The Infinite Museum is an application to enhance the museum going experience by providing a wide range of prompts to promote patrons to think about art in new ways. This prompts range from silly to philosophical, asking about specific artworks or more broadly about the museum/life. This application gets at a tension that’s come up a lot in class – that there is a specific way in which art should be viewed and interpreted in the museum space. There is a stigma in society that art placed in museums is something to be venerated with little to no critical thinking involved. This application puts itself right in the middle of that process by providing a platform in which it is encouraged to think of art in news. With new prompts being added frequently, this is something that patrons can use on their own or that museums can include in the exhibit itself.
I like the concept of this application – prompts are randomized so the experience changes every time, and you can save your favorites to reuse them. The constant additions will also continue to change the experience. To some extent, though I think the prompts could be distracting if the user engages with too many of them during the museum experience, or engages only with prompts and not with the museum space itself (this has its pros and cons for sure). What if the user gets distracted trying to find the perfect random prompt? What if they spend the whole time jumping from specific item prompt to specific item prompt? Do they loose the museum or the exhibit’s sense of cohesion (and is that a bad thing)? It sort of equates to trying to find the best Instagram photo, or reddit post to retweet or share. You spend a lot of time looking for it, but are you actually looking at all the things you scroll past?
I agree that this application could be a bit distracting. this is where I feel that a moderator or docent of some sort could be more beneficial. Techniques that museum educators use seem very similar to that of this app. However i do think that this could be interesting for patrons that want a more individualized experience.
I like how you brought up the tension we’ve been discussing in terms of how art should be viewed. The app seems to allow for views other than the staunch, serious art patron which is in many ways more inclusive to museum goers looking for something outside the typical museum experience. I agree that there has to be some kind of balance or way to avoid overwhelming museum patrons with all the technological options at hand with an app such as this.