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New Media Archiving doctoral seminar in Helsinki

ARCHIVING THE NEW MEDIA
Maximum obsolescence or digital permanence?

Media Lab doctor of arts seminar

23-25 November 2015, Aalto Media Factory, Hämeentie 135, 00560 Helsinki

To archive means to set aside for preservation and an archive is a storage site where materials deemed worthy of remembrance are kept. The objective of this seminar/workshop is to examine major points related to the preservation of new media art and practices. We will focus on the phenomenon of maximum obsolescence that currently permeates the new media and our digital world with the objective to investigate the possibility of digital permanence.
Ours could be labelled as the era of the “new-new”. Constant and relentless change has become a way of life. A non-stop stream of new artefacts rapidly supersedes the cultural matter created within one generation. In this context, our objective during the three days of the seminar/workshop will be to ponder about this current state of existence in our Information Society.
Among the topics we would like to focus, from a new media perspective that includes both the technical and the theoretical are: What is change? How does it affect our own practices as cultural producers? Is change now a permanent condition of being in our digital culture? What drives it? Are there proactive ways – or strategies that could be devised – which could lead us to some kind of digital permanence? How does this continuous change affect both the creation of new media art and design works as well as their collection? How does this in turn affect our cultural memory?

* Keynote speakers

Raitis Smits
Artist, curator and researcher on new media culture and networked arts, founder of E-Lab – electronic arts laboratory and RIXC – artist collective and new media cultural center in Riga, assistant prof. in Latvian Academy of Arts, and teaching in Liepaja University, New Media Art Programme

Rasa Smite
Artist, curator and network researcher, co-founder of RIXC, associate prof. In Liepaja University's New Media Art Programme

Jukka Savolainen
Director of Design Museum Helsinki

Perttu Rastas:
“Archive media now, not when it’s obsolete!”
Founder of AV-arkki, the Distribution Centre for Finnish Media Art, Senior Planning Officer in the Collections Department, Finnish National Gallery

Ora Lassila,
Semantic Web expert, technology architect at Pegasystems

Minna Tarkka
Researcher, producer, critic and educator of media arts and design, director and co-founder of m-cult co-founded m-cult, centre for new media culture in Helsinki

Raimo Lång, Yleisradio
Head of Content Developement and Skills Training
Raimo is in charge of program/concept developement in TV, radio, web and transmedia. Additionally he leads the developement of professional training in feature journalism, docs, reality, drama and transmedia creation.

* Methods of work

We will have keynote presentations as well as work time in groups. In order to participate, you need to bring a project or aspects of a topic that you will present and work with during the three days.

* Learning outcomes

Participants will identify key landmarks and strategies that enable them to create their own Map for Change that they can continue to develop for their own practices.

* Participants

The seminar is open to Doctor of Arts and advanced Master of Arts students at Aalto University.

* Organizers

Seminar is organized and led by Prof. Lily Diaz

PROGRAMME

Day 1, Monday, 23 November
Location: Aalto Media Factory, 135 C Hämeentie, Arabia

13:00 Participants present each other’s work/projects.

15:00 Coffee break

15:30 Welcome: Lily Díaz (Aalto)

16:00 Keynote presentation: Ora Lassila (Pegasystems/USA)

17:00 Keynote presentation: Jukka Savolainen (Design museo/Finland)

18:00 Discussion