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Review Jan 30 2009 « | »
BBC puts art online People still struggle to see the internet as a platform for creativity. This comes partly from the bespectacled Silicon......

Jon Openshaw

People still struggle to see the internet as a platform for creativity. This comes partly from the bespectacled Silicon Valley dwelling stereotype that is yet to be completely shrugged off, but also comes from the very real damage caused as digital availability and transfer tore through some creative industries - music being the obvious example.

There are fantastic creative initiatives going on online however, one of which is making the 200,000 art works in UK public collections available for online viewing. The BBC has promised to turn this into a reality by 2012, announcing a partnership with the Public Catalogue Foundation this week.

Jonathan Jones provided the seeds of a discussion in The Guardian on Wednesday. The ramifications of expanding access to (and therefore dialogue on) art on this scale are huge, and the comments on the article show that people are keen to join the conversation.

Jones mentions Walter Benjamin (briefly and dismissively) at the beginning of his piece, but I think it is worth spending a bit more time thinking about the nature of online art. Although Benjamin doesn't quite cut to the heart of the matter (he was ultimately interested in the political implications of using technology to replicate art rather than the act of replication itself), understanding the impact of the digital medium is clearly important.

The history of art can be seen to be a three-way dialogue between artist, medium and viewer/society. It is short sighted to underestimate the impact of adding another medium to the equation, especially when it looks to be added on such a scale.

This is not to say that anyone sees online as a replacement for viewing art, the question is how will a world of digitally captured and freely available art work change the path of visual consumption. It's sure to augment rather than challenge the art world, but it's also sure to reshape it in unpredictable ways.

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