Find here a .pdf version of the timetable for both days.

Find here a full, detailed list of programme descriptions and participant bios.

Transformation Digital Art 2024 aims to show and discuss strategies for taking care of digital art for and by artists, archivists, curators, conservators and scholars.

New technologies bring new transformations for thinking about art and creativity. They can redefine notions of authorship, performership and the construct of work. At the same time, new artistic practices in media art and changing technologies also challenge existing forms of preservation and documentation. This results in new ways of thinking about preservation and documentation towards community-based care, collaborative care and management of change. Finally, and perhaps most crucially, new technologies also create new possibilities to preserve media art.

Digital artworks depend not only on their constantly changing technological environment, but also on those who take care of their preservation. The care of digital media artworks should be widely recognised as a multi-disciplinary effort requiring the direct involvement of artists, curators, conservators, audiovisual and IT staff, registrars and all other museum staff. Yet, this joint responsibility demands ongoing cooperation, innovation and knowledge sharing.

To that end, the symposium serves as a platform to engage, discuss, critically reflect, learn, and connect.

Legacies

The focus of this year's edition is on Legacies. It celebrates the legacy of renowned media artists that over the years have influenced the creative discourse by questioning conventions within and beyond their disciplines, and it brings them in critical dialogue with a younger generation. 

What it means to keep digital art alive is a fundamental aspect in the exhibition REBOOT. Pioneering Digital Art, where the first part of this conference takes place. As REBOOT shows, such digital care presents numerous challenges. Firstly, it must address media artworks' highly technical and participatory nature, the continuous transformation of their manifestations, and the continuous obsolescence of formats, hardware, software and networks. It must also juggle competing demands in knowledge transfer, balancing artistic content, obsolete tools and expectations of contemporary audiences. Legacies, therefore, initiates an exchange of knowledge about digital artworks across generations and art institutions –  all the while aware of how each work and its care takes place in an infinite chain of contributions and inspirations that naturally extends and transforms through its successors. 

TDA 2024 aims to discuss ways in which media art remains present, how works are remembered and how they continue to circulate in culture. The discussion within various networks questions how media art, electronic art and digital art and culture are displayed, conserved, and passed on between Abandoned Practices.

Programme overview

Firstly, numerous presentations will relate to the exhibition REBOOT. Pioneering Digital Art and the artworks presented there. REBOOT curators Sanneke Huisman (LI-MA) and Klaas Kuitenbrouwer (Nieuwe Instituut), delve into the overall exhibition’s making, themes, new commissions and contemporary relevance. Anna Olszewska (AGH University, Kraków) charts the turbulent history of The Senster (1968–1970) by Edwards Ignatowicz. Artist Bram Vreven, Kees Tazelaar (head of Institute of Sonology at Royal Conservatoire The Hague) and Suzanne Visser (Kunstmuseum) present on the preservation and transfer of Ideofoon I (1970) by Dick Raaijmakers. Janilda Bartolomeu, whose work _when_scrolling_becomes_scrying (2023) responds to Debra Solomon’s the_living (1997–19978), considers archiving and preserving her own legacy. There will also be a panel, involving a wide range of experts, discussing the ongoing debate around the evolving Digital Canon, whose initial selection of works led to REBOOT. 

On emulation, Claudia Roeck (HEK, LI-MA) and Mauricio van der Masen Sombreff (LI-MA) will show how JODI's wwwwwwwww.jodi.org (1995) and Jan Robert Leegte's Scrollbar Composition (2000) were both presented at REBOOT without emulation, alongside Dragan Espenschied (preservation director at Rhizome) showing how emulation was used in Olia Lialina’s 2016 retrospective exhibition of her work My Boyfriend Came Back From The War (MBCBFTW) (1996). 

On NFTs in the museum, Philippe Bettinelli (curator Centre Pompidou, Paris) guides us through the process of acquiring blockchain-related artworks.

Gabriella Giannachi (University of Exeter), Adam Lockhart (University of Dundee) and Anik Fournier (If I Can’t Dance…) together explore how to re-present, re-interpret and perform the archive.

Karen Archey (curator Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam) will discuss acquisition, preservation and presentation with Rosa Menkman, regarding her work A Vernacular of File Formats (2010).

Morgane Stricot and Matthieu Vlaminck (both from ZKM / Center for Art & Media Karlsruhe) dive deep into the preservation of interactive laserdiscs.

Besides these highlights, read about other speakers and participants on both days of the symposium in the full programme. Read more about Thursday 21 March or Friday 22 March.

Day 1 – Thursday 21 March
Nieuwe Instituut
Museumpark 25
3015 CB Rotterdam

Day 2 – Friday 22 March
LI-MA
Arie Biemondstraat 111
1054 PD Amsterdam

TICKETS

Tickets for the symposium are available here.

• Tickets for either Day 1 or Day 2 are €75 or €25 for students (incl. VAT) each. A passe-partout ticket for both days is €100.
• All tickets include lunch and entry to the exhibition REBOOT. Pioneering Digital Art at Nieuwe Instituut, plus free access to an evening with Constant Dullaart at Nieuwe Instituut on the evening of 21 March, as well as 50% discounted entrance to Sonic Acts' exhibition at W139, Amsterdam.
• Bring a friend for half price: upon purchasing your day ticket or passepartout, you will receive a 50% discount on an additional purchase. Student tickets are not eligible for this offer.
• Please remember that each day of the event takes place in a different location, in a different city.

ACCOMMODATION

Symposium visitors can stay at Conscious Hotel Vondelpark, close to LI-MA, at a 15% discount. Use code LIMA24 at checkout.

Promotional design by Nicole Martens / NM(studio).