제 11 호 The Benefits and Drawbacks of Online Exhibitions in the Pandemic Era
Kicker: DEBATE (EXHIBITION)
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Online Exhibitions in the Pandemic Era
by Seo-Won Hong, Cub-Reporter
The pandemic led to “Untact Culture.” Nowadays, many exhibitions and concerts have decided to be held online. Currently, online exhibitions are still held at the National Museum of Korea and the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. Sangmyung University also held exhibitions online. In December last year, the Department of Photography and Digital Contents held the graduation exhibition offline and also held it online in line with the pandemic era. The Sangmyung University Museum is currently holding online exhibitions. I will find out the benefits and shortcomings of online exhibitions through this article.
<Online Exhibition View of “The Modern and Contemporary Korean Writing” at MMCA>
The benefits of online exhibitions
One of the most significant benefits of online exhibitions is physical boundaries do not restrict people. Location and time are no longer a problem. The fact that online exhibitions do not constrain people makes them economical. Online exhibitions can help visitors save a lot of money they usually would spend on transportation costs. Online exhibitions are also beneficial to exhibitors as they do not need to spend money to rent exhibition halls and plan a schedule. There are also fewer distractions from other visitors. “Duo”, a private marriage agency, conducted a survey of 300 Korean singles from May 21st to May 24th this year. The result showed that another advantage of online exhibition are “people can watch exhibitions without worrying about Covid-19” and “people don’t have to compete to get tickets.”
According to data by the International Council of Museums (ICOM), almost all museums around the world were closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and during the lockdown, many museums enhanced their digital activities. Although almost half of the respondents who responded to the ICOM survey replied that their museum already had a presence on social media or shared its collections online before the lockdowns, the digital communication activities analysed by the survey increased in at least 15% of the museums. The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) pre-released “The Modern and Contemporary Korean Calligraphy” online since its opening. In a Seoul Culture Today interview, MMCA Director Youn Bum-mo said that MMCA increases access to contents of culture and art online. According to an interview on MMCA, he mentioned “Although museum visits are restricted due to the coronavirus pandemic, I hope that the online tour of this calligraphy exhibition will provide some peace and a sense of hope.”
The drawbacks of online exhibitions
The drawbacks of online exhibitions come from the limitation of technology. People might have trouble connecting to online exhibitions. In the case of a live streaming exhibition, it can be unstable. Furthermore, online exhibitions cannot embody artwork perfectly. People can see the exhibition only through a screen online. The Architectural Digest article, “11 Digital Art and Design Exhibitions to Get Lost in from Home”, mentioned that the dramatic effects of brushstrokes over canvas are a challenge to convey for the screen. The subtlety of colors, the texture and scale are challenging to capture virtually. The “Duo” survey, as mentioned earlier, showed that Korean singles mentioned “low quality and less closer to reality than offline” as drawbacks of online exhibitions. Many museums use VR technology for more vivid exhibitions, but it is not commercialized widely yet. In addition, there are other barriers such as a decrease in image quality when enlarging a portion of the screen. Online exhibitions have limitations on the ways of communication. People can communicate mostly through chat boxes or online bulletin boards. Those cannot embody immediate reactions occurring in real time at that moment. Even though participating in live chat, people are not in the same actual space so they could lose a sense of immersion and concentration easily. People also can quit the online website in the middle of an exhibition.
There are various positions about online exhibitions. Online exhibitions have benefits and drawbacks. Especially nowadays, online exhibitions are held frequently. Some may feel sad that they cannot visit offline exhibitions and just watch them online. Online exhibitions have shortcomings, but they will give enjoyment to people who are tired of Covid-19.
Sources:
http://www.mmca.go.kr/pr/blogDetail.do?bId=202003310000364&bCd=03&cdId=1360&bGb=02
https://www.duo.co.kr/html/duostory/media_news_view.asp?idx=6259&page=3
http://www.sctoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=32253
http://www.icomkorea.org/board/bbs/board.php?bo_table=news&wr_id=184
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/digital-art-and-design-exhibitions-get-lost-in-from-home
