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This in-progress section brings together scholarly articles and essays that address the collection of computer-based arts. The following texts, accessible as downloadable PDFs or through links, have been made available with the permission of their authors and publishers.
Besser investigates the challenges of maintaining electronic works of art. Describing the differences between electronic works and those in traditional media, he points out that regarding the former, it is not always even clear what should be preserved, and that due to obsolescence of storage formats, they are not always viewable even if their physical casing is intact. Refreshing—moving the work onto new storage media—is one solution, but doesn't account for changing file formats. Migration and emulation are discussed as solutions to this problem. He discusses boundary issues as regards conservation: what really is the work? Besser proposes an approach involving: determining the essential characteristics of the work; trying to preserve those over time; and saving ancillary materials. Cook, Sarah, An interview with
Christiane Paul, 2001. Published by CRUMB (Curatorial Resource
for Upstart Media Bliss), University of Sunderland. Available
from CRUMB.
Whitney Museum of American Art curator Paul discusses the beginnings of her involvement with new media. The question of whether net art is institutionalized or under-represented is discussed, as is the question of how best to present networked, screen-based works in physical space, as well as the technical challenges of curating media shows. Is there a future of corporate sponsorship for museum exhibitions of media art? How should museums document such exhibitions? Paul and Cook discuss WMAA's Artport and the question of the legitimacy of a museum for American art hosting international artists' web projects. Does the linked nature of the Internet threaten museums' authorship of exhibitions? How to keep up with what is happening in the field? Cook, Sarah, An interview with
Larry Rinder, 2001. Published by CRUMB (Curatorial Resource
for Upstart Media Bliss), University of Sunderland. Available
from CRUMB.
Whitney Museum of American Art curator Rinder discusses the origins of the show "BitStreams" (with sound component co-curated with Debra Singer), which was to include work expressed through digital media and reflecting on the conditions of life in the digital age. Curatorial choices are discussed under the conditions imposed by a constrained planning schedule; its concurrent run with Christiane Paul's "Data Dynamics" is addressed, as are the politics of exhibiting work not necessarily created for museum/gallery display. The impact of new media art on the curator's role and on museum practice, as regards corporate sponsorship, are also considered. Cook, Sarah, Multi-Multi-Media:
an interview with Barbara London. 2001. Published by CRUMB
(Curatorial Resource for Upstart Media Bliss), University of
Sunderland. Available from CRUMB
The video and media curator at the Museum of Modern Art discusses her early video and Internet projects with MoMA-curatorial dispatches from trips to China, Russia, and Japan-and later MoMA web commissions. She describes the challenges of showing Internet projects in gallery settings and of acquiring new media art, and stresses the museum's important role in pushing the field forward. Fauconnier, Sandra and Rens Fromme, Capturing Unstable Media: Summary of Research. V2_, 2003. View summary Rotterdam center for art, culture, and technology V2_ undertook in 2003 a study of the documentation aspects of the preservation of electronic art, an approach that combines archiving and preservation. For context, they studied five organizations involved in documenting and preserving electronic art. The project also involved detailed case studies of projects developed at V2_Lab. The Capturing Unstable Media Conceptual Model (CMCM) is offered as a model for describing objects and their documentation. Gagnon, Jean, Presentation at
the symposium Curating New Media Art: Production, Distribution,
Consumption. Ottawa Art Gallery, December 2001, organised by
CRUMB and Critical Media. Transcript of presentation available
from CRUMB
In his presentation at a symposium organised by CRUMB and Critical Media, Gagnon attempts to theorize his own practice as a former curator of media art at the National Gallery of Canada, in reference to Peter Weibel's curator-as-producer model. He describes the genesis of some of the pieces he commissioned at the National Gallery and stresses that he documented media works in all possible aspects at time of acquisition and tried to acquire original elements and masters in order to best preserve the works. He describes the Langlois Foundation's Research and Documentation Centre and the Variable Media Network and touches on the determination of the market value of new media works in a limited market for them. INCCA (International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art), Guide to Good Practice: Artists' Interviews. 1999. View guide Based on evaluation of about 50 artist interviews conducted by INCCA members, this guide recommends approaches to artist interviews, be they by letter, telephone, face to face, or other format, suggesting what issues should be covered, what advantages and disadvantages pertain to different sorts of interviews, reasons for certain kinds of interviews, and recommended literature. Jon Ippolito, Accommodating the Unpredictable: The Variable Media Questionnaire. Permanence Through Change: The Variable Media Approach Guggenheim Museum Publications and The Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology, 2003. View essay Ippolito introduces the questionnaire produced by the Guggenheim's variable media task force in order to capture artists' perspectives on how and whether their works should be re-created. Introduces some key terms used in these considerations. |
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