DATA DRIFT. Archiving Media and Data Art in the 21st Century

Editors: Rasa Smite, Lev Manovich, Raitis Smits
Malraux’s imaginary museum has become a reality of our digital age. Everyday, a massive amount of different new visual, textual, and transactional data is added to this vast archive. How do we decide what bits of contemporary digital culture to preserve, study and curate given that its universe is constantly expanding? The parallel questions of selection, archiving and curating are important to address with regards to all media art forms – from early video, computer and telematic art to later networked, web-based, software, and data art. There are several strategies already used in media art archiving practice today. However, it is also important to look for even more new approaches. For instance, data visualization opens up new possibilities for archiving, reinterpreting and exhibiting artworks, acquiring us to look at the past and present from other unfamiliar and novel perspectives.

The book combines a selection of papers presented in the Media Art Histories 2013 Renew conference held in Riga, October 8–11, 2013, and visual review of the Save As exhibition (2013). This volume also includes new texts, as it is being published in connection with the Renewble Futures conference and Data Drift exhibition in Riga during October 8-10, 2015, in the framework of RIXC’s annual festival.

Authors and contributors: Lev Manovich, Erkki Huhtamo, Frieder Nake, Rasa Smite, Raitis Smits, Hanna Barbara Hoelling, Pau Alsina, Clarisse Bardiot, Valentino Catricala, Michael Century, Francesca Franco, Esteban Garcia, Rainer Groh, Tjarda de Haan, Franziska Hannss, Chris Hales, Canan Hastik, Vanina Hofman, Nils Jean, Rudi Knoops, Paul Landon, Esther Lapczyna, Laura Leuzzi, Magdalena Anna Nowak, Ianina Prudenko, Georgina Ruff, Arnd Steinmetz, Bernhard Thull, Elio Ugenti, Paul Vogel, Joanna Walewska, Reba Wesdorp, Artemis Willis.