On-site insights

"We've received very strong feedback from our exhibitors," said Art Basel director Marc Spiegler in a statement. "Many small-and mid-sized galleries have been using our platform as an opportunity to explore the concept of an online viewing room and to connect with new potential buyers, while larger blue-chip galleries have benefitted by cross-promoting their own digital platforms."While he acknowledged that nothing could replace the experience of visiting an art fair in person, he noted,"VIPs across the globe were also excited to view more than 2,000 exceptional artworks in one digital space."

Beyond core collectors, not everyone was charmed by the shift to viewing art in a digital space. For the VIP event, the Art Basel in Hong Kong site crashed within the first 25 minutes of launch. And when it did get its digital game back on, the feeling of viewing was functional without being fun, more superficial than substantive and, at times, aimless. It felt much like what it was－a poor imitation of a real-world gallery. A nine-year-old child in the vicinity was asked how the digital interaction felt. "There's no space for imagination," the child bemoaned."In galleries, you use your imagination."

Meanwhile and near-simultaneously, K11's Disruptive Matter and The New York Times: Carbon's Casualties exhibition, concerning technologies that can drive us towards a more renewable and sustainable future, was being shown on an online viewing platform via a third-party website operated by Matterport Inc. While it made for expansive viewing and a certain novelty, the technology was far from leisurely; in short, it felt little different from navigating Google Street Maps. It's hard to feel intimate with art when you're looking through two separate screens, or frames, to get at it.