Wednesday, January 31, 2007

News from Upgrade! Berlin

Dear Ursula,

while you are in Pittsburgh, at the opening of your latest show, we have been on another field trip with Upgrade! Berlin. Last Saturday, we went to the Digital Art Museum and had a public discussion with Wolfgang Lieser, the initiator of this project. This was a very interesting and inspiring afternoon. This museum, which is in fact a gallery, evolved from a digital archive which has been established in the year 2000. Interesting - because usually, it's the other way round. First, there is a museum or a gallery and the virtual representation of the space is established afterwards. In this case, there was an archive prior to the physical space.
When we asked Wolfgang about his thought on curating netart, he came up with something interesting: he suggested netart to be displayed in the public sphere, because the web itself is a public domain. If we extend netart pieces into the public space, the reception of these artworks might be much more diferent than looking at a digital piece of art at home on your computer. You can check the whole video interview here.
I found another resource about digital art: The Database of Virtual Art, have you checked this one? I found it quite useful.
Dear Ursula, I can't wait to hear back from you how everything went down there in Pittsburgh. However, I am convinced that all went well.
The Transmediale started here in Berlin yesterday. We are looking forward to hosting our Upgrade! gathering for our international Transmediale guests, on coming Friday at the Gallery Tristesse Deluxe.

Talk soon, Ela