Let me first introduce myself. I am a Ph D fellow at the Department
of Comparative Arts and Cultural Studies at the Radboud University in
Nijmegen, the Netherlands. My research focuses on digital art and its
relationhip with the concept of the museum.
Without dwelling too much on semantics and definitions, I would like to
challenge the striving for conservation altogether. What I find remarkable
is that it seems to beyond dipute that art should be preserved, without
questioning the underlying premises. I have the impression that
conservation often equals fixity and eternity (no matter how long that is)
and an obsession with taxonomies. Maybe we should just accept the fact that
some things aren't meant to last. In this context I would like to mention
V2_'s project 'Capturing Unstable Media' which proposes an approach that
shifts between conservation and documentation.
>This does, I think, have relevance to this month's discussion. While some
>here are concerned with the conservation of existing art work most of us
>also have to deal with work-in-progress or work-not-yet-made. Do you give
>preference to work that already exists in the existing hierarchical
>structure? Do you give preference to work that will fit into it?
--
Martijn Stevens
Department of Comparative Arts and Cultural Studies
Radboud University Nijmegen
The Netherlands
http://www.ru.nl/comparativearts
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