“Research-based Online Archive and the Canonization of Net Art” presented by Havlíková
Symposium:
- ISEA2022: 27th International Symposium on Electronic Art
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More presentations from ISEA2022:
Session Title:
- Summit on New Media Art Archiving: Lightning Talks
Presentation Title:
- Research-based Online Archive and the Canonization of Net Art
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
During the exhibition and research project “Calculating Control: (Net)art and Cybernetics” the Zentrum für Netzkunst had designed and built a small archive on the website of the project. Working from the site-specific history of Haus der Statistik (a building that operated as the Central Administrative Headquarters for Statistics in the German Democratic Republic), Calculating Control explored the impact of cybernetics on artistic and social practices, networks, and technology. The online archive, which is still accessible and updatable, includes different resources and references related to the topics of cybernetics, GDR, as well as artworks and specifically net art. By “misusing” the open-source software for bibliographies “Zotero” the “Calculating Control” archive offers a structure that allows making new links between net art and other historical artifacts and references.
Even though it might seem that such an archive doesn’t fulfill its function as an agency for a long-term preservation of net art, it is not an “empty” archive. Rather than being focused on a singular medium or an art period, this research-based archive introduces one possible narrative, connecting net art to local history and supporting its circulation in the collective online memory. The lightning talk looks at the role of the research-based archive in the context of canonization of net art on the internet.
