online / talk
alt.history #2 – rosa menkman
New technologies and cultural developments are often synonymous with erasure; forgetting why or how we used to do some things, and what words or communities meant. Addressing moments, practices and works that have faded from memory (or have been completely forgotten) over the last three decades, alt.history conversation cycle features experts in culture and aesthetics, in a reflection that seeks to resurface and re-examine the lost narratives of digital culture. This programme is curated by Holo (holo.mg), a Canadian editorial and curatorial platform, created in 2012, which focuses on emerging trajectories in art, science and technology.
#2 – rosa menkman
Rosa Menkman is a Dutch artist and researcher. Their work focuses on sound artefacts resulting from accidents, in both analogue and digital media. These artefacts can offer precious insights into the murky alchemy of the definition of normalisation and resolution. As a compendium of this research, they published “Glitch Moment/um” (inc, 2011), a short book on the exploration and popularisation of glitch artifacts.
Menkman developed and highlighted the politics of resolution establishment in a second book entitled “Beyond Resolution” (i.R.D., 2020). In this book, they describe how resolution standardisation is a process that generally promotes efficiency, order and functionality in our technologies. But as a side effect, the resolution setting also compromises and clouds alternative possibilities. In 2019 Menkman won the Collide prize, Arts at CERN Barcelona, which inspired their recent research on im/possible images. In this new research, they aim to find new ways of understanding, using and perceiving through and with our technologies.