"“Archiving the Vibe”: Ethnographic Strategies for Archiving New Media Art" Bernadette Houde

This paper suggests a strategy for the preservation of not only new media artworks, but also the communities that surround their production. These approaches look beyond the preservation of the work itself, to examine the scene, social milieu or the ‘vibe’ surrounding a work of art. I propose that some strategies used in ethnographic research, in particular Clifford Geertz’s idea of ‘thick description,’ can be used to document and therefore preserve these ephemeral qualities of a new media artwork. Within this proposition, I also suggest that documenting the failure of these works, be it technical, critical, financial or otherwise failed, deepens any preservation strategies already at play. As an example of this strategy I examine StudioXX, a feminist artist-run center in Montreal.

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Bernadette Houde is currently working on her MA in Media Studies at Concordia University. She is on the Board of Directors at StudioXX as well as a member of the electronic music group Lesbians On Ecstasy.