Faber AVICOM Tagungsband

2. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-3-7519-6507-1
Verlag: BoD - Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 168 Seiten

How has the audiovisual and digital communication of museums and other cultural institutions changed in the past decades? What changes can be observed in media design? With which audiovisual possibilities can cultural assets be reconstructed or shown and conveyed in their lost historical context? How to restore or reconstruct damaged or destroyed audiovisual cultural property, e.g. old film documents? Such aspects were the focus of the AVICOM conference, which took place in 2019 as part of the General Conference of the International Council of Museums in Kyoto. Selected lectures are published now in this richly illustrated book. Media experts and museum professionals also present examples of good cultural mediation through special applications, websites, virtual or augmented reality and in the form of interactive and virtual exhibitions and museums. Another focus is the use of media for cooperation with social minorities and marginalized groups, as well as for reducing barriers and promoting inclusion.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Faber, Michael H.

Leseproben

VISUAL TRENDS IN THE AWARD-
WINNING MUSEUM PROJECTS OF THE
AVICOM F@IMP FESTIVAL
Janos Tari
Museums are created to preserve treasures. Today, however, in addition to simply preserving and restoring these treasures and artifacts, museums seek above all to present them to the public. From the point of view of exhibit content, we have seen significant changes. Photographs and films reflect the latest technology, and are used to present works of art, films, historical material (1) and creations by individuals who are truly great artists. In the first film, thanks to the new technologies, all these are presented in interactive format, easily accessed by young people on a tablet or telephone. The second film is a historical retrospective of how far we have come since 1992, up to 2015. In this film, a lengthy segment introduces material from the 2013 AVICOM conference in Moscow. (2) As we know, Moscow is rich in magnificent museums. The conference drew a large number of participants from many countries, including two from Hungary. This historical retrospective presents much more exciting, interesting and rich material, representing and summarizing the physical and cultural treasures of our collections. In a word: museums today offer not just education, but edutainment: education that is also fun and appealing to society, youth, and general audiences. The material shown in the final segment of the first film demonstrates how paintings and historical exhibits can be transformed: for example, a little mouse running through the Louvre slowly transforms paintings and historical exhibits into animation. Or a three-dimensional film created in China, or rather Taiwan (since expanded to five episodes), in which various little animals insinuate themselves into the traditional love stories depicted in the paintings and take over the Palace Museum – and of course they are all based on historical figures in the museum. The grand prizewinner of the 2018 f@imp Festival was the Historical Museum of Shanghai, site of the 2019 AVICOM award ceremony. This Shanghai event is highlighted in the final segment of the second film. Fig. 1 AVICOM was founded as the International ICOM Committee for Audiovisual and New Image and Sound Technologies in 1991. Its purpose is to draw the attention of the museum community to new and innovative technologies for use in exhibitions, educational content, Internet and social media. The committee includes curators, scientists, and technical personnel who are responsible for audiovisual and new technologies in museums, cultural institutions, and exhibits. AVICOM's Festival of Audiovisual International Multimedia Patrimony, known as f@imp, draws institutions and companies which use new video and/or audio technologies in innovative ways to enhance the museum experience. The purpose of f@imp is to recognize and award the very best among institutions which employ these audiovisual and multimedia technologies in their museum exhibitions. Another goal of f@imp is to promote the creation and distribution of audiovisual (film, video) and multimedia products (websites and mobile apps). (3) Fig. 2 AVICOM's f@imp Festival has a history of more than 25 years. The competition has followed the organizational and evaluation processes and methods as originally conceived by the first organizers, but over time these processes have been renewed. In our digital age, no event can succeed if it is run entirely on traditional lines. Thus, f@imp 2.0 was conceived as the online, modern version. The Hungarian National Museum, one of the partner organizations, provides the infrastructure for this event. The international application and evaluation process is supported by a complex IT infrastructure. In time, it is hoped that this infrastructure will be further developed, making available the digital cultural patrimony created by the festival over the years (faimpavicom.org). The city of Budapest, Hungary, has hosted the AVICOM conference and media festival on several occasions: at the Museum of Folk Art in the mid 1990s and in 2000, and at the Hungarian National Museum in 2015 and in 2016 (concurrently with the Museum@Digit International Conference). All these events attracted high-level participants from international and Hungarian institutions. The f@imp Festival: Visual Trends 2000-2015 In the following paragraphs, I examine and compare 32 of the most outstanding award-winning creations from the 2000 and 2015 f@imp festivals held in Budapest. I introduce the developments and trends that characterize the content, form and technologies used, which have since developed into standalone products and companies, targeted specifically at museums. Fig. 3 The first picture in Fig. 3 shows the grand prize winner for 2000. This film, Ginevra's Story, was created for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (4) Here, we compare it to the gold award-winning submission from the Taiwanese Palace Museum: Formosa Odyssey, a 3D animated film. (5) Both are narrative films. The first, created in 2000, uses remarkable film techniques to tell the story of a painting, including its restoration and preparations for exhibiting it to the public. The film tells the full story of how the painting came into being, and highlights the work’s new, prominent display in a dedicated space of the National Gallery. The Taiwanese submission from 2015, Formosa Odyssey, while also a film, is a 3D animation. This notable production brings three Taiwanese historical figures to life as they travel to different parts of the world. Especially remarkable are the well-constructed dialogues, which provide information on museums and history to its audience, primarily children and youth. For them, the film provides a total source of information through the three characters’ travels and adventures with museum exhibits, whose artifacts come alive and emerge from behind the glass cases. Fig. 4 Though produced 15 years apart, both creations provide a similar narrative; only the technology and format have changed. While Ginevra’s Story is a portrait which tells the story and background to a painting at the U.S. National Gallery of Art, the Taiwanese production is an adventurous 3D animated film that appeals to children and youth. It became tremendously popular, and now has several sequels, in a series produced by a U.S./Taiwanese company. As for Ginevra’s Story, it is available on YouTube and enjoys high viewership. Thus, the two productions represent a very interesting, filmographic format for presenting information and museum treasures – one through a documentary, the other through 3D animation. In 2000, a special prize was awarded to a film that introduces the technical background to various museum technologies and tools. (6) This documentary shows shadow theater (both black and white and color), documents, museum artifacts and drawings. In 2015, the prize in this category went to an animated adaptation of a Bosch painting, which served as the Paris Museum Association’s promotional film. Comparing the two films, we see that they are distinctive for using specialized film techniques to introduce and popularize the world of museums – their unique tools and methods, in addition to the paintings they preserve. One is a documentary, while the other is a promotional, animated film that seeks to attract audiences to the museums. One of them demonstrates the everyday use of various tools and archeological objects (such as a scythe) for the audience. The other film, which is also French, uses extraordinary animation and effects to bring the works of Hieronymus Bosch to life. (7) Fig. 5 A comparison of the two award-winning films, created 15 years apart, demonstrates the amazing developments of technique and form. The first still uses black and white pictures, documents, and photos. The second film uses every available digitalization method and digital post-production to popularize the Hieronymus Bosch exhibit. In the year 2015, a great many similar, short museum marketing films were made in France. These films advertise the museums and their exhibits as if they were products, and just like TV and movie commercials, they serve to attract an audience. Though both productions are films, the difference shows how film – an evergreen art form – has developed from documentary into an animated marketing film. In 2000, the Golden Prize was awarded to a multimedia application, created with the interactive Macromedia Director software (8), which introduces exhibits from the Hermitage Museum – specifically the works of art with a biblical theme. We can compare it to a French application from 2015: the Multi-Media Art Archi moi iPad application for the Louis Vuitton Foundation. (9) This is an unusual, interactive and entertaining mobile application for phones and tablets that is appealing to both children and adults on a museum visit. Fig. 6 This app demonstrates a huge leap forward compared to the application from 15 years earlier. The earlier app is a linear, thematically structured presentation based on a museum visit. The newer, Archi Moi mobile application uses an entirely different educational method to create a standalone experience for children and other museum visitors: using the iPad, they can freely and creatively draw and...