OH THE PLACES YOU'LL GO.... VISIT IN TORONTO

Beyond Traditions | By Sarah Cozzarin

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO?: CONTEMPLATING THE LONGEVITY OF VIRTUAL MUSEUMS AND AT-HOME PROGRAMMING

Beyond Traditions | Sarah Cozzarin

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Museums have always provided opportunities for culture and education to their communities, with many prioritizing involvement with students and others yearning to learn. Since March 2020, museums have adapted to a new socially-distant world, one forcing them to change the way they reach and engage their audiences. Many organizations turned to social media and other digital platforms, shifting from a primarily physical environment and in-person experience to a digital and distant one.

Before 2020, museums and other GLAM organizations were integrating various technologies – including virtual and digital experiences – into their in-person exhibitions and programming. With the COVID-19 pandemic putting the brick-and-mortar museum experience on pause, museums needed to move beyond traditional in-person programming. The implementation of online virtual programming met the needs of museum audiences in the isolated comfort of their own homes. Some of these programs include virtual tours and field trips, social media challenges, livestreams, video tutorials and much more!

With increasing vaccinations and decreasing case numbers, a post-pandemic world appears to be drawing closer. Currently, museums and other GLAM organizations are beginning to reopen and welcome back visitors. This begs the question: What does the future holds for these new virtual at-home programs?

        Design by Sarah Cozzarin on Canva

 

It is difficult to imagine museums and GLAM organizations fully abandoning virtual at-home programming for several reasons, the first being the uncertainty of the pandemic. Secondly, organizations have spent over a year investing and redistributing staff and resources to provide a variety of virtual offerings and experiences. It would be foolish to completely abandon this financial, and probably labour intensive, investment. Thirdly, virtual programs allow for numerous benefits including access and interaction with fragile objects not suited for display and the ability to reach a wider geographical audience. People have the ability to participate in virtual programs in cities, provinces and countries other than their own. 

In early 2019 (well before the COVID-19 pandemic), Carly Straughan discussed the potential of virtual museums in her article titled, “Is the future of museums online and what might a virtual museum look like?”. After over 18 months locked away from the physical museum space, people are eager to go out and visit museums again. Could the reopening and the surge of in-person visitors threaten the longevity of virtual museums? 

With the ability to host in-person visitors, museums may be inclined to decrease or stop producing and providing at-home virtual programming for operational and financial needs. Museums and GLAM industries rely heavily on support through fundraising during social events, so, it is no surprise to learn that the museum and GLAM industry has taken a large financial hit after being closed for nearly 18 months. Angel Adegbesan’s article “Reopened Museums Lean Into Local Tourism Boom” reveals that visitors and museums are both ready to abandon the remote museum experience and renter the physical museum world. In-person visitors spend more money on entrance tickets and merchandise than at-home visitors, where an abundance of virtual programming is free or available at a lower cost. Reopening the physical museum could shift the operational needs of museums, supporting the needs of in-person visitors. With revenue a main motivating factor for most organizations, in-person visitors and programming will likely move the focus of museums away from the virtual world.

 

Crowds in Vatican Museum | Michal Osmenda

It is hard to imagine that museums and other organizations may abandon virtual at-home programs partially or fully, but with the increase of in-person visitors, available resources and staff will need to be redistributed to accommodate both virtual and in-person visitors. Trying to balance these two spheres of audiences may be a difficult challenge for museums. However, as the last 18 months have taught us, if we can persevere, we are more capable than we think.

What are your views on the longevity of virtual museums and at-home programming?

MUSEUMS AS PLATFORMS IN A POST COVID WORLD

 Beyond Tradition | Erika Serodio

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The many closures and lockdowns of this past year have forced museums to literally think outside their boxes. Museums have long been considered containers for the many artifacts and objects that tell stories about culture. As museums lost access to those containers this year, their storehouses became just that – places for objects, not people. There is mounting pressure to rethink the ways that these institutions engage with culture. A shift from object-based collections to visitor-centred programming is not a new idea in museums. However, a shift from the museum container to museum as platform has become an essential idea for a post-covid world.

Platforms can take us many places | Sources

Earlier this week I attended a zoom panel that was part of the Bihar Museum Biennale. The title of the panel was “Container vs Platform: Museum as an open space for conversation.” The panelists spoke of the importance of this idea in visitor research studies and how not so long ago, the idea of museums being for people was radical. The shift in thinking throughout the last few decades has been gradually moving in this direction, but the pandemic has heightened the need for urgent change in the museum sector.

The Cooper Hewitt responded to this critical moment for museums by convening with over a dozen museum professionals to create a toolkit titled “Tools and Approaches for Transforming Museum Experience.” In the toolkit, the authors describe the necessity and direction for change as follows:

“The rapidly shifting conditions of this past year have disrupted the sense of safety and familiarity offered by the creation and re-creation of formulaic museum experiences, but have not yet resulted in the kind of self-aware examination necessary for museums to break out of the hierarchical paradigms reinforced by those formulas. How might we interrogate the idea that expertise should be seated squarely in the hands of museum experts, or that audiences should learn from us instead of the other way around?”

Museums all over the world are finally asking their communities, their visitors, what they want to engage with and how. The Bentway has recently released a new initiative for its community called Digital and/as Public Space. The project, still in its development phase, invites anyone to contribute ideas on what it could and should be through a digital platform called Are.na. (You need to make an account to access it, but it’s free and easy and I highly recommend checking it out.)

Many museums have been transitioning to the platform mentality long before physical institutions were forced to close their doors. And some museums have formed without any building at all. Myseum of Toronto, Toronto’s museum without walls, creates programming and exhibits that incorporate the community at every step. Everyone is invited to share ideas, stories, art, music, and artifacts with the museum for its future programming. The Myseum website claims that "the more you get involved, the better the experience of Myseum will be." 

Places for people Source

The future of museums is unclear right now but it's exciting. The pandemic has created an opportunity for a wild reimagining of cultural institutions that will centre on visitors like never before. And we certainly aren't short on ideas. 

THE UNEXPECTED AT UNDERPASS PARK

Beyond Tradition | Erika Serodio

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As the second wave case numbers climb all around me, I’m feeling more anxious about the upcoming winter that will largely be spent at home. I am not ready to be kept inside. Finding destinations and things to do where we feel both safe and excited is going to get harder. It’s a relief to see that Toronto museums have so far remained open, but it feels like we are all holding our breath. 

Farmers Market at Underpass Park | Source

Last night, the final farmers market of the season took place at Underpass Park, another sign of the end of the outdoor season. However, this unexpected outdoor art space will remain open. I have biked through Underpass Park once before, but I have not yet stopped to take it all in. I’ve been saving it, placed a bookmark on its page, for a day when I’m in need of inspiration and my indoor worlds have closed. I recommend you do the same.

Underpass Park by Rick Harris | Source

Underpass Park officially opened in Toronto in 2012. Before then, it was simply the space below the Eastern Ave, Richmond, and Adelaide Street overpasses. The 2.5 acre park was designed by Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg with the Planning Partnership as a project of Waterfront Toronto. The main intention of the project was to transform a derelict space into an active community hub. Since its inception, Underpass Park has hosted performances, skateboarding events, music videos, and dance routines. In 2016, the American Society of Landscape Architects recognized the achievements of the Underpass Park project with their Award of Excellence.

Mirage by Paul Raff | Source

In their design, the existing structure of the underpass was reimagined with specific lighting and artworks integrated throughout the site. The addition of programmed LED lights brightens the space in artistic ways while also providing a safer night time experience in the park. A notable artwork in the park is that of Toronto artist and architect, Paul Raff. His piece, titled Mirage, is made of 57 mirror-like panels suspended from the underside of the overpass. The public can interact with the piece by playing with their own hovering reflections. The ceilings created by the overpasses are unexpected places for art, but they also act as weather protection for the entire site. Graffiti is encouraged on the pillars throughout the park, but this is just one of the many ways that the site invites users to participate in the creation of public space. 

A PANDEMIC TIME CAPSULE

Beyond Tradition | Erika Serodio

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At the beginning of April, as the world I knew closed its doors, I read something that has stayed with me. George Saunders, an English professor at Syracuse University, wrote a letter to his students that was published in The New Yorker. In his letter, he described the pandemic as an event "where all of the drama is happening in private." He asked his students, urgently, “Are you keeping records of the e-mails and texts you’re getting, the thoughts you’re having, the way your hearts and minds are reacting to this strange new way of living?” The records you keep, Saunders advised them, will convince future generations of what happened to us.

Time Capsule | Source

This sentiment seems so important to me as I continue to question the future of museums. I wondered how this pandemic would be remembered by others in the future and around the world. And I wondered how the local experiences of this pandemic would be different from each other. How could museums foster this kind of remembering as the pandemic is happening? Especially while museum doors remained closed. The pandemic has forced so many of us to live moment to moment. It is not as easy as it sounds to record our feelings and fears right now.

Remember | Source

I recently came across a project designed by The Bentway. Their city-wide public art installation is a brilliant answer to George Saunders’ demand for records of the pandemic. The Bentway commissioned twenty Toronto artists to respond to the question: “What words are you living by right now?” The artists responded with illustrated words that were projected on billboards, painted on building walls, and plastered on trucks that drove through the city. The project is called #ItsAllRightNow. The next phase of the project asks the public to respond to the same question and submit their words. In 2021, these public submissions will be made into a new exhibition that will aim to help us remember Toronto’s psyche during this moment.

Artwork by Anne Michaels | Photograph by Marzena Pogorzaly | Source

How are you recording this moment? What would you put in a pandemic time capsule to explain this to future generations?

CALLING IT ART: PHOTOGRAPHY AND MARCEL DUCHAMP

Beyond Tradition | Erika Serodio

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It is hard to bring up Marcel Duchamp in conversation without eliciting a series of groans from a crowd of MMSt friends. I recently made this mistake at a bar after attending the You Are Here gallery opening with some colleagues.

Dust Breeding at the RIC | Photograph courtesy of Erika Serodio

“You all need to see the exhibition on right now at the Ryerson Image Centre,” I told them. “It’s about dust and photography… And it’s all built around this one photograph of dust by Marcel Duchamp.”

I am met with a few polite nods.
“Oh yes, I’ll check it out.”
“Sounds abstract.”
And finally,
“it’s just that I really hate Marcel Duchamp.”

Bicycle Wheel by Marcel Duchamp | Source

My knowledge of art history is rudimentary; I was first introduced to Marcel Duchamp in Abbi Jacobson’s highly relatable podcast, A Piece of Work.  Jacobson brings up Duchamp at the start of her first episode, where she explains that his sculpture titled Bicycle Wheel, is one of the starting places for modern art. Bicycle Wheel is an example of art made with common, everyday objects which the artist has selected and designated as art – an artistic movement or style called “Readymades.” People get skeptical when they walk into New York’s MoMA, and come across a bicycle wheel amidst the abundance of masters that adorn the museum’s walls. How can this be art?

Throughout my first year in the Museum Studies program, I have wrestled with the question of what a museum can and should be. There is an inherent institutional rigidity to museums that deters some people from ever entering, regardless of what’s on view inside. I think of how exhibitions or art pieces in alternative spaces might reach people who do not feel like “art” is for them. Coming back to Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel at this point in the semester felt necessary. Jacobson explains in her podcast how Duchamp was trying to make a point about the way that art has been historically viewed as rare and elite. The inclusion of his readymade bicycle wheel in a gallery defied that idea, and instead claimed that anything could be art, and anyone could be an artist. For Duchamp, the ideas behind the art were more important than the physical realization of that art.

128 Photographs of a Painting by Gerhard Richter | Photograph courtesy of Erika Serodio

This idea is especially relevant when thinking about photography as art today. The impressive quality of the cameras embedded in our everyday cellphones has made it so that photographs are ubiquitous and everyone can be a photographer. How then, does an exhibition space that focuses on photography maintain its prestige? The answer might be that it doesn't. The photographs in the Ryerson Image Centre's current exhibition, A Handful of Dust, "highlight quotidian details of life." Everyday elements take on new meaning with the accumulation of and deterioration by tiny, unimportant specks of dust. This exhibition feels like something that anyone could be a part of and there is something undeniably beautiful about that idea. 

A Handful of Dust: From the Cosmic to the Domestic runs from January 22nd to April 5, 2020, and is free to attend.

NEW CIRCADIA: AN EXHIBITION FOR A CITY THAT DOESN'T SLEEP

Beyond Tradition | Erika Serodio

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The first time I went to New Circadia (Adventures in Mental Spelunking), it was a Tuesday. A friend and I fit our visit into a pocket of time during a busy week. I took advantage of being with someone who wasn’t studying museums like myself, and I suggested we bypass the exhibition text on the main floor and head straight to the installation downstairs. A few weeks later, I nervously asked one of the curators, Professor Richard Sommer, about the ideas and intentions behind the text that I had not taken the time to read. To my relief, Sommer explained that they did not want this exhibition to be pedagogical. The didactic part of the show was designed by the team of curators which included Richard Sommer, Natalie Fizer and Emily Stevenson of Pillow Culture, and Laura Miller. A recent Daniels graduate, Zainab Al-Rawi, helped with the research. According to Sommer, the text was intentionally separate from the installation because they didn’t want people to have to work for the experience.

How do you organize your time? Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio

New Circadia taps into our current cultural moment by cross-examining our never-ending push for productivity. The curatorial team set out to design a space for idling and mental decompression. Sleeping in the space, says Sommer, was not outside of the goal. “We’ve had faculty fall asleep in there.” But Sommer adds that there was a broader sense of ambitions. The space was designed for anyone to fall into a state of semi-unconscious, to be lulled into a dream state. However, the positive reaction from students who are using the space to rest on campus has not gone unnoticed. The team at Daniels made the choice to extend their hours during the most intense time of the year for students; they stayed open all night at the end of last semester.

One of the puzzles in designing a space for people to disconnect is addressing the inconspicuous and insidious ways in which our cell phones are tied to our waking life. The curatorial team carefully considered how to make this space tech-free without being draconian about it; they did not want to make a no-phone rule. They chose instead to take a laissez-faire approach, hoping that the space itself would inspire phone-free behaviour. In my experience this has worked quite well.

Dream Parliament. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio

A wide range of events are set to compliment the space in the coming months. Last Thursday, Matthew Spellberg and David Leo Rice led a comfortably horizontal audience through An Exercise in the Democracy of Sleep. Through his talk about the history of sharing dreams and the benefits of dissecting this common experience, Spellberg made a case for reclaiming sleep in a society that tends to devalue it. Recorded dreams had been printed in large fonts and affixed to the walls of the cave-like installation. Some of those dreams were collected through Oneiroi, a dream-sharing project that operates in tandem with New Circadia. An audience member asked Spellberg what we know about controlling our dreams. His response was that we do not, conclusively, know very much, but we do know that talking about our dreams will make it more likely that we remember them. Spellberg told us that after tonight’s talk it was very likely that we would all remember our dreams tomorrow morning. Sure enough, for the first time in what felt like weeks, I woke the next morning from a vivid dream to the sound of my landlady roaring the snow blower outside my window.

New Circadia (Adventures in Mental Spelunking) runs from November 7, 2019 to April 30, 2020, and is free to attend.

The upcoming programming associated with New Circadia is not to be missed:

February 13, 2020 – Performance: Christine Sun Kim
February 25, 2020 – Lecture: Mark Kingwell, “Wish I Were Here: Boredom and the Interface”
March 5, 2020 – Lecture: Franny Nudelman, "Activist Encampments and the Fight for Public Sleep"
March 13, 2020 – Performance: Beau Rhee
April 2, 2020 – Performance: Kay Turner, “Persephone’s Return/Persephone’s Revenge”

VISITOR AS INVESTIGATOR IN THE CITY OF BROKEN WINDOWS

Beyond Tradition | Erika Serodio

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A spine tingling array of sounds greet you as you enter The City of Broken Windows installation at the AGO. It’s hard to decipher whether the noise is coming from the sweet blowing noise of wind chimes or something fragile breaking into a million pieces. This general feeling of duality stayed with me while I tried to understand the different parts of this work.

The City of Broken Windows. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio.

Two competing storylines are written on the walls of the large room, one above the other in a single line each. This forces the visitor, if they are intent on reading both storylines, to make two 360 degree rotations of the room. I was so intent on reading that I nearly bumped into another visitor who was doing the same. An uneasy dance ensued as we all looked over our shoulders before turning slightly here and moving there to get closer to the words we needed next. The required focus on the words is heightened by the two short films playing on opposite sides of the room. The physical screens obscure the words on the wall, forcing you to move around them to read everything, but also forcing you to tune out their competing audio. And yet the room seemed to shift quietly.

"An uneasy dance ensued as we all looked over our shoulders before turning slightly here and moving there to get closer to the words we needed next."

A secret ritual to paint. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio

The City of Broken Windows is part of a current AGO exhibition of work by Hito Steyerl. Adelina Vlas, the AGO’s Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, says that “visitors can expect to be led on a series of often-hallucinatory, always illuminating, investigative journeys into the truth about technology and our everyday lives.”

An investigative journey flawlessly describes my experience with this installation. I walked into the room, and immediately chose where to start – with the words on the wall. But I noticed others around me walked first towards the film screens. Each short film is reflective of one of the storylines. I felt impelled to put the pieces together. There is an underlying story beneath; footnotes are at work throughout the installation both adding and distorting information. I took snapshots of the references to Frédéric Bastiat’s economic theory – something to look up later at home. This installation provided a topic I had never truly considered and when I left my mind was engulfed by that topic.

Footnoted. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio

The City of Broken Windows made me feel like I was an active part of it. I could see the layers beneath the ideas and read deeper into them as needed. Even though the subject was a little confusing and complex, I felt empowered to figure it all out. Placing the visitor as an investigator can provide unexpected moments of surprise and delight. In so many of our classes in the Museum Studies program we touch on the importance of making visitors active participants in meaning-making. In The City of Broken Windows, Hito Steyerl has positioned the visitor to do just that. 

This city is cutting edge. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio.

Hito Steyerl: This is the future runs from October 24, 2019 to February 23, 2020, free with the price of admission (completely free if you bring your OMA card).

A GIFT GUIDE FOR MUSEUM PEOPLE

Beyond Tradition | Erika Serodio

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As our first semester comes to a close, many of the first year Museum Studies students have remarked on the joy of being surrounded by so many like-minded people in our program. There are obvious characteristics that draw people to this field. If you’re reading this blog, you probably have Museum People in your life. And if you need a gift for that special someone, you should keep in mind that we like cultural experiences, we have an affinity for the tactile, and we are drawn to aesthetics. Read on for a few gift ideas for your new (or old) museum friends.

EXPERIENCES

Museum people love to take part in cultural activities. We enjoy watching eclectic films (note the use of the word films, not movies) and we like to do so in old elegant theatres like the newly opened Paradise on Bloor. A gift card for a night out at the theatre would be a real treat this winter. Or better yet – just buy tickets and drag your museum friend to the show you want to see!

Paradise Theatre on Bloor | Source 

An annual pass to a museum like the AGO would be a great gift for the museum people in your life. But the museum people in your life might already have a pass… in which case you should get tickets for one of the many talks and events put on by some of the great institutions in your city. Who wouldn’t want to spend an evening at the ROM learning about The Human History of the Mosquito?

TACTILE

Museum people prefer flipping pages to scrolling. Encourage this tactile habit with a subscription to an arts and culture magazine like Canadian Art or Frieze!

Photograph courtesy of Erika Serodio.

Should we keep our agendas on our phones and laptops like the rest of our technologically advanced society? Maybe. But museum people tend be old school and impractical. We write down our plans on paper. And the crowd favourite in museum studies classrooms seems to be the Moleskine.

After we manually check off every item on this week's to-do list, museum people return to flipping pages for pleasure. An artsy coffee table book would be much appreciated! I recently gifted one from this gift guide in a Museum Studies gift exchange. Each book on this list is recommended by an artist, collector, gallerist, or curator.

ART 

And last, but not least, museum people do not have blank walls. Add to their personal collection with something aesthetically pleasing.

The Champs by Stephanie Cheng | Source 

Stephanie Cheng is a Toronto-based designer with designs that are infused with local landmarks and people. You can buy from her online store or from one of several shops who stock her work.

Mass by Annie Axtell | Source

Annie Axtell is a printmaker and artist who works out of Vancouver. She makes some seriously sublime art. You can buy her prints online or pick up one of her infamous lunar calendars at this shop in Toronto.

One last thing to remember about museum people is that they value the intangible just as much as the tangible. The gift of your time is never wasted on them. You could take your museum people to free events like this gallery party at the Power Plant or go an adventure in mental spelunking at the new Architecture and Design Gallery. Whether you're shopping or not this season, be sure to spend some time with your museum people. 

NEW PERSPECTIVES ON REPRESENTING THE DEAD

Beyond Tradition | Erika Serodio

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Artist: Gabriel Parniak. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio.

In the middle of the night on this year’s Nuit Blanche, my friends and I stumbled upon a collection of coffins that made us think, made us tear up, and made us laugh out loud. One in particular left us all in a fit of giggles – it was decorated by the artist Gabriel Parniak, who wrapped it in home-construction paper with a clever glowing inscription: “looking for a new home that suits your lifestyle?” It was a strange feeling for me to be laughing at a coffin, a moment of cognitive dissonance.

Eulogy for the Coffin Factory. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio.

This installation was titled Eulogy for the Coffin Factory; it was composed of 24 coffins, each decorated by an artist who had been a previous tenant in the art studios and workshops of the building at 89-109 Niagara Street in Toronto. In early 2019, the artists in the building were evicted as it was slated for redevelopment. Through this art installation, the artists paid homage to the tenants before them – the National Casket Company – and they used “creative acts as a form of grieving.”

Artist: Erick García Gómez. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio.

Selected coffins from the original installation were shown again this past weekend at Harbourfront Centre for a Day of the Dead celebration – a tradition known for commemorating the lives of people and their achievements without focusing on sorrow and mourning. The experience of laughing and thinking about the life and death of the Coffin Factory was made more rich in this context. After the coffins, were Ofrendas – art installations that creatively commemorated those who have died seeking asylum, Latin American immigrants passed in the Sonora and Arizona deserts, and the bees – a population in alarming decline. Up one flight of stairs from here were more traditional ofrendas which took the form of alters that commemorated loved ones who had been lost. In both traditional and contemporary versions, the subject matter was heartbreaking but the bright colours and gorgeous designs had a celebratory tone. This didn’t feel so strange to me anymore.

Artist: Jade Leyva. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio.

The Day of the Dead tradition is listed by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The creative displays made to represent this intangible piece of heritage were thought provoking. Paying homage to those who came before us does not always need to be sad. It can be fun, it can be bright, and it can be beautiful.

Artist: Brian Medina. Photo courtesy of Erika Serodio. 

JUST ANOTHER WEEKEND ON THE INTERNET

Beyond Tradition | Erika Serodio

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A few Saturdays ago, on September 28th, Jia Tolentino – a staff writer at the New Yorker – spoke to a sold out Toronto crowd about her new book Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self Delusion.

Trick Mirror. Photo Courtesy of Erika Serodio.

A few Sundays ago, on September 29th, I rode my bicycle to Toronto’s Museum of Contemporary Art where the Age of You exhibition has taken over floors two and three of the factory-turned-museum building.

Age of You at MOCA. Photograph courtesy of Erika Serodio. 

These two shows felt like companions to each other. Both focused broadly on two words that have become increasingly difficult to define: the self and the internet. Why, you might ask, would I choose to fill my weekend with the bleak and bitter words describing my generation’s demise? The answer is twofold. First, to compare how a more traditional museum space and a space that’s definitely not a museum engage their audiences in an important conversation. And second, because I think it’s an important conversation.

I like to think I’m not a fan-girl kind of girl. But Jia Tolentino has not only made me her fan-girl, she has forced me to reconsider the ways that I think about myself. Her new book is a collection of essays about “the incentives that shape us, and about how hard it is to see ourselves clearly through a culture that revolves around the self” (according to the book’s jacket.) Tolentino was interviewed about the book by Kathleen Newman-Bremang, senior writer for Refinery29. Over 700 people attended the sold out show at Hot Docs cinema. Obviously I’m not the only fan-girl.

Kathleen Newman-Bremang & Jia Tolentino. Photograph Courtesy of Erika Serodio.

Tolentino’s subject matter is dismal. She spoke about the performance of self, about how the internet has monetized identity and selfhood, and about how when we are burdened with an economic mandate our sense of self becomes unclear. And yet, with an uncanny lightness, both her book and her speaking event have made spaces where I feel comfortable and compelled to critique the way that I present myself on the internet compared to in-person.

Age of You at MOCA. Photograph courtesy of Erika Serodio. 

In Age of You, the MOCA exhibition curated by Shumon Basar, Douglas Coupland, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, the artworks interrogate how “you –and all your online behaviours, enriched data sets and millions of meta-data points –are this century’s most valuable resource.” Age of You was a whole lot more apocalyptic than Trick Mirror. People walked through the exhibition quietly and uncomfortably. I was disturbed by the images and the words presented. This is actually a feeling I love in museums – please, make me feel something! I thought I would come away from this weekend with a better understanding of how algorithms and data sets are affecting me. Both shows made me realize that it’s impossible to understand the effects of the internet because it’s moving faster than we can comprehend. What might be the most important thing is to remain critical of our online behaviours.

Tolentino joked about how several interviewers have commented on the fact that her essays do not have conclusions. But then she said something that had the entire audience laughing in agreement. She asked us to think about some of the best conversations we have ever had and how they usually end without a conclusion. She acted out her version of this scenario by nodding with a bewildered look and said “Yeah, man.” To Jia Tolentino, “a neat ending absolves us of productive discomfort.”

Age of You at MOCA. Photograph courtesy of Erika Serodio.

The last piece in the Age of You’s exhibition is titled The Impossibility of David Bowie Being Dead in the Minds of the Living. It’s an effigy of Bowie’s face that represents his immortal persona. Yeah, man.

MUSEUMS OR NOT? PART 3: SUBWAY SERIES STOCKHOLM

Beyond Tradition | Joanna Wreakes

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This February I had the pleasure of visiting my sister who’s working in Stockholm for the year. In planning all the things we would do during the week, Instagram was a major tool. One Stockholm attraction kept popping up - the brightly coloured subway stations all throughout the city.

Stadion Station. Photo courtesy of Joanna Wreakes.

On top of regular commuting from my sister’s apartment into the city center, I planned to visit some  stations that my travels wouldn’t have taken me. During my subway-hopping tour there was such an interesting mix of people to be seen. There were plenty of other tourists, all on our own little self-guided tours, hopping off trains to wander the brightly painted cavernous stations, taking pictures for social media to prove that we were there. However, most of the people I saw were simply Stockholmers going about their daily business, seemingly unaffected that they were passing through “the world's longest art exhibit.”

Mörby Centrum Station. Photo courtesy of Joanna Wreakes.

The Art in the Subway project in Stockholm is not the only initiative that brings art installations into typically dreary subway stations, but it is arguably one of the widest-spread. Installations are found in over 90% of the subway stations, featuring works created starting in the 1950s by over 150 different artists.

Countless numbers of eager Instagrammers flock to the stations each day to get their snaps. The art in the subway is so popular that it’s even spurred its own hashtag - #subwayseries_sthlm (I would know, as I definitely used this hashtag on my own Instagram post of some of the stations I visited). “Subwaygrammers,” as they’re referred too, are made up of Stockholmers and tourists alike - and the photos seen are taken both in special visits and during daily commutes.

Despite the social media impact of Art in the Subway, it’s intriguing to think about the history. This project began in the 1950s, long before the advent of social media & “subwaygrammers”. While the brightly coloured installations make a great photo, I think they may serve another purpose: lightening up the winter blues. Notoriously dark and grey in the winter, in January Stockholm only gets around 6 hours of light each day, making these colourful subway stations more than just a great photo-op.

The author pictured in T-Centralen Station. Photo courtesy of Molly Wreakes.

"Tilted Arc" aka public art gone wrong (source).

While the discussion around public art is so often negative with complaints about wasted tax money or an inconveniencing of space (see: Richard Serra’s tilted arc), art in the subway is a refreshing site. Allowing commuters whimsical views during their travels, while generally being unobtrusive (save for tourists with selfie-sticks), the project allows all people a small glimpse into “the world's longest art exhibit” without even having to step foot into a traditional museum building.

MUSEUMS OR NOT? PART 2: THE SHOPPING MALL

Beyond Tradition | Joanna Wreakes

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One of the many views inside Edmonton's West Edmonton Mall. Source.

When you visit a new city, what’s usually on the top of your “must-see” list? As museum people, we’re more than a little biased towards museums and galleries. But, I’ve been heartened when hosting guests from out of Toronto on their eagerness to visit both the ROM and AGO. I recently spoke with a colleague who is going on a work trip to Edmonton. What was one of the top sights on his list? The mall.


via GIPHY (source)

As a born and raised Edmontonian, I’ve got mall culture deeply ingrained. Edmonton is home to West Edmonton Mall (WEM), the largest shopping mall in North America, and the location of my part-time gig during undergrad. It’s a huge space filled mostly with the same stores we’ve got here in Toronto at the Eaton Centre, with a few hidden gems of locally owned places spread throughout the endless hallways.

It’s important to note that I’m far from the first person to consider the similarities between shopping malls and museums. Anna Zhelnina’s article “‘It’s Like a Museum Here’: The Shopping Mall as Public Space” talks about research carried out at malls in urban Russia. This relates to museum and museum-like spaces as places to see and be seen, where “visitors […] carry out informal monitoring based on their own ideas of what constitutes “right” and “wrong” behaviours for this place.” (source) This is similar to the observation I made in my last article about the symphony, another flashback to well-known museum academic Tony Bennett!

Looking at the example of WEM, the mall is full of intriguing attractions that we might not expect to see on a shopping trip. Kitschy theme streets are vaguely reminiscent of the themed galleries in museums - Europa Boulevard, Chinatown, and BRBN Street all can be found. Europa Boulevard is especially interesting. It plays on a lot of cliches Canadians might have about Europe. The walls are made to look (somewhat cheesily) as if you are in an outdoor shopping street, surrounded by ornate and colourful old buildings. This street also holds a lot of the higher end and more expensive stores in West Ed.

Europe Boulevard. Notice the beautiful building facades. Source.

Another thing that you might expect to see in a museum over a mall is an aquarium. The Marine Life part of WEM has a variety of educational programming, a lot of which is designed to tie into the Alberta education curriculum. Teachers can apply to have educators visit their classrooms, similar to many museum outreach programs. Here in Toronto, it can be compared to the ROM’s travelling education kits.

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Looks like our African Penguins Dayo and Skadu are TV show stars! Find them in @cbcgem's new #FamilyDrama series @northernrescuetv or visit them at Sea Life Caverns. . . . #northernrescueoncbcgem #northernrescue #cbcgem #cbctelevision #wested #wem #westedmontonmall #marinelife #sealifecaverns #africanpenguins

A post shared by West Edmonton Mall (@official_wem) on Mar 4, 2019 at 2:37pm PST

While I definitely wouldn’t advocate for replacing museums with malls, it’s intriguing to think about how the two function similarly as public spaces, places to provide entertainment and enjoyment, and even in some cases, act as educators.

MUSEUMS OR NOT? PART 1: THE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Beyond Tradition | Joanna Wreakes

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Welcome to a new round of Beyond Tradition! Last term, Elizabeth looked at museum gift shops and how they can be extensions of the collection (or not). This term, I’m going to be exploring institutions we don’t often think of as museums. First stop: the symphony orchestra.

On a recent visit to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO), I began to ask myself: how is visiting the symphony orchestra similar to visiting a museum? Can we even really compare the two? After a bit of jet-lagged contemplation I’ve decided that the two are more similar than we may initially believe.

An evening out to hear the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall. Photo courtesy of Joanna Wreakes.

Tony Bennett, a well-known academic in the field of museum studies, has written extensively on museums as a social tool - a place where you go to “see and be seen.” The same can be said for visits to the symphony. In the age of Instagram, this takes on another meaning - how many times have you seen “date night at the symphony” posts on your Instagram feed? In Toronto, the large mirrored walls at Roy Thomson Hall are practically screaming for you to take selfies in them (I would know, as a good friend and I did just that!). Similarly, taking and posting selfies in museums has been on the rise. Does this selfie culture link back to Bennett’s idea of seeing and being seen in the age of social media?

Another parallel we can draw between museums and orchestras are the buildings themselves. Forgetting about the exhibitions and concerts, these places can be seen as sites of iconic architecture, both inside and out. Visiting them can be a twofold experience, where you can enjoy the building itself as well as the exhibits or concerts.

View from the stage of the beautiful Konserthuset in Stockholm, Sweden. Photo courtesy of Molly Wreakes.

Museums and symphony orchestras share a common issue: remaining relevant to younger visitors. Universally, these institutions are putting programs in place to attract younger audiences. One example is TSO TSoundcheck. This allows young people, ages 15 to 35, to buy discounted tickets to concerts. As well, movie concerts have become popular. A movie is shown on a screen in the concert hall while the symphony plays the accompanying soundtrack. In my eyes, this is definitely the symphony version of blockbuster exhibitions (no pun intended 😉).

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“Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” Thanks to everyone who joined us for #casablanca live in concert! And a special thanks to @caitlink8 for this great 📷. #classicfilm #torontosymphonyorchestra #tso #moviesinconcert

A post shared by Toronto Symphony (@torontosymphony) on Feb 16, 2019 at 7:03pm PST

Orchestras, like museums, can be used to make a stand on social issues. One great example of this is the work being done by Daniel Barenboim. Using his platform as a conductor, Barenboim recently spoke out at a concert in Australia about the country’s treatment of Indigenous Australians by dedicating the concert to "the first creative inhabitants of this continent.” Barenboim also is a co-founder of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a group that brings together Israeli, Palestinian, and other Arab musicians under the mandate “EQUAL IN MUSIC”. These types of social movements are not things that many people may relate to symphony orchestras, but they are nevertheless prevalent.

On the same TSO trip I mentioned above, I was surprised by how many of my museum studies colleagues had never been to a symphony concert. So for all you museum people, this is my recommendation - go check out a concert! You may be surprised how similar you find it to visiting a museum.