Database and Context Artistic Strategies within a Dynamic Field of Action

Abstract

A ›datum‹ is that which is given, as opposed to a ›factum‹, that which is made, or produced. ›Database‹ suggests a collection of data as a given structure upon which one may build further, or - when referred to in German as a ›databank‹ - a bank, from which one may retrieve data, depending on one’s interest. In this case, however, the etymology is deceptive. The database is, in any event, already a produced ›factum‹, delineated as much by economical as by social vectors. Furthermore, data is never simply a set ›given‹; rather, it transforms itself, undermines itself, dissipates itself. The loss of data is a constant and inherent process in the archive. Today the archive sees itself confronted by processes of fictionalization as well as dissipation, as much as does the technology within which it operates². The dissipation of electronic media is, on the one side, a technical issue, in that the pressure to innovate does not allow for criteria such as longevity, and on the other, it is based on the performativity of the archive itself. Thus the incomprehensibly and exponentially growing amount of knowledge and information creates a desire for tools that qualitatively and quantitatively collect, sort, and evaluate data material to be presented via interfaces. This text, however, is not about new technologies and database systems, but about fantasies and exemplary strategies as to how artists work with databases.

First published in »aRt&D: Research and Development in Art«. Rotterdam: V2_NAi Publishers, 2005. This text is based on materials and thoughts related to the theme of »Mapping und Text« for the online portal Media Art Net (http://www.mediaartnet.org), which was to be published in comprehensive form and linked to audiovisual material towards the end of 2004. It is a project carried out in collaboration with Dieter Daniels, commissioned by the Goethe Institute and the ZKM Karlsruhe, and supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.