Electronic Media Gallery
This is the third new exhibit that opened this week at the MOA. I was disappointed with it. The three films they are showing right now explore the desert environment, which I can see right outside and just down the road here in Utah. The gallery is a great idea, but I feel like the Mirror Mirror exhibition has pieces that are a better example of an electronic media gallery.
Mirror, Mirror: Contemporary Portraits and the Fugitive Self
This exhibit is pretty interesting. An image of one of the art pieces in this exhibit is used to advertise the new Electronic Media Gallery. Perhaps my favorite piece in this exhibit is that one. In a room there are three projectors putting images on three walls. The images keep changing and there is ambient noise to accompany them. The images are of random people at a particular intersection in New York City. I enjoyed standing there and looking at the people’s faces and trying to think about what they are thinking.
Another cool piece is a video “ballet.” An artist put out an ad inviting people to join him in his studio to be a part of an art piece and only two, very different people showed up. He had them, a middle-aged woman and a young man, do a mock ballet with different movements and them repeating each other and stuff. It is pretty interesting to watch.
Also part of this exhibit is a real-time video piece. There are two TVs set up and many cameras. The cameras capture images of visitors to the museum then specialized software chooses what images to use either real-time or in the future to compile a video feed to these two TVs. It was fun to watch and see what images of yourself are being used real-time and how. I want to go back and see if it uses my images again from this week.
Overall the MOA was an exciting adventure. We were there for a couple of hours until it closed but could have been there much longer. I would say this is a perfect everyday activity. I recommend to each of you to go find a gallery or museum near you and spend a little time admiring, learning from and appreciating the art.
