PROGRAM
14.00 – PRO-SPECTIVE ARCHAEOLOGIES. Travelling through DEEP TIME OF THE MEDIA into to Possible Futures
Prof. Dr. Siegfried Zielinski
15:00 - Media Archaeological Reconstruction of Media and Digital Artworks: Practical Case-Studies
ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany and PAMAL Group (Preservation & Art - Media Archeology Lab), Austria, France, Germany
Contributors:
Daniel Heiss (Software Engineer)
Morgane Stricot (Senior Media and digital art conservator)
Matthieu Vlaminck (Junior Media and digital art conservator)
16:30 - Q + A
*The Conference will be held in English with simultaneous translation to Turkish.
ABSTRACTS
PRO-SPECTIVE ARCHAEOLOGIES. Travelling through DEEP TIME OF THE MEDIA into to Possible Futures
Prof. Dr. Siegfried Zielinski
‘The seemingly paradoxical abstract mixtum compositum that is prospective archaeology consists of a practice that operates in accordance with two opposing arrows of time. One of these arrows is oriented vertically into the deep time of cultures that still remains to be explored and that, for me, is forever remade by virtue of interdependencies in the relationships among the arts, sciences and technologies. The other arrow points from the now into an enduringly and unremittingly opaque future. Where the utopian potential of media-archaeological activity and its associated artistic practices resides is in the possibility of bringing these two arrows of time into relation with one another, such that the passengers inside this particular time machine aren’t torn apart in the process. To keep on seeking and finding in the old only the locus of multiplicities and particularities which are no longer accessible because no longer existing is boring and inevitably leads to a profound melancholy. But to learn and intellectually profit from the heterogeneity and wealth of relations in past constellations, for the sake of future presents, is an alluring challenge. Only in this way can our experimental time machine become a generator of surprises.
Media Archaeological Reconstruction of Media and Digital Artworks: Practical Case Studies
-- ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany and PAMAL Group (Preservation & Art – Media Archaeology Lab), Austria, France, Germany.
Contributors: Daniel Heiß (Software Engineer), Morgane Stricot (Senior Media and digital art conservator), Matthieu Vlaminck (Junior Media and digital art conservator)
Due to obsolescence of software and hardware, digital and media artworks have, compared to other artworks, a short lifespan. In recent years, artworks have begun to disappear, letting their precious archives and related knowledge dying with them.
Media archaeological reconstruction or „second original“ is defined by PAMAL (Preservation and Art – Media Archaeological Lab) as a duplication or reconstruction of an artwork that has disappeared or is considered "obsolete" with its original writing and reading machine (i.e. the hardware and software). This reconstruction does not exclude either emulation or simulation, which can be used to recompose a particular part of the work. This reconstruction can be considered an archive of the work itself. Its advantage is that it helps preserving the artwork as much as the industrial heritage.
ZKM (Center for Art and Media) is applying this complementary conservation strategy for its collection to promote the conservation of its media and digital artworks in their historical technological environment. Technology and code as a form of expression are not neutral. Media archaeological reconstruction gives the public a unique chance to see concrete form of past media in action. Through practical case studies, Virtual Sculpture (1981) by Jeffrey Shaw, Yuppie Ghetto With Watchdog (1989-90) by Paul Garrin and Wipe Cycle (1972) by Frank Gillette and Ira Schneider, we will explore how is this strategy applied and which aims does it fulfill according to each case study.
