From Mona to MONA

A journey of SELFie enlightenment

Ah, le Louvre! Le fantastique! With its magnificent edifice, historic grandeur and awe-inspiring masterpieces, it is one of the most quintessential art gallery experiences you can ever have.

Upon visiting any iconic art gallery – the Louvre, Hermitage, Vatican Museums, Met, Uffizi – the typical traveller can be found darting from one masterpiece to the next, battling through the chaotic forest of smartphones and cameras that immortalise the moment of one's personal encounter with a fetishised masterpiece.

Through allowing photography, art galleries have turned into circus-like spectacles instead of places of reflection and calm contemplation. Indeed, this is the opinion of traditionalist art critics such as Jonathan Jones for whom the museum is a temple for higher things.

Yet how do museum snappers themselves justify the use of photography in gallery spaces? Do art audiences agree that selfies, cameras and smartphones are a "spiritual menace", denying the acts of study and reverence for which museums are intended?

To answer these important questions, I have invited my Dad, an art enthusiast and regular museum-goer, to work with me, drawing on different knowledge and experiences to determine the impact of photography on the sacred cultural space that is the art institution.

Sidney Nolan's 'Ned Kelly' (1946)
Image source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZIxYnmazrE

As a member of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) in Canberra, Dad often visits the gallery to see major exhibitions. Armed with an audio guide and comfortable walking shoes, Dad joins the hordes and moves briskly through the exhibition from one masterpiece to the next, taking the length of the audio recording to view each painting and to understand the wider context in which it was created.

New York Times columnist Stephanie Rosenbloom argues that most people want to enjoy a museum, not conquer it. For Dad, however, attending the NGA is just part of a family day visit to Canberra, "Some shopping and a counter lunch at the Irish Pub consumed with a pint of Guinness is also on the agenda, so time is short." This speed-viewing often leaves Dad feeling bereft, “At times I am left with the feeling that I have moved so quickly through the exhibition that I question what I gained from the experience.”

For centuries, art galleries have been a way of making people slow down and take a moment to stop, think and examine something in detail. Rupert Christiansen of the Daily Telegraph argues that galleries and museums aren't common public spaces in which anything goes. Rather, they are sanctuaries much like church or yoga – places where the bustle stops and hush prevails.

Upon reflecting on these perspectives with Dad, he expressed a contradictory belief that major exhibitions are not conductive to an atmosphere in which audiences are free and welcome to linger and meditate. Dad recalls the NGA offering paltry opportunities to sit and rest, “You’re more or less forced to keep on walking. Keep the crowds moving.”

Roy Lichtenstein's 'In the Car'  (1963)
Image source: http://www.switchinghemispheres.com/popping-into-pop-to-popism/

Dad actively used his smartphone to take photos of the Pop to popism exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. As it was a private corporate function, Dad was keen to share images of the works with the family. Dad recalls feeling self-conscious about photo-taking and walked ahead of his colleagues to avoid distracting those who wished to concentrate. This one-click-and-move-on behaviour continued to occur until Dad was politely reminded by a guard that photography was prohibited.

Dad admits that his smartphone became a prosthesis for the experience of looking and engaging, "Having seen most of the artwork through the screen of my mobile phone I was left with the feeling that I had missed out on the exhibition in my haste to share the experience."

This lack of critical viewing due to the constant temptation to share is changing the culture of gallery spaces. This is reflected in a statement by freelance writer Kyle Chayka

“The white cubes of museums are designed to encourage a sense of quiet isolation and create a space in which new ideas can be encountered and dissected through the medium of art; smartphones turn them into playgrounds…instead.”

Indeed, Dad recognises that the act of sharing these photos turned a private space designed for education and cultural self-improvement into a public viewing. Yet the irony is that the rush to capture these photos meant that they were often blurry, out of focus and impossible to appreciate. Rosenbloom makes a point of this in her article, questioning why people take amateur photographs of artworks readily available in books, on postcards and online, in more accurate and focused reproduction. Dad argues, however, that only the most popular works are sold as reproductions, “People interested in lesser-known works have to DIY.”

Visiting the Louvre on a weekend in Paris, Dad was impatient to see the world's most famous face - Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Rushing his way through the Louvre’s vast treasure trove of art and history, Dad amassed in a crowded, sauna-like space of tourists who were gathered in a jostling camera-snapping scrum around the renowned painting.

The fate of Mona Lisa in an age of popular photography has been the subject of considerable lament. Guardian art critic Jonathan Jones complained that the intrusion of digital cameras is a discourtesy and a disruption to the mood of respectful quiet that should besiege museums.

For Dad, however, it wasn’t the camera-snapping crowds that impressed on him, but rather the size of the painting itself, "…to think of all the other masterpieces I had rushed by in the process of hunting down the Mona Lisa."

Indeed, there are certain iconic paintings and monuments that travellers feel they must see to tick off their cultural bucket list. Dad acknowledges that photographs are integral memory-markers for once-in-a-lifetime experiences, trophies to possess the ephemeral and prove “I was there”.

According to SFMOMA media producer Tim Svenonius, the desire to amass our own collections is an impulse hardwired into our DNA. Visitors take photos as a way of laying claim to one’s personal experience of a museum,

Before we were a species of discoverers and inventors, we were a species of hunters and gatherers. Taking photographs is a form of gathering. Not permitted to touch, we can still take...When we talk about photography, we are subliminally evoking our Palaeolithic pasts.

Upon visiting any art gallery or museum, our sensors are overloaded by sights, sounds, sensations and ideas that are larger, greater or more powerful than ourselves. We are moved to capture experiences too profound to be contained by the moment and too great to belong to us alone. As we bask in the wonderment of these works, we need to extend the reach of the moment by sharing it with others.

Julius Popp's 'Bit.Fall' (2005)
Image source: http://infinitelegroom.com/2013/11/18/a-traks-guide-to-the-mona-in-tasmania-the-museum-of-sex-and-death/29476/

A vital part of Dad's experience of the Red Queen exhibition at Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) was using the 'O Device’, an electronic gallery guide that replaces traditional wall labels. While most museums have prescribed routes, The 'O' empowered Dad to curate his own experience in an adventurous, non-linear and interactive journey.

The traditional idea of the museum as a place of hushed severity is becoming increasingly outmoded. Galleries are shedding the idea of being a didactic repository from the intellectual high ground and are democratising into spaces of recreation that are conducive to conversation and sharing.

Open photography policies allow museums to activate the gallery space and to extend and reinvent how people associate and discover art. Many art galleries are now encouraging visitors to take selfies with artworks and post them on social media. To some visitors this may seem crass, distracting or antithetical to contemplation. However, museum selfies spark a sense of discovery and inventiveness, simultaneously reflecting and challenging art institutions and redefining individual’s self-rendered relationships to the gallery space.

Sarah Hromack, the director of digital media at Whitney, argues that sharing museum selfies on social media constitutes a form of social discourse that reflects the collective voice of the public separate to the mainstream art press. This powerful digital backchannel is a manifestation of the age-old "us vs them" divide - between museums as places of privilege and access and as public institutions with a duty for collections to be disseminated and enjoyed as widely as possible. Dad agrees, “Sharing selfies on the Internet makes art more accessible and less intimidating…It encourages people to have a say and to engage in art in different ways.”

Image source: http://www.stylemag.net/2015/09/23/art-changes-so-do-we-so-wird-die-neuen-tate-modern-aussehen/

Throughout this research, Dad and I were motivated by the common goal to discover how the traditional interpretive approach to viewing works in museums is impacted by photography. In particular, Dad expressed the desire to become more self-aware about his own practices of cultural consumption in art galleries.

Reflecting on his individual experiences has allowed both Dad and I to understand that there is no right or wrong way to experience a museum. There are a range of motives as to why visitors take photos and the challenge for art institutions is how to cater for the different experiences being sought, particularly as art continually redefines itself.

The rise of the digital audience means there is greater social expectations for gallery spaces to cater for the use of photography. At the same time, however, these audiences need to retain respect for the patrons seeking a more intimate and contemplative engagement with artworks.

Potential solutions to these conflicting demands include implementing no-photography hours, slow art tour days and special selfie rooms with replicas of the most popular paintings.

Museum administrator Emily Oswald proposes setting up contrasting spaces or experiences for visitors such as a "Take Your Selfie Here!" sign or a “This gallery is a selfie-free zone”. These curatorial decisions could prompt visitors to reflect on the artwork itself and why they may or may not be able to take a photo.

Upon Dad's next trip to a gallery, he plans to make a more conscious effort to slow down and take a more discerning approach to viewing art. Dad is also keen to observe how other people experience artworks, and will now take notice of photography policies and how galleries are engaging with their digital audiences. 

Most significantly, however, Dad recognises the holistic value of these findings, "These personal revelations extend beyond art galleries to my use of photography in a wider context including how I experience other "live" moments and the impact this has on others."