From the physical to the digital: Encounters in the KKNK online gallery

Corporeality / Sensoriality / Materiality: Body-centered interpretations of South African art

Abstract

This study explores the processes and curatorial techniques that support corporeal engagements with online exhibitions. Exhibitions, physical and otherwise, are a complex interplay between spaces – real and imagined – audiences, and tangible or intangible objects. This is a guiding notion of this article, supported by Merleau-Ponty’s perspective of the relation between internal human experiences and the external bodily encounters that shape them. I maintain that differing digital curatorial presentations can enhance or subdue the embodied interaction of visitors. By relying on my lived experience of navigating the transfer of the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival’s visual arts programme of 2020 to the online sphere, I discuss various strategies deployed to encourage embodied engagement. Amongst other findings, the study underscores the need to consider audience preferences and allowing visitors a sense of agency to choose how they want to engage artwork online. Even though the arena of exchange might differ, I argue that all exhibitions, whether online or brick-and-mortar, provide audiences with the possibility of an engaging experience. In addition to the exhibition itself, viewers embody another energy – and it is the viewer’s deliberate performance and choice to interact that produces the distinctive experience of an exhibition.