FEATURES
and promotion of exhibitions, events,
readings or lectures by museums, private
galleries, and others began to flow through
the new portable devices, which become
more and more popular. This extensive,
perhaps excessive propagation of
information leads me to two considerations:
first, the desire to exaggerate the diffusion
could lower the quality of the message
that, in order to be understood by the
majority of the audience, have to be
based on medium / low parameters of
language and content; and second, the
difficulty by the users in metabolizing the
imposing mass of information that daily
come within his reach. Hence, the risk of
a cultural overload and the consequent
failure to understand/appreciate what has
been received. If these are the potential
risks, the benefits that can result from a
smart grid applied to culture shall be to
induce tremendous positive effects on its
understanding, the ability to inspire a love
for art and its values, especially among
the younger generations. The Cleveland
Museum of Art (Ohio) is working on these
issues since several years, now under the
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direction of Fred Bidwell and his team. The
Museum was founded in 1913, and under
the leadership of Frederick Allen Whiting,
its first director, was dedicated since the
beginning to the cultural formation and
education of its citizens, through programs
aimed at developing knowledge of the
secrets of art and craftsmanship. Exactly a
century later, in January 2013, was opened
the new Gallery One, the brainchild of the
then director David Franklin and developed
at its completion by the actual director
Fred Bidwell. Gallery One includes the
incredible multimedia services offered by
the Museum, the new core technology from
where it all starts. ArtLens, Collection Wall,
and Studio Play are the three amazing IT
tools that the CMA has created and made
available to the public, designed to make
the experience of the art comprehensive,
interactive, simple and practical especially
for those who have always regarded
the art as something elitist, inaccessible
or incomprehensible. The interaction
between technology/art work demolish all
the physical and psychological barriers
which over time are layered around the
theme of Art. I asked
Caroline Guscott,
Communication Manager,
to introduce us to the
incredible functionality of
ArtLens:“The Cleveland
Museum of Art in 2013
announces the launch of
the new ArtLens app for
i-Phone. This new mobile
version of the museum’s
award-winning free i-Pad
app, ArtLens, is adaptive
to the varying needs
and desires of museum
visitors and includes
over 9 hours of audiovisual content. Featuring
a new, mobile-friendly