Bio
Art historian, curator, author, certified expert for electronic and digital art. Studied sociology, psychology, art history, philosophy, educational science; research, restauration studies for the Monuments Historiques de France, publications on romanesque architecture, PhD. thesis on the architecture of the Cathedral Saint-Lazare in Autun, Burgundy (France), University of Freiburg (Germany).
Since 1995 consultant for the Council of Europe, study on “The new space of communication, the interface with culture and artistic creativity”, consultant for international NGOs and cultural institutions. 1994–1997 curator of ZKM | Media Museum at ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (Germany). 1998–2005 head of ZKM | Museum Communications Department. Ssince 1998 as a lecturer teaches media art and museology at the State Academy of Fine Arts St. Petersburg and the Universities of Bern, Basel and Karlsruhe. 2006–2016 chief curator at ZKM | Media Museum Karlsruhe. 2008–2012 professor for aesthetics and media theory at Istanbul BILGI-University. 2010–2014 director of the European Unions Research Project on the Conservation of Digital Media Art. Since 2016 independent curator and certified expert for electronic and digital art
Abstract
After Us, the Deluge? Introductory Remarks on the System Change in the Preservation of Art
The systemic shift from analog to digital culture is shaped to a large extent by art as a catalyst of new technologies. But this has yet to be accepted by the majority of museums and collections. With respect to their prevailing forms of organization, and due to increasingly diminishing funds, museums and collections have thus far not been in a position to meet the requirements imposed by this acceleration in technological development. In a society where substantial funding is based on their momentary event status for the general public, museums and collections are forced to reevaluate their traditional core tasks: collecting, conservation, research, and art education. Due to financial and personnel restrictions, they are obliged to make decisions about which works ought to survive. In view of the extreme technical difficulties in a situation of increasing financial shortfall, are museums and collections at all capable of maintaining the prevailing high standards, also in the conservation of digital art?
