Monday, May 9, 2011

Visit to Albany Institute of History and Art



Located in the middle of the city of Albany, this museum was surprisingly large with two floors of exhibits. My classmate Michael Anderson and I explored the entire museum, but focused mainly on the the second floor exhibition on graphic design because it was contemporary art. Graphic design is the carefully planned arrangement of visual images and printed text that can convey both meaning and message. This exhibition broke down visual arts into for distinct categories for display: typography, commerce and graphic design, political and social messages, and the creative process.

The exhibition was immense and covering the entire second floor, but I found two topics particularly interesting. One sideroom focused on how technological advances such as the Internet has changed graphic design throughout the years. This area also showed the evolution of entertainment sources such as video games. It was incredible to see an early video game system next to the incredibly complex video game systems available now. Another area I found very interesting was the displays of graphic design used in times of war. These examples were were used to express political messages such as pride in the nation.

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