A digital redirection series that entertains and educates
Did you know that we typically don't look at anything, unless it grabs our attention, for more than 27 seconds? Human behavioral studies have proven that unless it's something really different or unusual we will lose interest in less than half a minute. It doesn't matter if it's a car commercial or the Mona Lisa.
While traveling in France, which is saturated with the culture, I thought it must be difficult to actually absorb many of the works of art that are seen everywhere in Paris and throughout Europe. While sitting at the Louvre museum watching hundreds of visitors file past walls filled with monumental works of art I had an idea. Their brains were so full of the sameness of the masterworks that even though they were looking at masterpieces they couldn't see them anymore. Their brains were too full of culture.
And so in this series, I recontextualize the sculpture that I found in my travels in the fall of 2021 by adding something that a viewer would never see with the original work of art. "Visual Bling, an unexpected flurry of color and form introduced to refocus their attention for that 27 seconds.
These images are digital works displayed on LCD monitors like you would find in the Paris Metro stations. The images of my recontextualized sculptural works are displayed for 27 seconds each and then the image changes to another work. A QRC code is included in the large-format screen display with each work. If the code is scanned it will redirect the viewer to my website page that features not only my new colorful version but also the original work of art alongside it. Included with the original work there would be information about where I originally encountered the sculpture and the artists who created the work and the reason for the work – as much information as I can find about the provenance of the work.
WHY? I'm redirecting someone's attention back to the original work of art and the provenance of that work and delivering an art history lesson in 27 seconds or less because otherwise, they may never see it.