[-empyre-] Re: Memory/Archive

[Timothy Murray]

>
>
>At what point let go? (For example, the archive that contains art 
>which is not kept because no one but the academic has any use for 
>it.)
>
>simon taylor
>www.squarewhiteworld.com


Simon,

One of the reasons that I am dedicating time and energy to the 
Goldsen Archive is not only so that academics and students  may have 
access to "historical" new media work, but also to provide a venue of 
digital research sources for artists as well.  Many of our 
participants this month, and many members of -empyre-, dialogue with 
archival materials in their work and often understand their artistic 
projects to be archivally laced.  Indeed, I know that Norie and Maria 
frequently refer to their practice as "research" and frequently 
incorporate archival material into their projects (you might be 
interested in their net piece 4th Floor 
(http://www.metamute.org/en/out-of-sync).

But to get down to basics, I suppose I resist the notion that art as 
old as 5 years would no longer be of any use to anyone but academics. 
That puts us into a strange notion of temporality indeed.

Best,

Tim
-- 
Timothy Murray
Professor of Comparative Literature and English
Director of Graduate Studies in Film and Video Studies
Curator, The Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell Library
http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu
285 Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853