MOMA Mia: An Exercise in Art Depreciation

I made my way to the Museum of Modern Art today to see the Automatic Update exhibit. I wish I had known that it consisted of only a few exhibited pieces. But it's ok since I couldn't find it at first and made my way around some of the paintings and sculpture. I find the experience of a museum much more interesting than the art itself. I think that the countless tourists in the building might agree with me.


One of the first pieces that I passes was the blank canvas, which I think is interesting enough....free open space.


Not to be outdone, there is a negative space work, completely black which sits on the other side of the exhibit wall. I don't pay attention to the art: its a failure, I know, but I pay a lot of attention to the people viewing it. Maybe it's because I find living interaction preferable to immobile objects.


As I made my way out of the exhibit block, there is an open viewing space (which I think makes MOMA one of the most beautiful arthouses in the city) and I found one of the guards who usually watches and protects the artwork at almost arms length turned to watch the tourists below giggle and awe.


To the other side of the walkway was this chair in the sculpture garden. I just enjoyed the lines.


What happened next was both ironic and almost silly. "No Photographs" was the sign in front of the exhibit labeled MOMA Photography. I understand that artists want to protect their work; it's ok. I didn't remember much of it, and in some respects agreed with the sign.


I finally found the Automatic Update exhibit, which I mentioned before consisted of roughly 5 pieces. The most interesting was how the exhibit made the participants the piece themselves. The piece is simple: two users type communications and the computer encodes the words into pictographs.


Male's POV.


Female's POV.



As I left the building, I noticed probably my favorite exhibit, mostly because of its clarity and simplicity. It's a series of cartoons which asks the question "What has happened to America?" This piece reminds me of cave paintings, notebook sketches, and philosophical arguments all at the same time.

I did appreciate my visit.