CollectionCam_DESERT: Live Feeds in Museum Collection Storage

Abstract

CollectionCam_DESERT is an artistic research project exploring the connection between institutional and ecological precarity. It contrasts the controlled, closed system of museum storage with an adjacent, uncontrolled desert ecosystem. Both ‘landscapes’ are under threat, as changing climate and diminished funding portend an uncertain future. Storage is dark and rarely accessed. The desert horizon is mostly empty of infrastructure. CollectionCam uses live feeds to flatten the hierarchy between the remote environment of museum storage and the harsh desert landscape outside. It is in the collection, but it is also waiting to collect. The purpose is not to amass data, but facilitate a series of observations or impressions. The project waits for signs of permeability; it watches for a time when the walls break down. CollectionCam_DESERT is the first iteration of the CollectionCam project, which intends to expand into other institutions and ecosystems. Chapters 1 and 2 describe the aesthetics, ethics and objects in collection storage, and provide site-specific context for the project. Chapter 3 posits scientific monitoring as a model for observing collection storage, and proposes durational and institutional constraints as a methodology. Chapter 4 provides a theoretical background for speculative strategies in surveillance art and design and Chapter 5 presents storage as a speculative world.