The digitization of museums and its promise of accessibility
comes with many contradictions. While we are experiencing a comprehensive digitization of knowledge, this very knowledge is
also at risk if privatized and financialized, for example. What does digital museum knowledge mean for the commons? How does
museum knowledge function when belonging to everyone with the possibility of everyone expanding on it? In this context, /ecm
and Expanded Museum Studies have invited the artist Ofri Cnaani to give a public lecture, that will be followed by a panel
discussion.
Welcome note by Petra Schaper Rinkel
From Practice
To Commons
Lecture by Ofri CnaaniLarge-scale heritage digitization projects are frequently motivated
by economic interests rooted in techno-colonial ambitions. This process involves institutions or corporations claiming ownership
of data produced through digitization of public collections or generated by their users, effectively privatizing cultural
heritage. The talk will map several pressing dilemmas related to the digitization process and data ownership. By examining
various case studies dealing with the loss of physical collections under catastrophic conditions, the discussion will question
traditional concepts of value based on market-driven ideas of originality, authorship, and ownership. Reflecting on cases
where physical cultural objects no longer exist, the talk will explore creative practices that shape the afterlife of cultural
data and propose alternative ways of sharing objects and narratives. This includes reevaluating traditional methods of preserving
knowledge, considering the right to refuse to be used for AI training, and rethinking models of collective ownership.
Panel discussion withPetra Schaper Rinkel Rector University of Applied Arts, Vienna
Ofri Cnaani Artist and Researcher
Nora Sternfeld Professor of Art Education, HFBK
Hamburg, /ecm Directors´s team
Julienne Lorz Professor for Expanded Museum Studies, University of Applied
Arts, ViennaModerated by
Martina Griesser-Stermscheg Head of the Research Institute, Vienna Museum of
Science and Technology, /ecm Directors´s team
Followed by snacks and drinks
A collaboration between
/ecm study program and Expanded Museum Studies
Registration at:
ecm_anmeldung@uni-ak.ac.at 
