New App for Museum Goers

On April 19th, I posted "GPS for Art", wishing for certain mobile devices for museum goers.

Apparently, some of them have been realized.

An article on New York Times website states:

Among the crucial questions that occur on visits to the American Museum of Natural History: How did man get from a knuckle-dragging primate to a majestic bipedal creature? How did the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex use its tiny forelimbs to subdue its prey? And how do you get to the nearest bathroom? If you have an Apple mobile device, a new application created by the museum can help you with all of those queries.

In a news release the museum said its American Museum of Natural History Explorer application, available free from the iTunes store, is compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and connects to the institution’s wireless network to put information at visitors’ fingertips. In addition to providing a GPS and turn-by-turn walking directions to any of the exhibitions, theaters, shops, restaurants and bathrooms in the building, the application also provides additional details on more than 140 displays (including the blue whale, of course), customizable tours, a fossil treasure hunt for the kids and connections to Facebook and Twitter.

It sure will be very convenient; however, I do hope people would study the exhibit more, instead of being drawn into the tiny screen. The danger is there and real.

GPS for Art

Recently, a friend called my attention to an article about an effort to document of public art via Wikipedia. According to the article published by The Chronicle of Higher Education,

Documentation of public art, particularly digital documentation, lags behind other art forms. Jennifer Geigel Mikulay, an assistant professor and public scholar of visual culture at Indiana-Purdue, started the project, Wikipedia Saves Public Art, with Richard S. McCoy, an associate conservator at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. They taught a course together last fall at Indiana-Purdue, in which they asked students to write Wikipedia articles with a local and art-historical context about pieces of public art on the campus. The students used a GPS tracking device to obtain coordinates for each piece so that article readers could find it in real life.

Now Ms. Mikulay, Mr. McCoy, and some students are writing Wikipedia entries for pieces of public art around Indianapolis. They also tag pre-existing entries that fit the project with a Wikipedia Saves Public Art banner. So far, they've tagged more than 900. At this point, there aren't many members on the project's Wikipedia page, and participation hasn't moved much beyond Indianapolis. Still, those involved are hopeful that people across the globe will use Wikipedia to document the public art in their communities.

The list is not comprehensive but could be a good starting point for people who want to write Wikipedia articles about local sculptures, Ms. Mikulay said. In fact, the group in Indianapolis is attempting to convert the list for their city into Wikipedia entries.

It is a novel but logical idea and I hope its success will facilitate broader usage of modern technology in the art world.

I always want to have a system, maybe a GPS system, which can tell the locations of particular paintings, sculptures, or drawings at given period of time. Which is not only a great tool for museums and galleries to advertise their treasures, but a wonderful instrument for tourist industry as well, particularly for people like me who plan their trips to the hours.

Apple, Google, are you listening?