Sunday, February 17, 2008
I already explored with you, issues of space and cultural differences when it comes to create or to read an artwork. There is an article in the Arts Newspaper this month that stresses the change in visitors behaviour due to a growing audience in galleries and museum...
This specific post story all started a couple of years ago, with a box in a book called "Le Marketing Sensoriel" which gives key elements to understand the "rush management" as a marketing tool (In other words, miscellaneous techniques to retain people in a crowded high street, hype shop. The box, entitled "behavioral cloaca" explains that a great number of rats were put together in a small cage for behavior observation purposes. What they've found out was that rats became hostile, gave way to cannibalism, incest and death... Then I would like you to think about the crowd in a big museum such as MOMA or TATE on a Saturday afternoon from this overcrowded point of you... OOOPS!
This specific post story all started a couple of years ago, with a box in a book called "Le Marketing Sensoriel" which gives key elements to understand the "rush management" as a marketing tool (In other words, miscellaneous techniques to retain people in a crowded high street, hype shop. The box, entitled "behavioral cloaca" explains that a great number of rats were put together in a small cage for behavior observation purposes. What they've found out was that rats became hostile, gave way to cannibalism, incest and death... Then I would like you to think about the crowd in a big museum such as MOMA or TATE on a Saturday afternoon from this overcrowded point of you... OOOPS!
Joke apart, the first experiment really exists and demonstrates the influence of busy environment on living creatures behaviour. Do not tell me that you've never felt claustrophobic or agoraphobic while walking in Manchester city center on a week end. What type of impact could have the crowd on the museum visit experience? The Arts Newspaper article stresses that most of the artworks were not created to fit into galleries as they were supposed to end on a wall in the peacefull well-protected house of a rich investor... Some quite place, where you (they) can have a face to face encounter with the artwork for hours without 100 tourists taking pictures (with a powerful flash), or standing between you and the canvas. Moreover, some artworks respond to each others, are complementary. The first example that comes to my mind is the Rothko's room in Tate modern, London.
Rothko's room in Tate Modern, perfect conditions
The memory of those children running everywhere in the room, drawing, and the people standing in front of the paintings is as strong as the memory of the proper canvases. I remember grabbing a paper explaining a couple of facts about the paintings and a mother telling me I should not take it as it was something specifically designed for 'young at Tate' or something like this and that her boy wanted it back. Ok ok I give it back to you... I d be very glad if someone gave me one of this leaflets 'for dummies'! but nothing... The moral of this Rothko story is that I did not understand anything at his art by standing in this gallery because there were too many people (including me) turning around breaking the symetry and the way the light is reflected from the canvas to the viewer...
Another example, In Tate Modern again, walking on level 3 you may see a giant queue waiting to enter an open-egg-like form... 
What so special about it? The object is called Ishan's light and its creator Anish Kapoor (see above). Without entering into too much details about the artist intentions here, I was curious enough to enter the 10 minutes queue to have the privilege to be face-to-face with the sculpture for about 40-50 seconds, having that feeling that the people in the queue were staring at my poor, amazed and dizzy body with a 'now it's my turn!' look. While entering into the sculpture shape, you basically loose your sense of time and space due to an optical effect created by the highly reflective dark interior surface. You need to put your hands in front of you to really understand what happens to you. You wish to stay here for hours but you know that it is already too late, you have to leave... next person, next artwork... 
Martin creed's work N° 329 'half the air in a given space'-Lyon's biennial 2004
Same for Martin creed's work N° 329 'half the air in a given space' in Lyon's biennial a couple of years ago, same for many other artworks.
Edward T. Hall, a well recognized anthropologist and a big name in cultural studies introduced in the 'Hidden dimension' the concept of proxemics which in simple terms is the 'cultural' notion of space. Hall notes that different cultures maintain different standards of personal space. In Latin cultures, for instance, those relative distances are smaller, and people tend to be more comfortable standing close to each other; in Nordic cultures the opposite is true. Realizing and recognizing these cultural differences improves cross-cultural understanding, and helps eliminate discomfort people may feel if the interpersonal distance is too large ("stand-offish") or too small (intrusive). Comfortable personal distances also depend on the culture, social situation, gender, and individual preference.
Does it mean that we are not equal in crowded museum and galleries context. Some may have more difficulties to cope with busy rooms in which artists try to communicate complex contemporary messages through amazing masterpieces. We are not equal in front of the potential stress generated in these situations that would alter the quality of the communication process.
Remember these three important things:
- If a pretty latina comes to seat right next to you the German little on the bench in front of this Rothko's masterpiece; it is more likely that she wants to admire the canvas rather than getting your number.
- Galleries may not become a place for hot dates
- Do not, in any case, hold such stupid stereotypes (specially the two mentioned above).
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