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Workshop 37
Breaking the Frame:
From art on the gallery wall...
to art in the outside world

with support of the
Mass Cultural Council's

Cultural Investment Portfolio

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BostonAPP/Lab Notes from May 24, 2022

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Nygel Jones: www.nygeljones.com

  • Technology has potential to improve education

  • How public can be close to art; it can be made for everyone

  • Work shows movement frozen in the moment

  • A frame is an encasing- breaking the restrictive normalcy of a rectangular frame

  • New way of preservation

    • To Nygel: What was it like seeing yourself in your piece for the first time? Has it sparked any new ideas? Has this technology altered your idea of voice?

    • Such an easy way to access the work

    • Control as the public to view the work how you want to view it

  • Another way to experiment: opportunity for collaboration between various skilled artists

 

Nicholas Robbe: www.hoverlay.com

  • AR: another way to tell a story that has attributes that make it unique

  • Shift-camera is becoming a new browser for content

  • Content becomes more powerful through context

  • Art is not constrained by any laws of physics, logistics, permission for usage of space, Etc.

  • Able to interact with the piece virtually by placing it within the real world; different from a picture or a video

  • Can alter the piece (scale, angle, distance)

  • Public has more opportunities to get engaged in ways no one has ever really thought about

    • All in the hands of the artist; artists can decide how accessible/not accessible


Serena Zhang: www.pellasgallery.com

  • Pellas Gallery opened in 2019

  • Nygel is represented by Pellas

  • Contemporary art only

  • Make art and the gallery world more accessible

  • Digital art vs physical art: Medium, but also ownership

  • Disconnect between VR and real life

  • AR can be used for sales of pieces

  • Selling human experiences

  • Story behind the piece is crucial; can use AR to explain artists

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What resonated?

  • Interactive

  • An addition to the physical art world

  • AR= No limits (logistically, financially, materials, etc.)

  • Brings context to any piece

  • Risks of creating contactless reality

  • Breakthrough in medium: can create 3D experiences/VR (

  • Technology is a tool

  • Digital piece of art can evolve over time; can go and reengage

  • Art can be more intentionally viewed


Some thoughts provoked by the workshop notes—DON’T HESITATE TO ADD/SUBTRACT/MODIFY!!

  • Breaking the Frame...not only moving from the inside wall to the outside world but also permitting ongoing re-engagement with that world via technology: e.g., augmented reality.

  • Expanding opportunities for “action” by that outside world in response to the work itself.

  • Members of the public collaborate – initially with the artist, eventually with each other.

  • Making artwork more accessible. Augmented reality is a way for people to get more connected to work they possibly wouldn’t have been able to access.

  • Expanding ways of looking at/thinking about “frame as an encasing” and what those “encasings” could look like.

  • Expanding the range of possible contexts for the original work – and exploring what “enhanced” contexts evoke regarding (1) that original work, and (2) the contexts themselves. Again, expanding/deepening experience(s).

  • Breaking the frame = breaking the constraints on art by laws of physics, logistics, permission to use space

 

NEXT STEP(S): Where, who, and what in the world?

  • Where else?

    • Specifics of place?

  • Who else?

    • Artist? Public?

  • What else?

    • Collaboration between artist and public on the “big idea?”

  • How else?

    • Possible sources of funding

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