By creating a hands-on exhibit featuring interactive displays, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art aims to bring art to life for patrons. The museum’s director, Terry L. Nichols, believes the new exhibit will put art within the reach of people who otherwise might never experience it.
“The idea is that you can walk around and see various types of art and put your hands on it,” said Nichols. “You can create your own art.”
The museum’s newest exhibit, titled “Anniversary Gifts,” will open Saturday and feature more than 50 interactive displays from local, regional, national and international artists.
Titled with the museum’s 30th anniversary in mind, the exhibit features a wide variety of works intended to capture patrons’ attention, Nichols said.
“We want to be able to touch something; we want to be able to smell something,” she said. “We want them to be able to experience what an artist is trying to communicate.”
The exhibit, titled “Hands On,” is a collaboration of the Seattle Art Museum and Microsoft. It features installations from artists who have worked with the company’s technology, including a remix of a Picasso painting by the artist David Hockney.
The museum will also be selling limited-edition prints made by mixing virtual reality and traditional art.
Museum officials said they were not aware of any other museums that were bringing art and tech together so extensively — or using technology to produce art — in an exhibit.
“It’s really pushing forward a new frontier,” said Don Bacigalupi, vice president for digital media at Microsoft.
The exhibit will be open until Jan. 4, 2015.”**
A new art exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago is a feast for the eyes and the hands.
Hands On: Sculpture to Wear and Touch features wearable sculptures, interactive installations and a variety of other objects that encourage interaction with museum goers. The exhibit aims to bring art closer to people – literally.
The sculptures in the exhibit can be worn or handled, even eaten. They’re made from materials such as cake and chocolate, plastic bags, fluorescent lights, bras and cigarettes.
There are also video games and an area where kids can make their own masks.
Visitors can interact with exhibits in the lobby, galleries and auditorium areas of the museum. Nearly all of the works are interactive and encourage people to touch them or try them on.”
The artist, Kota Ezawa, is famous for his work in “interactive art.” He’s done a lot of projects that involve people interacting with digital displays but this is the first time he’s displayed actual physical objects.
The interactive portion of the show is in the middle of the exhibit hall and visitors are encouraged to interact with it. There are several monitors with cameras attached and these cameras track your movement. These images are then projected onto one of two large walls so you can see what you look like as a drawing. As you move around, the drawing changes. It’s pretty fun to see yourself as a Picasso or van Gogh painting (or a moose).
There is also another interactive element that allows you to change some things in the drawings. There is a video monitor where you can draw your own picture and then save it to one of the many flash drives that are sitting around on tables. The idea is that you leave your drawing on the drive and other people will be able to take your picture and incorporate it into their own drawing. I didn’t get a chance to try this out but I was told that during one of the evenings there would be people there to help people do this since it takes some getting used to.
The rest
There’s a new exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt museum in New York City this summer, and visitors won’t even have to leave their seats.
The hands-on exhibit is called “Design Worlds: Materiality, Identity and Obsolescence.” It features eight installations that will allow visitors to experience objects such as chairs, perfume bottles, and bicycles in a way they’ve never seen before.
The hands-on exhibits are meant to provoke questions about sustainability within the design community. The items on display will be made of materials that would usually be considered waste byproducts of production—like the pine needles sprayed with resin in “Foliage,” designed by Karim Rashid.
One of the other designers, Stefanie Posavec, said she was particularly interested in exploring how products can be made out of new materials but still look like the ones we’re familiar with. She will be showing off her “Pixie” chair made from discarded fishing line.
The ARTery is an engaging and dynamic exhibit space located in the historic district of downtown Phoenix, Arizona. The ARTery offers artists and art lovers a unique experience of viewing and interacting with contemporary fine art.
Tucked away on the 2nd floor of the historic Fain Building for the Arts, the ARTery is a community space for local artists to display their work year round.
The ARTery offers more than just walls to hang original art, it provides an opportunity to experience the art in person, interact with it and create your own piece of art while visiting.
Museums are full of wonderful works of art. Everyone knows this. But you can’t take them home with you.
That’s why a new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art makes such an interesting change of pace. Titled “Handmade Modern: The Role of the Artist in American Life, 1940-1965,” it includes a number of pieces that visitors can craft themselves. Some are familiar–artists made buttons, plates, and other objects as part of their work before the era of mass production. But many other pieces are more surprising–it’s hard to think of modern art as something you might actually want to make yourself.
As you wander around the museum, you’ll find stations where you can pick up templates, stencils, paint, plaster, wire, and other items to use in making your own artworks. All the materials are provided free-of-charge (although some stations require reservations). Best of all, everything is designed to be accessible to people with all levels of experience or artistic ability.
The exhibit runs through May 27th; after that anyone who wants to continue creating art will have to go to a different museum–the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC is running a similar show called “Art Lab” that closes
