I was initially drawn to the discussion on visual culture in cyberspace from my academic interests in architecture, technology, digital artifacts, and I am pleased to find connections to topics I haven’t visited in awhile: space/time, self-definition/ destruction/recreation, virtual reality vs. actual reality. In my academic endeavors, I am primarily concerned with the sustainability of historical practice as objects used for scholarship are digitally created. From my perspective as an archivist and information studies scholar, I am always considering how to document and preserve artifacts as evidence of creative expression, as well what these artifacts communicate about their creators and their social environment.
The idea of historical distance, as it pertains to analyzing art is intriguing to me, since I am well aware of the potential for loss. The rapid advancement of technology continues to allow artists and designers to push the boundaries of their work, extend their reach, and play with new media. The same advances require audiences (including historians) to engage these artists and their work without the typical 50-year distance.
I am concerned about the potential for scholars of the future to engage the art of the present. At the same time, this blog is a place to consider when/if/how/why we can/should preserve the cyberspatial creative expressions of the present. Should we extend our practices for documenting, analyzing, preserving creative works in a physical realm to new environments? Can we apply similar methodologies – or may we/must we rethink the kind of engagement scholars can have? Values and methods questions arise for artists, historians, and curators.
My blog will likely be a space to raise questions, struggle with difficult concepts, and think/write through ideas I have about cyberspace, visual culture, artistic representation, new forms of communication and connection, and finally the preservation implications for evolving modes of creative expression. And then there is architecture...
