(2003) Database Dilemmas
The process of collecting, structuring and storing information and data is a phenomenon typical of digital times. Obviously, data are the
fundaments of almost any digital platform. As an archiving tool, the
database seems to be the most dominant form by which to organise and structure information. So far.
The obsession with organising and archiving information has also left
its traces in contemporary digital art practices. Many artists have
discovered the database as a new domain for artistic, social and
aesthetic experiments. In the last decade, these artists have been developing several different approaches toward its specific characteristics. Their dilemmas concern, among others, the narrative
[how to create narrative from a static collection of data?], the
formal/structural [how to change the specific indexical form of the
database?] and the socio-political [how to change its character from a
closed, controlled system into an open, public one?].
Impakt intends to seek and show projects from artists that explore the
phenomenon of data-collections and the particular structure of the
database from a critical point of view. What are their poetics,
aesthetics and ethics? How do they visualise collections of information
in their projects? How do they approach the traditional model of the
database? With which aims do they attack, transform and extend its
static form and encyclopaedic structure?
Two projects are developed for Database Dillemas:
The Inhabitants by Marika Dermineur and Ebay Longing by Angie Waller
Database Dilemmas was conceived by Deanna Herst for Impakt Online.
Angy Waller (works)
Project Ebay Longing explores the potential of the auction website Ebay
as an anthropological tool by performing search queries for
Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, countries that ...
Marika Dermineur & technician (works)
Project The Inhabitants is a time-based fiction which divides the day
into severals daily life activities, like "cook", "dream", "eat",
"play", "refresh", "trash", "tea", "work" or ...
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