Panel-Discussion as part of the Ikono TV-festival.

Presenting a context or a line of narration for time-based media is quite a curatorial challenge. As soon as we approach this field, a multitude of questions appear, ranging from the different notions of linearity and narrativity, to strategies of transmedia storytelling. In parallel, the idea of the exhibition space continues to shift, changing how curators engage with their audiences. A time-based artwork may exist in many different forms and media assets, which could be understood as a tendency of artworks to become more virtual. This tendency helps avoid many problems associated with the physicality of the artwork, while at the same time setting new rules and restrictions that add an extra challenge to positioning digital artworks in time and space.

Another very interesting field of research lies in the preservation of digital repositories and the visualization of our digital cultural heritage. The possibility of free access to art creates and perpetuates a collective conscious of universal images, stories and ideas represented through art. However, this also implies a proliferation of content that is still dependent on traditional institutional structures for validation within an art context. Taking ikonoTV as a concrete showcase, the question of how to deal with the boundaries of both institutional structures and the media is a vital one. On this point, it is also interesting to engage in a historical recap and look into the evolution of time-based media art, and previous attempts of presenting art on television, as well as looking towards the future of television and how its role is changing in private and public spaces.

What are the challenges of curating time-based media today?
How can a curatorial context extend an artwork’s reception and meaning on diverse media outlets or platforms?
How is the artist’s work and existence being affected by all these changes?

We are very excited to gather an inspiring group of speakers from different video art and curatorial backgrounds, who will engage with these themes, and try to find answers to these big questions.

Confirmed participants:

Melanie Zagrean, Gallery Art Claims Impulse.
Jack Pam, Artistic Director of Ikono TV On Air Festival.
Tina Madsen, Artist and Curator.
Ingeborg Fülepp , Artist, Curator and University Professor.
Kathy Rae Huffman, Freelance Curator, Writer and Networker.

Image: Joe Hamilton
Hyper Geography, 2011
Video, 1’00” (still)
© Joe Hamilton
Courtesy of the artist