On Saturday November 12th, I had the pleasure of joining the History of Art and Architecture department on a trip to the Cleveland Art Museum. I first heard about this trip at a meeting of the Mediterranean Archaeology Club (this is absolutely a plug), as the trip had an Ancient Mediterranean emphasis. In addition to students, the trip also included professors from various departments who hosted mini-lectures in the various galleries with regional focuses on the Ancient Mediterranean. It was a unique opportunity to have an outside of the classroom experience with many professors that I and the other students had had courses with before. It was also interesting, from a Museum Studies perspective, to analyze a museum I had never been to before, with the aid of professors who had originally encouraged me to examine museums in a critical light.
The first gallery lecture that I was able to attend was an Ancient Art lecture hosted by Drs. Weaver and Eppiheimer. I had actually taken my first HAA course with Dr. Weaver in Ancient Art, and it was extremely gratifying to be able to apply the knowledge acquired in that course to the physically objects on display. Having the opportunity to also ask questions about objects that might deviate from the objects shown in slideshows was also illuminating. The second lecture I attended was on the ethics of displaying African and Egyptian collections, with Dr. Erin Peters. Many museums choose to display their African and Egyptian collections as separate entities, though Egypt is culturally and geographically in Africa. Dr. Peters had us thinking of ways to mediate the divide between African and Egyptian art that is often seen in museums. It is these types of conscious decisions by gallery designers that normally museum visitors wouldn’t notice, until someone calls their attention to them.
While at the museum, a friend and I were able to participate in an interactive exhibit called ARTLENS, which actually turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the trip. There has been a general trend in museums to try and engage with visitors in a more interactive way using digital methods. The ARTLENS was my favorite exhibit because I had been exposed to this trend in a previous class, and this was the most extreme example I had ever seen of it. My friend and me looked ridiculous I’m sure, as we were motion tracked to grab specific objects on a screen and also play mini-games to reveal motifs and themes in the objects. There was also a section where we could participate in the art creation process using this motion-tracking technology. We designed our own pottery by moving our hands in the air on a digital potter’s wheel. We also created our own collages by cropping and placing certain artworks together. I’m pretty sure these were designed for kids primarily, but regardless we had a good time! I’m not sure where this digital interactive trend will ultimately end up, and honestly I’m not sure how much actual information we learned from the exhibit, but it was a cool way to bring the audience closer to the collections.
Photograph courtesy of the Cleveland Art Museum website, because I was so focused on the exhibit that I didn’t take any (http://www.clevelandart.org/artlens-gallery/collaborators).