The Role of Media in Supporting Communication in Cultural Institutions. Case Study: Communicating Media Art

Abstract

Please note: In this research, the term 'media' references the tools used to store and deliver information and to communicate, including by sharing and discussing information and referring to activities that integrate technology. It also applies to the tools, materials and techniques used by an artist to produce a work. On the contrary, the term does not imply „mass media‟ such as TV, newspapers, etc… Since the 1960s media has entered the “world” of art and the “space” of museums and galleries, questioning every fundamental assumption in museum practice. Focusing on communication, this investigation explores the role media and technology play in contemporary art museums, influencing the public‟s practice and consume. The central questions being: - how media are engaged in supporting communication in cultural institutions? - how media and technologies influence access, contact and enjoyment of a work of art? While museums become a media laboratory, experimenting technology and its different uses, media acquire a strategic role for communication in cultural heritage, including social media, and more generally Web 2.0.; web sites, indeed, are becoming web applications and web visitors are becoming users and forming communities. As the field of research is variable and unstable, this work aims to develop a communication strategy for contemporary art, focusing on the case study of communicating Media art. The goal is to create a virtual space, a bridge between time, space and geography, a venue in which Media art projects find a place and where everyone is invited to join in and participate, spreading and accessing Media art around the world. This web site warrant a community spirit of activity and engagement, fostering art projects, videos, interviews, photographs, etc… Impact studies will support the strategy result. An interdisciplinary approach – including ethnographical as well as historical, archival and literature research –allows this work, which is carried on research, conversations with curators, museum directors, artists, new media professionals and experts, observing the contradiction between new media culture and museum culture and the participation of museums to the new media fray. An anthropological approach compliments the research, through participatory observation in museums, galleries and site-specific events.