Come and work with us!!

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Fully funded Collaborative PhD studentship at London South Bank 
University in partnership with Tate.

Performativity and Preservation in the Archive of Online Born-Digital Art

The Centre for the Study of the Networked Image, in the School of Arts 
and Creative Industries at London South Bank University, invites 
applications for a funded Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with Tate, 
commencing in October 2023 for a period of up to three years (Full 
Time). The studentships include a fee waiver, UKRI rate scholarship and 
yearly allowance for travel/material.

The Project
The research seeks to understand and potentially resolve problems 
closely associated with the preservation and archiving of born-digital 
artworks, which are not single objects but assemblages that change and 
sometimes mutate over time, or lack clearly definable boundaries. The 
studentship offers the opportunity to develop a practice-based doctoral 
research focused on Tate’s collection which will establish new 
understandings of the relationship between the technical and cultural 
coding of software, and methods through which new works are made 
accessible. Access is considered in two modes: firstly, how born-digital 
works (both the software and associated equipment) used to create, 
access or display an artwork requires interaction; and secondly how this 
practice of archiving can be made visible to audiences. Born-digital 
artworks are some of society's most vulnerable cultural materials, where 
obsolescence and loss of cultural history are perpetual risks. From 
interactive software-based art, to early hypertext literature, these 
works ('born-digital' because they were created in digital form, rather 
than having been converted from print or physical equivalents) are an 
important record of our cultural and aesthetic history as a digital 
society. Born-digital archives hold heterogeneous types of artworks that 
require new frameworks, workflows and methods.

Whilst there has been significant research exploring the transformation 
of physical objects into digital surrogates in museum digitisation 
projects, the problems of preserving and maintaining access to 
born-digital art have been less explored. Born-digital artefacts still 
tend to be treated like objects ('content') independent of systems 
('platform') that handle them. This misunderstanding leads to the idea 
that the systems can be switched out and it is only the 'content' that 
needs to be curated, archived or preserved, turning a blind eye to what 
has been a key mode of production and expression in digital art: the 
design of systems and the negligibility of separation of ‘content’ and 
‘form’. The research therefore aims to develop perspectives on 
born-digital artworks as a process of cultural and technical mediation. 
The relevance of theories that describe and analyse ephemeral or 
changing artworks, such as performance and dramaturgy and their emerging 
models will be considered. Furthermore, it will develop a methodological 
overview of how born-digital art in archives, can take into account the 
specific dynamics between artwork, user and software environment, 
considering the preparation, display of such artworks in a gallery 
setting, and how the ‘work’ of archiving can be made visible The PhD 
project will take the form of an embedded, qualitative study, developed 
in partnership with Tate, in which the researcher will become part of 
the organisational culture of this world-class art institution.

The Partnership
This Partnership offers a collaborative supervisory team, including 
Prof. Andrew Dewdney at London South Bank University, Dr. Annet Dekker 
at the University of Amsterdam, working alongside Tate professionals. 
The successful candidate will profit from the academic and practical 
resources of both partner institutions, becoming a full participant in 
the community of research students at The Centre for the Study of the 
Networked Image and embedded in the organisational culture of Tate’s 
Research and Interpretation Division.

The Centre for the Study of the Networked Image is part of London South 
Bank University and brings together a group of researchers who are 
seeking new knowledge and understanding of how network and computational 
culture has and is changing the production and reception of art and 
photography. http://www.centreforthestudyof.net

Eligibility:
To be eligible for consideration for a scholarship you must be a UK 
resident/ citizen. Prior curatorial or programming experience, 
demonstrated interest in current and past forms of digital art, and 
software design and is desirable.

Application process:
Please submit your application by email to [log in to unmask] by 
Friday, 11 August 2023. Interviews are planned for Thursday 24 August 
2023 and candidates should be able to enrol and start the work in 
October 2023.

As part of your application, you will be required to submit:

- a CV
- cover letter
- a research proposal (max 2 A4 pages)

For enquiries, please contact Prof Andrew Dewdney [log in to unmask]

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