Great job on the presentations, everyone! Really interesting stuff– and so diverse in topics and approaches.
I wanted to share this article that I just read in The Wall Street Journal: http://www.wsj.com/articles/when-the-art-is-watching-you-1418338759
The article discusses the use of visitor tracking information in the museum to help make curatorial decisions. We’ve been seeing this a lot lately, using technology to track what is popular to reproduce it. It makes sense in terms of profit, but it really doesn’t leave much room for creativity and the artistic spirit, which tends to be counterculture before becoming mainstream.
I strongly agree. Popularity does not necessarily determine what is provocative or inspiring, it just reenforces dominant discourses for the most part.