Ahead of a debate this Wednesday evening about 21st Century Museums, IntelligentNaivety asked Jonathan Watkins, Director of the Ikon Gallery, how new technologies are informing this vision of a 21st Century museum for Birmingham. The proposed new museum will be dedicated entirely to the 21st Century, revolving on the dual axes of globalisation and technological advancement, for which there really is no precedent.
There is no agenda for the 21st Century Museum – “it is a truly blank page”, so how will new technologies play into this mix? Can we expect a virtual experience from the moment we walk through the doors? Will we even need to walk through the doors to experience what it has to offer us?
“How can we ignore new technology? Whereas before an audience was the people a gallery could get through the door new technology now allows us to question our own understanding of audience; we are no longer limited to confrontation with an object”.
What challenges us is conceptualising a museum which is no longer limited by its physical confines. Thankfully, certain attributes will still remain a certainty according to Jonathan, “it has to be a place that accommodates relativity and fluidity.”
And if the museum is no longer limited to human interaction with real objects, what does that mean for the art? “When you see the Mona Lisa, the reality of the experience is that you are swarming with crowds of other people trying to view a relic through a glass pane. Is that experience really any better than seeing her in the pages of a book?”
“The reality is that authentic artistic experience needs to be constantly re-examined” and that is exactly what the 21st Century Museum will do.
If you’re interested in joining the debate, along with Tim Marlow, Director, White Cube, Jonathan Watkins, Director, Ikon Gallery; Frances Morris, Permanent collections curator, Tate; Teresa Gleadowe, Curator; and Rita McLean, Head of Museums & Heritage Services, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery it’s being held on Wednesday 8 July, from 7.30pm at Baskerville House, Centenary Square, in Birmingham. This debate is part of Art of Ideas II.
