[-empyre-] Conservar, Documentar, Archivar

[Vanina Hofman]

Hello everyone,

I would like to go back to two questions made by Johannes that I  
couldn?t answer on time last week (I am sorry for that!):

>>
Have you worked with cheLA and what are the relationships amongst  
organizations, and artists?  and practitioners in other locations in  
latin America?

I have been part of cheLA at its infancy for a short period of time  
until I have left Buenos Aires. Fabián Wagmister had a clear intention  
to connect the centre with the neighborhood and give to this  
initiative a social orientation, as Claudia has mentioned. One of the  
first activities that we deployed was to collaborate with the field  
research of the UC professors? as part of the BACA (Buenos  
Aires-California project). Particularly I was attracted of Brian  
Golfarb?s ?Tourette Global? (http://globaltourette.net/argentina/).  
The group involved with chaLA at that time  had some kind of freedom  
to use the space as "espacio cultural autogestionario". This was more  
than five years ago. I have to admit that I do not have up-to-date  
information about how things are going with them.


>>
i ask how in Vanina and Claudia's groups the "links" (and thus the  
connections i am trying to discuss) are sought or found? located?  are

>>
questions about such geopolitical links meaningful,  and are there  
organizations that are located nowhere (rhizome?   
forging-the-future.net/

These are very difficult questions.  I have discussed with Consuelo  
various times if it makes sense to develop Taxonomedia as a Latin  
America oriented project or not. And we have also talked if the  
research on media arts could be localized.We have decided some  
departing points for our current work, but we took care to leave a  
margin of doubt about of them:

-Taking into account the scarce resources of media art conservation in  
literature, we have decided to make Taxonomedia in Spanish. We thought  
that producing and translating information in this language can be  
itself a contribution to the topic.

-We decided to focus in managing cultural activities centered around  
the Latin America context. In all respects we try to post in our blog  
as much experiences as possible concerning archiving and conservation.  
For example, we have published information of Forging the Future  
(http://taxonomedia.net/?p=172) explained during this discussion by  
Jon Ippolito. This is a very accurate and interesting model to be  
considered when thinking strategies for the future of media art in our  
countries. Such projects, conceived in non Latin-American places or  
spaces, are useful companions that could be used as art conservation  
templates, and apparently fulfill as well the scope of Taxonomedia

Finally, in relation to your question about ?links?, I would like to  
mention that that is quite common for the Latin American oriented  
groups to be conceived by people living -or that they have lived-  
abroad or by foreign leader institutions. For me, as an Argentinean,  
it was easier to meet a Colombian colleague in Barcelona rather than  
in Buenos Aires. It was also easier to organize events in Buenos Aires  
from Spain than when I was living in my town. This is not only a  
matter of budget; it is a deeper and more complex issue related to how  
-at least- Argentineas behave to others and it is for example  
connected with cases like Dal Farra?s experience with the Latin  
America Electro Acoustic Archive, which is curiously (or maybe not)  
located in Montreal. Of course this is not a rule and I do not want to  
imply that, but it happens quite often. Thus, I think that it is  
something that needs to be accounted, discussed and revised in a more  
honestly way.

I really would like to read the views of Gabriela, Lluis and Mona!
Best regards,
Vanina