[ISEA2023] Paper: Manuela Naveau, Irene Posch, Martin Krickl & Sophie Hammer — Archiving the In‐Between: ONB-Labs Art Program – Artists engaging with digital collections of the Austrian National Library

Abstract

Third Summit on New Media Art Archiving

Keywords: Austrian National Library, open digital collections, artistic/scientific abstraction, critical data reflection, hidden knowledge, translation processes, archive and experiment

ONB-Labs is the platform of the ONB (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek/Austrian National Library) for scientific and creative use of digital collections. In addition to the general opening of selected digital collections as images, texts and metadata, the ONB-Labs actively seek the exchange with young as well as established artists since the beginning of the ONB-Labs in 2018. Currently, in collaboration with the University of Arts Linz, Austria, ONB-Labs is now going a step further by critically questioning the artistic/scientific engagement with digital collections and archives as well as their potential of expanding knowledge spaces through and with the work on data.

This paper analyzes and highlights recent results of artistic-scientific processes and contextualizes the potential of working on the processes of “archiving the in-between” via artistic/scientific means and therefore highlighting relations and connections between data, objects and spaces in archives in order to gain new knowledge and open new ways of understanding and engaging with digital collections. Based on the archiving strategies and experiences of the Interface Cultures Department at the University of Arts Linz in relation to forms of representation of an artistic oeuvre in digital space (as presented last year by Tiago Martins, Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau), this paper refers to the digital original in the digital inter-spaces and critically examines the procedural, artistic and scientific gain of knowledge in the process of ordering, connecting, translating and contextualizing the in-between of the digital archive realm.

  • Manuela Naveau, is a university professor of Critical Data/Interface Cultures, an independent curator and an art-based researcher. She worked as curator and project director at Ars Electronica Linz, where she co-developed the Ars Electronica Export department together with Artistic Director Gerfried Stocker and led it operationally since its inception. Since 2020, Manuela Naveau has been university professor for Critical Data at the Interface Cultures Department at the University of Arts Linz. She has held teaching positions at the Paris Lodron University in Salzburg, the Danube University Krems among others and was invited as a guest professor at the Technical University in Vienna (Future.Lab 2021). Her monograph “Crowd and Art – Kunst und Partizipation im Internet” was published in 2017 by Transcript Verlag, Germany. Manuela Naveau is an advisor within the ONB-Labs Art Program.
  • Irene Posch is a researcher and artist with a background in media and computer science and Professor of Design & Technology at the University of Arts Linz. Her work explores the integration of technological development into the fields of art and craft, and vice versa, and social, cultural, technical and aesthetic implications thereof. Her research and practice has been presented internationally at conferences and museums, among them the ZKM Karlsruhe (DE), V&A London (UK), Ars Electronica Linz (AT), Loboratore Arte Alameda Mexico City (MX), Biennale International Design St. Etienne (FR), Works Gallery San Jose (US), Istanbul Design Biennial and the MAK Vienna (AT). Irene Posch is an advisor within the ONB-Labs Art Program.
  • Martin Krickl is a research data librarian and project manager for the Austrian National Library’s Labs at the department Research and Dataservices. He worked as a metadata librarian in the department for old books as well as in a research project on historical travelogues (Travelogues – Perceptions of the Other, 2018-2021). He studied German and Italian literature at the University of Vienna. He is author/co-author of papers related to classification of library documents by means of Machine Learning or the phenomenon of objets trouvés in books. Martin Krickl is part of the ONB-Labs team and initiator/organizer of the ONB-Labs Art Program.
  • Sophie Hammer is developer at the Department Research and Dataservices. She mainly works in frontend development and is responsible for the implementation of the ONB Labs Art Space.She studied comparative literature at University of Vienna and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Sophie Hammer is part of the ONB-Labs team and co-initiator/organiser of the ONB-Labs Art Program.

The ONB Labs Art Program is part of the project “Open Digital Libraries for Creative Use” (2020-2023). The project is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme (project ID 61670)