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Conformity, Process and Deviation: Digital Arts as 'Outsider' |
Keynote: Douglas Dodds (V&A, London)
Underground or overground: which line to take for digital art?
In its early years, computer art was ignored or derided by critics, museums and curators. More recently, though, museums have made real efforts to acquire a wide range of computer-generated artworks from the 1960s onwards. The V&A, for example, now has many early pieces by artists such as Frieder Nake, Herbert Franke, Vera Molnar, Manfred Mohr and Harold Cohen. The Museum is also building up its holdings of works from the 1980s and later, including a number of born-digital objects. The Barbican's recent exhibition, Digital Revolution, also demonstrates that the digital medium is increasingly accepted by many in the art establishment.
So, what does this all mean for museums that seek to represent this digital revolution in their collections? Some forms of digital output are more amenable to collecting than others, with the consequence that the most challenging works are likely to remain underground, or outside the network entirely. Does this matter, and if so, what can we do about it? The paper will outline the V&A's past and present direction for collecting or exhibiting digital art, and attempt to suggest some possible routes for the future.