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STATEMENT OF RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Hanna Barbara Hölling
- Ph.D researcher (candidate) University of Amsterdam, M.A. conservator for contemporary art and new media
- My research is devoted to the exploration of the nature of contemporary artworks involving installations and technology-based media such as computer-based, video sculptures and complex multimedia installations involving organic components. The material life of artworks and understanding of the media they are made of, their manufacture, artistic, creative processes, their display, and their 'afterlife' from the moment they enter a (museum) collection and are being ‘musealized’ lies at the centre of my studies. Following the objects’ trajectories, it is their adaptation to institutional constrains and the moment of their conservation, storage, re-installation, and recreation that are essential turning points. I am looking into the material and conceptual transformations of artefacts being dependent on specific technology and, in course of their lives, being transformed into different forms of avatars. The issues of originality and authenticity and the way the artworks are being comprehended facing the transience of materials are central aspects of my research interests. An important role in my studies plays the artist’s involvement in the life of the artwork, during and far behind the creation process, and the questions resulting from the difficult relationship between the collections mandated to safeguard the cultural heritage on the one side, and the inherent transitoriness of contemporary art on the other. In the time of mass migration and emulation of formats, a particular attention in my research takes the shift between the analogue and the digital, along with its implications upon the visual appearance and physical properties of works of art. I am also interested in the alteration of artworks, the process that entails the interchangeable relationships between their material and conceptual qualities. Due to my former engagement with museum institution and collection care and I am focusing on future scenarios for perishable objects and the ways we might contribute our knowledge on different stages of artwork's life to sustain its further existence.
- Currently, I am engaged in completing my doctoral thesis entitled 'Re:Paik. Conservation and authenticity after the advent of new media' at the University of Amsterdam, theNetherlands (under the supervision of Prof. Deborah Cherry, Universityof Amsterdam, and Glenn Wharton Ph.D, New York University and Museum of Modern Art, New York) My thesis is a part of a larger initiative New Strategies in the Conservation of Contemporary Art at the University of Amsterdam, University of Maastricht, and Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE, the former ICN), involving a group of international scholars and researchers form the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain and United States. The scheduled completion is September 2013 with publication expected in the following year.
Contact
Institute of Art History and Cultural Studies
Herengracht 286, 1018 BC Amsterdam
The Netherlands
M +31 641 35 40 75, T +31 20 525 3039
h.b.hoelling@uva.nl
New Strategies in the Conservation of Contemporary Art
Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis
Netherlands Media Art Institute
International Network for Conservation of Contemporary Art
Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency
ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image (Professional MA)
Conservation of New Media and Digital Information
The Material Life of Things Project
Courtauld Institute of Art
PACKED /Obsolete Equipment Project