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Lizzie Muller

Researcher in Residence (2007)

Experience in the Archive

The aim of this project is to champion the central role of human experience in the way we research and document new media art. The subjective, lived experience of the audience is a central concern in contemporary culture and finds particular expression in new media art from the 1960s to the present day. With its emphasis on interaction, dematerialisation, systems and generative processes, audience experience is often the content, location and driving force of new media art. However descriptions of this experience, either first or second hand, written or recorded, are rarely prioritised in the documentation of the work.

This project addresses the central question posed through the programs of the Daniel Langlois Foundation: "How does technology remain human or favour humanity?" The focus of audience experience will invigorate the archive as a living resource joining together past and future material. The project will offer vibrant, human-centred interpretations of historical material as well as new ways of accessing documentation. Current projects supported by the Foundation and the exhibition e-art: New Technologies and Contemporary Art will provide a dynamic testing ground for developing sound practices in the documentation of experience and will form the basis for a valuable body of material.

The project complements existing documentary and archival approaches to new media art fostered by the Daniel Langlois Foundation, which focus on the technical, aesthetic and conceptual aspects of the work.

© 2007 FDL