Digitalxplorers

18 0000 worlds by Saodat Ismailova at the Eye Museum is a capturing experience in which truly 18 0000 dimensions are to be unearthed, whether these are worlds, landscapes or dreams.   Saodat shares in an intimate and very powerful way her heritage and takes the visitors on a journey through 18 0000 worlds, in which rituals, myths, traditions and landscapes are essential elements in the retellings of an harrowing past of a suppressed culture and nation.  The exhibition is primarily held in one big openspace, complemented by one sideroom where a new work of Ismailova was presented. The exhibition is in an interdisciplinary manner constructed, in addition to big video installations, it also includes some neon light and textile installations that support the centralized cinematic works. The exhibition reflects on the survival and creation in Central Asia, and the role of the USSR in this horrifying history. It touches upon themes as colonization, regime changes, and gendered ...

 by Erick Vázquez Natasha Greenhalg, creative director and co-founder of the NXT Museum sat with students from the VU for a chat evening. It was a delightful experience that helped broaden the experience after visiting the UFO exhibition. UFO exhibition by NXT Museum. Photo by Erick Vázquez The first part of the conversation was centered on the very nature of the museum. The NXT is thought of as a space to show and interact with art created and experienced through new media. Although the digital art has been present in other museums and exhibitions, NXT is trying to stablish itself as a house hold name and a permanent place for artists that explore these new creative forces (Michelle Henning, New Media). A curious anecdote (that still speaks a lot of the society we live in) is that the word “museum” was not well received at the beginning with the people nearby the museum. This states that the word has an elitists and boring connotation. Still, to Natasha it was important that her p...

 New media narration When we think about museums, our first thought is always about a painting hanging on the wall or imposing sculptures in the middle of a room, but is it only that, or have museums started to change their focus and identity?  Having already been at the UFO exhibition in the NXT museum, we can easily distinguish the differences from a "traditional" museum. The use of new media installations like videos, movies, and even video games creates a hypermediated space where the audience becomes a medium himself. The institution has found a new transmedial way to narrate its story. UFO exhibition in the NXT museum. Photo by Ioanna Paschali, 2023.  In recent years more and more institutions have used transmedia storytelling techniques in order to engage more and more people and be more entertaining, one can say a big queue makes a successful museum. However, that does not really mean that succession is only about big queues but also about the message. While new m...

In their exhibition UFO - Unidentified Fluid Other, the NXT Museum poses the following questions to its visitors: “What is possible beyond the fixed boundaries of the physical world and how do we shape-shift between virtual and physical worlds?” The exhibition consists of six rooms with large-scale new media artworks and five, so-called transition rooms, where the androgynous avatar Viatrix meets the visitors and takes them on a journey through a metaverse of various identities and fluid states of being. Viatrix appears between every big room and narrates the UFO story of the museum to the visitor through poems written by Julia-Beth Harris. Viatrix offers a moment of reflection on the presented works and the artists’ statements. These moments in-between the works function as a neutralising component amid the Visual overload that is released on them.   One of these exhibition rooms is named “Wholeland’ and presents the works of The Fabricant. This Amsterdam-based digital fashion hou...

     Artifacts on display… that is the most common thought when people are confronted with the word “museum”. And yes, once upon a time it was so, but as new media approaches the museum new ideas and possibilities open up (Henning). NFT  Exhibition in the Moco Museum. Video by Erick Vázquez 2022      The first possibility is, of course the idea of how information can be spread around more easily. The digitalization of catalogues and the easy access to them is definitively a process of democratization of knowledge. Taking into account that there is no such thing as “one size fits all”, the possibility of accessing information relevant to each case is important and fundamental. (Hooper-Greenhill)      Interactivity is one upgrade that can be created by new mediums entering exhibitions. There are two ways that interactivity can be achieved in exhibitions and museums. Hands on vs Mind on, the former can be a mechanical gesture from the visit...