[-empyre-] story-time and the archive
monica
notebook at justfornow.net
Mon Nov 26 20:47:28 EST 2007
hi norie, renate , tim and all,
'The Trouble with Performance Art' essay is
published in THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN WITHOUT
YOU-From the Collective Archive of The Basement
Group, Projects UK and Locus+ (1977-2007) and
edited by Richard Grayson (www.locusplus.org.uk).
a much earlier textwork" justfornow-and then", is
on line at www.justfornow . this was my first
attempt to articulate the different
possibilities " new media' could offer to
questions of continuity/ duration and
event/performance art compared to the
representational modes of photography and notions
of ' documentation' as having a secondary
relationship to the ' 'original'. it's flawed, a
first attempt, and hadn't sorted out this "
timeless" / " untimely " idea at that time
(1998), but maybe also answers Norie's earlier
question about where my thinking came from. if of
interest you can find this by going to the
'notebook' section of www.justfornow, then to the
'texts" folder and it is the last text in the
list. it was first performed as a text piece at
Lucida Roots ( Hull Time Based Arts) then
circulated by email and post and performed in
variation by other artists and groups. it can be
downloaded as an e-book, read as plain text or
listened to in a version by Roddy Hunter.
Many thanks for including me in this discussion
and for everyone's posts. I'm away from the
computer for the next week but look forward to
catching up later and following what arises from
Grace and Ingrid's rich introductions.
best,monica
>
>
>
>ISBN 978-1-899377-25-1
> £20 +p&p
>
>On 25/11/2007, at 12:26 AM, monica wrote:
>
>>hi tim , norie and all,
>>
>>Re; I'm wondering whether the event/artwork
>>itself doesn't/shouldn't alter our conceptions
>>of desire so that preservation and event are
>>more interwoven in an ongoing, unpredictable
>>way.
>>
>>yes agree, it's on a spectrum between these
>>desires and what desire is driving the impulse
>>for preservation - preservation, establishment
>>of a fixed value as a goal per se or using
>>preservation strategies as the means/ basis to
>>achieving durational transmissibility.
>>
>>re; This could mean emphasizing the emulation
>>of the events/artworks, networks, processes,
>>procedures, and interactions more, say, than
>>the reproduction or replication of particular
>>source code, exhibition environments, or
>>recording/playing instruments.
>>
>>yes, think this gets close to a different
>>desire of (re) generation that also admits
>>'loss' . or 'letting go'' as simon put it, and
>>adjusting one's relation to this 'loss' as a
>>space of reproduction:
>>'
>>so that: <in the emulation of the
>>events/artworks, networks, processes,
>>procedures, and interactions more, say, than
>>the reproduction or replication of particula
>>source codes...>
>>
>>this provides for a ' new' interactive space
>>of reproduction', where the viewer/ interactor
>>'s interaction is vital; to the works
>>re-assembly, a space of encounter which is
>>infinitely renewable in that the viewer is
>>situated in the role of assembling and reviving
>>what remains/ is preserved/ rather than only
>>being confronted by the determinations of what
>>has been assembled as an ' authorised" version.
>>
>>simon wrote:
>>I once had to run a project that recovered and
>>rebuilt a system that had been 'retired' three
>>years earlier. This is never a simple process
>>but if it was not considered during the build
>>and design process I think it would have been
>>impossible.
>>
>>think this last sentence is very usefu in
>>thinking about this, in terms of what the '
>>original' constituted and how " its present
>>form" simultaneously indicates ' what its
>>possible futures/ forms of reproduction might
>>be.
>>
>>i 've recently written a long essay looking at
>>particular ' reproducing strategies' in
>>relation to performance art which produce
>>specific forms of continuity ,in - new
>>continuums-
>>produced through the agency of new/ different/
>>related authors e.g. filmmakers/
>>photographers/ writers/ archivists. it's far
>>too long to add chunks from it here, but to try
>>and summartise one of its main thoughts: the
>>essay ( The Trouble with Performance Art),
>>revolves around how the material / strategies/
>>experiences of a performance can be reproduced
>>by those who encounter 'what remains" to
>>enable, not a replication of the originatory
>>work, but a constructing of the work which
>>reproduces it anew within the terms of what the
>>work constitutes when it is encountered at any
>>one time. (a travelling forward , rather than a
>>looking back).
>>
>>i.e. as the new authors step into the gap/
>>absence of the first author-they re-construct
>>the work anew and also add it to a chain of
>>experience which can travel into the future-
>>so, yes, the paradigm is storytelling/
>>fabulation; the wayward and additive energy of
>>vitality rather than authority.
>>
>>best for now,
>>monica
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>> Hi, Norie and Monica,
>>>
>>>
>>>>Your interwoven threads are extremely
>>>>interesting and directly engage my own sense
>>>>of archival practice. I think that Monica is
>>>>right on the mark when she says "the desire
>>>>for an event/artwork to have duration is
>>>>primarily concerned with unconstraining the
>>>>artwork from its chronological assignment (to
>>>>become untimely) so that it has the potential
>>>>to continue to be to communicable within a
>>>>continuum whose parameters of form and value
>>>>are not predictable." But I'm not sure that I
>>>>would strictly contrast that, anymore, with
>>>>the "desire of preservation" ("to be
>>>>timeless: unchangeable status
>>>>quo/monumentalisation / stabilised form and
>>>>value"). Particularly within the context of
>>>>planned obselescence and and short shelf
>>>>lives of recent new media art, I'm wondering
>>>>whether the event/artwork itself
>>>>doesn't/shouldn't alter our conceptions of
>>>>desire so that preservation and event are
>>>>more interwoven in an ongoing, unpredictable
>>>>way.
>>>
>>>If so, then your combined emphases on
>>>storytelling (what Deleuze calls "fabulation")
>>>becomes all the more important as a crucial
>>>structural element of the archival process
>>>itself (since is also something that Mickey
>>>pointed us toward via Derrida's Archive
>>>Fever). This could mean emphasizing the
>>>emulation of the events/artworks, networks,
>>>processes, procedures, and interactions more,
>>>say, than the reproduction or replication of
>>>particular source code, exhibition
>>>environments, or recording/playing
>>>instruments. Such an emphasis would be on the
>>>open-endedness of fabulation, a process that
>>>grows and changes in time, rather than
>>>"incontrovertible status of value" that drives
>>>the work of most museum collections and
>>>archives.
>>>
>>>Thanks for such stimulating thoughts.
>>>
>>>Best,
>>>
>>>Tim
>>>
>>>--
>>>Timothy Murray
>>>Professor of Comparative Literature and English
>>>Director of Graduate Studies in Film and Video
>>>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
>>>
>>>office: 607-255-4086
>>>e-mail: tcm1 at cornell.edu
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>empyre forum
>>>empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>>>http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>>
>>
>>--
>>Monica Ross
>>07940143126
>>00 44 (0)1273 381480
>>www.justfornow.net
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>empyre forum
>>empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>>http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
>_______________________________________________
>empyre forum
>empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>http://www.subtle.net/empyre
--
Monica Ross
07940143126
00 44 (0)1273 381480
www.justfornow.net
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