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Tate Debate: Does seeing art on screen changethe way you see it in real-life?BySusan Holtham3 May 2013

Think back to the first time you saw an artwork. You probably

can’t remember, because it was likely long before you went on a

school trip or on a family day out to a gallery. Your first look at a

work of art was probably printed in a book, which may even have

been just in black and white (with colour ink the preserve of pricier

publications), or on an overhead projector – remember those?

Over time there are certain perceptions you associate with an

artwork, that become acutely familiar to you, even if you’ve neverseen the artwork in real life. A faded poster of van

Gogh’s Sunflowers in your Aunt’s living room that if removed

would leave a sad, pale rectangle on the wall, a Turner postcard

perched perilously on your greasy student fridge, a greetings card

of Monet’s Water Lillies that you gave to your Mum on her

birthday four years ago and has been on the same spot on the

window sill since.

With images in books, cards and magazines restricted to the sizeof their static medium, and not capable of giving the level of detail

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now achieved on, say, museum websites, when you did come

across art or an object in a gallery or museum, you’d of course

 judge it upon your only frame of reference – seeing it in print.

Naturally you might assume an artwork would be bigger in the

flesh than it appeared on paper. But art can now been seen onscreen in multiple ways, not just the desktop computer, but also a

mobile phone, tablet and even in the cinema.