PhD research by Ioanna Zouli (AHRC funded – CDA award)
Ioanna’s PhD research is part of a developing discussion on the contemporary museums’ relation to digital technology and network structures. The study employs Tate as the institution under focus and examines the dynamics of institutional practices as a response to contemporary technological developments.
Embedded in the institution and exposed to its culture the researcher has the opportunity to explore the process and the context of change inside Tate while looking into how the analytical and the critical could be parts of an on-going process of a practice-led research. Moreover, following the development of the ‘BMW Tate Live’ programme, the research investigates the institutional understanding(s) of the digital through two interacting constituents: the production of video and the concept of the audience. On the one hand, video serves as a paradigm of reference to analyse and understand Tate’s relation to media and the technological unknown as well as how analogue practices of broadcast translate into the contemporary digital moment. On the other hand, the conceptualisations of the audience are key in order to understand the institution as a brand and its levels of authority upon the production of knowledge and cultural value.
Consequently, while Tate’s latest Digital Strategy (Tate, 2013) suggests ‘digital’ becoming ‘a dimension of everything the institution does’ the PhD research critically studies Tate’s practices to engage with the digital in the level not just of producing but also of operating and thinking.