The “Preservation of Technological Works of Art” Project was initiated through the cooperation of digitalSSM, the archives and research space of Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum and the Sabancı University.
The “Preservation of Technological Works of Art” Project was initiated through the cooperation of digitalSSM, the archives and research space of Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum and the Sabancı University.
The first of the series of panel discussions on carrying over the new media such as digital media, video, interactive art, computer graphics and animations, in view of the rapid technological developments in the area was held on 15 November with the participation of Turkish and international specialists and academics.
The day started with an opening speech by Selçuk Artut from Sabancı University’s Visual Arts and Visual Communication Program and continued with presentations by internationally acclaimed authorities such as Cemal Yılmaz from Sabancı University’s Computer Science and Engineering, TATE Museum Conservator Patricia Falcao and Rhizome’s Preservation Director Dragan Espenschied as well as a workshop on “Time-Based Media Conservation”.
Sakıp Sabancı Museum’s Director Dr. Nazan Ölçer said, “It is extremely important that, in our era when digital art occupies such a prominent place on both international and Turkish agendas, Turkey’s first discussion of the conservation of digital art and carrying it over to future is being hosted by our museum. As software and hardware systems get outdated fairly rapidly, digital works of art have shorter lives than works of art in other fields, and updating the relevant software can at times be more expensive than the work of art itself. The loss of these works of art can be accompanied by the loss of the valuable archives they contain and the pertaining information. I believe that this series of panel discussions hosted by our museum constitutes a significant threshold in carrying over to future these works which are now defined as ‘digital heritage’.”
The next panel discussion within the Preservation of Technological Works of Art project will be held at 2 pm on Friday, 13 December. The opening speech, “Archaeologies in Future. Journey from the PROFOUND TRACES OF TIME ON MEDIA to Possible Futures” will be delivered by Prof. Dr. Siegfried Zielinski of the Michel Foucault Chair of European Graduate School’s Media Archaeology and Techno-Culture Department. Specialists from ZKM (Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe) and PAMAL Group (Preservation & Art - Media Archaeology Lab) will talk on “The Reconstruction of Media and Digital Works of Art Within the Media Archaeology Context: Applied Case Studies”, where they will reveal for the first time, the results of their research on Jeffrey Shaw’s Virtual Sculpture (1981), Paul Garrin’s Ghetto With Watchdog (1989-90) and Frank Gillette and Ira Schneider's Wipe Cycle (1972).
The last panel discussion within the project framework will be held on 17 January 2020, with the title “Building a Technological Works of Art Collection, Exhibiting and Preserving the Works”, and participation of artists, conservation specialists, collection directors and curators from Turkey. The conferences and workshops are free of charge and are in English, with simultaneous translation to Turkish.
The activities can be viewed in the social media accounts of Sakıp Sabancı Museum and at www.sakipsabancimuzesi.org