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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00894
- Thesis Title
- Virtual Art in the Museum and Beyond
- Author
- Valeria Facchin
- E-mail
- facchinvaleria AT gmail.com
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- MA Curating the Art Museum
- Year
- 2019
- Number of Pages
- 101
- University
- Courtauld Institute of Art
- Thesis Supervisor
- Martin Caiger-Smith
- Supervisor e-mail
- Martin.Caiger-Smith AT courtauld.ac.uk
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Language(s) of Thesis
- English
- Department / Discipline
- Curating
- Copyright Ownership
- Courtauld Institute of Art
- Languages Familiar to Author
- English, French, Italian
- URL where full thesis can be found
- drive.google.com/file/d/1j50DX7hj46eVslYjxPBZFtn8sVnyN7DQ/view?usp=sharing
- Keywords
- Keywords: Virtual Art, Museum, Collection, Digital Preservation
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- In the last decades, Virtual Art (VA) has acquired influence over many diverse areas, some of which even lay outside the sphere of art. Similarly to the term Virtual Reality (VR), coined by Jaron Lanier in 1989, VA is employed as an umbrella term encompassing all works in which the aesthetic object is generated and experienced through a computer-simulated environment. As the work is not physically present, it seems that VA cannot be conceived as ‘art’ in the strict sense intended in museum institutions. Indeed, VA’s artistic practice does not result in the production of a unique object that can be isolated as original and therefore valuable. Instead, the products of VA range from abstract concepts, to codes, instructions, copies and hardware: when the ‘art’ lies in the subjective experience of a set of technical tools, where is the ‘art’? The importance of VA relies on its capability to investigate and mediate the technological influence on socio-cultural development and transformation: by addressing complex issues, such as the rise of post-human bodies, virtual financial economies and the processes of globalization and surveillance, VA can help us understand the world we are immersed in.
This dissertation aims to investigate Virtual Art practice through its museum acceptance, questioning why the collection and display of this new form of art may pose new challenges for institutions and curatorial practice. With more artists approaching the medium, it is time to analyse the complexities of this practice, which are both technical and conceptual. While highlighting preservation and curatorial issues, Virtual Art invites its public to let go of some of the preconceptions surrounding unique art objects such as their value in art museum. By bringing up issues that challenge some of our most persistent models for connoisseurship, ownership, and patronage, new adequate approaches to collect and preserve Virtual Art need to be found.