Not in the Paintings but Through the Paintings: Dynamics and Learning of Art History in the Era of Augmented Reality

At the beginning of the new millennium, the transition to digital technology has led to a change in our parameters of life, relationships with ourselves and others. The shift has affected the collection and learning of information. The diffusion of smartphones and the increase of social media have involved the sound and visual scene. With the disappearance of supports, music has become mere background noise. Similarly, the perpetual flow of images forces us to rethink our role as active viewers. We look at everything without seeing anything. The first to account for this mass distraction, which is one of the major side effects of digitalization, are those who work in the field of art. Artists, curators of the cultural heritage of the country, and art historians all need to urgently assess what art history is today and how to use new media to understand and disseminate it.