Development of Ideas

Gallery Observations:

Completing methods of empirical research focusing on observation, sketching and photographing other viewers should enable me to identify how they currently behave in galleries; from these observations I am hoping to understand how old they are, particular pieces they are drawn to, how long they stay, how often they look at their phone and how often they take pictures of the works.

The sketches and graphs below are a visual representation of my observations of other viewers in a white cube gallery space.

Questionnaires for galleries:

Using different research methods will enable me to extend and better understand my areas of enquiry during my practice; by using quantitative surveys or questionnaires sent via emails to galleries and museums, it can be identified what they feel is and isn’t working in relation to their curation or exhibition style and how this may be effecting visitor numbers. These results can then be applied to my practice to give successful outcomes.

Leaving items in galleries:

Modern art can be seen as silly and easy, often receiving the criticism of "I could've done that!"

There is a theory that art viewers behave in a certain way and aim to interpret any object provided in a gallery setting. The lack of information and labelling in a lot of institutions allows for individual interpretations and guessing as to what its purpose is.

BY leaving mundane objects in a gallery space allows for open minded people to engage with their imagination and admire more simplistic works without much need for context.

Many of these objects are aiming to challenge today's culture and how art is viewed within communities and how it communicates to the audience.

Interpretation of the gallery label:

Gallery and museum labels often hold little to no information with regards to the context of a piece of work and are more likely to be overlooked.

Institutions today are having to compete with the mobile phone and other technologies that are taking control of viewer attention. They therefore need to be able to engage with younger and tech-savy audiences; some have begun to use digital display software... QR codes connected to a website could also be developed.

Printing is expensive so links to digital worlds create gallery presence online and keep them up to date with modern times; electronic sources allow for faster updates and costs.

Considering my works connection to fashion trends it would be good to consider how labels are used in clothes, what is included and how they are read.

How will changing the gallery space affect the work within it?

What is the future of the art work? How do we value craft in relation to the digital world?

Galleries and museums need to change their spaces in which to attract viewers to come and view art work - if spaces continue to evolve, like they already have, deeper into digital arenas then the idea of craft and practical skill is devalued. Audiences will still need to evaluate and navigate around 3-sculptures and other mediums because not everything can live digitally, so it is important that galleries and museums keep trying the best they can to work around physical works within the interests of the viewers.

There is no doubt that changing curatorial methods such as wall colour and adding patterns etc will change the way in which the work will be viewed. This is therefore a key issue for artists as the context of their work may change... it could be argued that white cube spaces already remove artwork from their original context so a catch 22 is then formed. The areas surrounding work on display need to be intergrated very organically so not to completely distract from the work at hand if there is work on display; the methods used could become work themselves if just focusing on patterns etc.