We have recently commissioned a work by Runa Islam -- run from hard drive and presented on a LED screen submerged in a water feature at the Home Office HQ in London.
The contract with the fabricators includes a 5 year maintenance agreement which includes the hardware, software and interfaces to the screen. After 5 years the contract is renegotiable and will take into account changes in technology.
Aside from the practicalities of maintenance contracts etc., at the time of the commission we discussed with the artist whether the commissioner / owner had the right to change the system she'd devised as technology changed. Some artists would prefer to stick with lo-tech solutions or the original system where possible rather than upgrading when new technology becomes readily available. This discussion has to take place at some point and be built in to the future plans for the art work.
Adrian George
Curator: Collections Project
Government Art Collection
Department for Culture, Media and Sport
Queen's Yard
179A Tottenham Court Road
London W1T 7PA
T: +44 (0) 20 7580 9135
F: +44 (0) 20 7580 9130
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-----Original Message-----
From: Curating digital art - www.crumbweb.org [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 11 July 2006 17:43
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [NEW-MEDIA-CURATING] july/august 06 theme: permanence and public art
Hello all,
>"How can host organizations be made to understand and accept
>maintenance as normal? Light bulbs? Of course they need to be replaced
>on a regular cycle. Computers? Why aren't they "permanent"? ...
I was at an interesting presentation by the artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer who used the comparison of the maintenance of public fountains (when pitching for a public commission) to explain why maintenance of a public computer generated art work is not only a necessary part of the budget but is actually fairly cost effective.
I just did a quick google search and found out that the Diana Memorial Fountain has an estimated maintenance budget of £250,000 per year.
Now I know that this is probably one of the most maintenance heavy fountains in Britain and so is not a fair comparison, but I think you could buy a few computers as back up and ensure that the work is maintained with a quarter of that budget.
Simple comparisons with works of art/public furniture that commissioners understand is a good way to explain how and why and at what cost.
---
Emma Quinn
Programme Manager for Performance & Digital Media
ICA
The Mall
London SW1Y 5AH
Tel: 020 7766 1415
www.ica.org.uk
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