On Festival & Flickr: Hooray for the Whitney!
I spent the afternoon in the Whitney Museum of American Art on Saturday, mostly because I’ve been excited about seeing the Charles Burchfield exhibition for some time. I’m happy to report that it’s fabulous. Go! Go! Go!
But, as usual, the Whitney delivered in an unexpected and truly great way. I’m hard pressed to pick my favorite museum in New York City, but the Whitney is surely among the top contenders because of its size and general density of awesomeness – there’s just enough to keep you delighted during any visit, and not so much that serious museum fatigue sets in. One of the museum’s current exhibitions is Christian Marclay: Festival, and it’s quite innovative: a performance space houses daily interpretations of Marclay’s works by musicians, multimedia stuff abounds, and visitors are encouraged to participate in the creation of a collective musical score. All of this is cool, but I’m particularly excited by incorporation of Flickr into the experience: visitors are encouraged to photograph the performance space and upload photos to a group Flickr pool to document the exhibition.
Photography is one of those ubiquitous museum no-nos. And when photography is allowed, visitors usually engage in it for solely personal purposes – to say, “I was there. I saw THAT. I kind of now own my own piece/copy of it.” It’s exciting to me that the Whitney is extending Marclay’s collaborative and community-minded work to social sites – and encouraging visitors to create their own works with it. It’s so encouraging to see these tools used in such a way. I look forward to seeing even more of it.
I snapped a few pics with my Droid camera. They’re not great, but I enjoyed the experience and I’m glad to contribute my few images to this creative effort.
Christian Marclay: Festival @ the Whitney
