UNFOLD
LI-MA's groundbreaking reinterpretation research and project.
UNFOLD is LI-MA's reinterpretation programme, focusing on translations of media artworks and practices to a new era, new technology, new context and new audience. LI-MA researches new methods for the documentation, transmission and preservation of media art, digital art and performances. UNFOLD is an ongoing project involving research and a collaborative, international research network that together examines re-interpretation as emerging practice for media art preservation.
The main goal of UNFOLD
Reinterpretation is a core concept in music, dance and theatre. Every re-performance is a translation into a new, often contemporary, context. Re-performing a work based on documentation, a script, memory or score is an essential part of artistic practice. For complex works in the field of media art and digital art, this is not common, but just as urgent. Reinterpretation of media art can contribute to the preservation and better understanding of the work. Since 2016, LI-MA has put reinterpretation on the map as an artistic and conservation strategy. In the interdisciplinary and international UNFOLD project contextualising, documenting, analysing, understanding, embodiment and transferring digital culture are central.
The main goal of UNFOLD has thus been to provide greater insight into the challenges related to conserving media art beyond questions of technique and technology, with a focus on both theoretical and practical issues. The discussions we have had so far have been most valuable for locating the interdisciplinary and interprofessional spaces within which creative – and perhaps provocative – theoretical and practical work might be carried out. We hope to continue to work with the consortium that has gathered around the project to formulate a future collaborative international project to research this topic further.
Commissioned works
A large part of UNFOLD is the commissioning of a new work based on the artwork or artist that is the focus of that particuliar edition of UNFOLD. Since 2016 there have been four new artworks commissioned and now distributed by LI-MA. Click the links below to view them on Mediakunst.net.
Besides events and artworks, the UNFOLD project also focuses on research regarding the use of reinterpretation as a preservation strategy. Artists and scholars alike have written essays and books and given talks about this subject. Below you can find a selection of these articles focusing on this preservation strategy in general or tied directly to LI-MA's UNFOLD events.
UNFOLD is supported by the Mondriaan Fonds, Nan Hoover Foundation and AFK.
