Good thread. I am interested in the Anarchive http://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/89371/89372/0/21
The Anarchive. The anarchive refers to the fact that the archive in the digital age never sits still. Digital media events are reactivatable by nature, and lend themselves to re-uptake, remix and contagion. There is an in-built unruliness to them. This calls into question traditional practices of documentation and archiving, which operate on a model of passive storage. The anarchive is a kind of dynamic, open-air archiving in which media events are let loose to proliferate through networks, mutating as they go, and triggering follow-on events. Lucy Wheeler > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 22:37:21 +0000 > CC: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Ada_list] another ADA > > Just replied offline to Luke, putting him in touch with Oliver Grau who runs > the other ADA project > > two cents worth: > > Digital: for fifty-odd years this wasn’t ubiquitous: anyone older than forty > will remember trying to explain to people what email was or the web. The > problem with the idea of The Digital (and I share din this) was > speaking/writing as if there were only one. From roughly 1915 to roughly > 2000, the word “film” meant a flat rectangular movie made with > photomechanical technologies. From about 1949 to about 2000, TV meant a flow > of images and sound sectioned into programmes / ads/ dents etc using basic > set-ups and kit. Thus the idea that ‘film’ and ‘TV’ were medium-specific > media. Digital was never that specific. Instead, like post 2000 film / TV > (print, sculpture, take your pick), each new job involved inventing new > plug-ins at least, often new software, not infrequently new machinery. > Digital = medium very specific. To understand a work, you need to understand > the specific kit used. > > this would be one reason why things in the archive look dated. Um. Satchmo c. > 1926 sounds “dated”. The General looks dated. 80s synth pop sounds dated. > Inventing a new way of making and distributing involves things that we like > and things we don’t like decades later. The important thing is that the > invention of a new medium - and the digital was not always ubiquitous and > familiar - involved loads of things we no longer use and have forgotten. > Whatever happened to vector screens? Why is CSS “better” when it ends the > user’s control over design? Is there nothing to learn from the lost > experiments of the past? > > the archive is a living entity - Derrida and Foucault were wrong. Or if not: > when the archive already exists (as in state archives) it may be an > instrument of power - when WE build an archive it may be an instrument of > counter-power > > Kaupapa maori has something to teach us about how to respect the past > > sean > > > > On 12 Jan 2015, at 21:54, John Hopkins <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > On 12/Jan/15 13:52, Luke Munn wrote: > >> Contains some great learnings on how not to setup a digital archive. > > > > snip... yep Luke, I agree... > > > >> The distinct (and must be said, dated) aesthetic of most of these works > >> nevertheless poses an interesting question for our ADA too. What role does > >> the 'digital' now have as commonality when digital and network technologies > >> have shifted from marginal to ubiquitous? In other words, when the internet > >> has become banality and 'every artist working today is a post internet > >> artist, lets move on' (Darling), does it make any sense to differentiate > >> 'digital' as both a separate medium and community? When 90% of your > >> 'viewers' are hits on your website looking at photoshopped documentation > >> taken with CCD chips, where is the boundary line? I don't really have > >> answers to these questions, and personally find communities like ADA, > >> Rhizome and Net-time hugely beneficial, but its worth thinking about what > >> we mean with terms like 'digital art' and what the real common threads in > >> these works and communities are. > > > > There was a similar implosion in the 'world' of art photography when it > > came 'round that it simply another tool for an artist to use, another way > > of putting a mark on paper. Across Europe & elsewhere numerous photo > > museums and photo 'centers' closed because the distinction that it was a > > 'special' medium was redundant. They were used in the heyday as funding > > tools to secure funding/public support for artists working in that > > 'revolutionary new medium'... This after a decades-long fight to be > > 'recognized' as an art medium at all... sounds familiar... > > > > In the digital it is somewhat similar -- with only narrow slices not meant > > for projection/screen or, in some cases still, paper or other 2D substrate > > -- or analog speakers -- there isn't much that does not 'fit' under what > > has become a swath of traditional rubrics: sound art, documentation of > > performance art, moving images, etc. > > > > Certainly projects that are using/creating digital tools to do other things > > is imho a legit application of the 'digital art' idea. As an artist that > > worked and still occasionally works using 'the network' as site and > > partially as medium, even that area of working seems to have become > > ubiquitous (and in a perverse way, utterly banal) -- to the point that I > > keep running into younger artist who tell me they are doing "the first > > network music collaboration" of some sort, huh? > > > > The whole field seems to be a mash-up of sustainability, diy, diwo, > > 3D-printing, bio-art, balh-blah-blah, and whatever the latest spin tossed > > out by Silicon Valley. Yep, the distinction is becoming passé... > > > > JH > > -- > > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > > Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD > > grounded on a granite batholith > > twitter: @neoscenes > > http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ > > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Ada_list mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://ada.net.nz/ > > > > > > Manage your list membership (Subscribe, Change to digest, Unsubscribe) > > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/ada_list > > _______________________________________________ > Ada_list mailing list > [email protected] > http://ada.net.nz/ > > > Manage your list membership (Subscribe, Change to digest, Unsubscribe) > http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/ada_list
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