Docu & Demo: Archiving Programmed Media Art
Exhibition – Collegium Helveticum at ETH Zurich, Feb 15-29, 2024
The show addresses the question of how programmed media art can and should be documented, recorded and discussed in the future. There are many different levels to consider. Social, aesthetic, reception-orientated and technical components all come into play. If screenshots, video recordings, and short texts are not sufficient as forms of documentation (something that has not been scrutinized enough until to date) what should fill the archives instead or in addition? What are condensed forms of knowledge transmission? What about model building in the humanities?
Collegium Helveticum: https://collegium.ethz.ch/events/fellow-year-2023-2024/docu-demo
Photos: Christoph Engel, KIT
In the show:
Artworks
JODI: Wrongbrowser .com and Wrongbrowser .co.kr, 2001
The artist duo created eleven artistic browsers for the series %WRONG Browsers. Two of them are shown. They persiflage the idea of nationalized domain names in the internet as that seemed absurd for early netizens. The browsers are fully functional, even pro-actively on autopilot if the users forget to interact. They show and perform the internet in alternative ways.
Heath Bunting: Visitor’s Guide to London, 1995
Originally created in Hypercard format, this massively networked retro-style internet piece offers a virtual stroll through the British capital. It is a very personal tour that combines a street view photographs with words, graffiti signs and a map. It thus invites to explore the different strata of the city.
Analytical models
Browser Art Group: Navigation, 2022
Inge Hinterwaldner / Emma Dickson / COSE: Second Order Visitor’s Guide to London, 2024
COSE: ROAMING.COM, demo version 2024
Context: exhibition – keynote – workshop
Poster design: Mick Lehmann and Eliot Gisel.
KEYNOTE, Feb. 20, 6.15 pm
In Between Performance and Documentation
Dragan Espenschied (Rhizome/The New Museum, New York)
Already with the earliest conversations and initiatives for the preservation and conservation of digital art during the beginning of the century, academics and practitioners agreed that documentation would have to play an essential role to stabilize works which are deeply embedded in a highly volatile digital environment. However, what exactly is meant by “documentation,” and what types of artifacts it should produce for what purpose, isn’t necessarily established. Since that time, various documentation techniques have been used to express ownership of immaterial artworks, to capture the impression of artworks when no effective preservation actions could be taken, to aid the record of institutional history, etc. But what kinds of documentation can directly support preservation and conservation in the sense that the performance of a digital artwork can be maintained?
WORKSHOP & SEMINAR, Feb. 21, 2 pm
Docu & Demo: Condensed Knowledge Formats
Participants: Michael Hagner (ETH Zurich); Lozana Rossenova (Berlin/London); Nicole Savoy (Berne/Zurich); Anke te Heesen (HU Berlin); Sarine Waltenspül, Mario Schulze and Moritz Greiner-Petter (Basel/Lucerne).
The workshop participants and Inge Hinterwaldner will present a total of six 15-mins input statements about the pro and cons of established and new formats of how to condense knowledge. Starting from practices, projects and experiences of the invited scholars, it will be discussed what supports a wealth of future research and enjoyment in our digital world? The digital realm is ubiquitous and lossy at the same time. What is the temporal horizon scholars act in? In which cases do we see the necessity to not only analyze and theorize, but also document and demonstrate the artifacts we study?