[-empyre-] Debra Tolchinsky and Dave Tolchinsky : Participatory Art

[Timothy Murray]

Digital traces vs. physical traces

Debra Tolchinsky and Dave Tolchinsky

Our thoughts are related to a gallery exhibit entitled The Horror 
Show we curated at the Chicago City Arts Gallery in 2008, which is 
traveling to Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs 
(<http://www.dorsky.org/>www.dorsky.org) in Long Island City, NY on 
August 7.  Apologies if this is too small, too specific, solipsistic, 
not focused on participatory art, and also recycles well-tread 
ground, but this is what we're knee-deep in at the moment.

As part of the original show, we produced both a printed and PDF 
version of a catalog which is downloadable:

  <http://debratolchinsky.com/#/>http://debratolchinsky.com/#/curatorial/

We've been pleased that many people have downloaded and commented on 
the PDF of the catalog.  Interesting to us, some people talk about 
this PDF as if it were in fact the show rather than just a trace of 
the printed catalog which in turn is just a trace of the show. Those 
who were at the actual show have spoken about the scale of individual 
pieces. Some of the works are miniatures, some are large, some have 
tiny hidden video elements, and some are interactive/meant to be 
picked up. To be at the show (or any show) is to stand amongst work 
and feel it's hum.  To be at a show is to experience/contemplate work 
that is sometimes uncomfortable (scary and/or edgy) in a public 
setting.

The web for obvious reasons diminishes scale. Everything is presented 
on the same screen, everything is flat, no matter how dimensional. 
The PDF of the catalog can't help but present the works as more 
homogenous than they are.

Another digital trace:  A few of the participating artists have put 
up web pages of their works.  Like the PDF, these traces, rather than 
reminding one of the show, can become what one assumes to be the 
intended artistic experience.  We lose the juxtaposition between the 
pieces. We lose the conversation that the combination of works 
provokes.

All this leaves us with questions: To what extent does the digital 
encourage participation and widen one's audience?To what extent do 
digital traces (in this case the PDF catalog and/or artist web sites 
representing their works) stand in for the actual art experience and 
discourage participation in the intended artistic experience?  We 
ourselves are culpable in sometimes not going out to events because 
of our over-stretched existence and because we feel like we "got it" 
from seeing it on the web.

Regardless, we celebrate the ability to distribute art widely and 
easily and to encourage participation and discussion especially to 
those too far away from the physical exhibition.   And we gratefully 
accept that the show becomes an invitation to view the PDF 
catalog/artist web pages.  In fact, we've convinced ourselves we're 
looking at this all wrong. Perhaps the physically installed show is 
now just a trace of the digital rather than the other way around. 
 How would Walter Benjamin respond?

Bio: David E. Tolchinsky (US) is Chair of Northwestern 
University's Department of Radio-TV-Film and Director of 
Northwestern's MFA in Writing for the Screen+Stage/Creative Writing 
for the Media Program. As a screenwriter, he has been commissioned by 
such studios as Touchstone/Disney, MGM Pictures, Ivan Reitman's 
Montecito Pictures, USA Networks, Edward R. Pressman Film Corp, 
and Addis-Wechsler & Assoc. to write feature screenplays. He 
also creates sound designs for interactive computer projects and 
video installations.  He is a graduate of Yale (BA) and USC School 
of Cinema-Television (MFA). Last year, he was chosen to be 
a Northwestern University Charles Deering McCormick Professor 
of Teaching Excellence.

Debra Tolchinsky (US) is an assistant professor in 
Northwestern University's Department of Radio-TV-Film, and a 
multidisciplinary artist working in documentary film, emergent media, 
and curatorial practice.  Her work centers on the relationship 
between technology, medicine, and horror.  Recently she co-curated 
The Horror Show, at the Chicago City Arts Gallery which investigated 
-- via film, video installation, photography, and painting -- what is 
nasty, what is ubiquitous, but also what is not necessarily apparent 
. The show will travel to the Dorsky Gallery in Long Island City in 
August.  Currently she is directing a feature documentary on 
college speed debate and working on a piece about brain plasticity 
for a show about disabling disease that will be at The Chicago 
Cultural Center in Nov.  She holds a BA from USC School of 
Cinema-Television and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of 
Chicago.

-- 

Renate Ferro and Tim Murray
Co-Moderators, -empyre- a soft-skinned-space
Department of Art/ Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art
Cornell University