NODEM 2014 Proceedings

The Widget Art Gallery – A Gallery 2.0
Chiara Passa
Fine Art Academy of Rome, Italy
chiarapassa@gmail.com
Abstract: A few years ago, I was surprised by the increasing involvement of the audience in some hot mobile-art projects; so
I wanted to create a virtual exhibition space ‘cheap & chic’ but simple to manage for me and clearly accessible to everybody by
just using an Internet connection.
General Terms: The “Widget Art Gallery” project is licensed under the Creative Commons at: http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Keywords: Art, App, Installation, architecture, mobile, smartphone, Gif, Painting, Animation, Music, AR, Augmented Reality,
Gallery, Museum, Exhibition, Show, Internet.
Introduction
The WAG is a virtual display environment I have thought extremely coherent in order to show digital art. Due
to our needs that seem to be increasingly handheld, WAG was born in 2009. The alternative to physical space
comes when I have realized that the concept of possession has given way to access. As a result, the idea of having
an exhibition space available always and everywhere was born.
Figure 1. The Widget Art Gallery interior
Paper
The Widget Art Gallery is a mini single art gallery room that fits into people’s pockets. The virtual gallery-room,
directly on people’s mobile, hosts a solo digital art exhibition related and inspired to its dynamic site-specific
context every month. So the WAG works both as a sort of kunsthall showing temporary exhibitions and also as
a museum, conserving all the past shows inside an online archive that creates a permanent collection.
NODEM 2014 Conference & Expo
97