A recent survey of 18,000 adults in the US by the National Endowment for the Arts points to the fact that while audiences for traditional live performance is slipping in some quarters, an estimated 47 million Americans choose to watch or listen to music, theater or dance performances online at least once a week (ref Washington Post). This is perhaps a sad reflection of the fact that we spend an ever-increasing amount of time in front of our computers! However, arising out of this trend it is heartening to see artists using new media to engage and inspire audiences in imaginative ways.
Eliot Feld, New York based modern ballet choreographer, has for some months been posting a series of imaginative dance pieces to his facebook page. These poetic posts, all of which begin with the words “One dances” can transport the reader momentarily, reminding us all that dance, should we wish to engage with it, is never too far away.
Here we see some of his posts from August & September;
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(thanks to my office neighbour, Laurie Uprichard, Artistic Director of Dublin Dance Festival, for passing this on. If any visitors to the site have anything they think may be of interest, please let me know, I would be delighted to hear).
Here is footage of last Saturday’s flashmob in Cork;
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Wexford plays host to the next event of this kind – co-ordinated by masters of street performance, Bui Bolg, the A for Arts Masked Flash Mob Event will take place in Wexford Town 12pm Saturday 21st Nov – expect something special!
All of this is of course done to highlight the importance of the arts to the everyday lives of all Ireland citizens – if you haven’t already signed the petition, please do, by clicking here
The Brooklyn Museum used online crowdsourcing to a exciting end, in the conception and delivery of their Click! photography exhibition, in a process which invited the museum’s visitors, the online community, and the general public to participate in the exhibition process.
It began with an open call—artists were asked to electronically submit a work of photography that responds to the exhibition’s theme, “Changing Faces of Brooklyn,” along with an artist statement.
After the conclusion of the open call, an online forum opened for audience evaluation of all submissions (all works were posted as anonymous). As part of the evaluation, each visitor answered a series of questions about his/her knowledge of art and perceived expertise.
Click! culminated in an exhibition at the Museum, where the artworks were installed according to their relative ranking from the juried process.
The results are, of course, online, where the public can engage with discussions and analysis of the work, and the entire process.
Those of you who were at the Arts Council’s New Media, New Audience? conference last November may remember a speaker from the Royal Shakespeare Company. He spoke of the RSC’s strategy of using the internet to reach out to new audiences, many of which the RSC felt would never actually make it to their venue.
Their site is indeed a fantastic resource for anyone interested in Shakespeare, or theatre in general. You could, for example, watch insightful footage of a rehearsal of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. There is no direct ’sell’ involved with this, i.e. they’re not selling tickets to Romeo and Juliet. In monetary terms it may be hard to see a financial return from this kind of web activity. However, this degree of online endeavour clearly reinforces the RSC’s brand internationally, and it’s claim to be the world’s leading authority on the works of Shakespeare.
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The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is taking things a step further, and are now ‘the first museum on the European Continent to have developed an iPhone application’.
The app, called “Yours, Vincent” is a little work of art in itself. Free to download from iTunes, it incorporates a selection of beautifully produced short films, interviews and images to bring the user through selected accounts from Vincent van Gogh’s letters, and related paintings.
The app was developed to go along with the exhibit “Van Gogh’s Letters: The Artist Speaks” which opened earlier this month, and runs to January 3, 2010 at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
For those unable to make it to Amsterdam, all of the letters are also available to view online at www.vangoghletters.org.
This is a heads up… Platform Ireland, a dedicated online portal for Irish arts and culture content, is due to go live with a soft launch this month.
The site will bring together Irish arts and culture content from across all artforms, creating an online focal point where web users from around Ireland and the world can engage with Irish art and culture.
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a pre -launch peek at the site:
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In the Global Economic Forum in Farmleigh last month, a consenus emerged that arts and culture should be one of the foundations of the rebuilding of Ireland – delegate Shane O’Neill summed it up saying “There was a general consensus that culture was one thing we’ve excelled at” (Irish Times 26/9/09).
If this is indeed the case, then Platform Ireland could well play a part in this process, bringing the work of Irish artists to international audiences, in ways that a multitude of individual arts websites could not.
Further details will be posted here when the site goes live. Platform Ireland is being developed by Jessica Fuller of Stillpoint Productions, to get on their mailing list, or if you feel you have content which could be included, contact details are available on Stillpoint’s website.
With thanks to Declan Doherty for the current banner photograph, of 'Walk the Plank' pyrotechnics company at Cosán Glas, Machaire Raghartaigh, presented by Saothar Ealaíne as part of Earagail Arts Festival 2007
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