A few weeks ago, the
Art Institute of Chicago debuted a new app—“Art Institute Tours.” It offers visitors who download on their
smartphones (Apple or Android) a concise key to the museum, including small
museum-curated tours, organized by Period, Movement, country, and so
forth. The app also offers a
step-by-step directional feature precisely guiding the go-ers to any specific
work, sort of a condensed version of their “Pathfinder” and “Floor Plan”
features available on their website.
One of the best features of “Tours” is the Tours
by Theme option, organizing tours by associating pieces together by very
unique, specific commonalities. This
particular method of cataloging offers a unique option to students especially looking
for a specific theme to study in the collection-beyond just medium, style,
period, etc--although there are good tours organized according to those
traditional standards as well. For example: “Look a Little Closer,” and
“My Kind of Town” were especially intriguing. The “Closer” tour leads you
to pieces in the museum with interesting, often overlooked details. My favorite tour was “My Kind of Town.” As a
Chicagophile, I love that song, love this city, and loved learning little
factoids about Chicago through the few pieces of art included in this tour.
As someone who has visited the Art Institute many, many times, I think
this particular Themed tours feature is of great use and interest to a
regular/frequent visitor looking for something new amid the familiar setting.
The collection is certainly large enough to spend hours and days studying
and observing. This app provides a way to organize those visits with the
ability to easily discover new pieces or spaces within the museum.
One thing that was very
clear on this technology-led tour of the AIC was the modernization of the
museum itself—via technology, of course.
“Art Institute Tours” is not the only motion the AIC has taken toward
technological friendliness and development.
Other vestiges beyond “Tours” include: interactive computer screens, as
well as tower/monitor computer stations, scattered around the museum within
exhibits, and in public spaces to help people with step-by-step directions
throughout the museum, with more info about an exhibit or piece of work; free
wi-fi available to all visitors; as well as a recently re-vamped website with a
sleek design that promotes the use of icons and simplicity. But while these recent infiltrations of
technology are present all through the museum, it is not an ostentatious
show. None of it is shocking.
In
fact, it seems like a natural extension.
It's possible you might not notice it if you didn't
know to look for it. Advertising about it wasn't very ostentatious at the
entrances. This was also the release
date of the Picasso and Chicago exhibit, however, so I suppose it was a bit
overshadowed. Maybe you didn’t expect it—or maybe you did—but once
you see these computers hanging up on the wall, once you notice that prompt for
app download on your smartphone, it just…makes sense. Why shouldn’t they offer wi-fi to the
visitors? Everyone else does. Soon even the public parks might offer
wi-fi!
But—beyond being an idea born of necessity/inevitability—is
this co-existence of technology and art also a nod to aesthetic appeal of
technology? Aesthetically the sleek technology placed against
the neoclassical architecture (in the main building, anyway) by the works of
art just worked. That big beautiful screen looked so nice on the wall. This is Apple-specific
for this location, of course—because every medium that was provided by the
Museum was Apple-made. But it was hard
not to notice that the outfits of technology complimented the exhibits they
were situated in. For instance, there
are two computers and monitors stationed right across from Marc Chagall’s
America Windows, placed there to provide the opportunity to learn more about
the work. This station was being used
for this purpose by multiple people the whole time I was near these
windows. It was tucked away in a nook,
but it still managed to compliment the windows in a way. The dim glowing from the blue Mac screens
against the white walls did not look unlike the “Windows.” And in Picasso and Chicago, the rectangular
interactive touch-screen computers were hung up right beside Picasso’s works of
art in frames of that very shape. Is
this a stylistic choice?
In any case, the AIC is
now encouraging a one-stop shop environment—shopping, dining, social media,
easy digital access at your fingertips—all occurring within their location. Many of these things they already offered
before, but are now more rounded out with the new technological involvement. It is officially a hub! But this does not take away from the museum
itself. They have created a good app and
a good opportunity for visitors to further delve into the building, into the
collection, into the very works of art themselves. Art
is meant to stimulate the five senses so that the visitor can smell, touch,
hear, feel, and (on occasion) taste—EXPERIENCE the work. And enabling all this sleek technology only
further enhances that opportunity the works of art lends. It is not groundbreaking technology—this is
occurring all over. Museums are
inevitably moving into this direction of incorporating more and more technology
into their facilities. While a natural step forward, it is a graceful one.
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