On October 14th, 2018 my friend Emily and I decided to venture our way down to the city for a visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art. The drive to the museum, which is located at 220 E Chicago Ave right near Water Tower Place, took about 40 minutes to get there. Considering Emily was very sick this weekend and I’m extremely

lazy, Emily’s mom was kind enough to drive us to the city so we wouldn’t have to worry about parking or anything else. When we finally arrived, we took some pictures outside the museum because the weather was actually pretty nice out. It was around 60 degrees, sunny, and a little windy. Going into the museum was easy considering we didn’t have to pay to get in and we were free to explore wherever we wanted. To my surprise, there were a lot more people in the museum than I had expected. I could also tell that most of the people there were art enthusiasts from their trendy clothing and the way I watched them converse about the pieces. Emily and I definitely looked like the odd ones out from the moment we walked in.

One of the main reasons we chose to go to the museum was because of the temporary exhibit they were displaying called, “I Was Raised on the Internet”. This gallery, that took up an entire floor at the museum, was designed to display artwork relating to the modern world of technology. I found this topic interesting because it related to my general age group and displayed how technology is dominating our current world whether people like it or not. As we walked around the exhibit, it was quite difficult to understand some of the pieces. One piece of artwork was simply a computer laying on the ground with other random pieces of metal around it. These kind of pieces were confusing to interpret even after reading the caption that went along with it.

The kind of art that stuck out and made more of an impact on me were the ones that pointed out the flaws to social media. For example, there was this beautiful piece of art that was a collage of pictures from different social media platforms that draped onto the floor. I got a better understanding of the piece

once I read the description that talked about how much social media has changed the way we see ourselves and others. It also went on to describe the more morbid side of media such as bullying, harassment, etc. This piece made me reflect for a second on whether or not social media was affecting or changing the way I viewed myself. I had to stop and think if social media was really benefiting me the way it advertised itself to do. These thoughts made me slightly uncomfortable as I had never really thought about them before. The unacknowledged thoughts also reminded me of Margaret Wheatley’s article, Willing to be Disturbed which reflects on how we as human beings choose not to think about topics that may disturb us or go against our beliefs. In the article, she says, “It is very difficult to give up our certainties– our positions, our beliefs, our explanations. They help define us; they lie at the heart of our personal identity. Yet I believe we will succeed in changing this world only if we can think and work together in new ways,” (Wheatley 1). In Wheatley’s article, she challenges us to want to be disturbed by our thoughts, conceptions, beliefs, etc. She strives for us to open our minds to new ideas and listen to others interpretations because if we don’t, change cannot be made. I realized that as I was looking at this artwork and pondering, I was challenging my beliefs and ideals of social media to try and grasp what the artist was trying to express. I was disturbed thinking that social media may be harming me more than it was benefitting me because I had never looked at it that way before. This piece, called “Look at Me”,  was definitely my favorite and most empowering for everything it made me realize and all the connections I was able to make to it.

Now that the exhibit has ended, I don’t think I would have had the same experience I did if it weren’t there, but I also wouldn’t completely rule out the CMA to those who are interested. Overall my visit to the museum was very enjoyable considering I am not a frequent museum visitor. I enjoyed being challenged by new ideas and works of art and I would find it just beneficial for anyone else who wanted to go to the museum. Everyone has their own interpretation of art, but that cannot be discovered without a proper visit to an art museum as I so recently found out myself.