CASE STUDY 2 .
SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATION OF BRITISH CONTEMPORARY ART
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The selection of images on this page shows examples of logos used by a variety of British galleries and art organisations , some famous and long established and some independent and not for profit . There is a very clear trend of galleries simply using their name to attract visitors . This is exactly the sort of symbolic representation that we are challenging through this project . A visitor has no way of knowing what ’ s inside the gallery without carrying out his or her own research . It is for this reason that a new system would be beneficial .
‘ Art Map London ’ is a website which collates information about art events happening in London each month and displays the location of each event on a Google map . Each location is numbered with a number which is then linked to the website of that specific art venue . Similarly to the Budapest based ‘ Project Zone ’ map , this is a useful resource which could be pushed one step further with the use of the kind of symbolic representation of art that we are proposing . This way , users of the map or visitors to the city could look at the location they are in and plan a tour of the kind of museums and galleries that take their interest . For example , photography , film or sculpture .
It is very difficult to imagine the British equivalent to the Mexican Skull in terms of a motif that is widely recognized as indicating a place of British art or culture . The ‘ M ’ for Museum symbol shown here is probably the most commonly used in Britain , with variations of the same used throughout the rest of Europe .
The ‘ Legible London ’ pedestrian maps are another example of a system that would benefit from the addition of an updated way of indicating the characteristics of contemporary art venues . These maps are located all over London and are used by tourists and locals alike . They are generally clear and useful but when it comes to distinguishing one cultural venue from the next they are not particularly helpful as all places of interest are simply highlighted in yellow . The addition of a symbolic system like ours would benefit the large amounts of people who visit London to enjoy the diverse and at times overwhelmingly large art scene there .