A few weeks ago, the Met’s Costume Institute, opened blog.mode: addressing fashion, the exhibition described as:

As a living art form, fashion is open to multiple readings. A vibrant reflection of contemporary culture, fashion especially in its most avant-garde expressions”affects us through its intense visual impact. blog.mode: addressing fashion is the first in a series of shows designed to promote critical and creative dialogues about fashion. The exhibition presents some forty costumes and accessories dating from the eighteenth century to the present”all recent Metropolitan Museum acquisitions”and invites visitors to share their reactions online or from a “blogbar” of computer terminals in the exhibition galleries.

While it’s great that museums are looking to change the way they curate exhibitions, I wonder if blogging is going to help encourage discourse. At present museums operate in a very one-way conversation. They relay the information and we receive the information for our own interpretation. It’s true that museums like a great documentary can change the way a subject is considered. But blogging is but a medium, a tool we use for discourse, not a subject on it’s own (and perhaps a very boring subject, if it were to be one).

Well, I’m one who’s interested in seeing how this is going evolve. Honestly, I’m happy to see exhibitions hungry for change.

blog.mode: addressing fashion
December 18, 2007–April 13, 2008
The Costume Institute, ground floor