{"id":909,"date":"2017-03-08T05:44:07","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T05:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/?p=909"},"modified":"2017-03-08T05:44:36","modified_gmt":"2017-03-08T05:44:36","slug":"909","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/2017\/03\/08\/909\/","title":{"rendered":"Hammer Museum: Simon Denny and the Blockchain"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I visited the Hammer Museum, and looked at a project by Simon Denny.\u00a0 <\/span>The Hammer as a whole incorporates minimal technology its in exhibitions- Denny’s was the only one that featured any digital element.\u00a0 <\/span>Right outside the door to the exhibition was a TV screen, playing a looping, black-and-white video that described something called the “blockchain”.\u00a0 <\/span>The first words in the video are, “Imagine a world where trust is guaranteed, a world without borders, a world in which each and every one of us takes part in the whole.\u00a0 <\/span>This world is already here, embedded in the blockchain, waiting for its emergence”.\u00a0 <\/span>The Hammer pamphlet on Simon Denny describes a blockchain as “a protocol for an online database that can record and execute contracts, financial transactions, property ownership transfers, elections, and much more…[it is] the underlying structure of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin…[and] has the potential to revolutionize any transaction that would otherwise require third-party oversight”.\u00a0 <\/span>All of the visitors I saw the began watching the video stayed until the end- probably because it was an interesting idea, yet confusing and difficult to grasp- a very different topic than I’ve ever seen covered by a museum before.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Inside the actual exhibit, there was no use of technology- the viewer was left to figure out the thought-provoking art without a digital narrator guiding them along the way.\u00a0 <\/span>The project featured three different outcomes for the future banking and technology industry based on the blockchain, represented by custom versions of the board game, Risk.\u00a0 <\/span>The presentation was very interesting- it felt like I was at a convention and seeing new products that were being introduced to the market.\u00a0 <\/span>The pamphlet describes Denny’s work as “blurring the lines between art and promotional material”, and this exhibit as “based on the typical tech fair trade booth”. Honestly, I was quite confused while looking at the whole exhibition, and the video that explained what a blockchain was was especially helpful in grasping what the basic idea behind the meaning of the art was. I saw one woman actually watch the video after<\/i> going inside to look at the exhibit, and I can imagine if I did that I would have been utterly lost while looking inside.\u00a0 <\/span>I found myself trying to read much of the wall text, in order to figure out what the display was depicting, and almost wishing that there was<\/i> some sort of technology inside to help me understand.\u00a0 <\/span>One of the wall texts inside described that Denny had “taken on the task of mediating the look, meaning, and implications of possible new world orders”.\u00a0 <\/span>It was definitely a very unique museum experience- almost not feeling like a museum at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

I think in this instance of museum technology, it was very useful in giving the visitor some background knowledge and context before entering the exhibit.\u00a0 <\/span>Since the project topic was more modern, and even futuristic, the use of technology did not feel out of place.\u00a0 <\/span>Visitors seemed to be drawn to the video explaining blockchains, because it was confusing, and the video helped to understand the core of Denny’s message.\u00a0 <\/span>There was almost no interaction with the technology- since it was a video and not an interactive iPad activity or anything.\u00a0 <\/span>I think, perhaps, the Hammer purposefully crafts an atmosphere that limits a visitors use of technology as a means to engage with the art on display.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I visited the Hammer Museum, and looked at a project by Simon Denny.\u00a0 The Hammer as a whole incorporates minimal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/dh150w17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}