Fieldsites

The four selected sites are the Rijksakademie for Visual Arts (Amsterdam), the Tropenmuseum (ethnographic museum, Amsterdam), Funda (real estate database) and Flickr (as used for the study of street art). At all sites, knowledge about objects is generated, shared, used and transformed via images. These have a documentary function, and posit objects as referents. The objects represented are not virtual reality simulations, but things one might witness during a visit to a gallery or to a town. These sites shift the way images take on instrumental and authoritative roles, thereby remediating tradition and supporting new practices.

This project will be pursued using ethnographic methods. It will draw on and contribute to the works of the virtual ethnography collaboratory of the Virtual Knowledge Studio.

Meeting of the VE collaboratory, June 2007