[Hogs Killing A Snake by John Steuart Curry; American Gothic by Grant Wood]
I’ve been thinking about the digital experience of art since going to the museum yesterday. My mother loves to see art, and she loves it when I go and send her photos. Any museum I go to now, I’m not only there looking; I’m snapping photos of art I like and sending them to her, and she sends back commentary. It slows me down to look for longer, and it also allows me to have a dialogue with someone even when I’m there alone. For example, she knows I love Hogs Killing A Snake, and I loved that it was across a gallery room from American Gothic so that it looked like the woman in American Gothic was watching it happen. So I sent her this picture to express sadness that it had been moved. I am now at once both museum guest and amateur curator.
It got me to thinking that if I had the coding ability or the sheer time or the fundraising ability, I would build an app that connects people who are going to museums with people who want to see art but can’t, for whatever reason -- particularly senior citizens who are maybe a bit frail to get out, or aren’t near art and have no good way to get to it. Or even just, I’d love to see Guernica and while clearly I can look at it in books, I feel the experience of someone texting me a live photo of the painting would be exciting, and my odds of getting to Madrid anytime soon are low. Like yes, most museums have their collections online and many have virtual tours you can take, but it’s not the same as having another person there to offer their opinion and ask yours.
The idea would be that if you’re going to an art museum, you log into the app and tell it the time, date, and museum you’ll be going to, and it matches you with someone who, at that point in time, is free to receive photos and descriptions of the art you see and respond to them -- maybe even request a specific piece or subject matter (my mother likes birds and sculpture). You could also build a “tour” that someone could explore later if they wanted. You could even find someone who wants to see a museum near you and go just for them.
There are logistical problems of course -- the whole “dick pic” issue being probably the worst, and it would be devastating to expect an art tour and then the person never logs on -- but I feel those could be got around. I don’t think funding would be much of an issue, lots of philanthropists want to support the arts and museums could kick in or even become participants (for example offering discounts on tickets to people who are going there to give a “tour”). You could program it to know when you arrive at the museum and prompt you with a reminder to take lots of pictures and send them to your “guest”. And since the messages would be in-app nobody would have anyone else’s phone number unless they hit it off and wanted to tell each other so they could do future “tours”.
IDK, I don’t know how people build apps or even how they pitch them to potential funders, but I might investigate. I think it’s a fun idea.