OH, AMERICA!

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

I know some museums deal with the problem by giving people a couple things they're allowed to touch. Not sure how effective it is as a deterrent, though.

[Don Coyote]

I think I need to get pictures of art that had been touched abs place then between stanzas in "Touching Harms the Art"

[Suu]

I know some museums deal with the problem by giving people a couple things they're allowed to touch. Not sure how effective it is as a deterrent, though.

The Higgins does that.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I think I need to get pictures of art that had been touched abs place then between stanzas in "Touching Harms the Art"

Oh fuck, YES.

I loved that piece.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Funny, isn't it, that in a society where we insist that most of our day-to-day material goods be disposable, replaceable, we also insist that certain antiquities be preserved forever, untouched?

Historical cognitive dissonance. The new is never as important as the old.

Kind of curious, does anyone else think that art will become more interactive in the near future? As noted, people everywhere can't help but touch these things. You've not really been there and seen it unless you've touched it. I'd guess that exhibits that make the touching aspect part of the experience to be something we'll see more of. Just a hunch as touch seems to be an area that is somewhat neglected.

My last gallery piece was designed to be pawed through.

[Junkenstein]

Link? Curious now even though I won't get the effect really.

[P3nT4gR4m]

So, over the years I have been gradually revising my feelings about the human desire to touch and change things and the transience of art.

I am still torn, but I am getting closer to an acceptance that the desire to touch is a fundamental part of human nature. So is the need to change things. Here in Portland there is a small, peculiar and very vocal group which is very strongly attached to the idea of things the way they were at a particular point in time... they lament the demolition of every old building and the renovation of every park, even when it's for the better for those living in the present and future. I think that their unfortunate stuck-ness in a nostalgia tomb of memories and clinging to the idea of everything remaining the same has done a lot for me in terms of changing how I feel about beautiful things passing out of current existence.

Funny, isn't it, that in a society where we insist that most of our day-to-day material goods be disposable, replaceable, we also insist that certain antiquities be preserved forever, untouched?

I'm kinda ambivalent about preserving art, to be honest. Art is an innate human need to take some atoms and arrange them in some arbitraty form. There's no way those atoms are going to stay that way forever so what we end up with, at best is a crumbling, radioactively decaying pile of increasingly less recognisable shit, that's a monument to some notion that went through some artists head, fuck knows how many years ago.

When the sistine chapel eventually crumbles into dust what happens? Nothing much, as far as I can tell. I mean, okay, a bunch of Michaelangelo fans will bitch and moan a bit but I mean, in the grand scheme of things, it's not the end of the world. It's not like all art everywhere will suddenly end because of it.

People make art. Art rots. People make more art. Works for me.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Funny, isn't it, that in a society where we insist that most of our day-to-day material goods be disposable, replaceable, we also insist that certain antiquities be preserved forever, untouched?

TV breaks, not worth repairing, go out and buy a new TV. Wait time: Next payday.

TV in a wood cabinet breaks ca. 1960 or so, send it to the repair shop, no TV for a month?

[Doktor Howl]

Funny, isn't it, that in a society where we insist that most of our day-to-day material goods be disposable, replaceable, we also insist that certain antiquities be preserved forever, untouched?

TV breaks, not worth repairing, go out and buy a new TV. Wait time: Next payday.

TV in a wood cabinet breaks ca. 1960 or so, send it to the repair shop, no TV for a month?

TV thrown away and replaced.  Old TV scavenged for parts in insanely toxic pits by 12 year olds, affected area poisoned for a thousand years.  TV watching, though, is largely uninterrupted.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

I kinda want to always touch all the arts. All the time. And sometimes taste the arts.

Dimo did that last summer at the RISD Museum. He hasn't been quite right since...

...Oh, and they closed the Asian floor suddenly and it's not slated to re-open until next Spring.

He was right before? 

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Funny, isn't it, that in a society where we insist that most of our day-to-day material goods be disposable, replaceable, we also insist that certain antiquities be preserved forever, untouched?

TV breaks, not worth repairing, go out and buy a new TV. Wait time: Next payday.

TV in a wood cabinet breaks ca. 1960 or so, send it to the repair shop, no TV for a month?

TV thrown away and replaced.  Old TV scavenged for parts in insanely toxic pits by 12 year olds, affected area poisoned for a thousand years.  TV watching, though, is largely uninterrupted.

AMURKIN PRIORITIES FUCK YEAH