Experiments in Art and Technology Datascape

Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) is a renowned example of  interdisciplinarity at the intersection of Art, Science and Technology,  conceived by Rauschenberg, a co-founder of E.A.T., as a “map of  engineers, money and equipment”, facilitating collaborations between  artist, engineer and industry. Despite the amount of information  available, E.A.T.’s production and legacy remains unclear. The project,  in collaboration with E.A.T. (represented by Julie Martin), is based on  the organization’s numerous activities, developed in art and non-art  contexts, including realized and unrealized works and projects from the  1960s to the present day. through a ‘datascape’. In the first place, the  aim is to describe as extensively as possible the stories of works of  art or projects, from their design and development stages to their  different exhibitions and receptions. One of the main challenges is to  produce a digital archive displaying the process of collaboration, not  merely catalogue E.A.T.’s productions. Secondly, the archive will map  these works and projects as networks of people, organizations, places  and technologies, so as to better understand E.A.T.’s identity using the  theories of Science and Technology Studies. The aim is to develop an  online archive built as a research tool for humanities scholars in art  and social art history. Their work, mapping the material in the archive,  will provide the project’s added value; historical documents combined  into information networks, revealed by various visualizations, will make  of the archive a veritable exploratory tool.

Christophe Leclercq, art historian, project lead (research)
Paul Girard, engineer, project lead (technology and methodology)
Patrick Browne, intern engineer, development of the information system
Daniele Guido, designer, design and development of the visualization interfaces

September 2011-August 2012