-Institutions are like templates. They are constructed and are eventually broken or redefined. Institutions get outdated and newer institutions come up. The newer school of thought very soon becomes the old and the rate at which this shift occurs is decreasing more often with time. Today, with the availability of technology and information people are becoming more responsive to one another and their surroundings. The work that artists and designers produce has become more active in the ways in which it is constructed. As a result of this, talking within the stereotype, the 'shelf life' of an artwork hence has reduced and the gallery plays more vital a part as a (documenter than an archiver). The nature of the artwork has changed to keep up with the rate of change of information. The gallery is slowly becoming redundant due to its exclusive and static nature.
'What was essentially an aristocratic stronghold is now a meeting place for ordinary people' - UNESCO
Break open the gallery and you might realise that more people want to be a part of this 'institution' today and that they aren't as stupid as you make them out to be. Its as simple as an artist failing miserably at a game of Pictionary because he can draw only too well. Interpretation is open to all and today ineffective communication would lead to sloppy interpretation. Art today is no longer for the 'visual intelligentsia' but more incorporative of society as Pierre Bourdieu says . It plays as analogy alongside social events and dynamics reflecting people, politics etc. Fluxus (to flow) as an art movement did somewhat that. Many labelled this movement as high art and it may have been as well but it broke out of the 'gallery' or the 'museum' by the way it manifested itself. A network or a group of artists who communicated and built the platform for other artists through interactive and participatory art forms using different media ranging from visual arts, urban planning, architecture and design.
As an effect of this, the artist as a practitioner is becoming less 'institutionalised' by the day therein developing a newer institution, that of 'play'. Self institution vs 'The Institution'. The artist as a person is more independent of the 'house' and is a more social person now. Putting aside the brush he turns to newer media. Art has become a more inclusive affair and the artist a 'dabbler'.
A lot of art projects coming up today are visualised through many media involving many specialists. In an essence, the artist is indulging himself in design processes now and then. A newer interpretation of form vs function. Concept art. The artist and the design thinker have begun to exchange notes. The designer and the artist coming to a mid point is becoming more crucial to the nature of the work that is needed. Earlier, the aesthetic was regarded as luxury or something that enhanced the quality of life of an individual. Today, in the age of consumer goods and mass production, one seems to have lost that aesthetic or unique quality that an individual could associate him/herself with. The aesthetic is being given a function. Designers now are increasingly emphasising on the need for the feeling of individual ownership within such products. Product designer Ross Lovegrove speaks about 'mass individualism' where he says that a particular product needs to adapt to the person using it. The product develops a relationship with the user and this in itself is an artwork. Designers have lost the artist within them he claims. Another such example was illustrated through the work of MVRDV, a dutch architecture firm where they redefined the word 'sustainable' in architecture through solutions within form, function, identity and ownership. Involving people within the architectural process and having them respond to the structures around them serves as a kind of participatory installation and acts as an artistic statement. There is a certain playfulness in the nature in which artists and designers are solving problems. The do -it -yourself neighborhood workshop is a good example of that. Simple solutions for low cost block housing where a modular form of architecture allows people to add value to their space. In the field of new media arts there are a multitude of projects that work on a DIY level. Open source programs and other available technology enables anybody to pick up the tools and start experimenting. With this landscape developing, the role of the artist / designer becomes clearer. Is the institution breaking up? (a possible clue to the time we are in....?) Design and art are both becoming democratic in nature. This may just be the most current institution.
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