CD-ROM Art: Exploring Images of the Digital Imaginary

• Applicant: Dr. Barbara Filser
• Subject Area: Art History ; Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 510116559

CD-ROM art, whose prominence in the 1990s is attested to by a number of exhibitions exclusively devoted to this field, has so far hardly been seriously considered as a topic of research. This lack of scholarly interest comes as a surprise, since the rhizomatic structuring principle underlying much of the work in this medium, on the one hand, already marks the transition to the internet. On the other hand, connections to video and experimental film can also be identified. The project is centered on three prominent artists, characterized by an extensive and protean œuvre across a variety of media: Chris Marker, Michael Snow, Thierry Kuntzel. What unites them here, is that they adopted a medium to work in, the CD-ROM, which was embraced in the 1990s with a set of hopes attached to it: it was supposed to last (and became a transitional phenomenon), it was supposed to inspire interactivity (and was limited to clicking), it was supposed to offer easy access (and required a soon outdated drive). Contemporary narrative as well as strategies of publication confirm that the paradigm of print-media – the book, the encyclopedia, the magazine, the desk – provides a surprisingly prominent background for how this small silver disc and its potential were conceived of. The exemplary case studies chosen involve a thematic focus on memory cultures, archives, processes of recollection as well as the image, and their reinterpretations as (im)memory or (an)archive. Conceptually, the CD-ROM establishes a connection between electronic image and digital image, which has still hardly been explored. Theoretical positions from France in particular serve to critically and reflectively analyze this intermediary position: Gilles Deleuze and, proceeding from there, Raymond Bellour, Edmond Couchot and Anne-Marie Duguet offer important approaches for the artists dealt with here, who have close links to the French cultural sphere.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 2172: The digital Image