From September 14 to September 30, 2021, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) hosted a worldwide online symposium titled What Do Museums Connect?: Museums in a Post-Pandemic World. After compiling pieces that deepen and broaden some of the interests that developed from the presentations made there, this research book was made available in conjunction with the symposium. A transcript of the roundtable conversation that followed the symposium’s conclusion is included at the end of this book.
What Do Museums Connect?: How Do Non-Contact Encounters and Digitalization Connect in an Era of Accelerating Non-Contact Encounters and Digitalization? The book Museums in a Post-Pandemic World sought to explore these changes from a variety of angles. The ten academics, curators, and critics from Korea and abroad who were invited to this symposium looked at various contemporary changes from their own perspectives before discussing the newly necessary role(s) for museums as well as their cultural, social, and technical contexts and individual examples.
The book is divided into two sections. The first section, “Boundaries Dissolved: Other Variables,” presents critical viewpoints on the technological and social surroundings of contemporary museums. A number of artistic/social endeavors that have been created in the context of the times are highlighted in Part 2, “New Dimensions: Directions of Practice.” Our experience finally supplies a modicum of wisdom for the following stage when we are able to think and diagnose occurrences while keeping a posture of contemplation and critique. We anticipate that readers will use this book to reflect on the present, consider potential futures, and be inspired to think about and act upon everything we have looked at.
Table of contents
Foreword: Youn Bummo (Director, MMCA)
Introduction to What do Museums Connect?: Museums in a Post-Pandemic World: Kim Namin (Curator, MMCA)
Part I. Boundaries Dissolved: Other Variables
–Questioning Technology Today: Lee Kwang-Suk (Associate Professor, Digital & Cultural Policy Department, Seoul National University of Science & Technology)
–Sad by Design: Geerk Lovink (Founding Director of the Institute of Network Cultures)
–AI and the Arts in the Software Era: Lev Manovich (Presidential Professor, Graduate Center, CUNY)
–Delinking: Global Art and a World System: Seo Dongjin (Professor, Department of Intermedia Art, Kaywon University of Art & Design)
–Infra-Humanism, or Taking Care of Nature, Technology, and the World after the Pandemic: Kwak Yung Bin (Visiting Professor, Graduate School of Communication & Arts, Yonsei University)
Part II. New Dimensions: Directions of Practice
–Five Vectors for Future Art Ecosystems in the Emerging Metaverse: Victoria Ivanova (Serpentine Arts Technologies’ R&D Strategic Lead) and Kay Watson (Head of Arts Technologies at Serpentine)
–What Museums Connect: The Online Experience and the Value of Museums: Hong Leeji (Curator, MMCA)
–A Short Compendium of Computational Museology: Sarah Kenderdine (Professor, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne [EPFL]; Director and lead curator of EPFL Pavilions)
–Connecting Collections: Rebecca Kahn (Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Vienna)
–Taiwan’s Cultural Experiments and Practices in the Pandemic Era: Wu Dar-Kuen (Director of Contemper Art Platform at the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab [C-LAB])
Roundtable discussion
–What Do Museums Connect?: Museums in a Post-Pandemic World: Panelists: Rebecca Kahn, Lee Kwang-Suk, Kay Watson, Hong Leeji, and Geert Lovink. Moderator: Kim Namin
Book information
Title: What Museums Do 4. What Do Museums Connect?: Museums in a Post-Pandemic World
Publisher: MMCA (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea)
Size: 150 x 230 mm
Pages: 220
ISBN: 978-89-6303-322-8 (93600)
Sales: MMCA Art Book Shop
Price: 20,000 KRW
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