MoMA Ethnography

Over break, I visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The building has a modern white and glass exterior, with a large open lobby where screens display current or upcoming exhibits and events, which then leads to a modern sculpture garden that is open to the public. The audience in the museum varied greatly from very young to very old, though certain age groups gravitated to different exhibits with the museum.

The MoMA is a huge museum, and the audience and technologies changed drastically given the floor and the kind of art displayed in an exhibit. Currently there is an exhibit on Bjork, which I did not have time to visit, but the line to get in was long and fairly young. Even from the exterior, I could tell that the exhibit would be laden with interactive and more interactive and tech-savvy displays, as outside of the exhibit a video of Bjork was projected on an enormous wall that could be seen from almost every floor.

I visited one of the more permanent exhibits, on a floor dedicated to more traditional art forms, namely painting and sculpture. These floors had no interactive screens, but instead had audio tours publicly available on what looked like an iPhone. I noticed that the overwhelming majority of people did not use these audio devices, but the few that did tended to be older. People generally relied on art labels or were simply at the museum to view art and not necessarily learn about it. The galleries were very spacious and open, which allows the viewer to explore freely.

The layout of the gallery was unassuming, and I felt comfortable approaching the art. However, at times, I would have liked more information about pieces that the labels did not provide. I did not want to take an audio tour because I was interacting with friends in the exhibit, and in the moments when I felt confused or unsatisfied with the didactic labels, I thought an additional interface that allowed viewers to further explore information about the piece or artist would have been helpful.

(ex: not exactly sure what the message of this piece is, though I do find it visually appealing)

To juxtapose the permanent exhibit, I also visited a temporary exhibit on Hong Kong architecture, development, and expansion. The exhibits focus on modernity and the future was reflected in the widespread use of technology and interactive displays in the exhibit. The amount of technology used in a particular exhibit seemed to hinge on the period or type of art on display.

Unintended uses of the space by visitors:

One could also see visitors interacting with art in unexpected ways. Perhaps pieces of art can become interactive depending on relative positioning in a room.