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== Blick in den Katalog/Arbeitsheft ==
<big>Achim Lipp<br>
A Network of Questions</big>
(in: <big>ART NETWORK</big>. An Exhibition with 100 pictures on 5 themes and 8 IBM-personal-computers. Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg, Germany), Forte di Belvedere Florence (Italy) 1986/87)<br>
Question:
Art is now all the rage. Museums are popping up everywhere, people are crowding in, pushing past the pictures. A full house is something impressive. But how do the visitors cope with what they see there?<br>
AL:
We are all familiar with the situation. We see a work of art and take a position on it. It happens somehow, unconsciously, unspoken, spontaneously. Many visitors leave it at this initial, emotional position. I don't think that's the right way to go bout it. A work of art is capable of triggering much more. <br>
Question:
But that is possible only is an expert
with the necessary training, if one has gone to university, possibly even studied art. The lay public has almost no chance to come to a deeper understanding.<br>
AL:
This is a widely held view, and those who are professionally involved with art are not entirely blameless. But there are ways. "Art Network" demonstrates one of them. The first step towards an understanding of art is for the viewer to have a clear idea of his own feelings. He should ask himself: "What do I feel? What triggers this feeling in me? Am I the only one to feel this?"<br>
Question:
But how is he to ask himself these questions and to answer them? We are not in school. There are no teachers who could receive my answers and put them up for discussion. We are in a museum.<br>
AL: That is correct. And it would be nice if we could exchange these initial, spontaneous impressions with other visitors to the exhibition and compare our impressions with those of the others.<br>
Question:
But who wants to do that in public, in these "hallowed halls", among perfect strangers? <br>
AL.
We are aware of this difficulty. That is why we have developed a completely new system of communication for the visitors to the exhibition. It allows the visitors to record their feelings, impressions and associations in a neutral place in order to expand and deepen them while they go through the exhibition. This neutral place is a machine, a personal computer, into which the visitor can enter his comments concerning the pictures. The computer then combines these comments and assesses them.<br>
Question:
How does that work in detail?<br>
AL:
You go through the exhibition and look at the pictures. Let yourself be guided completely by your feelings, spending more time only one those pictures which particularly appeal to you. In your catalogue pad you will find a work-sheet for each picture. Here you record your immediate impressions in a few words.<br>
Question:
So I find words for my spontaneous impressions, for my feeling? And I write them down?<br>
AL:
Correct. And then, when you have completed your round you go to the nearest personal computer. It will ask for your notes, store them, and compare them with those of all the other visitors. Upon request it will show you a list of the associations recorded by other visitors. It will tell you if other visitors had similar impressions to yours when they looked at the same pictures. Or if they experienced the same feeling when they were looking at quite different pictures. You can then have the computer show you the pictures on the monitor screen and find reasons for the agreement.<br>
Question:
I see. There is a sort of interplay in which all of the visitors who entered their impressions before me are involved. Without their being present however. Does that mean that we, the viewers, interpret the pictures for ourselves?<br>
AL:
Yes. And no idea, no association, no reawakened memory is lost. Everything is in the computer. The visitors weave a network of statements on the individual works of art that grows denser and denser. And at the same time, they continuously enrich the relationship of the artworks to each other.<br>
Question:
Which only consist of individual words, unrelated terms, if I have understood you correctly. Sentences are not wanted?<br>
AL:
Sentences are not wanted. First of all, because they are not every one's cup of tea, and secondly the formulation of sentences blocks the spontaneous and imaginative access on the part of the eye and the brain. You might call this “pictures explaining pictures”. In a different constellation for each visitor, in his own constellation.<br>
Question:
Each visitor designs his own system of references, designs a part of the "Art Network" system?<br>
AL:
That's right. In each case the terms that he enters paves the way for him to the next picture. These paths then link up to form the network. Actually, this individual interweave of pictures that results from this process is the most important thing. The relationships are the thing that matters, not the individual and unrelated objects. I think this is the essential difference between this exhibition and previous opportunities to become involved with art.<br>
Question:
But the first step is always to look at the works of art ...? <br>
AL:
... as is the final step. The visitor whom we have so consciously guided into a creative confrontation with art, will then start a second round through the exhibition. He will see how much the dialogue with the computer has broadened his understanding of art. And how much more intensively he can now continue the dialogue with the pictures. By the way, the computer also prints out a list of your personal interpretations for you. In the literal sense, too, your encounter with art becomes a lasting experience.<br>
***
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