Friday, June 27, 2014

Re: [Yasmin_discussions] ART, NEW MEDIA, AND SOCIAL MEMORY

Rick
thanks for participating in this discussion

As you remember a number of us mobilised around the Liverpool Declaration
http://www.mediaarthistory.org/declaration
trying to mobilise around the urgency of the problem of the rapid disappearance
of many of the key works of the last fifty years in new media art

(I append the introduction)

My first question would be is there something different about digital media that
changes the questions and approaches needed as compared to other media

photography and film and video have had the identical problem of the lag
in institutions to reacting and putting in place conservation and restoration
approaches

in some media what has happened is that new institutions dedicated to the
preservation and conservation were set up

i think of the Eye in Amsterdam; set up for film and they are now dealing
with digital film in a natural way

or the various museums of the moving image that were created, or the
european museum of photography in paris

a few museums that you have worked with that handle traditional media
have been pro active with digital media - the whitney, guggenheim etc

so is the problem of conservation and restoration of new and digital media
just the usual problem of how institutions need to evolve as new materials
are brought into artistic practice- or is the new media problem significantly
different ?

one thing that comes to mind is the nature of the collectors and commercial
galleries that in many museums force museums to focus on older media

roger

extract of Liverpool Declaration

MEDIA ART NEEDS GLOBAL NETWORKED ORGANISATION & SUPPORT –
International Declaration
http://www.mediaarthistory.org/declaration

State of Affairs

Digital technology has fundamentally changed the way art is made. Over
the last forty years, Media Art has become a significant part of our
networked information society. Although there are well-attended
international festivals, collaborative research projects, exhibitions
and database documentation resources, Media Art research is still
marginal in universities, museums and archives. It remains largely
under-resourced in our core cultural institutions.

As a result of rapid changes in technology, many major works made even
10 years ago can no longer be shown or are disappearing without a
trace. If this situation is not addressed, we face losing an art form
that is a central part of our post-industrial digital culture. To
date, systematic global preservation and documentation campaigns do
not exist.

Many important online documentation and research projects are also
disappearing from the web. As they falter, we risk losing their
valuable material forever. Contemporary scientific research relies on
access to shared data. The same is true of the Arts and Humanities,
which lack a concerted international policy for sustainability and
support of the digital heritage, such as exists partly in the natural
sciences.

Several science disciplines have developed large collective projects
to address the challenges and opportunities of our time by way of
networked digital environments, based on a sustainable and
international support structure. International Media Art research
needs similar global organisation and collaboration.

see http://www.mediaarthistory.org/declaration for full document

On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 11:55 AM, Richard Rinehart
<r.rinehart@bucknell.edu> wrote:
> Roger, thanks for that introduction and hello to my colleagues on the Yasmin list,
>
> As Roger mentioned, in "Re-Collection: Art, New Media, & Social Memory" - the first book dedicated to the subject of collecting and preserving new media art - co-author Jon Ippolito and I have attempted to provide a broad introduction to the unique challenges that lie at the intersection of art, technology, and preservation. An overarching theme of the book is how digital media (art or not) are impacting our collective long-term or social memory (how do we remember for centuries when the object of memory may be comprised of invisible and fleeting bits?)
>
> I'd be happy to field comments or questions from the Yasmin list, and I'd be especially curious to hear from others who may have had any experience with the long-term retention of digital content or systems from any field or who have been involved in future-thinking planning around new technologies. Since this is all so new, even personal anecdotes can prove illustrative. What's your story?
>
> In any case, greetings to you all and if you are curious about this topic, please also see: http://re-collection.net
>
>
> Richard Rinehart
> ---------------------
> Director
> Samek Art Museum
> Bucknell University
> ---------------------
> Lewisburg, PA, 17837
> 570-577-3213
> http://galleries.blogs.bucknell.edu
>
>
>
>
>
>
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--
Roger F Malina
Is in Dallas right now
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