Voice of Fire: Sensory Museum Experiences and Digital Reproduction
Date
2013-07-15
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Abstract
The purchase of the painting Voice of Fire by the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) ignited one of Canada’s most heated artistic debates. Focusing on Voice of Fire and the NGC website, this study analyzed how digital reproduction of art on a museum website contributes to a sensory understanding of museum experience. Communicative technologies in the form of websites, social media and high-resolution images have changed spectatorship but continue to be problematic when essential features of the painting are dependent on physical and sensory museum ‘experience’. Interviews were conducted with National Gallery of Canada staff about the redevelopment of the NGC website, their communicative goals as well as their sensory museum experiences using netnography and sensory ethnography. Rather than reproducing the sensory museum experience online, websites and social media can present a ‘story’ of the painting to Canadians and offer valuable opportunities for curating communication strategies for art specific spectators.
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Mass Communications
Citation
McDougall, L. (2013). Voice of Fire: Sensory Museum Experiences and Digital Reproduction (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28662