FORGET IT!
don't trust your archives
In addition to Jean Paul's remark that memories are the paradises you cannot
be expulsed from, it can be said in respect to the memory of the art system
that at the same time it is the hell you cannot escape from. (Jens Kiefer)
My memory, sir, is like a dustbin. (Jorge Luis Borges "The relentless
memory")
The ability of men to remember is basic principle of our culture and
essential part of what our society defines itself by. Museums, archives,
databases and networks determine the picture we make of our society.
Our urge to collect and write down information, to systematically index, to
archive and to finally preserve what we believe to be important enough to be
passed on to our posterity, has reached the extent of an enormous data
stream with the digital age.
Archives are not only the accumulation of data; they also stand for the
protection against the threatening loss of things ç the temptation to save
everything, so that nothing gets lost, is therefore self-evident. Expanding
communication channels, varied storage possibilities and extensive
meta-keywording are responsible for the increase of digital archives. This
leads to the question, whether the higher quantity of data causes the
development of new storage media, or whether the increased storage capacity
makes room for the production of data trash. How many archivists does it
take to move the accumulated data masses? And who is able to use them
anyway? What criteria are applied to select what is to be preserved and what
can or should be forgotten?
Storage media assign the format in which information is preserved and by
that determine if and how data can be retrieved and what is possible to be
archived as an event at all. If one understands memory as the basis of
culture, storage media and the use of them essentially define what is
labelled as culture and finds its way into the public consciousness.
Our confidence in the perfection of recording technologies, archiving and
collaborative filter mechanisms change our perception of reality. The
awareness of the ability to save and store everything for later use reduces
our willingness to concentrate on the moment. Condensed information as the
result of recording and filter processes is often regarded as more effective
than the direct experience of a live situation.
How durable is the moment? What is the quality of the non-permanent? Who
has got an overall picture of the data masses and who questions the
possibilities of mediation and access? Where are the limits of conventional
storage technologies? How are ways to archive developed further? Which
filters separate the important from the unimportant? How effective is
oblivion? garage 05 is searching for artistsœ positions that critically
discuss technologies and mechanics of saving, archiving and forgetting.
>>>
call for entries
9th festival garage stralsund/germany
22.07. - 13.08.2005
FORGET IT!
don't trust your archives
Data, images, sounds, terms, definitions, signs, contacts, biometrical
information, stamps ... Our culture is determined by the urge to collect and
to archive, to save and to index, to systemise and to codify. Thanks to
digitisation we are relieved of the tedious obligation to decide what is
worth preserving - we therefore save everything and decide later what we
need.
The confidence we have in the perfection of recording technologies,
database systems, search algorithms and collaborative filter mechanisms
change our reception of reality. The awareness of the ability to save and
recall everything for later use reduces our willingness to concentrate on
the moment. Not the event is important but the condensed information in a
practical storage format.
Reference is security. To leave the field of what is considered secure is a
risk. Imperfection, coincidence, spontaneity - what cannot be saved,
recorded and documented? What is the quality of the non-permanent? What
sense makes an archive nobody is looking at? How productive is oblivion?
Rewriting of rules, breaking off processes, selecting and deleting - garage
05 is searching for artists' approaches and positions that critically
discuss the technologies and mechanics of saving, archiving and forgetting.
Send us your proposals and concepts for presentations, installations,
performances, projects, papers, and workshops.
Trash your archives, but don't forget to make a backup!
In cooperation with the german-polish project Radio_Copernicus the
realisation of radio projects will be possible during the festival garage.
Radio_C will be producing and transmitting from mid-july to december 2005
from several places in Germany and Poland. Parallel to the festival garage
it will be on air for the first time. In Stralsund Radio_C can be heard
on an fm frequency and everywhere else via livestream.
Additionally to the general call for entries of the festival garage 05 there
will be thus the possibility to submit projects that use the medium radio. You can
submit already produced radio works or concepts for projects that could be realised
during the festival.
Submission deadline for materials and proposals is 2nd May 2005.
submission form
www.garage-g.de/call05/garage-05.pdf