Rothko, Art and Technology

On Wednesday I took the chance I had while in town to look at the returned Rothko (the 'Black on Maroon' that was  vandalised about 18 months ago ) in Tate Modern, it looks good and it's pleasing to see what a fine job the restoration team has made to the damage inflicted.
Along with a view of the Robert Mapplethorpe  photo's that are currently  on display it was a highlight of my all to brief visit.

When one looks at an academic  subject  there are generally  a few approaches that one can take, you can talk about it, do it or look at the history of it- well often with art we favour the first two but there is a worthwhile exercise in looking at the evolution of Art as a discipline which has reflected the times it is is practiced in.

Let's face it the Artist is a relatively new career creation  before that it was a craft job that an artisan did to  produce sculpture and other works. Look at how photography pulled the rug from under those practising realist representation - like the bar jukebox had for many a troubadour.

Thinking more about the Rothko works and the general visual arts materials it is hard to avoid the fact that

The 'bubble' art created by these guys near Tate Modern
 is still  hard to replicate by modern technology.

the owning and curating of works will change.

Just as the rise of easy to use materials and colleges where art is taught has democratised production  so the new technologies of high quality display and printing will further dilute the power of elitism.

 Often on seeing the original I have seen detail and texture unavailable on-line or in reproduction but digital technologies can now address this.

Why when one can see a fantastic image on an Ultra High Definition screen is the original so essential?
Will 3D printing mean that we can all have great artifacts to cover our home shelves?

There is by the nature of too many things and not enough time a need to choose the 'best' but why shouldn't I have the Richard Hamilton retrospective in my own living room?

Is there something about the shared experience which galleries and museums provide that means more?

Why when we can hear fantastic music by the best musicians in the world do we choose (some of us) to go to a field or uncomfortable concert hall to hear a lesser performance?

(By the way the returned Rothko looks nothing like the images seen in the news coverage.)

A panorama view  outside Tate Modern

TV technology session at London RTS

The overwhelming impression I had from the presentation called 'The Future of Innovation in Television Technology' or FITT for short  given by  Richard Lindsay-Davis, Director-General, DTG and Peter Sellar, Programme Manager, DTG  at the final RTS London session of the season was that Britain had moved even further from the engineering production of high technology broadcast systems to the deployment and joining up of systems - we're advanced in watching TV but not so great at making the bits that enable it- shame.