With the first two quarters of 2020 seeing visual arts spaces losing between 31-73% of revenue and 15-74% of full-time/contracted employees, various audiences, from artists to consumers have been turning to digital platforms to engage in cultural or entertainment offerings (Art Dealers Association of America). The range of these technological platforms and applications have been vast, with many interesting case studies to focus on. In this article, we will be focusing on how visual artists have used social media, video games, and other digital applications to capture audiences that they otherwise would not be able to access without technological means.

Utilizing Existing Apps and AR Technology

Previously developed technologies were among the first to adapt to purely digital or hybrid experiences in the visual arts space. Smartify, an app that allows users to access audio tours of exhibits or artworks being displayed in museums around the world. The app has been in circulation since 2017, where it offered content from 30 museums. Today, it covers over 2 million works of art from 120 venues (Smithsonian Magazine). When used in person, the app allows a user to scan a work of art and access supplementary material about the piece.

However, with the future of in-person museum experiences being stuck in limbo due to constantly shifting COVID-19 regulations, multiple exhibits have opened exclusively on the app for their debut. Tours that originally required payment to view now can be accessed at no cost. This digital content contains digital galleries, long-form audio tours, and audio snippets about specific art pieces or exhibits. ”Tours are led by curators, historians, and artists themselves … Smartify offerings include a guided tour of the National Gallery of Art; a descriptive walk through the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s sculpture park, as narrated by artist Juliana Capes; and an American Sign Language tour of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri” (Smithsonian Magazine). This wide array of content and formatting help to bolster an inclusive, highly-accessible environment for audiences to engage with. As a result, these audiences are able to enjoy museums and exhibits that are currently unable to be viewed.

Beyond technologies created to showcase offerings from the arts industry, other tech leaders have been partnering with artists on projects that pair art and technology together. A recent example of this trend focuses on Snapchat and Damien Hirst working together to develop an AR filter allowing users to create their own spin art. This filter overlays an interactive spin art studio atop whatever real-life landscape the user’s camera is pointed at. Once the digital art piece is finished, it can be saved or shared on personal or public Snapchat stories. Hirst started experimenting with the spin painting technique in 1992 and showcased a series of abstract spin paintings in 1994 (Artlyst). The process involves putting a canvas on a motorized surface that spins while the artist pours paints of differing colors on the canvas, resulting in the paint being splattered around and layered atop each other by the movement.

Video describing the process behind Hirst's partnership with Snapchat. Source: Youtube

The partnership between Snapchat and Hirst was formed to support medical aid for individuals impacted by COVID-19. According to Hirst, “It’s amazing to be working with Snapchat … and making it possible for millions of people to make their own spin paintings right from their phones. I’m so happy that this partnership also supports Partners in Health, a brilliant and forward-thinking organization that helps communities in developing countries around the world cope with the devastating impact of COVID-19” (Artlyst). More information and access to this AR camera lens can be found at: https://www.snapchat.com/damienhirst

Venturing into Video Games

Both video game creators and visual artists engaging with video games have found ways to utilize the platform to encourage artistic development. This new development has risen out of new video game offerings that allow users to alter the digital world around them, fostering an environment that champions creation and individuality. This has been incredibly apparent in Nintendo’s latest installment of their Animal Crossing franchise, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, where users customize their own islands that other users can visit and interact with.

Some visual artists have used this platform to make their own works of art, while others have recreated existing works through the digital tools available to them on the platform. One artist, Shing Yin Khor, has taken this trend to another level, using their island to display re-imagined visual and performance art pieces. The nature of the video game platform allows Khor to interact with visitors of their island. “For instance, they recreated Marina Abramović’s The Artist is Present using a table and two chairs. Then, the artist dressed their avatar in a plain red dress and invited the public to participate in the performance piece. In the hour that followed, a drove of players poured in to play patron to the bespoke “museum,” with about 15 making it into the coveted chair opposite Khor’s Abramović” (Smithsonian Magazine). Despite being a digital experience, visitors of Khor’s island have described having meaningful experiences that they have referenced to be similar to those that they have at in-person museum visits. According to Khor, “Lots of people said that the experience was surprisingly emotional. … The simple act of sitting in a chair and staring at another person without speaking is still a moving experience, even if mediated by the internet and a video game” (Smithsonian Magazine).

Some video game creators have attempted to use gaming platforms to focus solely on this phenomena by allowing users to create their own museum exhibits, implementing the interactive aspects of Animal Crossing toward a purely artistic setting. A notable example is Occupy White Walls, a free game on Steam created by  StikiPixels, a London-based video game company. The game involves galleries made up of 2000 customizable archaeological elements pre-loaded with 6000 existing art pieces that can be displayed. Users can also utilize an AI assistant curator named Daisy for assistance and can create their own 2-D mosaic pieces to showcase (Smithsonian Magazine). Currently the platform is unable to use 3-D sculptures or uploaded art (not created in-game) in its galleries, but these features are currently in the works in order to also market the platform as a digital marketplace.

While rooted in a realistic, concrete idea, Occupy White Walls does utilize its digital nature to employ more fantasy elements into its game play. “The game offers an array of freedoms … one galler[y] floats in outer space and displays photographs taken by the Hubble telescope, while another sits on a pontoon surrounded by water” (Smithsonian Magazine). As a result of these unique offerings, Occupy White Walls has seen an extensive growth in its user base after COVID-19 shuttered in-person experiences throughout the visual arts industry. “To date, the site’s roughly 50,000 users—about a fifth of whom have joined in the past month—have produced galleries spanning some 215 million virtual square feet” (Smithsonian Magazine). This uptick in users helps to support the idea that there is a market for digital art exhibit creation and curation, not just for the creation of art itself.

Converting In-Person Events into Digital Experiences

With uncertainty about regulations or policy regarding gathering sizes, in-person conferences across many industries have elected to either cancel events months in advance or propose digital/hybrid models moving forward. Hybrid models include both in-person and online offerings while digital models have purely digital events. While some institutions are only using these strategies as a one-time means to an end, others have been implementing more permanent, long-term digital strategies to engage audiences.

Art Basil was one of the first to adapt to this more permanent strategy, creating their Online Viewing Rooms platform back in March 2020 after visual art fairs and festivals began to announce cancellations. According to Art Basil, “Online Viewing Rooms will give visitors the opportunity to browse thousands of artworks presented by Art Basel participating galleries, many of which will be online exclusives. The exhibiting gallery can then be contacted directly for sales inquiries” (Art Basil). This strategy allows for Art Basil to uphold their commitment to artists that were scheduled to have their pieces displayed in their Basil, Miami Beach, and Hong Kong events, at no cost to the artists affected.

Being one of the innovators in this area, Art Basil was tasked with discovering ways to facilitate the personal interactions needed to conduct business in the visual art industry. Marc Spiegler, Art Basil’s Global Director addressed this concern, “The initiative is the latest example of Art Basel’s longstanding commitment to digital technologies and to fostering a healthy artworld ecosystem by creating new ways for its galleries to reach collectors from across the globe. ‘As the art market continues to evolve, Art Basel has continually investigated how new technologies can give us new opportunities to support our galleries” (Art Basil). These viewing rooms are able to be viewed through the Art Basil website (https://www.artbasel.com/) or the Art Basil app.

Annual events that attract artistic talent face similar tasks as museums and other visual arts events, turning to digital platforms to uphold their obligations to ticket holders. Due to the nature of these events relying on varying levels of audience engagement, some gatherings have had more unique challenges than others, with Burning Man being a notable example: “The spirit of Burning Man is tied to its physical gathering in a thousand ineffable ways. It's the playa dust in your hair, the blast of fire art on a cold night; it's clever costumes constructed of EL wire and art you can touch on a vast desert canvas. It's the random encounters and the generous gifts on offer in a city where nothing but coffee and ice is bought or sold” (Mashable). While the nonprofit is offering refunds and cutting costs due to the lack of a physical event, their Burning Man Multiverse event will continue forward with online replacements.

Video detailing the cancellation of an in-person event. Source: Youtube.

While the company has acknowledged that they themselves do not know what the online event will look like as of yet, they are willing to take on the challenge, turning to their community for support. “A site under the banner of "VBRC" — a pun on vacation rental service Vrbo — is gathering names (legal ones plus so-called "playa names") of willing participants. A questionnaire then asks if they'd be interested in hosting "interactive events" such as art, dancing, yoga, meditation, or cooking” (Mashable). This interaction between the nonprofit and Burning Man community may not offer the same sense of camaraderie that is a signature selling point of the event, but it does draw from the artistic and collaborative values that the event itself is built upon.

Advantages of Offering Digital Events to New and Existing Audiences

Regardless of the digital strategy a visual art institution decides to use, there are benefits of using digital experiences that can be cross-applied to different platforms: increased capacity, quicker implementation, and higher rates of accessibility.

Without the confines of a physical venue, there are more opportunities to include massive collections of visual works in a show that can be seen by greater numbers of people, regardless of where they are geographically. This enables larger audiences to attend an event, without the concerns of overcrowding or cost of travel. This also benefits organizers of visual arts events or conferences, as they do not have to worry about costs associated with running or renting a venue. This benefit can be observed through a digital event hosted by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, where “the original conference—meant to focus on how AI intersects with neuroscience and psychology—would have drawn a few hundred attendees, but 30,000 people tuned in to the online version” (Science Magazine). This means that if a visual arts event is ticketed, the organizers of the events can bring in higher rates of revenue with lower costs.

In regards to museums or visual arts exhibits, online resources can be planned at quicker rates than in-person events, meaning that more events can be planned and executed online in the time it takes to host a physical event. ”Technologists in museums may churn through three times as many project life-cycles in the same amount of time that other museum staff may spend on one exhibition, publication, or capital expansion project. This repetitive iteration leads to more learning opportunities and chances to hone skills, thinking, and strategic planning” (Museum ID). This ability to display higher numbers of art pieces can enable visual art institutions to feature more artists, despite not being able to hold events in-person.

With such a wide array of platforms currently engaging visual artists and technology companies searching for ways to partner with artists and art institutions, this period of uncertainty can be used to further enhance audience engagement and innovate ways to use technology to create, display, and interact with visual art pieces. Due to the intangible nature of digital events and artistic offerings, the range of these audiences are not limited to geographic or financial demographics. As such, players in the visual arts industry should embrace digital experiences as an avenue to reach greater numbers of artistic talent and consumers of art.

RESOURCES

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