CONFERENCE ON THE PRESERVATION OF TECHNOLOGICAL AND ELECTRONIC WORKS OF ART

Press Release

CONFERENCE ON THE PRESERVATION OF TECHNOLOGICAL AND ELECTRONIC WORKS OF ART

Montreal, October 12, 2006 - The Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology is pleased to announce that the second annual Summit of the DOCAM Research Alliance (Documentation and Conservation of the Media Arts Heritage) will be held in Montreal on October 26, 2006, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., at the Tanna Schulich Hall of the McGill University Schulich School of Music, 555 Sherbrooke St. West.
DOCAM is a major multidisciplinary research project, the primary objective of which is to examine the challenging issue of media art conservation. The project is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (through its CURA program) as well as by the Daniel Langlois Foundation and its many partners. Over the project’s five year mandate, numerous case studies will be conducted that focus on documentary collections and conserving works of art featuring technological content. These studies will contribute to the development of methods and tools to improve the preservation of the fragile media arts heritage.

Knowledge transfer and the training of future professionals are also high priorities for the DOCAM Research Alliance. For this reason, a seminar program on the challenges of documenting and conserving technology-based works of art has been created for Masters and Ph.D. students. The first seminar was offered during the 2006 winter semester, and a second is being planned for the 2007 winter term.
The DOCAM Research Alliance, initiated by the Daniel Langlois Foundation, is comprised of some 20 institutional partners, including the National Gallery of Canada, Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Hexagram Institute, the Canadian Heritage Information Network, the faculties of many Canadian universities (including McGill, UQAM, Queen’s and Universite de Montreal), and international partners such as the journal Leonardo, New York University, and V2 - Institute for the Unstable Media (Rotterdam). DOCAM also brings together more than 20 specialists and researchers in domains such as art conservation and restoration, the cataloguing of museum collections, art history, information management, archival science, art documentation and computer science.

The second annual DOCAM Summit will allow the Alliance’s research committee chairs to report on the progress of their respective teams. In addition, guest speakers Mona Jimenez (Tisch School for the Arts, New York University), Hans Dieter Huber (Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, Stuttgart), Matthew Biederman (artist and technologist), and Pip Laurenson (Tate, London) will share a number of resources, tools and research projects associated with the DOCAM themes. And finally, internationally renowned Canadian artist Vera Frenkel will close the day with a conference on her latest works.

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SOURCE: Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology
FOR INFORMATION: 514 987-7177, ext. 4220
To view the conference program, please go to: http://www.docam.ca.

2006 DOCAM International Summit
Tanna Schulich Hall
Schulich School of Music - 555 Sherbrooke St. W.
McGill University - Montreal

Thursday, October 26, 2006 - Public conference day

Program

8:30 a.m. Registration

9:00 a.m. Opening of conference: Introduction by Sylvie Lacerte, moderator

9:05 a.m. Welcome from Jean Gagnon, Executive Director, Daniel Langlois Foundation

9:10 a.m. Word of welcome from Don McLean, Dean of the Schulich School of Music at McGill University

9:20 a.m. Panel: DOCAM Alliance progress report by research committee chairs:
Alain Depocas, DLF/research director and chair of Documentation Committee;
Richard Gagnier, NGC/Conservation - Case Studies;
Louise Poissant, UQAM/Pedagogical Activities;
Allison Simpson, CHIN/Cataloguing Structure;
William Straw, McGill/Technological Timeline;
James Turner, EBSI/UM/Terminology.

10:30 a.m. Summary and question period

10:45 a.m. Break

11:00 a.m. Panel: Teaching the documentation and conservation of technology-based artworks

Mona Jimenez, Moving Image Archiving & Preservation, Tisch School for the Arts, New York University

Hans Dieter Huber, Conservation of New Media and Digital Information, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, Stuttgart

12:10 p.m. Summary and question period

12:30 p.m. Lunch

2:15 p.m. The artist/technologist collaboration
Matthew Biederman, video performance artist, Montreal

3:00 p.m. Presentation of Media Matters project
Pip Laurenson, Chief Conservator, Time Based Media, Tate, London

3:30 p.m. Summary and question period

3:45 p.m. Break

4:00 p.m. Keynote address: Vera Frenkel, artist

5:00 p.m. Question period

5:20 p.m. End of conference day