I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it’s only art if you can take a selfie with it.
Or at least, that seems to be the main parameter for successful contemporary art. Attend an art fair like The Armory Show and you’ll quickly see which pieces are the most social media-friendly: they are the works in neon and reflective material, the ones most conducive to selfie-taking. If an artwork is too large or too subtle to be portrayed within that infernal Instagram square, it won’t generate enough buzz to really become a “thing.”
Shareability is inherent to today’s most successful art, and museums are just now starting to capitalize on that fact. Recently, the Centre Pompidou placed stickers on the floor to guide its visitors to the best selfie angles with the Jeff Koons piece, “Hanging Heart.” LACMA‘s “Faces of America” exhibit culls selfies taken in the museum and reposts them on monitors for all to see. The spinning chairs in the Hammer Museum’s courtyard are so popular on social media that the museum has started the #spunday hashtag, reposting the best images each Sunday. Some museums, such as SFMoMA, are even keeping selfie-ability in mind in their blueprints for new construction and exhibit planning. The virtual world is influencing the way we shape the physical world.
Of course, not every institution is on board with the selfie trend. Some still ban the use of photography of any sort, and traditionalists claim that the preoccupation with capturing a moment detracts from the experience of the moment. It’s hard to argue with that point, but museums are still businesses and selfies are essentially free promotion.
Selfies might even be essential to the message of a piece. Take it from Ai Weiwei, one of the art world’s most ardent selfie-takers. A recent show of his work at the Royal Academy encouraged visitors to share on social media. The idea was to spread the message of Weiwei’s work, much of which has to do with surveillance and state control. The fact that Weiwei is banned from leaving China only highlights the power that infuses the notion of social media reach.
What do you think? Should selfies be encouraged in museums, or allowed at all?
