“One American Society” (working title) started in 2018, featuring five San Francisco Bay Area art museums as photography shooting locations: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, de Young Museum, The Legion of Honor Museum, Cantor Art Center, and Anderson Collection at Stanford University. Since then, the project has evolved into a comprehensive exploration of art venues, including galleries, as special public places that merge artworks, art spaces, visitor behavior, and social context.

Traditional art museums have long served as bastions of aesthetic authority, possessing a unique vision and ample financial resources to curate collections and exhibit artworks in grand venues that provide cultural spaces for research, education, and popularization of art to wider audiences. However, the impact of screen culture brought about by modern technological advancements has posed a significant challenge to the traditional art museum model. While museums are adapting to the trend, they still face a looming threat.

To illustrate this phenomenon, I have identified and explored five aspects:

(1) Traditional visitors who cherish the opportunity to get in close proximity with artworks and enjoy the space, atmosphere, and value the experience viewing of art first hand

(2) Public behavior that tends to view museums as entertainment venues

(3) The prevalence of smart phone use, which allows visitors to take pictures of artworks and store them on their devices, often defining the museum experience for these visitors

(4) The behavior of the museum security personal

(5) The availability of free Wi-Fi provided by museums that enables visitors to access background information on artists and works in real-time

The tension between traditional culture and modern pluralism raises questions about whether the encounter between the two can inspire a new type of art museum culture that incorporates both perspectives and aligns with contemporary trends. This evolving dynamic warrants further investigation and discussion.

From my perspective as a photographer, the universality underlying the development of this phenomenon, rather than particularity, can only be discovered and identified by capturing and analyzing a significant quantity of images over an extended period of time, while at the same time recognizing that particularity emerges from universality.