Piecing together the past: An insight into mosaic making

By Paris Marashi and Jaki Levy

INTRO

Interactive work that educates people about the process of art making is an invaluable tool in a museum such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as this can engage a viewer to consider the process of making art. We are proposing an interactive display that allows the user to recreate portions of the “Landscape and Fountain” Mosaic, which is located in the Charles Engelhard Court of the Museum. The original piece that we are supplementing was created by Tiffany’s Studios between 1905-1915.

OUR PROPOSED SITE

Metropolitan Museum of Art Floor Plan

The Charles Engelhard Court is indicated in yellow (American Wing)

The Small Orange square indicates the location of our proposed piece

The Charles Engelhard Court is a large space located in the American wing of the Metropolitan Museum of art. The Court has entrances and exits to a large Egyptian court, which features an enormous glass façade. As you can see on the map, visitors can also access the Court via the Arms and Armory space. It also is adjacent to the the massive Engelhard Court café located on the North end, with an equally massive glass façade oriented toward Central Park. It contains a number of statues, a courtyard, and an enormous glass curtain wall and ceiling. In the middle of the space there are wooden benches.

The space is steeped in American History as all the works featured are works by American artisans. The impressive façade of the United States Branch Bank makes up the north wall of the Court. Nonetheless, it does not feel overtly American, patriotic, or political. If not for the fact that it is located in the American Wing of the Museum, visitors might not even notice the unifying American theme in this space. In fact, the north wall makes the space feel more Greco-Roman than American.

What is now a blank and dead space in the East Court, we propose a new framework that brings together past and present in relation to the mosaic style of art. We are looking carefully at the “Landscape and Fountain” Mosaic by Tiffany’s Studios.

Multiple perspectives of the Charles Engelhard Court. We were particularly inspired by the glass façade and ceiling.

1. South side of Court 2.Mosaics 3.Blank Space for proposed piece

more Tiffany’s Mosaics

Details of Tiffany’s “Landscape and Fountain”

CONCEPT

The mosaic fountain draws many people. The fountain’s flowing water makes it one of the few pieces that feature an element of sound to it. It is dynamic, rather than static. Our observation in this space indicated that many people like to reflect on this piece. Our site-specific piece brings the mosaic to life.

We aim to promote an experience of reflection, education of the process of an artist. We also hope to encourage a deeper sense of looking at and observing a piece. In order to give the viewer a better understanding of Tiffany’s artistic process and the time it took to put a piece together, we offer a chance to simulate just one aspect of a very complex process. Piecing together a mosaic is the most accessible experience of putting together a mosaic – it is certainly somewhere towards the end of the process that the mosaic tiles come together to form the content of the piece.

SIMULATED SCREENS

SCENARIO

This interactive piece helps the museum visitor re-imagine the process of detailing Tiffany’s Fountain Mosaic located in the Engelhard Court of the Met. The site of the piece is situated between two mosaic works by Tiffany.

A screen displays an outline image of the mosaic. The workstation in front of the display contains a screen split into two areas :

1. A palette with the mosaic pieces

2. A work area to drop the mosaic pieces into. The work area contains an outline of the mosaic, identical to the display, but much smaller.

When the user moves the mosaic piece from the palette to the work area, the sketch begins transforming into a fully colored mosaic. For example, if a user drops a red mosaic piece onto the upper left hand corner of the work area, the upper left hand corner of the display also shows a red mosaic tile.

We aim to find out exactly how Louis Comfort Tiffany created this specific piece and give the user a direct simulation of how he created his mosaic pieces. The aim is not only reflection, but also education. When we can replicate the experience for the user, the overall effect will be much richer.

RESEARCH + BACKGROUND MATERIALS

While it has been a slow process, traditional museums are integrating hi-tech into their spaces. We believe that interactive exhibitions will contribute greatly to the Met’s new “building-from-within" program. During this process, reconsideration of space and exhibition design is an imperative in order for the museum to hold its place as a leading international cultural institution.

In the 1980’s, Taizo Miyake pioneered Object Theater – a now popular exhibition strategy. Recently, at the Tate, the design firm AllOfUs designed an interactive exhibit to complement the William Blake and John Flaxman exhbition. One of the designers, James Davis, said “It was previously thought that art spoke for itself, and what it didn’t say the curators would get across…But eventually we figured out this simply wasn’t true for visitors without experience or an art degree.”

Works of art will always remain a part of their era. Our ways of understanding and interpreting them will continue to change. With the ubiquity of self-publishing, we seen the introduction of “independent” museum podcasts/guides. Certain groups were “hacking” the museum and creating their own walking tours dealing with themes of sexuality and art. Up until the MoMa designed its own podcasts, it was considering banning mp3 devices. The MoMa did the right thing – it embraced new technologies to further its mission. The Met must continue doing the same.