[ISEA2018] Paper: Annette Wolfsberger & Annet Dekker — Put Evaluation into Practice: The Collaborative Residency Life Cycle

Abstract

Keywords: Artist residency, conceptual space, transnational, collaboration, human-to-human network, trust, producing organization, shared resources, evaluation

A residency is a conceptual space that typically sits within the physical space and networks of an organisation. The residency itself is intangible, yet exists through a structure of time, discussion, thought, action and proclamation. The residency provides space for creative practitioners to develop ideas within a supported environment, outside of their usual context. It enables
immersion within different culture, exploration of practice with new people and a safe space to take risks. Practiced worldwide, the residency has become an invaluable resource for artists and
the development of new work – but is its potential much greater? As producing organisations, can we work together to connect our individual residency spaces? Can we use this connection to increase value to artists and the development of art? Can we offer a more diverse cultural contribution? Can we open up our practice to new audiences? And in this unpredictable, global
financial climate, can we offer greater stability by combining (often limited) resources? These were the leading questions that we posed ourselves five years ago. What happens if we go back to these outcomes and use them as a format for evaluating existing collaborative projects and testing and setting up new collaborative residencies? In this paper we will present the background, development and outcomes of our previous experience with collaborative residencies. At the same time we will focus on what we have termed the Collaborative
Residency Life Cycle, a model that can serve as a means to start thinking and developing new collaborative residencies. At ISEA2018 we aim to test the model with the audience and existing
labs and individual artists/practitioners in Durban as well as the wider region of South Africa.

  • Annette Wolfsberger (NL/AT) is an independent producer and researcher. Currently she is Project Coordinator of Re-Imagine Europe, a collaborative international commissioning and audience development project with an aim to respond to the social and political challenges. She worked as senior producer for Sonic Acts (2008-2017), contributing to and realising international commissioning and research projects such as Dark Ecology (NO/RU), Kontraste (AT) and the internationally touring Vertical Cinema project. Previously, she worked as project manager for European cultural workers’ exchange programmes for Trans Europe Halles (EU), programme manager for Virtueel Platform (NL) and co-ordinator of the international artist residency programme at Netherlands Media Arts Institute. She has a background in political science, cultural policy and African languages, and contributed to publications on new media policy and practice.
  • Annet Dekker (NL) is an independent curator and researcher. Currently she is Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam: Archival and Information Studies, and Visiting Professor and co-director of the Center for the Study of the Networked Image (CSNI) at London South Bank University. She worked as Researcher Digital Preservation at Tate; core tutor at Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam; fellow at Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam; and head of exhibitions at Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam. She publishes widely on issues of digital art and preservation, and has edited several publications, among others, Lost and Living (in) Archives (2017), Speculative Scenarios, or what will happen to digital art in the (near) future (2013), and Archive 2020: Sustainable Archiving of Born Digital Cultural Content (2010). Her monograph Collecting and Conserving Net Art will be published by Routledge, Spring 2018.

Full text p. 247 -252