1eres 8 : Debate over museum selfies/correction E3C

A New Trend in museums / Source : CBC (Canadia Broadcasting Corporation) News, 28/11/2015

The Royal Ontario Museum is transforming : now not only a place to see but to be seen

Increasingly visitors are taking selfies in front of their favourite pieces of art and sharing them online.

It’s a trend that museum’s social museum coordinator not only condones (= fermer les yeux sur) but encourages

People love to share where they go, what they do with friends and family; and we love to see it

(Shows the best spots to take the most eye-catching selfies).

For Ryan Dodge and his colleagues, selfies are a cheap and effective way for the museum to promote itself especially with younger visitors; it shows the museum is fun/you can have fun in the museum.

Other museums capitalize on the popularity of selfies, a big difference from a few years ago when many art institutions didn’t allow photography of any kind.

Some still draw the line at the use of the so-called selfie sticks which could cause physical damage to the art if used carelessly.

But some feel the problem lies not with the sticks, but with the selfies themselves : it distracts from an engagement with art. Instead of being about the works of art ,the greatest achievements of the civilization, it becomes about individuals, about putting yourself in the picture rather than taking yourself out and looking at something beyond yourself.

The Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam now bans photography saying the majority of visitors prefer to view art in peace and quiet; it’s an example Michael Savage wishes more curators would heed(= tenir compte)

I really think they are evading their real job : which is actually about encouraging us to slow down and behaving differently when we are in an art gallery to step away from technology and experience something more transcendent.

En rendant compte, en français, du document, vous pourrez montrer, par exemple, que vous avez compris :

- la nature et le thème principal du document ;

- la situation, les informations ;
- l’identité des personnes ;
- les éventuels divers points de vue ;

- la fonction du document (relater, informer, convaincre, critiquer, dénoncer, etc.) et sa portée.

2. Expression écrite (10 points)

Vous traiterez en anglais l’un des deux sujets suivants, au choix. Répondez en 120 mots au moins.

Sujet A : You’ve just visited a museum in which photos are banned. Post a comment on the museum’s website to react.

Sujet B : Why do you think so many people take selfies?