Name
Vanina Hofman
Title of research project / research interests
Media Arts conservation, documentation & archiving in the Latin American context (working title)
Affiliation(s)
Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) - Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Supervisor(s)
Glòria Munilla Cabrillana
Estimated date of completion
End of 2013
Previous education and/or work experience
I am Argentinean, but I have been living in Barcelona for five years now. I am a PhD student at the IN3 institute – Universitat Oberta de Catalunya participating in its Information and Knowledge Society programme. I have a Master degree on Curatorial and Cultural Practices in Art and New Media by MECAD/Media Centre of Art and Design – Universitat Ramon Llull. Before that, I obtained a degree in Image and Sound Design by the Buenos Aires University (U.B.A).
In Buenos Aires, I worked in different fields related to audiovisual production. And after that I spent some years working in projects focusing on the convergence of art and technology. Since I moved to Barcelona I have been approaching more to academic-orientated professional activities. In this context, I gave university classes, while at the same time I was managing cultural activities at MECAD for more than three years. Including the edition of the book “Arte electrónico / Entornos cotidianos” and the exhibitions Continuum Electronica I and II. Furthermore, I organized, implemented and consequently supervised the art and technology MECAD internship programme, among other activities.
Additionally, I have developed some independent research projects like the “Arte, mujer y tecnología” in 2009 (www.maquinaomaravilloso.net), while in 2007, I co-founded Taxonomedia (www.taxonomedia.net), an independent association focusing on the importance of media arts conservation, documentation and archiving. Taxonomedia is the departing point for my Ph.D.
Abstract
Media arts comprise a wide range of practices based on different kind of technologies. They are also corresponding to heterogeneous aesthetics and poetics. A variety of factors make these cultural expressions difficult to conserve. Such expressions symbolized process-oriented practices compared to object-oriented ones which are subject to be stored and to be collected; they are characterized for a fast obsolescence of their mediums and an instability of formats, which is a direct consequence of the changes in the technology market and the industrial developments that not always account for compatibilities with former products. They are created in environments where the models of funding, production, exhibition and acquisition have inevitably changed, together with our concept of cultural memories.
The previously mentioned characteristics lead us to confuse the ephemeral feature applicable in some media art expressions, with the inherent obsolescence that defines all of them. However, the strategies to face these two situations are different. For instance, when focusing on the obsolescence of media art, it raises questions like: Which are the aspects that we could preserve to maintain the integrity of media art-works? How can we address the idea of a variable media approach? What is the impact of media art preservation when it modifies the ways that the audience experiences the work?
On top of the issues mentioned before, there are some countries, like Argentina, that produce an immense and rich amount of media art-works, which however are experiencing the complete absence of resources whose goal is to preserve or document the artistic heritage. In this context, there are additional questions that are emerging: How can we address the conservation of artworks which are built using unstable technology considering the absence of private or public collections, which could otherwise support the media arts conservation? Which could be the role of documentation taking into account this panorama? And what about collaborative networking?
The motivation of this research is to investigate in a timely frame the previously quoted questions (and others that may arise during the deployment of my doctoral research project) and identify custom strategies and viable tools that could fit to the Latin American reality, considering that the loss of media arts will result in an irreversible loss of our artistic, cultural and digital heritage.
Contact
Internet Interdisciplinary Institute - IN3 (UOC)
c/ Roc Boronat, 117
08018 Barcelona
Spain
Tel.: +34) 93 253 52 72
http://in3.uoc.edu
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