Collecting and Presenting Born-Digital Art

A two-day working conference organized by Baltan Laboratories in collaboration with the Van Abbemuseum. "Why is it still easier to get an entire museum collection on the Internet than to get a single work of Internet-based art in a museum space?" This question was posed during a book launch of the Viennese curator's collective Context in August 2011. It very clearly points to one of the sore spots in the discussion of why there is so little digital art in museums collections. Although it is common to use digital technologies for information exchange both inside the museum and outside, through distributing content through their websites and social media platforms, the presentation and presence of digital art in museum collections is still rare. This working conference will address significant changes in contemporary artistic production by facilitating knowledge exchange between different art worlds. Through discussions and analyzing several case studies we aim to increase understanding of each other's aesthetics, art historical links, economies, technical challenges and organizational structures. Baltan Laboratories and Van Abbemuseum will host a two day working conference. The sessions will be led by, among others: Sarah Cook and Beryl Graham (CRUMB), Annie Fletcher (conservator tentoonstellingen), Ben Fino-Radin (Rhizome), Paulien 't Hoen and Gaby Wijers (SBMK/NIMk), Christiane Paul (Whitney Museum of American Art), Edward Shanken (University of Memphis), Jill Sterrett (SFMoma)