Skip to content
Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00709
- Thesis Title
- Expanded (Im)materialities: A Postmedial and Neomaterial Discussion on the Collection and Preservation of Media Arts
- Author
- C. Rodrigo Guzman Serrano
- E-mail
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- Master of Arts in Media Arts Cultures
- Year
- 2018
- Number of Pages
- 88
- University
- Danube University Krems
- Thesis Supervisor
- Prof. Dr. Oliver Grau
- Supervisor e-mail
- oliver.grau AT donau-uni.ac.at
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Dr. Harald Kraemer
- Language(s) of Thesis
- English
- Department / Discipline
- Image Science / Media Arts Cultures
- Copyright Ownership
- Languages Familiar to Author
- English, Spanish, German
- URL where full thesis can be found
- permalink.obvsg.at/duk/YC00346902
- Keywords
- media art collection; media art preservation; materiality in media art; medium
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- Digital technologies have significantly changed the practices of museums, cultural institutions, libraries, and archives. However, although many museums have adopted digital media in one way or another, few actively collect and preserve media art. This thesis explores the challenges associated with the collection, presentation, and preservation of technological and digital arts. In particular, it focuses on the different strategies that institutions, artists, and art practitioners in general have developed in order to integrate media art into the circuit of museums and art collections as well as the specific methods they implement to ensure the proper care and preservation of media artworks. Furthermore, it also explores the role that artists play regarding the documentation and conservation of media art, as well as the shared responsibilities that this emerging discipline demands. In order to approach these issues, this study emphasizes the material and immaterial, as well as medial dimensions of media art, by drawing from discussions around the concept of medium in art, Rosalind Krauss’s postmedium condition, and Christiane Paul’s notion of neomateriality. Case studies include the practices of artists such as Antoni Muntadas, Igor Štromajer, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and, in particular, Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau.
The minimal presence of media art at major museums and cultural institutions impacts the proper contextualization, categorization, and appreciation of media art. This thesis explores the state of media art preservation and collection, while also offering a theoretical discussion on the material and immaterial conditions of media art.