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FROM ONLINE ARCHIVES TO A VIRTUAL MUSEUM
A FEW IDEAS ON CREATING A MEDIA ART SITE
Nina Zaretskaya, Director of Art Media Center
“TV Gallery”, Moscow
Although there still exist some people who do
not agree with the definition of “global web” being the base of art, no one
doubts that the world wide web opens fantastic possibilities in the field of
archiving information. Saving and transmission of numerous data-base is the core
of computer revolution. Internet has developed this ontological sign with the
help of delivery any information directly to the recipient, given feedback is
possible, having enriched it with such qualities as globality, interactivity,
and dialogical capacities.
About five years ago Art Media Center “TV
Gallery” made a first try to create a site, having placed a part of its
information in the Internet in order to broaden the audience of the new
technologies’ art. For more than ten years TV Gallery has been dealing with
the sphere of actual art, arranging exhibitions, performances, shows,
educational programs with the help of TV, video and computer technologies. It
can be forecast for sure that more and more number of our projects will be
realized on the base of new electronic media - Internet, CD-ROM…Collaborating
practically with all the Russian artists using electronic media in their
projects, organizing research and educational programs (with the most
progressive experts getting involved, both home and foreign as well), taking
part in various festivals, big exhibitions and art fairs in our country and
abroad, TV Gallery set a task to present a wide spectrum of the world
development of the art of new technologies in the Internet, to make an
electronic data-base on media arts.
In our site version we supposed to give numerous
links, which help unite the information from various sources, giving the
Internet user the possibility to get a wide and adequate picture of the world
media art. To our opinion, this very thing made the project a unique one as its
elaboration started at the time when there existed no site of this kind in
Russia, which could accumulate information on these problems.
Addressing the wide Internet audience, first of
all the ones working in the sphere of contemporary art, or those just interested
in computer technologies, we tried to make the information about the art of new
media available and interesting to both of them, providing the experts and all
the rest interested in this subject with the possibility of a quick contact and
feedback. We entered an actual news part, being updated every time and
containing not only announcements but also various pictorial materials including
real videos of current exhibitions and actions.
In the course of time the forms of the online
representation of TV Gallery’s archives were getting more and more perfect and
variable. The possibility of permanent modification of published information,
departure from once and for all predetermined static character of printed
material, on the one hand, make the work on the site pretty fascinating, while,
on the other hand, require special efforts in order to comprehend and cope with
this form of preserving and presentation of art pieces.
At the present time, being the consequence of
its web presence, the group of semantically close formations, such as archives -
depository - museum, acquires a new quality. Within the framework of such wide
concept as “virtual culture” their intercommunication is getting more and
more evident. Web presence turns out to be both means and imperative for the new
forms of their program activities: educational projects, production of art works,
critical analysis, theory of museum business, all this requires revision and
reorientation because of a large-scale introduction of the Internet and media
technologies with their interactivity, dialogic openness and globality, into
contemporary art.
Not long ago an idea of a “virtual museum”
was entered into the art discourse, which is being widely discussed in the world
now. Thus, the articles of Maxwell Anderson, Director of Whitney Museum, and
Douglas Davis, a media artist, published in New York Times in the end of the
last year, initiated debates among American intellectuals in connection with
actual problems arising in this sphere. How does the online art affects the
audience which is similar to the one attending the “real museum” with regard
to the number of people? How should be organized the exhibitions of the
“virtual museum”? What are the functions of its curators? What is the
meaning of the specific character of preservation and responsibility for keeping
art pieces? All these questions (as well as many other statements) touched in
this discussion have got, to my opinion, a direct connection with the
development of TV Gallery’s site, which more and more evidently starts
functioning as a “virtual museum” of the newest technologies.
I would dare to say that any serious change
based on the technological development (in this connection we could mention
interaction in the web) and summarized in such general concept as “virtual
museum”, should be comprehended and introduced on a global scale. I am sure
that the most progressive steps in this directions can be taken not only in big
highly-developed countries, but also in small communities in case they possess
new technologies and are oriented towards research and application of the
advanced approaches in the field of Science - New Technologies - Art. I do hope
we’ll be able to obtain the examples of this kind at this meeting.
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