[-empyre-] Re: Memory/Archive

[Helen Thorington]

I'm a little surprised at the idea that only an academic has any use  
for "historical" new media work. Time and time again we see artists  
doing -- and being praised as innovators for -- work that was done by  
others years and years ago. I know many artists do not do their  
research, but
for those who do, what a loss this "historical" work would be. And  
what a skewed idea we would get of the development of new media..

-- helen
newradio at turbulence.org






On Nov 20, 2007, at 7:19 AM, Timothy Murray wrote:

>>
>>
>> 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
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>