The First Museum of Digital Arts (MuDA)

Museum of Digital Arts (MuDA), the first European museum to be dedicated solely to digital arts, is preparing to open in January 2016 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Initiated by the Digital Arts Association in Zurich, the museum is intended to combine both physical and virtual works of art, with a complete devotion to “the art of code”. A crowd-fundraising campaign secured the finances needed to establish the museum on the 400 square meter ground floor of the Herden Hochhaus building in Zurich, one of Switzerland’s first ‘skyscrapers’.

While numerous exhibitions centred on digital arts exist worldwide, until now there has not been a lasting resonance through any established venue with an existing foothold. In other words, once an exhibition ends, the next presented can be radically different, resulting in a lack of continuity or loyalty to giving digital arts constant visibility and identity.

Currently, Christian Etter and Caroline Hirt, founders and directors of the Digital Arts Association are pouring a concentrated effort into realising their vision of the museum, tying together the final loose ends including exhibitions, visual identity and future planning.

We got hold of Etter, who spoke to us about the background for the establishment of the museum, what it is intended to bring to the public and why a digital arts museum hasn’t been established before.

fluoro. How was it decided that a museum for digital arts was needed?

Christian Etter. As usual it was frustration. I was moving back from London to Zurich and was disappointed by the quality of exhibitions here, but also by the inexistence of a public space for digital arts. In the end it was pretty much a selfish idea to build the MuDA. The best ideas are born from necessity, they say.

f. Why do you think a digital arts museum has never been developed before?

CE. I think a lot of people still don’t understand what digital art means. This has to do with the rapid change of how digital technology works and how it fits in society.

Initially, a photographer using a digital camera was calling the result, digital art. For us it’s obvious that digital art expands beyond simply the medium being digital. We are interested in code, numbers and algorithms. The contents they produce can be on a screen, but also move a physical installation. We are interested in artists using code to create content. That’s what we call digital art – The art of numbers.

Digital technology was used mainly for engineering and business purposes until very recently. In the last years computers, software and knowledge have become cheaper and much more accessible, so a broad spectrum of people start to use it for creative expression. The perception of code being used for artistic purposes is quite new in some parts of our society.

f. What do you envision for MuDa?

CE. We want to build an institute that will host exhibitions featuring artists from across all continents using code to create mind-blowing art at the intersection of science and creativity.

f. What will it bring to the public?

CE. On one hand expect to be inspired. On the other hand we’ll organise discussions and talks about how digital technology transforms society and vice versa. The speed of digital technology’s development and its increasingly fundamental role in our society creates a strong urge to look at the complexity of its resulting impact. Data accessibility, algorithms taking over human tasks, the implementation of artificial intelligence, the list of questions raised by digital technology is very long.

At the moment, spaces to address these issues without corporate or political agendas are rare. The MuDA can become the place where these discussions can happen in an open and neutral environment. Without being too serious about it either. More in a playful and approachable way, with the aim of making complex issues tangible by tackling very concrete examples with the people directly involved.

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The planned opening of the museum is January 2016. Stay tuned to fluoro for more from MuDA in the coming months.

www.muda.co

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