Dr. phil. Annette Hünnekens

Artist, Curator, Expert for media art and digital culture
mediARTconsulting, Munich (DE)

BIO

She is working as curator, media art historian, educator, lecturer and author of science of art, as well as computer graphic artist, culture manager and communication specialist.

Beside her traditional humanistic academic education including Language and Intercultural Literature Studies, Art History, Modern History, Education Science and Phenomenology at the Technical University Fridericiana Karlsruhe (today: KIT Karlsruher Institute of Technology) she was working for several years at a Photo Studio and visiting several courses for Video and Computeranimation at ZKM, Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe as well as Electronic Music at the University of Music Karlsruhe and Media Theory, Philosophy, Aesthetic and Media Art at the University of Design (HfG) in Karlsruhe.

During her earlier years she was a member of the foundation group for the first collection of Interactive Media Art at the ZKM, Center of Media Art, Karlsruhe. Some more academic years with several research studies followed as a member of the DFG research group at University of Siegen (Hybrid Culture) and the Academy of Media Art, KHM Cologne (Virtual Museum) which ended up getting a PhD of the Arts and Philosophy at KIT, University Karlsruhe.

Lots of lectures and author activities were followed until she founded the M.A.C. mediARTconsulting, where some more different cultural projects and exhibition concepts could be realized and brought into the economic world, based on her further education on Culture Management at the Business Academy for Media Event Culture in Munich.

Later on she started to work as an artist on her first exhibitions introducing and performing her own art to a wider audience in Germany, Austria and via Internet also to Europe. One of her conceptional AI computer graphic artwork is part of the most famous European dada collection in Italy. Her work is based on the exclusively usage of apps, following the concept and quality of a fundamental mathematical production with infinite potential of all virtual creations, expressed by adding the formula “n+1” to her computer graphics. In exploring the virtual space, several qualities of separated endoand exo-spheres can be pointed out and fixed in her grafic prints and serial productions.

 

Abstract

Mind sets for elusiveness and fluidity within a digital world

After more than 30 years experience of media art exhibitions within the context of festivals, that kind of art had finally enter the famous houses of honor and got a fix part of the collection of contemporary art. But how can technological development and time based distraction be handled to keep the artwork alive for all the following generations This talk will completely focus on so-called general things like digital art features, because here exactly is the source, where all the “problems” come from. We will have to face again the basic things that are connected with digital existence and decay as significant qualities of media art works.

Based on the straight development and exponential growing technology, everything has to be questioned once and again and tried to be categorized. After all, an increased awareness of what we are doing when keeping media art in general and, above all, what we are doing right now and what should, might or could be done, will establish itself.

Consequently individual aspects, that determine the work of archiving and restorative have to be pursuit and these are questions of WHY (PURPOSE ) trying to keep such fluid content with fluid media technology, the question of the inherence of LIFE / DEATH of the work, then what these works are in terms of ORIGINALS (AUTHORITY), including their AURA as well as the question of the OPENNESS / CLOSENESS, AUDIENCE CONTEXT, etc. These are the linchpins for WHAT to do for some kind of preservation. As this statement is fundamental, lots of aspects also might be well known to some specialist of the audience. But as problem solver often gets a too focused tunnel view, it could be useful to open it up and bringing back some essential roots.

When the Sistine Chapel was restored, there were endless cries – rightly so as in general: When everything is going to be done, that can be done, paradoxically more is often going to be lost for ever and the Sistine Chapel was a huge example here. Whenever there are TRANSLATIONS, so to say “changes” in time and space gains and losses at work are the side effects, and that is all which belongs to the potential of the work. The history of these changes is showing most clearly the work in its essence. At the end there is the question of what does it mean and take to keep media art for next generations. If media art is more and more becoming a true phenomena of our times to be captured within its own inherent presence, we first of all have to build huge stores for memory and any sense of history.