Problem Statement

The Coronavirus has brought the physical art world to a halt.1 Since the onset of COVID-19, 92% of Minnesota Art Organizations have reported canceled events, with an estimated loss of 2,351,612 attendees. Americans for the Arts has found that out of those Minnesota organizations, 11% are not confident their organizations will survive the impact of COVID-19.2

In response to the changing time, many organizations are quickly increasing their online presence and making artwork more accessible through digital means. The use of online viewing rooms and virtual tours is rising, becoming more and more common from large and small organizations alike.3

Despite this, there will always be a desire for collectors and art viewers to have an in-person experience and to be able to physically interact with works of art. The transition from Coronavirus to a new normal will likely reveal a new hybrid exhibition approach of physical and digital in the future.4 For artists delving into New Media Art, this presents a special opportunity to expand their influence and enhance viewers understanding of their work and process.

The aim of my capstone project is to show how digital exhibition companion pieces can increase engagement and accessibility, specifically in regards to New Media artists' work, in times of social distancing and beyond, creating tools that can be used both online and in the exhibition space to engage the viewers and enhance the understanding of their work.

Questions and Inspirations

In February 2020, I attended the CoExhibition’s Interior Violence, the first solo exhibition of artist Meg Lionel Murphy’s work. From the pink walls to the delicate details along the floor and various points on the walls, I was transfixed by the way these details created an intimacy with the paintings and how they enhanced my overall experience of the artist’s work.

Megan Lionel Murphy at CoExhibition Fast forward a few weeks and the world found itself in a much different reality, where attending in person exhibitions was no longer possible, due to a stay-at-home order during the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During this stay-at-home order, my mind wandered back to the show, and to the show that was supposed to follow, which, of course, I never had a chance to see. The impact on the gallery, as well as the artists, felt significant.

With these restrictions in place, I began to notice how unengaging a traditional exhibition website could be. They typically hold a brief overview of the work with single images and the title and prices below the piece. With the recent exhibition in mind, I wondered if you could bring in the doll houses and horses that line the floor and shelves next to the paintings through digital means. Could there be digital coloring books or animated horses galloping by as you scroll through the pages?

This is where the idea for my capstone project originated - how to create an engaging experience on the website exhibition page that allows a viewer to get a glimpse of the details that make the exhibition or work special.

Tools

  • Paper, Pencil, Pens
  • Apple iPad and Apple Pencil
  • MacBook Pro
  • Adobe Draw
  • Photoshop
  • Atom Text Editor
  • HTML, CSS, javascript
  • p5.js
  • After Effects

Process

I took this concept and set out to explore it with my own work. I took in the feedback from my previous exhibition, Infinite Abyss in Motion Millyard show at Stonebridge Lofts. The works featured were my Computational Drawings created with p5.js. Some of the viewers had trouble understanding how the pieces were made. Were they drawings? Were they made by the computer? If so, how?

Stonebridge Loft exhibition

I felt an appropriate digital companion piece to a physical exhibition would be a drawing tool that aims to help the viewer get an inside look at how these drawings are being created. The drawing tool would also allow the viewer to interact with the work, seeing firsthand how the designs can be transformed and altered with just a few small changes, thus creating an active versus passive viewing experience.

I have been working with p5.js and exploring Computational Aesthetics since my introduction to the topic during the Experimental Interaction course taught at MCAD in 2015. Below are a few of my first computational sketches that were created during the course.

Computational Drawing
Computational Drawing
Computational Drawing

What I found so engaging was the ability the program gave me to create delicate lines, similar to a pencil drawing. I wanted to build this drawing tool with my aesthetic in mind and demonstrate why I find the world of computational drawings to be so transfixing.

Sketch

My initial concept/thoughts for the Drawing Tool are sketched above. I envisioned the tool to be accessed in person or from home. I knew from the beginning I wanted the user to have easy control through sliders or knobs, so that no technical knowledge or background in coding was needed to manipulate the drawing tool.

Computational Drawing
Computational Drawing
Computational Drawing
Initial Drawing Tool Prototype
Drawing Tool Phase I

When thinking about the sketch the drawing tool would manipulate, I went back to some of my earlier works from 2017. I was drawn to this earlier composition because of its contained circle composition. You could get a variety of outputs by keeping the final output within the sketch boundaries.

With the sketch decided on, I set out to connect it to sliders through the p5.js canvas interface.

Once the basic functionality was set, I began to increase the complexity of the tool. I was able to use input from my Expert Feedback and User Testing to enhance the continued development of the tool.

Weekly Process Summary can be found documented on my Progress Platform

User Testing and Research

Throughout the building process, I collected Expert and User Testing. Below is a summary of the feedback received that helped create the final product.

Expert Feedback Implemented

Kobby Appiah
Creative Technology Director at KNOCK, Inc.
MCAD Adjunct Faculty teaching Coding Concepts in the Web and Multimedia Environments program.

  • p5.js over Processing
  • Restructure so that Sliders and Drawing are in separate containers. Allows for the sketch to be downloaded as an image without the sliders.
  • Invert option
  • Changing colors on the objects so users can quickly identify which shape is being manipulated
  • Reduce framerate
  • Goal should be to get the drawing to the point where it doesn't bog down the sliders
  • Changelog

Ken Korth
Senior Software Engineer at SPS Commerce

  • Idea to incorporate Chaos

User Testing Feedback Implemented

User Group
The users selected for testing ranged in age from 20's-60's. The selected user audience was a group who has, or would likely, attend an Exhibition of mine. User knowledge ranged from Professional Programmers to those with a more basic understanding of web technology.

Issues/Suggestions Implemented
  • 4 noted the Translate and Invert buttons are sticking
  • 4 mentioned Lack of Slider names
  • Slider Values (1 User did not find them necessary, 1 User noted liking them)
  • 1 user noted that they did not know what "invert" meant in this context at first
  • 1 user noted not being sure what Translate meant and how to use that slider
  • Slider for color integration
Positives
  • 4 users spent an average of 5-15 minutes playing with the tool
  • 3 users noted they liked the Rotate, Translate, and Invert options
  • 4 Users noted that there are a large variety of output options
  • 3 Users noted they would like to share and save the images created

Along with collecting the user feedback, I used my own traditional working methods to influence the final Drawing Tool. In the process shown below, while working towards creating one of the final printed pieces for the exhibition, I realized how important the Translate and Rotate functionality was to creating my final works. Consequently, this functionality was built into the Drawing Tool.

Please find my full Research Documentation here.

Deliverables

For this project, I created three final deliverables: The Drawing Tool, a Physical Exhibition prototype, and the Exhibition Website that houses the exhibition work summary and final Drawing Tool.

Drawing Tool

Link to Live Drawing Tool

Physical Exhibition

The physical exhibition required 5 framed pieces, an iPad formatted version of the Drawing Tool, an exhibition poster, and a physical install of the works and digital companion piece.

The Physical Exhibition was installed in MCAD's Main Building in the month of November. The final Exhibition photos can be found on the Exhibition Website.

Exhibition Website

Link to Exhibition Summary Page

Summary

During the first half of 2020, online sales made up 37% of total sales for the gallery sector, compared with only 10% of total online sales in 2019. The gallery sector has long lagged behind in converting sales to the online marketplace. But with the restrictions set out by the COVID-19 pandemic, many have been forced to rethink their online strategies. In the market research report published by Art Basel and USB, it found that online sales from a new audience (one who did not previously interact with the gallery) was largest for smaller galleries. This means there is room for smaller, local galleries, to utilize digital methods to capture the interest of new and existing audiences. This will widen the reach for the artists and galleries alike.

The exploration of Discover a Space Between serves as a prototype example of how a gallery could conceptualize and integrate digital companion pieces into a physical exhibition. As noted in form + code, “Games can be physically engrossing and socially engaging, and they can sustain intense fascination of a period of months”. By creating a digital companion piece with which users can engage, a gallery can not only enhance the users’ understanding of the work, but also draw their interest, increasing the chances of their sharing the work, thus allowing the work to be seen by a wider audience than it otherwise would. This is one solution, of many that can be created, for discovering a space that exists between the physical and the digital gallery experience.

Endnotes

  1. "The Economic Impact of Coronavirus on the Arts and Culture Sector," Americans for the Arts, accessed September 23, 2020, https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-topic/disaster-preparedness/the-economic-impact-of-coronavirus-on-the-arts-and-culture-sector
  2. Dominic-Madori Davis, "No more ritzy galas, dinner parties, or jet-set fairs: The art world is coming to terms with a 'shelter-in-place' market. 5 insiders reveal how the industry is faring — and their hopes for what's next," Business Insider, June 13, 2020, https://www.businessinsider.com/how-5-key-art-industry-insiders-are-handling-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-5
  3. Americans for the Arts, "The Economic Impact of Coronavirus on the Arts and Culture Sector."
  4. Americans for the Arts, "The Economic Impact of Coronavirus on the Arts and Culture Sector."

Please find my full Bibliography here.