“Drifting objects, unwanted objects, dysfunctional components, detached or broken, scratched or corroded, more or less replaceable fragments, signs want they went through during scientific experiments or artistic processes, now hidden in drawers and archives.
Reliquaries for the Fungible starts from an investigation of the methodological similarities of research and experiment in art and science, materialized through a series of de-objectified objects in a speculative experiment about care and abandonment. The used and discarded components are now recontextualized, value-wise and physically, in five reliquaries that invite approach but at the same time react to the disruptive factors, human or environmental, that were part of the factors that initially led to their obsolescence.
Connected to different environmental sensors (light, proximity, temperature, or humidity), the surrounding factors, often not noticed or disregarded, are sonified, gently forcing a recognition of our own influence over what surrounds us. Creating a bi-directional relationship, the experience can either be either transformed into a game of influences or push the visitor away in order not to disrupt the technological eco-system.”
Text: Andrei Tudose
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Reliquaries for the Fungible was developed in the framework of the Tech Rider’s Dilemma project, powered by Marginal, tackling problems related to new media survival, heritage with a focus on art & science / technology and various forms of technical dysfunctions in electronic artworks, caused by the dynamics of obsolescence, practices based on improvisation and a penury of inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations in Romania. The project questions the possible interactions between tech and art, and investigates the necessity of a structured approach to planning/ production, showcasing and preserving new media works, while opening an active dialogue aimed at understanding the vulnerabilities of art, not just in the face of time, but also related to technological changes and ideological evolution, as well as public interactions, taking the first steps towards creating protocols for new media archiving and preservation in Romania.
