Snapshots coming from Erika Marthins’ Instagram, and on a team member’s laptop (the coming database, visual tests, as well as our “table of elements”—of digital (online) exhibitions), during the research week in Lausanne. With additional views at Plateforme 10 and ECAL. November 2024.

Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás (UCL) came for a second time in 2024 to ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne (HES-SO), joining Patrick Keller, Erika Marthins and Christian Babski (ECAL) once again for research activities, during the early days of November.

This part of the research team, which will also lead subsequently the practice-based study, has continued its interdisciplinary work of cataloguing, mapping / evaluating past and recent major digital exhibitions, while gradually achieving its first objectives.

The week also provided an opportunity to discuss research objectives with the directors and curators of Plateforme 10 in Lausanne.

The aim of this specific part of the study (Paik Replayed’s first workpackage), as already mentioned, is to better understand what “makes” digital exhibitions. This means understanding their different types (there are obviously an endless number of them…), their media, technologies, structures and infrastructures, and their relationship with the material world.

We also plan to produce a series of illustrations and mappings for a narrow selection of them, enabling us to examine them in greater details.

We can now start envision our study to result in a substantial tool in open-access (a searchable online database) for academics, artists, professionals and enthusiasts of past and present “digital (online) exhibitions”. It will contain over 200 cases covering 30 years, more than 1,000 artists, dozens of curators and institutions, and other information.

We look forward to this “tool”, and to putting this amazingly creative world into perspective (… hopefully in the second half of 2025, for the open-access part).