In the writing “Surfin’ the Louvre” Elizabeth Larsen describes her experience with online museum websites. She talked about how she experienced many different paintings and sculptures from many different museums all over the world. Throughout the writing Larsen takes the reader on a tour of three or four different museums starting in Italy and going all the way to Japan. She also mentioned the fact that she does not require every symphony she listens to, to be live. This made me ask, “Is it more beneficial to physically experience a museum, or are online exhibits just the same as seeing them in person?” I believe that it is more beneficial to actually experience a museum in person rather than online.
Larsen makes a good point by describing the vast majority of museums she visited in a short amount of time. By visiting the museums online, she could go to many different exhibits that are hundreds of miles away from each other within a few minutes. I think that it is important to actually visit museums in person. There are many things that a simple picture or video on a website cannot capture that one could see in person. There are many different angles and ways to look at art and with a picture they cannot all be captured. Also artwork has texture and color. With a picture a person cannot fully grasp the whole experience of a piece of art (angles, texture and color) like one could looking at the artwork live.
Although experiencing artwork in person is far better, one does not always have the opportunity to go to many different museums to experience it all. It is good that museum websites have updated and are allowing people to view the work online and get that much of an experience. It is also convenient to be able to go to more than just one museum in a day online. If a person was given the choice between actually visiting a museum and going online, it would benefit them more by going. Seeing a piece of art live is a completely different experience than viewing the work online.
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I LOVE going to art museums! While I believe that it would also be cool to "visit" museums online, I think that actually seeing them in person would be much more beneficial. It's part of the experience for me. In person you can actually see the actual sizes of artwork, as well as the many textures each piece has. I really enjoyed your summary and it made me want to go read the actual essay.
ReplyDeleteSince I can't go to all the art museums I'd like to see, the online option is one I use often. It's not the same as being in person, but it's a lot better than never getting to go!
ReplyDeleteAs we move into a more virtual world, especially with the advent of 3-d televisions, is the break between IRL and online blurring? If, with a pair of glasses, you can actually move through the museum, would that be enough to counter the "real" experience?
ReplyDeleteI blogged about this article too, but I agree with the author that experiencing it online is a really great innovation. it's true that it's not quite the same experience, but many of us cannot afford to go all over the world to view art, so seeing it online is better than never getting to see it at all i think.
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