Post Tagged with: "awesome"

Image from Museumlab website

Here’s one more reason I have to go to Tokyo, and soon.  The Museum Lab, a joint project between the Louvre and Dai Nippon Printing, is an experimental space in Tokyo, Japan that combines the high art of the Louvre with brand new technology.  Exhibitions change every four to five months, and focus on one sole artwork, surrounded by multimedia setups that present extensive research on the painting or sculpture by the Louvre art historians.

The current exhibition is on The Slippers by Samuel von Hoogstraten.  Because you have to pay to get into the Museum Lab “museum” area, the descriptions on the websites are teasers rather than thorough, but are nonetheless quite intriguing… You can learn about the Dutch Golden Age and its painting style, step into the room van Hoogstraten presents–exploring the importance of perspective  for the artist (see above image), and even a space where you can share your own interpretations of the symbols/objects within the work.

I’m completely fascinated by these creative blends between art and technology–so I really wish I had the extra cash to take a trip to Tokyo and check out this museum!  Hopefully this experiment will continue for a while (there have been four previous exhibitions, including a Gericault and a Titian) so we can all continue to see what new innovations this space can create.  I’ll certainly have my eye on it–I wonder if any of these technologies will be offered or will catch on and be developed for other museums around the world?

Museum Lab website