"Janet Cardiff’s Forty Part Motet: Preserving the Idea of a Reproducible Sound Experience" Sonia Brooks

Janet Cardiff’s Forty Part Motet presents an interesting study for the preservation of new media artworks from both theoretical positions of reproduction and technological and/or actual physical methods of preservation. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Ages of Its Technological Reproducibility” as a theoretical framework, this paper will focus on exploring the ground between the preservation of this artwork as a piece of new media art, while examining the piece through its own basis in reproduction. As I will demonstrate, Cardiff approaches this piece solely as a work of conceptual art, which frees her from dealing with literal issues that later arise during the execution of the art. Forty Part Motet is a work of reproduction in and of itself; however, the way in which the work is executed, especially regarding its installations, causes the piece to fail in its ability to recreate a specific experience. I will also argue that exploration of these concepts and ideas are completely vital to the future preservation of this work of art.

Voir l'essai au format .pdf

Sonia Brooks, Art History, McGill University