The pandemic has dragged us all into a world of social distancing and isolation. The physical absence of art is substituted by the virtual experience online. The mass-reproduction and mass-consumption of online images arrived at an unprecedented scale, which requires us to reflect on the question of originality, adaptability and dissemination of art. Many museums launched their online touring programs as well as art organizations' educational and exhibition projects on the internet. This research will discuss the impact of digital art especially in the time of the pandemic.
If photography and anthroposcopy are the phenomena revealing the symptoms of industrialization and modernism, during which time the mass population first encountered myriads of strangers on the street, we could argue experiencing art online disenchants the postmodern era. Both are mass-produced, widely consumed, could function as archives and the most importantly, there is an original piece. However, unlike the techniques of the photography, which is used to “encounter”, the online art-experience is used to “tribalize”. “The internet is an extremely narcissistic medium”. Rather than physically encounter art in the museums, we are now locked to our voluntarily chosen islands that no matter how kaleidoscopic it might seem, it is essentially originated from our own subjectivity and aesthetic interest. A nonchalant glimpse of an inspiring work is now filtered due to the physical absence. Annihilation of the physical immersion in an exhibition would lead to the lack of phenomenological reception, the scale, the feeling, the touch of the stroke, the smell, the atmosphere of being in front of the original. What’s even worse is the absence of “encountering”.
According to Walter Benjamin, the mechanical reproduction of a work of art devalued the aura of the artefacts’ uniqueness as art. The relationship between an original work of art and its copies online is complicated. I am not here to enshrine the originality, rather, I assume that the reproduction and repetition of the canonical work actually exalt THE ONE. Since the experience of “seeing” the work physically strengthens the aura of the process of “seeing” and even elevates that unique experience to the visceral and spiritual epiphany. In that sense, online exhibitions are like “correspondences” that prepare the spectators for future enlightenment.
The accessibility of famous artwork such as Mona Lisa or The Last Supper online caters a certain group of population in searching for aesthetic affirmation. Under the epidemic and lockdown, this population has enlarged from the previous art-holics to a broader community looking for art as a relief. Virtual art world provides people with a utopia. An assuring distance between the fantasy and reality is created to not only distract the viewers from real-life anxiety as a way of escapism but also reinforce the unique connection between two individualities-the art and the beholder. After all, in the stagnated world, an ongoing, well-functioned, efficiently-working online platform is an emblem of normality and also, hope.
Moreover, online exhibitions serve as a database for archiving and documentation and also an encyclopedia for expanding knowledge. The massive database can easily direct the visitors for next-step exploration. And unlike curated exhibition, it offers flexibility and freedom with no requisites to follow a formulated guidance. Of course, according to Boris Groys in his essay “Curating in the Post-Internet Age”, “that exhibited art is often international”, compared to “the audiences of contemporary art exhibitions, who are often local.” He argued that “contemporary art has a broader, universalist perspective that can irritate local audiences.1” In my view, however, online exhibitions offset the disadvantage of internet art and that of the physical exhibition. They are well-curated, which comprise universalist outlooks and challenge the viewers mildly but determinedly. Viewers can easily be enchanted by the variegated forms of art but also hold their right to refuse to be violated too much. They are flexible and accessible, there is no further expenditure than an online system and a curious mind.
"This means that contemporary art does not have a narrow, elitist view, but, on the contrary, a broader, universalist perspective that can irritate local audiences. It is often the same kind of irritation that migration provokes today in Europe. Here we are confronted with the same phenomenon: the broader, internationalist attitude is experienced by local audiences as elitist—even if the migrants themselves are far from belonging to any kind of elite." —— Boris Groys.