Greetings:
Having just taught my seminar as part of the Media Art Histories module on
archiving in Riga, I thought it was relevant to bring up the issue of
documenting the discussion. My seminar, Open Source Studio, was concerned
with how open source techniques and current day archival systems can serve
artists, historians, curators and critics in their research. I think that
one of the key issues with the discussion list concerns access, storage and
publication. There is a considerable body of knowledge embedded in lists,
but how do we fully exploit systems of organization, tagging, and
categorizing, as found in current day content management systems (CMS) such
as Wordpress. How do we retrieve and distribute this body of intellectual
content in an effective, meaningful and compelling way? How do we index
discussion lists so that they can be referenced by online publications? I
would be interested in thoughts and solutions regarding how to marry current
day CMS functionality with the extraordinary body of knowledge we have on
historic lists such as CRUMB or Syndicate or Nettime.
I want to mentioned two archived discussion projects that might serve as
examples:
The first is the Telematic Manifesto project, which I created for the
Net_Condition exhibition at ZKM in 1999. I ran a listserv during the course
of the show, raising millennial and other aspirational questions on topics
related to network practice, with quite a number of eloquent contributors,
including: Mark Amerika, David Ross, Ken Goldberg, Joel Slayton, Marc Lafia,
Aaron Betsky, Lynn Hershman, Steve Dietz, Edward Shanken, among others. I
took the email content of the discussion and created a Website that wove
topics and themes together as a hypermedia document. Essentially, you can
navigate the discourse.
http://www.zakros.com/manifesto/transformation/transformation.html
The second example is the 2001 publication by Jordan Crandall, et al,
entitled Interaction: Artistic Practice in the Network, which began as an
online forum hosted by Eyebeam, and was subsequently organized in book form.
The project concerned the discussion of cultural issues and artistic
potentialities facilitated by the network. Contributors included: Critical
Art Ensemble, Lev Manovich, Katherine Hayles, Margaret Morse, among others.
http://www.amazon.com/Interaction-Artistic-Practice-John-Johnson/dp/18910242
48
To summarize, as we explore the impact of online discussion on the histories
of media art practice and art history, it is important to be thinking about
systems and tools for preserving and disseminating this information in ways
that fully exploit the mechanisms available today. Otherwise these important
conversations, vital to the history of our field, will simply be lost in the
ether.
Best,
Randall
--------------------------------
Randall Packer
email: [log in to unmask]
web: http://www.zakros.com <http://www.zakros.com/>
blog: http://www.randallpacker.com
skype: randallpacker
|