Wanted: an informed approach in galleries for presenting new media works

Electronic art works have been gradually seeping into traditional art
gallery venues. San Francisco has been dressing up for the forthcoming
major international exposition of 20th century art. It is gratifying to
note that a few traditional galleries have chosen to exhibit tech
installations for this fashionable event, the Haines Gallery with
"Plugged In" and Cameraworks' "Deus in Machina."

However, traditional galleries remain stuck in their former mode of
communication with visitors to their galleries. They have a problem in
their presentation of new media art. Earlier digital art presenters
include the established galleries, Gallery Paule Anglim and the Rena
Bransten Gallery. Electronic works by artists such as Lynn Hershman and
David Cannon shown in the former; and that of Jim Campbell and Dara
Birnbaum, in the latter, have generally required requests of press
releases, interrogation of the gallery managers and artists, if
available,for understanding the basics of the work presented.

The information age has awakened the art viewer to expecting more than
the simple visual description such as "two green apples in a basket."
The demands of digital media expression have required investigative
procedures that deserve an explanation of concept,form, and materials.
The gallery staff has homework to do and the press releases they store
behind their desks should be on view.

The galleries have a tendency to blurr art pieces under one category, be
it technology, installation, interactive, etc. along with the list of
exhibiting artists. No individuation correlates the format to the
exhibitor. The Haines' press release quotes technology as "a medium that
is committed to the subtle use of color, balance, refined form and a
sensibility in the use of space" to describe their group of techno
artists which spans Lewis De Soto's visionary presence in a reflecting
drum of water to the disruptive ambulatory dog video toy by Joyce Hsu.
When viewers to the San Francisco fair visit Cameraworks' purported
installations they will find a remarkable but quixotic sculpture by Paul
DeMarinis.

Is it snobbery, naivity or apathy that prevents galleries from adapting
an informative presentation for techno/art?