New technologies are taking over the planet. Art institutions will be transformed and collectors of art have discovered the world of unique digital objects, so-called NFTs.
Exactly how will today’s visual media — AR, VR and Mixed Reality — expand the ways we experience art? Will the virtual turn change art itself, just like photographic techniques and mass distribution once altered our understanding of what an artwork can be? Walter Benjamin’s influential 1935 essay on mechanical reproduction opens with a quote from French poet Paul Valéry: ‘We must expect great innovations to transform entire techniques of the arts, thereby affecting artistic innovation itself and perhaps even bringing about amazing change in our very notion of art.’
A little more than two years ago, I left my job as head of Moderna Museet in Stockholm, an institution with a strong art and technology legacy, to join Acute Art, a London initiative exploring new immersive media in collaboration with some of today’s key artists. It started with VR works by Marina Abramović, Anish Kapoor, Jeff Koons and Ai Weiwei. Soon we moved on to augmented reality works that have been displayed across the world, from Beijing to Buenos Aires. Our most recent AR projects were launched in London: Koo Jeong A’s OLO, Precious Okyomon’s Ultra Light Beams of Love, and Lune by Julie Curtiss. These works are triggered by the QR the codes in the journal Catalogue. They were also installed on Cork Street in October. The first large AR show I staged was Unreal City.
Professor Daniel Birnbaum is a curator and writer. He is director of London’sÌýAcute Art,Ìýa laboratory exploring art and technology. HeÌýis professor of philosophy at ³Ù³ó±ðÌýStädelschuleÌýin Frankfurt and the author of numerous books on art andÌýcritical theory. From 2000 to 2010 he was rector of ³Ù³ó±ðÌýStädelschuleÌýin Frankfurt and director of itsÌýPortikusÌýgallery.
He has been a member of the board of directors of Frankfurt’sÌýInstitutÌýfürÌýSozialforschungÌýas well as of Nobel Media, which organizes all events and productions surrounding the Nobel prizes. Between 2010 and 2018 he wasÌý³Ù³ó±ðÌýdirector ofÌýModernaÌýMuseetÌýin Stockholm. He was co-curator of the 50th Venice Biennale (2003), the 1st Moscow Biennial (2005),ÌýAirs de ParisÌý(with ChristineÌýMacel) at the Centre Pompidou (2007), the 2nd Yokohama Triennial (2008), andÌýZeroÌýat Martin GropiusÌýBauÌý(2015). In 2008 he organizedÌý50 Moons of SaturnÌýin Torino and in 2009 he was director of the 53rd Venice Biennial.
He is a contributing editor toÌýArtforum.ÌýAmong his most recent project are the VR exhibitionÌýElectricÌý(Frieze New York, 2019) and the AR exhibitionsÌýMirageÌý(2020) at Beijing’s UCCA andÌýThe Looking GlassÌý(with Emma Enderby)Ìýat New York’s The Shed andÌýTheÌýHigh LineÌý(2021).
Organised by Dr Pia Gottschaller (The Courtauld).Ìý