Chapter 24 – How to make the most of The Blue Neon?

The design of The Blue Neon allows the visitor to engage with it in a straightforward manner. 

We removed all the interferences and useless features to maximise the quality of your interaction. Endless scrolling only benefits the creator (of the platform), algorithms only trap you in an echo chamber, advertisements only distract you from your main purpose. We want you in & out of here in, let’s say, 10mins, perhaps 20 for the bravest among you; mentally fulfilled and serene. Once you have finished your session, go spend some time looking at birds or play scrabble with your grandmother. Your job is done here, so is ours and please, don’t come back until tomorrow.

In chapter 16, we already laid out the most effective way to interact with the wheel of art, that stands at the epicentre of this universe. Apart from the Q&A of this journal – that you are familiar with and entirely part of – the last component we haven’t mentioned so far is the slightly tweaked ‘artist search’ bar where we…don’t list the artists per se. So you need to come up with a specific name, try to look for it and hope for the best. As you can imagine, the idea remains similar, spending time immersing into the artworks rather than, well, anything else. 

How to make the most of The Blue Neon? As explained earlier, I am not one to provide you with a guide on how to slow look, you will find plenty of these out there – we might even list the ones we like at some point – until then we let your intuition and common sense lead the way. I will focus more on why artworks require time to immerse. A common mistake would be to assume that given vision is immediate, it yields a direct sense of understanding and appreciation (of an artwork). This is fake news. You have to decelerate to reap the benefits of your vision, the product of this process will only come after a certain time, trust it.

But the fundamental question that derives from all this: are all artworks sensitive to slow looking? Yep, you’re right to challenge the inevitable and the only answer as to whether you should dedicate time into an artwork that triggers nothing inside of you is: no, definitely no. Forcing a patience mode into yourself will not necessarily mean an artwork opening up and revealing all its dark secrets. Nonetheless before ditching a painting, a drawing, a sculpture after 2 seconds – and hurting an artist’s feelings in the process – a few parameters should be taken into account.

The first of all being the complexity of the work, whether abstract or figurative. More details or a bigger scale amounts to more time required screening in order to get the whole picture and we don’t even mean grasping the essence, just viewing it. The medium, the style and the technique influence the effectiveness of slow looking.

Once over the potential visceral shock of the encounter, you can then delve into trying to decipher the artist’s messages that he/she would like to convey. The conceptual depth echoes the cultural context in which the artist created and reflects on his/her intentions. An understanding – or simply a willingness to do so – of both can enhance the experience

Most of the time, when wandering in a museum or a gallery, you will find a brief description next to an artwork providing an answer to these questions (background, context…) but The Blue Neon decided not to replicate this method, apart from the style&dimensions. Though useful, we consider that it alters the originality of the viewing by providing a biased – doesn’t mean incorrect obviously – direction. I prefer your self-certifying approach in the apprehension of a work of art, and over time and with repetition this will amount to knowledge, your knowledge.

In conclusion, applying a universal approach to slow looking could be a waste of time – but we won’t go as far as saying detrimental or counterproductive – as not all artworks are sensitive to it. Some are reservoirs prone to contemplation and others are straightforward by nature.

Be your own judge.

Yours Sincerely,

BLUE