D.C. Trip Report

Just wanted to say that we had a fantastic time on our Art Department trip to Washington D.C. over Fall Break. Highlights included the National Gallery, Hirshhorn Museum, Air and Space Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Washington Monument, WWII Veterans Memorial, Reflecting Pool, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial.

Other important highlights included H&M, Forever 21, Pentagon City Mall, meeting up with a variety of friends and family, riding the Metro, one very busy and extremely cold Chipotle, driving in downtown (aka getting lost, no thanks to Siri), getting stuck in a Romney induced traffic jam, chair "massages" from Gus the mini-bus, movie nights at the Graham's, brownies, and most importantly "Red," the Graham's golden retriever!

  Outside the National Gallery, East.

 The smallest and most profitable McDonald's on the planet.

 Outside the Hirshhorn and two days too early for Ai Weiwei.

  Riding the Metro downtown.

   Walking on the National Mall.

   The (non)Reflecting Pool.

Visiting the WWII Veterans Memorial.

If you see someone who went on the trip, ask them about their experience. They probably have plenty of stories and photos to share. And we're already looking forward to a trip next Fall Break!

The Art and Science of Looking

Research on museum visitorship, studies and statistical data about collections, and quantitative as well as qualitative research in museums fascinate me. Take, for instance, a recent article published in the Daily Mail that disclosed the results of a study conducted at Tate Britain, where museum-goers were observed while viewing works of art. The numerical data is surprising (for example, the longest observation was, in fact, contemplation of Sir John Everett Millais' Ophelia, where a viewer contemplated the painting for 30 minutes in contrast to a mere five seconds or, rather, a sheer avoidance or un-acknowledgement of works by Damien Hirst, b. 1965--).

Yes, you can argue that looking at a work of art means that it captures your attention. But the act of looking does not confirm that you like the work. What determines the turn to look and further, how long we spend looking at a work of art? Certainly, a factor to consider is the viewer's like or dislike, but what else? To invoke, yet again, our friend from AHRECO, W.J.T. Mitchell, and, thus ask "does the object stare back?"

An interesting riff on the notion of looking and staring occurred in an exhibition mounted at the National Gallery (London) in 1999 for the Millennium. I saw this exhibition and was quite unaware, at the time, of its machinations. "Telling Time" explored, at bottom, the process of looking through the employ of the largest-ever eye-tracking experiment that permitted the public to observe eye-movements when looking at art. The experiment provides an unprecedented amount of data on how we look at paintings. A full report on the eye-movement traces, as recorded and reported by the University of Derby (a project collaborator) is here.

The notion of looking, however, is problematized when we consider the ways in which paintings (sculptures, and so on) differ from other art forms. Clearly, as the Daily Mail article states, art requires a different, variable amount of investment: you can choose to look at a painting, or not. This is in marked contrast to a symphony, for example, where you have committed to listen for 40 minutes or so. Consider the ways in which visual artists, art historians, and now critics have differed in their thoughts on looking. Leonardo argued that superior paintings could be viewed all at once, inclusively, whereas poetry insisted upon consecutive verses and a gradual unfolding of knowledge. Yet, the Derby research from the millennium exhibition indicates that we do not see pictures instantaneously but we come to have a general impression through focusing on thumbnail sketch-size that, when compiled, forms a general picture.

The next time you take a look at a work of art, in a gallery or museum setting, consider why you are looking. What makes you look at the work? Are you encompassing all of it in your gaze? Are you looking because you like or because you don't?

image credit: Alfred Eisenstaedt, Little girl, in tutu, looking at her dance step in mirror with teacher beside her, as printed in LIFE, 1920.