Experience in th Archive was a research project at the Centre for Research and Documentation (CR&D) at the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art Science and Technology, Sept-December 2007.
The aim of the project was to champion the central role of human experience in the way we research and document New Media Art. The rationale behind the project was that the subjective, lived experience of the audience is a central concern in contemporary culture, which finds particular expression in New Media Art from the 1960s to the present day. With its emphasis on interaction, dematerialisation, systems and generative process, audience experience is often the content, location and driving force of New Media Art. However descriptions of that experience, either first or second hand, written or recorded are rarely prioritised in the documentation of the work.
The project had two major outcomes, both of which will be published on the DLF website during 2008;
1) A documentary case study of “Giver of Names”, by David Rokeby.
Produced in collaboration with Caitlin Jones the case study draws together experiential documentation (including more than 20 interviews with audience members), with conceptual and technical documents. An introductory essay explains how we purposefully exploited the tension between “real” and “ideal” notions of the artwork to produce a rich documentary resource.
2) A theoretical and practical exploration of the possibility of an “Oral History” of media art.