Through the Looking Glass to a Post-pandemic World, With New Media Artists as Our Guide

This paper addresses the question: In a post-pandemic world, what happens to culture: will our cultural institutions seize new opportunities for advancement or suffer decline? New forms of digital aesthetics, which simulate works of art and cultural artefacts in their original settings, can now provide an immersive, interactive, computer-generated, experience of reality – an experience that not only matches people’s growing expectations but, also, keeps abreast of the way proactive art galleries and museums are seeking to engage with the public. Art and technology offer a way forward as long as both elements are woven seamlessly together. In tackling this task, we can anticipate that new media artists will act as our guide in leading the way through the Looking Glass from reality to virtuality – a feat of artistic creativity that will enable our cultural institutions to emerge from near catastrophe to face the rigours of a new age. The City of London provides a test case of post-pandemic planning with culture joining commerce in a spirit of partnership and sociability. Enter digital artists, designers and museum curators – those who know how to use digital to make art and engage audiences, to tell stories and be contemporary and relevant. Digital artists, whose presence in museums seems sorely lacking must assume a more central role in digital integration and visualisation of human dignity and identity. Curators ……recognise the need to collaborate with artists as new narratives, which in turn open up museums to reimagine collections in ways that encourage them to engage with more diverse communities, artists and audiences.