JiaJia Fei is a digital strategist with 15 years of experience working at the intersection of digital marketing, web, mobile, audio, video, and social media content strategy for art and culture. As founder of the first digital agency for art, her practice centers on the mission of making art more accessible through creative storytelling strategies and data-driven approaches—while meeting the business objectives of her clients. We talked about her journey, about art and technology, and a lot more.
How does art enter your life?
From learning how to draw at a young age to visiting museums around the world, art has always been a significant part of my life and how I see the world. I’ve always been inspired by my visual surroundings and the idea of creating something from nothing. I believe all humans have the innate power of imagination and creativity. Turning that imagination into something that can be shared and experienced by others is how I define art.
And how did you become interested in all things Digital?
As someone who grew up on the internet, one could argue my world has always been digital. I taught myself how to code and build websites in school, which serendipitously landed me jobs within marketing departments of several museums. Despite having an art history degree, I was never really interested in becoming a curator or art historian. The internet was more exciting to me as a place for making art more accessible, and discovering how art can be shared and discovered more widely.
What did your time at the Guggenheim Museum teach you about the cross between Art and Digital?
I started working in museums at the very beginnings of social media and digital content. I created the @guggenheim Instagram account in 2012 and worked on several global projects that connected the museum with the rest of the world online, such as the first video art biennial in collaboration with YouTube, and mapping the interior of the Guggenheim building on Google Street View with drones to create their first virtual tour. It was during that period that many museums realized they had to prioritize their digital audiences in addition to in-person visitors.
What were the main successes in your time as Digital Director for the Jewish Museum in New York
In 2016, I became the first Director of Digital at the Jewish Museum in New York and was tasked to build and lead the museum’s first digital team, matching programming and curatorial ambition in the digital space. We launched a web-based mobile app and experimented with virtual reality projects, but most importantly, pursued initiatives that were right-sized for our lean team. The most important lesson I learned from that job was that you don’t have to do it all. Less is more. Through digital minimalism, we made strategic choices that made sense and solved a problem. If technology was the answer, then what was the question?
Can you tell us more about your experience founding the first digital agency for the art world?
At the start of 2020, just a few months before the pandemic and global closure of museums and galleries around the world, I decided to launch my own digital consultancy, the first digital agency for art. After over a decade working within institutions, I wanted to expand my practice experience solving problems in the museum world to other dimensions of the art world: to collaborate with galleries, foundations, collectors, and most importantly, to work with artists directly. The space for a digital consultancy tailored to art and culture didn’t really exist so I knew it was something the industry needed.
How do you see technology changing the way art is created, experienced, and sold?
In a TED talk I gave (now nearly ten years ago) called “Art in the Age of Instagram,” I argued that the future of art online will be determined by how it is seen and experienced as a social object, defined more by the conversations happening around it than the materiality of the object itself. The direct correlation between the attention economy and cultural (as well as financial) value of art manifests today in influencer marketing, the inflated value of NFTs, and algorithmic engagement–all products of technological advancement that we can’t undo. The only options we have now are to adapt with them or to be invisible.
What are some of the most innovative ways you’ve seen technology being used in the art world?
I’m most interested in technology when it’s used as a design solution, rather than technology implemented for the sake of technology, as “shiny objects.” For artists, technology is just another tool of our time in the pursuit of more expansive imagination. To that end, the most exciting projects to me are when technology can imagine ideas and experiences that can’t be created in our physical world. One recent example is a virtual reality project produced by Acute Art to visualize a temple of Hilma af Klint’s paintings that was never realized–something that could only be made possible through technology.
What one project do you find defines your work best?
The most important projects I’ve worked on have nothing to do with technology products or features, but rather a story. All artworks represent stories, of the individual or the collective. A project that exemplifies this for me the most is a video series I conceived for the Glenstone Museum on the occasion of their Faith Ringgold exhibition. Faith passed away earlier this year, and though the exhibition and project were temporary, knowing that I contributed to the oral history of her legacy within the history of art is something that will last forever.
What advice would you give to artists who are looking to use digital tools to create and promote their work?
One of the main reasons why I started my company was to be able to help empower artists and build their digital presence, so they could focus on their art. Beyond the basics of treating their website and social media profiles like a portfolio, I really admire when artists incorporate technology as another tool in their practice. A video or performance artist for example, should consider the digital space as their stage, whether it’s premiering a digital performance on Instagram Live or creating a video series on TikTok. The power of technology today is that everyone has the power of building their own audience, or finding one that already exists.
In your work, how do you balance the need to embrace new technologies with the importance of preserving the traditional aspects of the art world?
Despite the (now) universal interest in bringing art online to reach more people, the art world does not have any issue with maintaining in-person attendance or foot traffic. Unlike other brick and mortar industries like retail businesses or movie theaters, which have been replaced by Amazon and Netflix, accordingly, people will continue going to museums and galleries in person because art is ultimately an experience, and one that you have with others in a social context. Nothing will ever replace the feeling you get standing in the middle of a four-channel video installation or looking deeply at the surface of a painting.
How do you feel about the role of artificial intelligence in the art world?
Unlike the fad of NFTs, I believe that AI is here to stay. The ability to embrace AI and integrate it into your work (or not) will dictate the future of art. It’s already moving so quickly and soon will be ubiquitous and deeply integrated into the systems we use everyday. Just like spell check changed the way we write and Wikipedia has changed the way we research, I believe that AI is just another tool that will allow us to do the same things we do already, but faster.
What are you passionate about outside of your work in the art world?
During the pandemic, I became very consistent in my exercise regimen and started powerlifting! I wrote about my fitness journey recently in the online publication Public Parking. The intersection of art and fitness is so small, but one I aspire to bring together 🙂
What are your hopes for the future of the art world?
My hope is that the art world becomes more inclusive and representative of all the people who are creative and passionate about art: which should be everyone! As a student of art history, I had to do a lot of unlearning outside of school to understand that there are many art histories and many art worlds. The institutions and systems that dominate today are byproducts of colonial structures that will take a long time to remedy. Art should belong to everyone.
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