Cons and Pros of ING Discerning Eye Exhibition's tech makeover

I visited the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition 2021 at the Mall Galleries today (after my hip hiatus last week) and left rather sooner than I expected to because It made me feel VERY irritated.

I'm going to deal with the technological changes associated with this exhibition in this post and may write another one about the exhibition itself. These are:

• QR Codes as the ONLY wall labels
• new website - with some significant omissions

This is the toned down edited version - which will tell you a lot.

I'm also going to comment on the technological change associated with the website - which is much more of a good news story - but with a big sting in the tail....

But first the really bad news....

QR Codes only as labels - and absolutely nothing else!

The ONLY labels on the wall are QR codes i.e. 

• No artists name next to their work
• I'd hazard a well-informed guess that this is completely unacceptable to most artists.
• If the organisers knew they were going to do this then they should have stated their intentions in the Call for Entries
• No printed catalogue of which more below....

This is what I wrote on my Facebook Page after having made my way past maybe a dozen artworks in the East Gallery which I visited first

I think if I was an artist who had submitted my artwork to this exhibition - and had been selected by one of the Selectors - I would be very seriously dischuffed.

• no profile for me as an artist which is plain to see
• less chance of selling my work
• less chance of being noticed by art gallery owners who visit exhibitions like these looking for new talent.

Don't get me wrong. I am NOT against 

• EITHER the use of new technology
• OR the intelligent use of QR codes to enhance the viewing experience 

As an ex senior manager who has been responsible for and managed the large scale implementation of new technology solutions in the workplace in the past, what I am VERY averse to is:

• poor communication - to both artists and visitors
• no scope for feedback from those who experience the "experiment" e.g. "how did you find our use of QR codes?"
• poor project management e.g. a rollout without beta testing which fails to identify issues which need resolving (i.e. provide a good customer experience - based on what those using the system think not what those responsible for implementing it think!)

The Issues

Some of the technological issues are:

Broadband / Wifi

• Broadband is not good in the Galleries - patchy at best and totally absent from the North Gallery
• Hence visitors have to use the Gallery wifi system - which means opening up their phones to a public wifi system i.e. that thing you are warned against doing and I never ever do! Who is liable if somebody gets scammed as a result of using public wifi - because some scammer will find out it's available....

Good luck with finding out anything about these pieces in the North Gallery
- where there is no secure broadband - just public wifi

Smartphones

• Not everybody has a smartphone 
• Not everybody has a smartphone which can recognise QR codes

Communication on paper

• There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING on the wall which tells you the name of the artwork; the name of the artist, media used and price
• Some extremely tatty, unlaminated - and hence not clean -  bunches of paper at the front desk for those with no phones is dire beyond belief and in absolutely no way a good substitute for proper labels! 
• Which bit of Covid Best Practice do the organisers of this competition think this complies with? Or didn't they think?

Bottom Line

I walked out because I wasn't enjoying the exhibition. 

Here's the reasons why: