Reading 1: The Poetics of Augmented Space

When reading this, right off the bat I had issues with Manovich’s definition of a multimedia spatial form experience. I feel like the experiences one has with their everyday cell phone while in a space is different from interactive information experiences embedded into the space itself. This is an older article though (published in 2006), so I decided to accept the broad definition of an augmented experience and continued reading. I really like his stratification of augmentations as “data flows” in and out physical spaces. One question I wanted answered but didn’t get through this reading is how to actually have something have a “poetic essence”. Regarding the white cube vs. black box example, I feel like for every new augmented experience brought to the art realm, there are people who will see it as art, and there are people who won’t. I wonder if this is just always going to an initial road bump with any new technology used in the art world, or if this is something that can be resolved when an artist is creating their new work. I also wonder what Manovich would say about the modern day “Instagram ready” art museum exhibits, and the augmentation of them via visitors’ uses of social media. I really liked the quote “Going beyond the ‘surface as electronic screen paradigm’, architects now have the opportunity to think of the material architecture that most usually preoccupies them and the new immaterial architecture of information flows within the physical structure as a whole”. I think we still have a ways to go with doing just that though.

Reading 2: Transforming the Art Museum Experience: Gallery One

I thought this paper was amazing. As someone who has been always interested in technologically enhanced museum exhibits and events, but never really got to understand the decision making processes and tech specifications, this was a fun read. It was interesting seeing how this museum developed and used so many various augmented experiences to warp the typical museum visiting experience for visitors for all ages and expertise. I always felt like some exhibits just add technology to an old art piece to make it “interactive” without really thinking of novel way to achieve that. It typically just ends up being a digital screen with information visitors could have obtained in a static form instead.