Enhancing Artistic Practice through Integrating Strategies for Preservation into the Work

Abstract

This paper shares insights from integrating strategies for preservation and dissemination into my ephemeral, affective art installations. Fruitful tensions and fundamental questions arising from curating these experiences are discussed in the light of artistic practices, preserving for re-performing and active facilitation of the personal archives of others. Curation is reflected on in the light of practices that were disruptive to the art world, especially: Fluxus and the historical use of visual and auditory means of reproduction for producing new works. Curation can facilitate lensing artistic works in relation to how they can be shared with an audience. This sharing can encourage artistic processes being used by others, the work becoming a tool, even a framework. This suggests that creating pieces that show how they are made, turning spectators into participants, noting their feedback, their social interactions and how they record their own experiences of the installation are all ways of enhancing artistic practice.