Dear Ioana
I can't agree more. I find as well that histories of exhibitions and events (as well networks and networking) contributing to the subject 'Collecting and preserving interactive art'. Often they have been only platform where interactive art have been commissioned, produced and presented. Social, political, technological and economic context of particular place in particular time of making and presenting interactive art plays an important role to crate a picture of particular context of realization of an artwork.
Some work regarding the subject is made, for example '9 evenings' , touring exhibition of restaged documentation by Daniel Langlois Foundation, and research (PhD) 'Art, Technology and Politics at the Venice Biennale, 1966-2001' by Francesca Franco.
Within this discussion, an exemplary detail may be that 'New Tendency 3' exhibition in Zagreb 1965 made an open call for production of an art multiple, and later showed the submitted works / prototypes as part of bigger exhibition. Production per piece must be less than 50 US $. Jury was lead by criteria that distinct variety of of kinds of interactions. They followed the written list of criteria, and examines the physical, material, technical, structural, formal and functional qualities of the artworks. Each quality is divided into several subcategories, such as constructive quality: static, variable, kinetic, mechanized, motorized and reproducible, and the formal quality: composite, randomly structured, structured single-phase, progressively structured and programmed in continuum. As an example of submitted work I will mentioned here art group MID from Italy that made they very first pubic appearance at this competition with two interactive luminokinetic works. Interaction is made with 2 buttons that changing speed of rotating discs driven by electric power, and manipulating ever changing visual patterns.
2008 in Neue Galerie Graz am Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz and 2008 in ZKM in Karlsruhe I curated the exhibition 'bit international [Nove] tendencije. Computer und visuelle Forschung Zagreb 1961-1973' that restaged series of exhibitions of (New) Tendencies (1961 - 1973, Zagreb, Paris, Venice, Leverkusen). Many interactive artworks have been in operation after long time (including mentioned two artworks by MID), but maybe more important is that the notion of the context of the making and curating of the series of exhibitions were presented in both exhibition format and printed (and online) publications. Several publications were published on the New Tendencies, including catalogue of the 'bit' exhibition 'A little-known story about a movement, a magazine, and the computer's arrival in art: New Tendencies and Bit International, 1961-1973 (ZKM / MIT, 2011), 'The Art of Constructive Approach' by Jerko Denegri (Horetzky, Zagreb, 2000) and 'Automation, Cybernation and the Art of New Tendencies (1961-1973)' by Armin Medosch (PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London, 2012).
The subject of different modes of (collective) curating of New Tendencies during 12 years deserve separate book, that waits to be written.
Best regards
Darko
On Aug 29, 2012, at 10:43 AM, ioana tomsa wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> This will may be a little off topic - but speaking of curating, collecting
> and preserving : what about temporary exhibitions?
> I suppose many of you have bumped into the not enough feeling when
> discussing exhibitions of the past : certain museums don't even seem to
> find their own photographs of their own exhibtions (true story) and
> catalogs, have only recently started to be adressed as spaces relating to
> what was actually exhibited and also how. I'm not only speaking about
> digital art exibitions, but of exhibitions in general and "their source
> code" :)
> What do you think?
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 1:02 AM, NEW-MEDIA-CURATING automatic digest system
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> There is 1 message totaling 117 lines in this issue.
>>
>> Topics of the day:
>>
>> 1. Collecting and preserving interactive art: factoring in lifespan, and
>> stages of dematerialisation
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2012 08:24:28 -0400
>> From: Jon Ippolito <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: Collecting and preserving interactive art: factoring in
>> lifespan, and stages of dematerialisation
>>
>> Hi all--some late-summer responses to the theme of collecting interactive
>> art:
>>
>> * On acquisition policies for variable media works
>>
>> Thanks to George for asking the right questions about GoMA's acquisition
>> of his work, and to Lucas for a nod to the Variable Media Network (and his
>> own astute recommendations). A few additional suggestions:
>>
>> 1. Go ahead and complete the Variable Media Questionnaire, preferably
>> alongside a staffmember (conservator, registrar, or curator) from GoMA.
>> Think of it less as a multiple-choice test than as a point of departure for
>> interesting conversations, which you can summarize in the notes.
>>
>> Beryl may be reassured to learn that the newest version of the
>> Questionnaire casts a net far beyond the artist to register opinions on a
>> work's future; studio assistants and conservators can weigh in with an
>> opinion, and even random gallerygoers who saw the work.
>>
>> BTW I'm happy to talk you (and anyone else on this list) through using the
>> Questionnaire (http://variablemediaquestionnaire.net/); our latest
>> release should be compatible with Chrome and Safari, though as you say
>> Firefox is always best.
>>
>> 2. Get GoMA's legal eagles to write into your acquisition contract a
>> requirement to abide by your variable media guidelines, as embodied in your
>> interview.
>>
>> 3. Suggest that GoMA take 15 percent or more of the purchase price and put
>> it in a variable media endowment. The interest from that endowment over
>> time is meant to build up and supply a fund to pay for programmers or new
>> equipment to re-create your work in the future. (It works better if this is
>> a policy across multiple acquisitions, so there's enough cash in the
>> endowment actually to re-create one of the works when necessary.)
>>
>> 4. Strongly consider giving GoMA copies of your source code (presumably
>> objective-c) and video masters (presumably DV). If you won't, consider
>> giving it to a third-party code escrow, comparable to the practice in
>> commercial software development, whereby an artist would agree to let the
>> museum have its paws on the code once it is no longer of (commercial) use
>> to the artist.
>>
>> 5. Consider writing a clause into the acquisition contract asking the
>> museum to return the work to you or your estate if it's no longer
>> technically and financially feasible for the museum to re-create it. This
>> is a risky gambit--you don't want to make it easy for the museum to
>> de-accession your work--but it does make sense for certain works that are
>> supposed to be publicly accessible at all times, like Mark Napier's
>> net.flag. ("If you can't take care of this puppy, back he goes!")
>>
>> * On ghetto blasting
>>
>> A stuffy Pompidou curator told me that an (even stuffier) art star told
>> her he would never be in a show with "media" as a theme. So Steve Dietz is
>> right, let's drop "media" as a theme and cozy up to art world insiders,
>> hopefully persuading them to shrug off their elitism at the same time.
>> (Steve's curated about ten times as many shows as I have, so he should
>> know.)
>>
>> Speaking of the Art World and App Store, I think Steve will appreciate the
>> fact that net artist-turned-appmaker Lia's fetching new Sum05 iPhone app
>> looks a lot like his 1998 Beyond Interface logo!
>>
>> http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sum05/id544376100?mt=8
>> http://www.museumsandtheweb.com/mw98/beyond_interface
>>
>> At the same time, I agree with Roger Malina that "curating" is no longer
>> the province of art or even museums. I've recently learned this the hard
>> way while crafting an online digital curation curriculum to accommodate
>> scientists and government officials, not to mention Pinterest peeps and
>> Tumblr types. More on this shift in curatorial focus here:
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/user/UMaineDigCuration/videos
>>
>> Roger, I'd love to hear if you have any best-of-breed resources for data
>> curation and citizen science.
>>
>> * On collecting performance
>>
>> I'd be curious about Johannes Birringer's take on the new Beijing Treaty
>> on Audiovisual Performances, which adds a layer of copyright-like
>> protection to audiovisual performers (actors, musicians, dancers).
>>
>> At first I thought this new legal restriction might have a silver lining
>> in supporting the precarious life of the performing artist. Unfortunately,
>> the EFF looked under the hood and saw that performers' rights can be
>> transferred to the producers. Same old same old?
>>
>>
>> https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/07/beijing-treaty-audiovisual-performances
>>
>> * On embalming Grampa
>>
>> I loved Domenico's comment about how best to "preserve" the memory of
>> loved ones. Richard Rinehart and I appraise the new market for personal
>> data cemetaries in our forthcoming book Re-collection. To me, paying an
>> Internet service to archive Facebook posts is like paying the Hindenberg to
>> follow the Titanic around in case it sinks.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> jon
>> ______________________________
>> It's not too late to catch up to the 21st century
>> Digital Curation online certificate
>> http://DigitalCuration.UMaine.edu
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> End of NEW-MEDIA-CURATING Digest - 24 Aug 2012 to 28 Aug 2012 (#2012-131)
>> *************************************************************************
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Ioana Tomsa
> 06 08 62 53 45
best regards
Darko
---
Darko Fritz
http://darkofritz.net . e-m: [log in to unmask] . skype: darkofritz
Jacob van Lennepstraat 349 / 2 . 1053 JL Amsterdam . Netherlands . tel: +31 [0] 6 25103124
studio: 2e Jan van der Heydenstraat 27 . 1073 VG Amsterdam
Ulica Giunio 11 . 20260 Korcula . Croatia . tel: + 385 [0] 91 5800193
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