5 Case Study 1 - Leicester Research Archive - University of Leicester

station, Shackleton’s grave, a colony of penguins, a wandering
Albatross or a drifting iceberg. The project will convey the extreme
mechanics of the journey, the tedium of isolation and the awful beauty
of a journey into the void. Ultimately the work will look at what it is
that fascinates us still about this beautiful emptiness.” 116
During his travels, people were able to follow his work in a variety of ways. On a
daily basis, visitors to the Centre of Contemporary Art Glasgow could see how
the Centre is accumulating an installation of etched panels of the drawings. At
the same time individual subscribers could have the daily drawings sent to them
per email on their computers, or they could visit the London Institute of
Contemporary Art, the Southampton City Art Gallery or Artsway in Hampshire,
where the drawings were also exhibited.
In this sense the digital medium’s reproducibility seems to make the concept of
authenticity irrelevant, as people can see authentic original works, as much on
their own computer, as they can in a gallery. One could therefore argue that such
an art form does not need the gallery for its presentation, as people can access it
through the artist’s website, yet it has advantages for both the audience and the
museum: the original authentic art work can be seen at several locations
simultaneously. Hence, the flexibility of Digital Art allows the public to decide
as to where they want to follow this work in progress. For the museum this
flexibility means that, through an involvement in such projects, museums can
show their commitment to a truly contemporary art practice, and that even
smaller local museums can receive an increased amount of attention.
A work of art like Faithfull’s project does not fit the established system of how
museum objects are meant to be consumed by the visitor. It is not displayed
behind some sort of security device to be contemplated onsite. In fact, the work’s
full potential is exploited only when experienced on a digital device, which may
or may not be located in the museum. Consequently, the authentic experience of
the original is disengaged from the physical space of the museum. In general, but
116 Simon Faithfull http://www.simonfaithfull.org/antarctica/info.html (as of 1.12.2004).
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