Page 221 - The Black Box Book

more relevance to the nature of the project. Navigating Adrian Ward’s im- social media documentation of exhibition presence. In that sense,
age decomposition pieces through archived pages on the Internet Archive the discussion of 6 Months Without led to thoughtful observations
Wayback Machine back and forward through time seems an apposite and further problematised the tension between a performance piece,
and empathetic form of historical engagement with the work. Doing which interrogates living offline, having created digital records, such
so might also help address the issue raised by another participant, as videos, automated emails and other web residue. In that sense,
Gina Cortopassi, of translating “the conceptual dimension of a work” the discussions about what-is-to-be-preserved focused on defining
to its archive even when an “experience of deprivation or corruption”. the boundaries of the work and considered its migration from the an-
The experience of accessing past and present iterations of ordure.org, alogue to the digital. In a parallel manner, in shifting the boundaries of
travelling through the archived time-based future of an image’s decompo- the work from performance to exhibition, the discussion considered
sition, might be even more relevant to the work than a viewer’s recollection exhibition as a tactic of restoration and preservation in the canon of
of experiencing those contingent and fragmentary pages through the live history of art. Restaging a work or selecting it for an exhibition often
web alone. More so still when now navigating ordure.org, dump.ordure.org increases its value and repositions it historically. What is more, a con-
and museum-ordure.org on the live web and through its archive across servator acting as a producer and a manager over the lifespan of a work
different browser tabs. Conservator Lisa Mansfield questioned, howev- frames their work as discursive and positions them as an active care-
er, the authenticity of an instantiation as captured through the Internet taker within the network of care.
Archive Wayback Machine created from “hybrids of different snapshot In considering 6 Months Without alongside the Museum
fragments not all from the same time”. Capturing a situated viewing of of Ordure, the conversation focused on the role of forgetting
the historical site through Webrecorder or Conifer would have addressed as an essential part of memory and the ways in which the omittance,
that better should the technology have been available at the time. decay or resistance to documentation influences the value of the work.
Yet again, achieving an authentic instantiation of “www.ordure.org” would Both case study artworks were realised in a wide network of actants,
be at odds with the Museum of Ordure’s Preservation Policy, which dis- agents and conditions, both human and non-human, on and offline.
closes the actuality of its impossibility and maintain a critical stance and These expanded webs of interaction, constituting a huge aspect of
distance toward the construction of history itself. the networked nature of the works, were also considered as part of
The discussion of 6 Months Without opened with a consideration a potential network of care, following Annet Dekker. A dispersed and
of the boundaries of the work of art. The group agreed that a start date decentralised network of preservation, however, would have implications
may be indicated by the artist first conceiving the performance and over the ownership of the work in question. The discussion reflected on
expanding to activities such as research, notes, conversations, discussions how qualities such as fragmentation and obsolescence were present
and even funding applications. However, establishing the end date was in the preservation of performance or net art and how that determines
more challenging and led to questioning whether participatory works could the value of the work.
ever have a definitive end date, if engagement with the work continues. Keeping up with the discussion about the edges of the work,
On the question of what-is-to-be-preserved regarding 6 Months Without, the conversation considered documenting a performance score. In de-
archivist Annet Dekker asked whether we should also conserve the pres- termining boundaries, the group wondered what information constitutes
ence of Rönkkö’s films on YouTube in addition to the video itself. Is there the score and whether it needs to be recorded for future re-perfor-
an irony in streaming video work made from being offline on probably the mance, activism or research. More importantly, how does this, as a form
world’s most popular online streaming platform? This consideration speaks of documentation, reflect and communicate the conceptual dimensions
to the expanded nature of performance and its edges and boundaries of the work and the artist’s intention? What pieces of documentation
in relation to engagement by audience, researchers, exhibition, activism, are necessary to capture the artistic context from which the work
or possible restaging of the work. Discussions around participatory ac- emerged and will translate that essence in future restaging? Drawing
tion in 6 Months Without, such as seminars and workshops, expanded parallels with the Museum of Ordure, it is worth highlighting that both
the concept of networks within the work and provided further insight. artworks like to resist or neglect their dependence on the Internet.
Rönkkö and Sarah Cook, as a curator of the Somerset House 24/7 ex- If 6 Months Without generates a huge amount of physical artefacts
hibition, discussed the work’s inclusion in the show as a performance, and is perhaps an unorthodox choice for a case study on networked
thus shifting the boundaries of the work from performance to exhibition. art practice, its study aptly addresses our increased dependence on
What is more, this shift also included the exhibition evaluation, reviews, networked technologies and offers a valuable consideration of complex
audience images and interaction with the work. This brought about artworks, presenting challenges to preservation. Capturing the value of
questions about performance interaction and exhibition interaction and the Museum of Ordure and particularly the artists’ intent in the work is
their respective engagement, through exchange of physical letters or difficult while planning a preservation strategy which is arguably going to
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