Running out of memory.

Moma, Oct 2024: I am watching people queuing, waiting, persisting to see Van Gogh's masterpiece "Starry Night". They finally arrive at the work, stop in front of the piece, and then immediately turn away from it to get a selfie with it and walk away...5 minutes ago I was doing exactly the same thing, so if you can lend me a moment I will climb down from this high horse called judgement.

When did we all become such proficient archivists, and what for? For the burgeoning shelves of ICloud? The normality of taking a photo and filing away our experiences, is exponentially outweighing living the moment in real time, and it is phenomenal how easily we all yield.

Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh, MOMA collection

It is at this moment that I perceive the gallery differently. The Monet becomes comparable to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. In both scenarios we are touring culture. But instead of touring geographically, we are touring art. The volume of people in the gallery is due to the touristic potential of art; owing to its popularity, its placement in esteemed cultural locations; and by a collective, shared acknowledgment of who the famous artist and artworks are (resulting in a desire to be one of the people viewing the desirable). But surely not everyone here at the Moma cares about art; 2.7 million visitors a year (2024)! The art objects at times (and of course not in totality) can act as a tourist attraction, something for people to visit on their days off (which let me add, I think is a no bad thing).

How many of us have been begrudgingly dragged to see a bridge or a view, just to say they have seen it? Likewise the artworks can also act as objects of cultural prestige in association, so we must in turn take photos with them to honour our reputation as a cultured beings. In truth when we are taking photos of the artwork, we are saying more about ourselves then we are about the art. Which is why people/we/i/you, at times, tour the galleries attractions rather then stopping to inhale, to see, to contemplate - I know this is a huge generalisation, but also know that we can all relate however thoughtful, profound and connected you feel you are; So I write from this perspective, knowing how easily we can all slip into default mindlessness. It is a problem of our age.

In this state we can become collectors of moments, archivists - not thinkers or feelers. My qualm is that, at default, we are no longer seeing, we are no longer stopping, we are no longer thinking, we are just collecting and owning. This is a problem, and it's not just about art.

My final question to you and myself is, which are you actually more likely to recall? the memory or the photo? I know my sizeable photo storage is not something I will be rummaging through anytime soon.