Technology & Fine Art
“The gallery shelves were lined with immaculate black box files, whose contents contained the keys to running a contemporary art gallery: photographic records, inventory sheets, artists CVs, neatly cut out press clippings. Everything was done on paper back then – the entire art world ran on typewriters.”
© Veda Lane
Who knew art and technology would eventually coalesce in such a way?
From Leonardo da Vinci’s mathematical principles to Albrecht Durer’s scientifically produced images. From Caitlin Cherry’s post-apocalyptic cyberpunk to Vicki Vanionpää’s 3D modelling software. Artists have always taken inspiration from logical thinking and the impact of technology. They are often the first to adapt when new ideas and novel solutions arise.
Caitlin Cherry, Chaos Compressorhead Leviathan, 2018. Installation view of Caitlin Cherry: Dirtypower, Providence College Galleries. Photo by Scott Alario. PC-G.
It's about time the business side of things began moving and shaking to the same techno beat. With Covid-19, there has been an exodus of professionals from their physical spaces and by proxy the need for digital flexibility.
I've worked in and had the privilege to delve behind the scenes at galleries, auction houses, museums, and art logistics companies. Some companies already implement an impressive suite of digital solutions. However, a significant number of professionals in these fields have professed their comfort with “the old way of doing things.” Most knowledge in the trade is accumulated and personal – gathered and stored in spreadsheets, written documents, notebooks, on sticky notes, hands, and in underground flat files. It's how museums and galleries have operated for a long time and it's how they are comfortable operating.
Vicki Vanionpää, Soft Body Dynamics, 2020, Vicki Vanionpää
I'm not here to talk about comfort. At this point, we should all have adapted to a certain suspension of comfort. Now is as good a time as ever for the traditionally technophobic art market to explore ideas and adapt to new approaches.
With the introduction of the WWW Project in 1991 and subsequent excited conferences like the Museum Computer Network in 1994, it seemed like technology, open access resources, and the horizon of new audiences would take hold quickly with institutions and businesses alike beginning to explore digital territories: front facing and back end. However, what began as "palpable excitement" migrated to an apathetic – sometimes aversive – stance regarding software. Leading up to and even during lock down phases concurrent with the Covid-19 pandemic, arts professionals are hesitant to adapt.
During the "Overcoming Technophobia: How to Successfully Lead Your Team into the Digital Age" edition of the ArtEvolve webinar series with guest panellist Robyn Luizinho, attendees initially expressed discomfort and insecurity regarding new technology. The main obstacles were the inability to meaningfully learn and implement new systems combined with the overwhelming nature of those new systems. Effectively identifying phobias, addressing them and implementing new technology was a strong focus in the seminar and is essential in assisting arts professionals navigate this largely new field for the market.
The tech savvy and code comfortable have understood the need for technology-based operations and logistics support from the early nineties. They have leveraged this chasm in the arts, which for years has grown increasingly obvious. Companies like Artlogic, Arta, and Articheck are at the avant-garde of the bunch, standardising business practice and streamlining the largely paper-based field.
Adaptation comes hand in hand with adaptability, wherein the limits of scale, wherewithal, and desire to implement new features greatly affect the efficacy of existing systems. Select museums and galleries stand out as having comfortably integrated new software and even explore high concept fields such as Artificial Intelligence.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a standout example of a robust institution supporting technological developments for the use of visitors and employees. The Met is one of the unique museums in the world rethinking their storage, filing, and display practices through Open Access/Open Data, Digital Asset Management (DAM), and Machine Learning. One of the more exciting cross-disciplinary collaborations was that between the Met x Microsoft x MIT prompting a collection of inspiring projects that connect humans, machines, and art including Artwork of the Day, Gen Studio, My Life/My Met, Storyteller, and Tag That's It! Behind the scenes, the Met has enlisted NetX to manage its millions of digital assets including artwork images and videos.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2020
Numerous companies have appeared which are art-specific and user-friendly. Subscription based companies like Artlogic, Art Galleria, IT Gallery, and Artbase have developed web oriented organisational databases that also offer business insights and marketing materials. Other companies like Arta, notably employed by Sotheby’s Auction House, explore the supply-chain side of art and improving the logistics for fine and luxury goods through their Application Programming Interface (API). These companies are seeing substantial growth as well. As of the end of May, Artlogic alone had seen one hundred new galleries join their service within the six weeks prior.
Artlogic has been a standout service provider since 1995 and since 2006 the company has become synonymous with beautiful custom websites as much as user friendly, tailored databases. The earliest clients of Artlogic included the likes of Victoria Miro Gallery in London and Hosfelt Gallery in San Francisco.
Artlogic, 2020
Another younger company operating in the conservation field is Articheck, which was forged from a desire to standardise condition reporting. Founder and CEO Annika Erikson started the company based on previous experience as a conservator at Tate Modern. She realised that current practice lends itself to overwhelming capacities of paperwork – scrawled in different scripts and languages – which was distracting the trained conservator from what she loved: art. Erikson is a firm advocate of innovation in the arts and it shows.
The app allows users to quickly and easily record and store condition reports. It sounds simple, but it’s the first app of its kind. It doesn’t hurt either when the UX/UI design is appealing. Articheck has grown substantially since 2013 touting a centralised, standardised and organised system compatible with existing databases and able to make clean PDFs. It's a collaborative web app with immense (and realised) potential.
Articheck, 2020
A new development by Articheck currently in the mix involves the Virtual Courier. The understood method when shipping valuable works of art entails the use of a professional courier. Their job is to prevent risk during integral periods of change along the risk plentiful shipping process. However, and (again) due to Covid-19, the relevance of the physical courier has come into question. What if we could monitor artworks and prevent risk from afar, receiving real time alerts to condition and location? There are many considerations to tackle first, but this development has exciting potential for art shipments.
With current tinkering in the market and the leaps in accessibility regarding technology, the application of technology to art will be a compelling development. Adaptation and technological experimentation within the art market is naturally slower, but the current boom in ideas is promising. It prompts a different type of imaginative querying.
What will the art database look like in five years? What will art be able to tell us in ten years? How can we newly envisage sustainability on the cloud and through the lens of big data and machine learning? Even further: could the IBM Watson suite "break the black box of AI" and preventatively monitor our Da Vincis, Durers, Cherries, and Vanionpääs?
The opportunities are beginning to outweigh the phobias. And creativity should equally be applied to tech in the arts as it has been applied to the arts themselves for centuries. As we see adaptation to technology largely include online sales, viewing rooms, and virtual reality, it's important that those in the Fine Arts also realise new software and new work practices behind the screen as integral to the trade. How files are organised, assets are managed, and processes are performed can be game changing. Efficiency and optimisation in the arts – leaving literal seas of paperwork behind in favour of web-based storage and communication pipelines – will change the way we look at art and prompt reconciliation with the holistic view of a given piece. Honestly, it may give us more meaningful time to spend with our favourite artworks.
https://www.instagram.com/the_underboobcommons/ https://vickievainionpaa.com/ https://artlogic.net/ https://documentation.shiparta.com/ https://www.articheck.com/ ArtEvolve Webinar Series: Overcoming Technophobia https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/policies-and-documents/open-access/met-microsoft-mit https://www.netx.net/customers/casestudies/metropolitan-museum-art/ https://www.ibm.com/watson/about
Veda Lane,
Head of Features, MADE IN BED