[-empyre-] -empyre- September, 2015, Video: Behind and Beyond

[Renate Terese Ferro]

Carolyn wrote:
"As a curator I have found that a chance to exhibit is a chance to preserve. Exhibitions have often led to the preservation of artist projects--either by requiring the resurrection of early electronic art works or the migration of media to new presentation platforms. When the Center produced its phenomenal DVD box set "Experimental Television Center: 1969-2009" many contributing artists benefited from the opportunity to preserve their early analog videos."

Hi Carolyn,  Great to chat with you online via -empyre soft-skinned space.  You comment about the chance to exhibit is a chance to preserve is one that made me think of a conversation I had with Lynn Hershman a few years ago when she visited our university.  I asked her about her own archive which as I understand according to her filled up warehouses. She also has been a master archiver taking video of events  and interviews over the past several years.  I am sure our subscribers have seen her film Women, Art and Revolution, http://womenartrevolution.com/

During that chat I asked her why she archived so much and she reminded me that as a woman artist she had to ensure that her work was archived properly because "who else would do it."  That comment was somewhat humorous but also was more serious for me.  The question for me and many artists is how much do we preserve, how much space do we have, who will record our history if we do not.

The Experimental Television Center and the artists who came through its doors have been lucky to have Sherry and Ralph Hocking and the Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art to preserve and archive their work but so much of our past history gets glossed or simply forgotten.  I am intentionally being provocative here but I think that the history of video and the history of new media gets filtered through the lens of the historians and others.  Can archives be a way to present more open-ended possibilities? Just thinking out loud this morning on finally a cool day in Central New York State.

Looking to hear from more of you.  Renate

Renate Ferro
Visiting Associate Professor of Art
Cornell University
Department of Art
Tjaden Hall, Office 306
Ithaca, NY  14853
Email: rferro at cornell.edu
URL:  http://www.renateferro.net
          http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net
Lab:   http://www.tinkerfactory.net

Managing Moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space
http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/attachments/20150910/129e61bd/attachment.html>