Just as operas are now transmitted over the air, so picture galleries will be.
From the Louvre to you, from the Prado to you, from everywhere to you.
-Frederick Kiesler, 1930
Herbert Bayer. Diagram of 360 Degrees Field of Vision. 1935.
XHIBITOR: TRANSMEDIA ART EXHIBITIONS FROM BAUHAUS TO YOUR HOUSE is a multiplatform research project investigating transmedia and art exhibitions. An experiment in open access academic publishing, it is the master’s degree dissertation of Julia Fryett.
Though the term transmedia was popularized in 2003, it echoes avant-garde exhibition design strategies theorized by Herbert Bayer and Frederick Kiesler nearly seventy years prior. This project considers transmedia within the trajectory of art history, questioning how key notions of immersion and interactivity can be employed as a curatorial methodology.
By looking simultaneously toward the past and the present, XHIBITOR is meant to inspire and provoke artists, curators, producers, marketers, designers, architects and storytellers across disciplines to push the boundaries of what we consider to be an exhibition.
XHIBITOR was initially comprised of four sections. The project is now archived, but the E-BOOK is available on iTunes and ISSUU.
- EBOOK: Establishes a theoretical and historical framework for transmedia art exhibitions, tracing back core concepts to Bauhaus and De Stijl notions of immersion and interactivity.
- DATABASE: Presents an archive of past and present exhibition histories, classified according to the language of transmedia.
- TOOLKIT: Resources blog updated with articles, studies, presentations, academic texts and multimedia educational content.
- VISUAL MAPS: Data mapping charts and visualizations representing exhibitions, taxonomies and related histories.
XHIBITOR was made possible by support from The London Film School and Transformat Lab.
Written, produced and distributed by Julia Fryett.