Following the comments by Chris Stephens, co-curator of Tate Britain’s forthcoming Barbara Hepworth exhibition, about using Google to track down exhibits (Out of the shadows and back in focus, 20 January), I would be interested to know if he and his fellow curators intend to embrace new technology in another, scandalously disregarded, area of curatorship. Exhibition captions, those simple but crucial devices for enhancing gallery visitors’ knowledge and enjoyment, typically comprise lengthy texts mounted on small cards in myriad (and often puzzling) positions. This results in visitors crowding around virtually unreadable captions – and obscuring both the caption and the exhibit. This is just not good enough and is surely the very opposite of what curators intend. It is high time they investigated modern, effective and economical solutions to this 19th-century holdover – including innovative printing techniques, light-projection and wireless/mobile/digital technologies. How we, the paying public, would appreciate it if they finally did.
Frank Landamore
Lewes, East Sussex
