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Research Interests
- Contemporary art exhibition, distribution, preservation
- Re-exhibition
- Exhibition histories
- Museum studies
Abstract of Doctoral Dissertation
In the last decades, an increasing number of moving-image works have been presented in exhibitions venues. The medium of production of these time-based works (single-channel videos, video installations, film installations, etc.) makes them more conducive to replication. Consequently, they can then be sold in editions, meaning that more than one institution or collector can acquire the “same” artwork. My dissertation focuses on intersecting events occurringin the life cycle of editioned video and film installations: the inaugural exhibition, the artwork’s distribution, its preservation, and the subsequent re-exhibitions. These events arecrucial phases in the formation of the work’s identity and behaviour. The aim of my dissertation is to understand how these phases influence the identity of editioned media artworks and to develop a model for describing these works. The main research questions of the dissertation are: Who are the mediators involved in the life cycle of an editioned video or film installation? What are their influence(s) on the life cycle of editioned works of art? How do these mediators shape the identity and the authenticity of these works? And finally, how do they affect their display, distribution and preservation? In order to answer these questions, the dissertation proposes to develop the notion of script as a methodological tool. The script as used in my doctoral dissertation has been influenced by the definition proposed by Madeleine Akrich in the field of Actor-Network-Theory (ANT). Whereas for Akrich the script is a set of instructions implicit in the technical object, I propose an active theoretical standpoint: scripting artworks, which I define as a process to seize the necessary conditions for time-based artworks’ instantiations. Scripting an artwork is writing a set of actions allowing the definition of its identity; it is a way to acknowledge all the mediators making its existence possible. In my dissertation, I studied the scripting of editioned media artworks by tracing the life cycles of three case studies: Douglas Gordon’s Play Dead; Real Time (2003), Mike Kelley’s Day is Done (2005) and John Massey’s As the Hammer Strikes (A Partial Illustration) (1982). The case studies show that in order to understand the identity of editioned media artworks, taking their exhibition history into account is of the outmost importance, since the identity of these works takesshape over time, changing witheach public manifestation. Therewith, the research shows that it is crucial to approach the scripting of editioned media artworks as a dynamic process.
Academic Background
- Ph.D. Art History (2007-2011), Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Dissertation title: Scripting Artworks: Studying the Socialization of Editioned Video and Film Installations Supervisors : Prof.dr. José Van Dijck and Dr. Julia Noordegraaf - M.A. Art History (2003-2005), Université de MontréalThesis title: Quelques installations réexposées Supervisor: Dr. Lise Lamarche - International Summer Seminar in Museology, École du Louvre, Paris (August – September 2004) - B.A. Art History (2000-2003), Université de Montréal - Intensive Spanish classes (Summer 2002), Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
Publications
- “On Passages BetweenArt and Cinema” in Preserving and Exhibiting Media Art: Challenges and Perspectives, edited by Julia Noordegraaf, Cosetta Saba, Barbara Le Maître and Vinzenz Hediger. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, forthcoming (2012).
- with Julia Noordegraaf, “Epilogue” in Preserving and Exhibiting Media Art: Challenges and Perspectives, edited by Julia Noordegraaf, Cosetta Saba, Barbara Le Maître and Vinzenz Hediger. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, forthcoming (2012).
- “Moving images, editioned artworks and authenticity” in Art, Conservation, and Authenticities: Material, Concept, Context, edited by Erma Hermens and Tina Fiske. London: Archetype Publishing, 2009, p. 208-216.
Conference Presentations
- “Living through instantiations: the variable nature of time-based art.” Panel Resurrecting the Disappeared: The Problem of Re-Presentation and Exhibition of Time-based Twentieth Century Art in the Twenty-first Century. College Art Association (CAA) Annual Symposium, Chicago, February 11-13, 2010.
- “Collecting a fragment of an ongoing project: Mike Kelley’s series Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction.” Symposium Media in Motion: The Challengeof Preservation in the Digital Age. McGill University, Montreal, October 29, 2008. - “Producing meaning through categorization: A few case studies dealing withthe Reality Check exhibition.” International workshop The Museum and Contemporary Art – Part 2, Copenhagen, October 4-5, 2008. - “The visitor’s understanding of the projection technique.” Session on “STS on Art and the Art onSTS”, conference of TheSocietyfor Social Studies of Science (4S) / European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST), Rotterdam, August 20, 2008. - “Expositions récentes sur l’image projetée.” Cinema, Contemporary Art, Heritage. Contemporary practices of the image and museum policies. Spring School, Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA), Paris, April 20-30, 2008. - “Turning the Museum into a‘light cube.’”International workshop The Museum and Contemporary Art, The Copenhagen Doctoral School in Cultural Studies, Copenhagen, April 14-15, 2008. - “The different ‘versions’ of John Massey’s As the Hammer Strikes (A Partial Illustration).” re:place 2007, The Second International Conference on the Histories of Media, Art, Science and Technology, Berlin, November 15-18, 2007 [poster presentation]. - “Re-exhibiting the moving image. Douglas Gordon’s Play Dead: Real Time and John Massey’s As the Hammer Strikes (A Partial Illustration).” Conference on Art, Conservation and Authenticities: Material, Concept, Context, University of Glasgow, September 12-14, 2007 - “Petite incursion dans le vaste monde de l’installation”, lecture given in the class Arts visuels et arts scéniques, Cégep Ahuntsic, Montreal, April 24, 2007. - Participation in the round table on “Restoration and conservation of time-based art”, DOCAM Summit,Montreal, October 27, 2006. - “L’installation aumusée : œuvre fixée ou actualisée?” Canadian Society for Aesthetics, University of Western Ontario, London (Ontario), May 29-31, 2005. Theme of the conference: Œuvres d’art originales ? Versions ?Adaptations ? Remaniements ? Réflexions sur les formes de pérennité des œuvres d’art contemporain et le rôle de leur documentation - “L’installation : une forme artistique en perpétuelle réactualisation?” 5e Colloque étudiant du Département d’histoire, Université Laval, Quebec City, February 17-18, 2005. - “Une pile de briques comme œuvre d’art? Quelques réflexions sur la série Equivalent de Carl Andre”. Theme of the conference: Art contemporain et conduites extrêmes : iconoclasme, censure, fétichisme, organized by Johanne Lamoureux, Université de Montréal, Montreal, November 22, 2003.Work Experience
- Research Assistant (October 2011). Department of Media Studies, Universiteit van Amsterdam
- Research Assistant (January – August 2010). Department of Media Studies, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Research Initiatives
- Co-founder with Vivian van Saaze of the International Network for PhD and postdoctoral researchers in conservation of contemporary art: http://www.incca.org/phdandpostdocnetwork
- Coordinator oftheReading Group on Time-based art, Department of Media Studies, Universiteit van Amsterdam (2009 – ongoing). Reading group instigated by Dr. Julia Noordegraaf & Dr.Joost Bolten.