Workshop: Networked art practice after digital preservation

 

ISEA 2020, 17 October 2020, 10:00 – 17:00 (EDT), online: apply here *

 

Led by Professor Sarah Cook (University of Glasgow) and Dr Roddy Hunter (University of Huddersfield), joined by special guests Dr Geoff Cox (London South Bank University), Dr Annet Dekker (University of Amsterdam), Anisa Hawes (web archivist, London) and Nastja Säde Rönkkö (artist, London/Helsinki).

 

This first workshop of the Networked art practice after digital preservation project will take place at ISEA 2020, the 26th International Symposium on Electronic Art.

 

The workshop traces the edges and boundaries of the preservation of both analogue and digital networked art practice. Focusing upon artworks which draw on networks of distribution (such as mail art, and the Internet) as their primary medium of production, we aim to unpack existing digital preservation efforts concerning online and offline exchanges, while also feeling out the present and future implications of the use of machine learning and data mining within preservation strategies and how they affect artistic and curatorial agency and authorship.

 

Typically understood as inherently ephemeral (as in the case of mail art) or immaterial (as with internet-based exchanges), networked art practice often, deliberately, resists collection and preservation. Given its linkages to wider networks, knowing what the edge or boundary of the work is, and where to ‘draw a line’ around its preservation is a substantial challenge.

 

Beginning with a reflection on lessons learned from Rhizome’s ‘Net Art Anthology’ (https://anthology.rhizome.org), workshop participants will collectively identify questions addressing digital preservation (such as ‘preventative conservation’ and record-keeping) as it is manifest within the production, distribution and reception of networked art practices.

 

Joined by guest practitioners sharing firsthand insights, participants will then work in groups to develop novel approaches, leading towards a greater understanding of the networked conservation concerns of works such as The Museum of Ordure (2001 onwards) by Stuart Brisley, Geoff Cox and Adrian Ward and 6 Months Without (2018-2019) by Nastja Säde Rönkkö.

 

ISEA 2020, 17 October 2020, 10:00 – 17:00 (EDT), online: apply here *

 

* (requires ISEA2020 Online FULL Pass)