The research project of the digitalSSM Archive and Research Space, titled “VARIANT. Documenting New Media Art” continues with a conference and artist talk in January.

On Wednesday, January 25, at 17.00, Olivier Zeitoun, the curator of the Department of Design at the Paris Centre Pompidou, and Anna Mladentseva, a researcher in the Department of Art History and Information Studies at University College London, will be the speakers of our online conference.

On Thursday, January 26, at 15.00, artist Ali Miharbi will have a conversation on digital preservation through his own works, with the digitalSSM Archive and Research Space Manager Osman Serhat Karaman, at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum.

How Can Net Art Be Conserved?

In the first part of the conference on January 25, Olivier Zeitoun will focus on the role of networks in artistic practices within the context of the group exhibition titled Worlds of Networks, held at the Centre Pompidou in 2022 and named by Artforum as one of the ten most influential exhibitions of the year. The talk aims to retrace the archeology of the network concept and explore the history of “networked” art. In the second part of the conference, Anna Mladentseva will focus on the artistic exploration of technology through Sinae Kim's net artwork, Genesis (2001). In her presentation titled On the Conservation of Flash-Based Net Art, Mladentseva will discuss migration as a strategy for conserving Flash-based net art, which is often perceived as the more laborious and radical solution —when compared to alternative strategies such as virtualisation/emulation— for restoring access to obsolete artworks.

The sessions will end with a Q & A session moderated by digitalSSM Archive and Research Space Manager Osman Serhat Karaman.

The conference, which will be held in English, is open to participation upon registration on Sakıp Sabancı Museum’s website.

Can Documentation Replace the Artwork?

In the conversation to be held at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum on January 26, artist Ali Miharbi will seek an answer to the question, “Can documentation replace the artwork?” as he discusses the concepts “re-enactment” and the “second original” in digital preservation, based on his network-based Reversing the Conditions (2002) and his physical work Rüzgar (2017), which uses live data.

The conversation will be held in Turkish, at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum’s conference hall. We expect your registration for participation.

“VARIANT. DOCUMENTING NEW MEDIA ART” PROJECT, JANUARY 2023 PROGRAM

25 January, 2023

Conference

17.00

“Réseaux-Mondes” (“Worlds of Networks”)

Olivier Zeitoun

17.40

On the Conservation of Flash-Based Net Art

Anna Mladentseva

18.20

Q + A

26 January, 2023

Artist Conversation

Ali Miharbi and Osman Serhat Karaman

15.00

“VARIANT. DOCUMENTING NEW MEDIA ART” PROJECT, FEBRUARY 2023 PROGRAM

The conference series will firstly host Siegfried Zielinski, the Michel Foucault Chair at The European Graduate School / EGS, where he teaches as a professor of mediology and technoculture. His online talk to be held on February 15, 2023; focusing on the archeology of the relationship between art and media along with his Variantology project in this field. On February 24, 2023; Tate Modern’s conservationists and researchers Patricia Falcao, Ana Riberio and Francesca Colussi will discuss the institution’s strategies for documenting media art in an online conversation.

For the upcoming programs, please follow the events page of SSM.