Sunday Matinee at Your Computer

One wonders whether or not Al Gore, after having created the internet, had the foresight to predict how integral it would be to our lives and now our art. What began as a paperless, dial-up way of sending faxes, the internet has welcomed a new type of globalization, mass communication, and it has shifted the way we all see the world of art.  Today with Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, Google Earth, and YouTube, our world looks very different than it did even just a decade ago.  The arts world, not generally known for updating itself when new technologies come around, has jumped on this high-speed train and is holding on for dear life. 

We recently pointed you in the direction of Ken Tanaka’s gallery exhibit in Culver City, which wouldn’t have come about were it not for his grass-roots YouTube fame.  LACMA and MOCA Los Angeles both have their own YouTube channels that take you inside the museums and behind the scenes.   Art In The Picture is a comprehensive, online introduction to art history – otherwise known as a way of sounding totally in the know.  On a larger scope, a group of ninety musicians who would never have met under other circumstances performed together at Carnegie Hall this week.  They are called the YouTube Symphony Orchestra and they represent thirty different countries.  The website held a contest, to which 3,000 musicians submitted audition videos.  Once the judges whittled them down to the 200 finalists, YouTube users voted and thus the orchestra was formed.  San Francisco Symphony Orchestra’s music director Michael Tilson-Thomas conducted the musicians from such faraway lands as Australia, Peru, China, Paris, and London in a concert that included Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and a piece written specifically for them by Tan Dun called Internet Symphony No. 1, Eroica. 

I doubt very highly that the Lumiere Brothers, when they invented the motion picture at the turn of the century, thought that their creation would be the vehicle for Fast and the Furious 7.  The cinema has undoubtedly become one of our most beloved pastimes and opera houses around the country have taken note.  The Metropolitan Opera has regular screenings of their staged operas at local cinemas so that any fledgling opera fan might get a taste without paying an exorbitant amount or really committing to dressing up.  Likewise, the Washington National Opera has begun screening live performances in shopping malls for free and posts videos to YouTube often.  Los Angeles Opera has put Podcasts to good use and has joined Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. 

In many cases, the inclusion of new technology can be argued to be both a good and bad idea.  For the arts, though, this acceptance of modern times is encouraging and beneficial.  The concept that the audience for the classical, fine arts is aging is not a new one.  In an effort to widen their demographic and appeal to us young folk, arts organizations are trying to learn our tech-savvy language.  By Jove, I think they’ve got it!