Today I visited the Getty Museum and had an amazing experience. The overall vibe and layout of the museum is wonderful. It is very spread out which is nice when the walk around the buildings also includes views of Los Angeles and the mountains around it. While wandering through some of the exhibits, I noticed both more incorporation of technology as well as more variety in the ways that the technology was used compared to my last site visit. However, the Getty is much larger than the Hammer Museum which is the site I previously visited and am comparing my experience to.
As far as variety, I noticed televisions being used for people to put headphones on so that they could both watch and listen to the video. This is displayed in the photo above. There was also a larger television with out loud audio, this was used as an actual piece of art rather than a video used to give background information or just extra information on the exhibit. Lastly, there were interactive pieces of technology.
One that is here in the photo was used to enter into a sort of game involving facts about the specific art work and time period of the art showcased in the room surrounding it.
As far as the amount that visitors interacted with these different forms of technology, it varied for each form. For the television that required you to put on headphones to listen, there was little interaction from visitors. I figured that this may be because it takes the physical action of putting on the headphones to interact and some people may not want to take the extra step, or that the television was rather small so it did not catch many visitor’s eyes. In comparison, the television that was used for a piece of artwork gathered lots of attention. I believe this was because the screen was very large, it was placed right when you enter the exhibit, and the sound was on which also captured the audience’s attention. The third form of technology, the interactive type, gathered a fair amount of attention as well. I think that the interactivity as well as the transformation of learning information into a game form helped to lure the audience in to use the technology.
I agree that the large television with sound on so that the audience could hear (pictured above) and the interactive technology were the most intriguing forms used throughout the exhibits. I think it is important that when incorporating technology, you do more to pull the visitors in and really make an effort to grab their attention, or else the technology pieces’ kind of go to waste. Technology can add a great deal of depth to the art, or in the case of the large television, be the entire piece of art. So it’s imperative that the technology is put to use and not left in the dark amongst the art.