UAL Art Collection curator Lucie Pardue interviews the artist Shane Sutherland. Shane talks about making their virtual reality artwork, Meditations of the In/Corporeal. We are delighted to publish the video on the UAL Digital Collections site to celebrate World Digital Preservation Day.
World Digital Preservation Day, held on the first Thursday of every November, brings together archivists, curators and communities to celebrate the work taking place across the world to preserve and make accessible our digital content.
A new commission for the UAL Art Collection
Shane Sutherland graduated from BA Photography at London College of Communication in 2021. The UAL Art Collection commissioned a new piece of work from the artist. The result, created in 2022, was an immersive virtual reality film titled Meditations of the In/Corporeal. The work employs new digital techniques which, as Shane says, ‘explore the battlefield of the body, through ideas of the binary and those who dare to resist and defy it’.
The UAL Art Collection is held by the UAL Archives and Special Collections Centre. The collection began in 1987 when the different colleges of UAL were brought together. It was founded and continues to serve two main purposes. Firstly, to create a visual history, reflecting the diversity, quality and development of creative practice. Secondly, it supports graduating artists and makers. Historically, acquisitions were usually limited to work suited for wall-based display. However, we have revised the collecting policy to reflect the growth in digital collecting in recent years. In support of digital collecting, we are working on new ways to capture documentation about the artworks, including artist interviews.
Collecting digital art
There is a growing presence of digital artworks in institutional collections. This offers new opportunities for exhibition and engagement. However, they also present technical challenges to our existing practices. Due to rapid changes in technology and the threat of obsolescence, this risks future access to digital artworks.
Digital art, also referred to as Media Art, appears on the Digital Preservation Coalition’s Global ‘Bit List’ of Endangered Digital Species. Both legacy media art, as well as recently commissioned media art, appear as entries on the Bit List. A lack of documentation about the artwork is listed as an aggravating condition, contributing to their ‘at risk’ status.
Digital Preservation Coalition recently published a Technology Watch Guidance note on Preserving Digital Art. In it, author Patricia Falcão of Tate Galleries, writes that documentation is an essential preservation strategy. Falcão also acknowledges the value of the artist interview, as an opportunity to document the artist’s creative and working process.
Artist interviews
The artist interview has long been a vital tool within art conservation. It takes on new importance when collecting digital artworks. Artist interviews help to capture information on technical requirements during the acquisition process. They allow collecting institutions to better understand the creator’s appetite for change. For example, this might include how open the creator is to new ways of accessing the artwork in response to technological challenges. Interviews help to gain insight into the creative processes behind a work and the artist’s intentions.
In the interview, curator Lucie spoke to artist Shane to find out how they created, Meditations of the In/Corporeal. She explored how they see it functioning as an art object now and into the future. The interview discusses how this work fits into their wider creative practice.
The interview, recorded in 2023, now forms part of the documentation about the work. We have uploaded both the artwork and the interview to UAL’s digital preservation system, in support of long-term preservation. As well as documenting the artwork, the interview serves to introduce the artist to our audiences and gives an insight into the creation of the work.
Interview Credits
Interviewer: Lucie Pardue
Filming and initial editing: Michael Davies
Final video editing: Orlando Myxx
With thanks to Shane Sutherland
Find out more
Find out more about Shane Sutherland.
View more of the UAL Art Collection on UAL Museum Catalogue.
See a curated selection of artworks from the UAL Art Collection on our Digital Collections platform
Read more information about the UAL Archives and Special Collections Centre.
Questions?
For any questions about the UAL Art Collection or other collections held by the UAL Archives and Special Collections Centre, please email archive-enquiries@arts.ac.uk