Annet_Dekker

Expanded Curatorial Practice: The Performative and Processual Characteristics of Online art Presentation

In this presentation I will revisit my fascination with digital art, in particular online art, not only how it functions or is presented in ways that often expand conventional curatorial practices, but also how its performative and processual characteristics inform the ways one can think about its preservation and, by implication, reconsider general conservation methods. In fact, my direct appeal to advocate for a ‘network of care’ – which consists of different stakeholders and caretakers (human and machinic) who use decentralised systems to create, distribute and potentially preserve cultural heritage – makes clear that I situate preservation also beyond the institutional. While analysing the characteristics and consequences of archiving digital art, in this presentation I will emphasize the role of storytelling in capturing online cultures, which in turn shows the relevance of ‘storytelling as method’ to develop and enrich an historic understanding of these artworks.

Annet Dekker is Assistant Professor Media Studies: Archival Science at the University of Amsterdam, and Visiting Professor and co-director Centre for the Study of the Networked Image at London South Bank University. She is also an independent researcher and curator. Previously she was Researcher Digital Preservation at TATE, London, core tutor at Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam (Master Media Design and Communication, Networked Media and Lens-Based Media), web curator for SKOR (Foundation for Art and Public Domain, 2010–12), programme manager at Virtueel Platform (2008–10), and head of exhibitions, education and artists-in-residence at the Netherlands Media Art Institute (1999–2008). She recently published a monograph Collecting and Conserving Net Art. Moving Beyond Conventional Methods (Routledge 2018) and the edited volume Lost and Living (in) Archives. Collectively Shaping New Memories (Valiz 2017).