Thinking about audience engagement....
Exhibition: APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL at the TATE Modern
Exhibition: An Infinite Mix
Exhibition: Berardo, Lisbon, MATTER FICTIONS
I've noticed at a lot of exhibitions recently the way artworks can latch onto audiences, and keep their attention for longer. I think it works really well with durational mediums, like sound or video.
In APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL's exhibition, there was also something quite engaging with the aesthetic layout of the work. I've been thinking recently about how an aesthetic can be a 'way in' for audiences, or part of the curation that can help the work make sense a little bit more. When I was sitting in this exhibition, the red was hard to ignore becasue the carpet was, and so were the cushions, which linked in with red motifs within the video works. almost as the link between audience and the artwork, aesthetically and conceptually?
An Infinite Mix
- quality of sound recordings
- multi video screens
- direction of sounds - surround, use of panning (made me think sometimes of 'cinema for the ears')
- again, setting new spaces for engagement - sitting on floors - such a simple thing, but automatically changes traditional behaviour and ideas whilst in a gallery space
- setting these contexts kind of puts forward an open invitation for engagement - I guess then that from that, if you do choose to sit down, you're committing time to that artwork in a different way than you may be if you were at a more trad. gallery?
- immersive effect
- totally flipping what I was doing before on its head, focus is now on audience, or an experience for the audience
MATTER FICTIONS in Lisbon (Summer)
- importance of curation - the theme seemed to unfold as you ventured deeper into the exhibition
- almost all pieces were durational or required effort/participation from the audience
- Can't remember the name of the piece, the one at the end of that downstairs section (notes on phone somewhere), but everything about that piece flowed, the text, the tone of voice that spoke the text the film editing - was very subtle
