A collaboration for the dead?
by Kresta Tyler Johnson
Artists Stephen Hobbs and Marcus Neustetter of The Trinity Session, in collaboration with the creative magazine Enjin are attempting to spur the public into action to preserve redundant or dated technology in a new museum dedicated to dead media. This museum is currently operating under the title Museum for Dead Media (MODM), and the conceptual framework was introduced at Design Indaba 2005 in Cape Town.
The initial premise is to draw awareness to the need to collect and preserve outdated technology and to 'reflect on the ways in which these tools are still applied in creative processes and. . . to reflect on the advancements in new technologies and media.' The creators are now posing the questions, 'what shape and form could a museum of dead media take. Is it a building, a collective networked data system, a discussion forum or a series of presentations and features in future issues of the magazine and DVD supplement?'
Hobbs and Neustetter used the forum of Design Indaba to call for ideas on 'creative uses of dead media', and concepts for the Museum. They attempted to engage audiences with notions of dead media 'through a presentation of their personal collection of old and 'new technology' that has been employed to produce their artistic output.'
Audience members were then asked to bring their dead or abandoned technology to the exhibition space and to develop an exchange with the object to re-examine 'questions around the uselessness or usefulness of so called dead media and the role that such media plays in processes of reproduction.'
This culminated over a three day period into a foundation for the possible creation of a MODM. Simultaneously, Enjin has called for individuals to submit interpretations of dead media for possible future inclusion either in editions of the magazine or ultimately in the Museum. Unlike many calls for submissions, there are no limiting restrictions.
For further information, or to submit a proposal, interested parties can go online to www.enjin.co.za or concepts and proposals can be sent to modm@onair.co.za
At this point it is still all conceptual, but it will be intriguing to see if it manifests itself. Can we support a MODM?
