Exhibition closed due to YouTube redesign.
Curatorial practice and problems of conserving digital art.

The lecture takes a look at the thematic issue from the perspective of the curator. Although curators are not directly involved in the conservation of individual works, they are automatically confronted with preservation issues in the conception of exhibitions. For example, simulation and emulation, to take two central terms of the conservation debate, already start with the translation of ephemeral practices of net culture into an exhibition context. If a work released on YouTube is not taken simply as video art, for instance, but rather as a complex and dynamic constellation that integrates the practices of commenting and crossreferences there, in attempting to transfer this situation to an exhibition context, a change in the design of YouTube can lead to a minor conservation disaster within an exhibition lasting only a few weeks. With this background, cooperation between curators – as translators and "short-term conservators" – and restorers seems to provide important impulses for the field of conserving digital art, which is to be demonstrated with examples from practice.

 


Biography
Raffael Dörig studied Art History, Media Studies and German in Basel, Switzerland. He was curator at Medienkunstraum [plug.in], Basel (2006-2010), 2007-2011 co-founder, co-curator and board member of Shift - Festival of Electronic Arts, Basel, which includes crossover exhibitions, music, film and video, workshops, lectures and performances. In 2011 Raffael Dörig was curator at the House for Electronic Arts, Basel, which conjoins the activities from [plug.in] and Shift under one roof, and was also responsible for the opening exhibition of the new institution, "Together in Electric Dreams. Absent Presence". His other recent curatorial projects include the solo exhibition of Oliver Laric, "Kopienkritik" at the Skulpturhalle Basel and a group exhibition on hacking and tinkering in art at BAC in Geneva.