The Impact of Ubiquitous Technologies on the Art Museum as Urban [Political] Space

The Museum is part of a ubiquitous framing of cultural production and a common, urban (political) space. In later years, technology has enhanced the ubiquity, as well as challenged the foundation of, the Museum. From this enhancement and challenge, which is transforming the museum itself, new practices emerge. From new practices emerge new domains. And from new domains emerge new competencies and roles. This article investigates some of the new competencies and roles emerging from the trans-disciplinary practice of curators, artists, scientists, and programmers etc., which are involved in media art practice. Our hypothesis is that these new domains have a more general existence and ’profile’ in the paradigm of media art – even though the following is based on the process of creating the ‘MAP – Media Art Platform’ at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MFSK) in Roskilde, Denmark, between 2005 and 2008, a process in which we both were involved as media artist and media art curator, respectively. Our focus in this article is to investigate further the status of these new competencies and roles, and to ask: what are these new domains that emerge with regard to the artist, the software developer, the academic, the scientist and the curator?