that would be impractical offline.
For instance, the Web site developed by Intel and the Whitney displays the art along a timeline that also displays political, technological and cultural events. That way a viewer can see what world events may have influenced the artists. It also ties in with the theme of the exhibit, which groups the art by decade.
Beyond a static site
While many of the Web sites currently being produced by museums allow greater reach for the art, they are essentially just online versions of the catalog. The next step is to make full use of multimedia.
'This does something I always tried to do -- it gives you an understanding not just of art, but of art in context'
-- Ralph Bond, Intel
It also allows viewers to create their own custom-designed tours of the exhibit, which can be annotated with their own text. So, for example, a teacher could design a lesson using pieces from the collection, and include questions or explanations.
The site will also be creating "celebrity tours" complete with narration from curators and others.
In another project Intel is working on, a 3-D simulation will allow a viewer to "step inside" a Van Gogh painting, to see how the artists used perspective.
The Intel/Whitney collaboration will also involve trials of a new pad-PC that contains all of the data on the Web site. A visitor will be able to take the pad-PC around with them as they tour the exhibit, so they can look up information while they are viewing the art.
"It's as if I suddenly have a living, breathing catalog," said Ralph Bond, technology and education manager at Intel. "This goes beyond the audio headsets. It's as if you had headsets that asked you 'would you like to see more works by this artists? Would you like to know the artists history, or the history of the movement?'"
The educational aspect of technology is what makes it appealing to many museums. Before coming to Intel, Bond taught art history for 16 years. He said that the combination of technology and art simply adds to the tools educators have.
"This does something I always tried to do -- it gives you an understanding not just of art, but of art in context," Bond said.
At the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), located in Boston, interactive terminals allow users to interact with works of art from a new exhibit of paintings by Mary Cassatt. The stations let users compare the artist's works with some of her contemporaries and influences, and alter the works -- changing the pattern of wallpaper or removing objects in a scene.
The MFA has shown its exhibitions on its Web site before, but this is the first time it has moved the technology inside the museum, said Kelly Gifford, press officer for the MFA.
"It lets you examine the art process. With one of the works, you can change the wallpaper from the color it is to blue, or not striped. It really changes the whole image of the work,"Gifford said. "A child could really see how the artist works."
Technology doesn't just appeal to museums, either. The Art Director's Club, an association of commercial artists, has recently begun producing a CD-ROM of its annual awards, in addition to a book. The CD-ROM allows the group to send out copies of Web design and commercial videos, a move that was simply impractical a few years ago.
Even something as mundane as a database can change the way art is viewed. A joint project by the Ohio Arts Council and the Columbus Metropolitan Library allows curators, collectors and others to search through the works of hundreds of artists online.
The Council had decided to create a library for local artists to register their work, but wanted to go beyond the traditional form of keeping a library of slides, said Jami Goldstein, public information officer for the Ohio Online Visual Artists Registry.
"This is one way [artists] can make their work known," Goldstein said. "Before, it would require a lot of legwork and visiting galleries. The old form of [the database] was a physical slide registry in our offices, but our hours are limited. When you think about the business community -- architects, journalists, decorators-- this is a way they can find things as well."
And other experiments with technology have even enabled art historians to learn about their own exhibits.
Seeing art in new ways
A group of researchers from Stanford University has traveled to Italy to create an "3-D computer archive of the sculptures of Michelangelo." The project, sponsored by Stanford, Interval Research Corporation and the Paul G. Allen Foundation for the Arts, involves scanning the sculptures with lasers to develop the images, which can then be manipulated electronically in ways that would be impossible in the real world.
For instance, a digitization of the head of Michaelangelo's David revealed that while the statue's eyes appear normal when viewed from either side, they are in fact crossing. But since a head-on view of the statue is impossible (it is blocked by the statue's upraised arm) a typical viewer would never notice. Professor Mark Levoy said that Michelangelo probably knew this, and optimized the two eyes for their appearance from the two viewable sides. "It would be a typical Michelangelo trick," he said.
Another project involving researchers from IBM Corp. and art historians is examining Michealangelo's second Pieta, housed in the Museum of the Opera del Duomo in the Cathedral of Florence. The sculpture, which was nearly destroyed by the artist at one point, depicts Christ, Mary Magdalen and Nicodemus. By developing a 3-D replica of the work, scholars are able to study how Michaelangelo used perspective and are also able to examine the specific parts of the Pieta which he attacked.
While the projects are educating scholars, they are also educating museum goers who are able to see the scientists as they work on the statues.
Levoy said that visitors to the museum "swarm" around their workstations, looking at the equipment and watching the workers. But while their curiosity initially surrounds the technology, it also encompasses the artwork.
"On the surface it seems ludicrous to place a computer in front of a statue, and on the computer screen to display a 3-D model of that same statue. However, in practice the computer seems to focus the museum goer's attention on the statue, and it allows them to view it in a new way," Levoy said.
"If we allowed tourists to manipulate the models themselves (with a mouse), they would jump at the chance, I'm sure. By exploring the statue themselves, or by changing its virtual lighting, they make the viewing of art an active rather than a passive experience. The art museum becomes a hands-on museum."
