Galeries Ontario / Ontario Galleries Professional Development Workshop

Faisal Anwar, Charbagh, Sensory Garden (2016), at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto. A real-time large scale digital installation, inspired by Persian gardens. This garden blooms with audience tweets and #tags.

Wednesday, May 31, 2023
9:30 AM to 4:45 PM
at the Textile Museum of Canada, 55 Centre Ave, Toronto

This is a hybrid event, in-person and streaming.
ASL interpretation available upon request.

EVENT DESCRIPTION:

Digital art practices for public art galleries and museums are the new normal. Participants will explore best practices for collecting, preserving, and displaying digital art and how to effectively apply these methods. Sessions, discussions and a hands-on workshop, will feature an introduction to Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, NFTs and Blockchain, data-driven, interactive, and immersive new media, and how galleries and museums can better support digital artists. This all-day event is targeted to art professionals and open to the general public.

SESSIONS:

1) Augmented Reality for Galleries: Enhancing Collections, Exhibitions and Engaging Audiences with Sergiu Ardelean, Co-Founder of Artivive, Vienna, Austria.

How does augmented reality (AR) combine digital storytelling techniques with object-based collections and physical spaces to create a memorable experience for gallery visitors? AR can enrich physical artworks with layers upon layers of digital content and texture, including animations, videos and sound. This session explores the potential of AR for collections, curators, artists, and improving accessibility for audiences. Participants will learn how to use the Artivive platform on a smartphone or tablet in a hands-on interactive experience.

Artivive is an AR tool creating new dimensions of art by linking classical with digital art on users’ smartphones at the Shanghai Himalayas Museum, (formerly Shanghai MOMA), China.

2 & 3) Collecting and Conserving Digital Art with Patricia Falcão, Time-based Conservator, The Tate, London, UK; and Laura Margaret Ramsey, Digital Asset & Imaging Specialist, The Image Centre, Toronto, and Lecturer, Digital Application for Collections Management, School of Image Arts, Toronto Metropolitan University.

Digital-based art collections and conservation practices require a different approach than traditional object-based collections. This session will explore how to collect and preserve digital art and how the process is both similar and different than collecting other art forms. We will survey the best practices for digital representations across multiple mediums, including analog, borne digital, static and time-based works. What preservation standards are required by collecting institutions? Preservation practices must evolve along with an ever-changing digital landscape.

4) Introduction to NFTs and Blockchain with Camille Rojas, Multi-disciplinary Artist, and author of “The Other NFT Report” for Trinity Square Video’s Artist-Run Blockchain.

WTF is an NFT? Are Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and Blockchain shaking up the artworld? Navigating the world of NFTs can be confusing if you’re unfamiliar with cryptocurrency concepts. How does this relate to art institutions? Should art institutions acquire NFTs for their collections? NFTs and Blockchain have a serious environmental impact, and this session will also address how to make and acquire eco-friendly NFTs.

5) Navigating the Challenges of Digital Art Installations with Faisal Anwar, Hybrid Artist and Chief Curator of the Karachi Biennale 2022.

Digital art installations are exciting and dynamic ways to engage today’s technology dependent audiences. But how do you avoid the dreaded “blue screen” snafu of technology? Projects must be robust enough to minimize technical glitches during the exhibition. This session will explore the creative journey of digital artists navigating the aesthetics and complexities of installing digital art in public spaces, institutions, exhibitions and permanent collections.

Faisal Anwar, Seek, Web 3.0, Generative NFT. Seek is a time-based experience that compiles data into action. Partnering with climate scientists, Seek aims to understand the causes of purple martins’ decline due to climate change and provide the audience with a sense of urgency to create a more sustainable world.

6) Roundtable Discussion: Artificial Intelligence and the Art Institution with Moderator Faisal Anwar, Hybrid Artist and Chief Curator of the Karachi Biennale 2022.

Should the artworld feel threatened by Artificial Intelligence (AI)? ChatGPT, the viral AI chatbot that generates written content, attracted 100-million users in the first two months of launching. The image generator DALL-E and similar AI-powered technologies are changing how we create and experience art and culture. Though controversial, AI has been successfully integrated in many art institutions from data analysis to increasing visitor engagement, collections restoration, exhibition design and websites. This lively roundtable discussion will also debate issues of authenticity and copyright for artists, collections, and visitors.

7) TOUR the Textile Museum’s exhibition Gathering with Roxane Shaughnessy, Senior Curator & Manager of Collection, and Leah Sanchez, Senior Manager, Community Engagement & Learning. Gathering is the inaugural installation of the museum’s Collection Gallery and explores themes related to migration and diaspora, the search for comfort in the domestic and familial, reclamation of ancestral traditions through contemporary artistic responses, and the relationship between textiles and the environment.

REGISTRATION

GOG Members: $175.00
General/Non-Members: $275.00
Artist / Independent Art Worker $55.00
Student: $45.00

Download Registration Form and email to members@galeries-ontario-galleries.ca with subject line ‘Digital Art Practices Workshop Registration.”

ACCESSIBILITY

The Textile Museum of Canada is an accessible venue, accessibility information available.

ASL interpretation available upon request. GOG is committed to making our programming accessible to all participants and it is our policy to hold events where physical barriers do not exclude people with disabilities from participating.

Upcoming GOG Professional Development Workshop on June 1, 2023:

EQUITY AND ACCESSIBILITY IN YOUR INSTITUTIONS: FROM COLLECTIONS TO FACILITIES
Details on our website.

Galeries Ontario / Ontario Galleries has over a 50 year history as an arts service organization (ASO) and represents over 270 members—public art galleries, museums, artist-run-centres, and arts organizations. Through advocacy on issues, policy, legislation to all levels of government, and delivery of innovative and cutting-edge professional development opportunities and network-building, GOG advances, empowers, and strengthens the visual arts sector in Canada.

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For more information contact:

Craig Berggold
Workshop Coordinator
Galeries Ontario / Ontario Galleries
E: project@galeries-ontario-galleries.ca
T: (416) 598-0714

GOG gratefully acknowledges the Textile Museum of Canada for its partnership and providing the venue for this workshop; and the funding contribution from the Museums Assistance Program, the Department of Canadian Heritage.