OFFENTLIG KONST OCH DET NÄTVERKANDE MUSEET Användning av digitala webb-baserade lösningar för tillgängliggörande av den offentliga konsten

Abstract

All over Sweden there are large amounts of so-called public art commissioned and paid for by the community. The art can be free standing outdoors, connected to buildings or freely placed indoors such as paintings. The public art is considered a democracy project meant to be accessible to all members of the society but much of it isn’t available for different reasons. The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis is then to bring forward how we in the future can make the public art that now isn’t public more accessible and show why this should be done. We who live now have the responsibility to save and deliver this heritage, in good shape, to future generations. Citizens may lack knowledge about the public art in their surroundings and be unaware of what the public collections contain in large. To be relevant and considered worth saving the art needs to be known and cherished by the people living today. Being jointly owned and intended for all of us, the public art is different both from other cultural heritage and from other works of art. The large and very eclectic collection is further adding to its uniqueness. The thesis looks at the possibilities a digital open art collection, a networked museum of public art could bring, making all of the art accessible and for all. How digital and virtual techniques can enhance the experience of the physical art is also addressed. The thesis takes an interdisciplinary perspective, placing the public art as cultural heritage in the centre, looking at it from the angles of digital humanities and museology. Through studying literature, reports and homepages, doing qualitative interviews with representatives for different authorities and by testing digital solutions used by different cultural institutions, the conditions for creating the networked museum of public art have been explored. The results indicate that while there are obstacles and much cooperation required, it could well be done. The technical solutions are there, the digitalization of cultural heritage in general is being encouraged by the authorities, and there is great concern for the art in many municipalities and regions.