MoMA | Tag: acquisition

Posts tagged ‘acquisition’

March 24, 2010 | Behind the Scenes, Design

@ in Context: Criteria for an Acquisition

Posted by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design

Screenshot of “@ at MoMA” post

Our recent acquisition of the @ symbol has challenged what most people think of as a typical object that a Museum acquires. We thought it best to let you in on our process—how we think about shaping our collection here at MoMA. As you know, museums are defined by their collections. Each collection has a unique point of view that is carefully shaped by its curators, who are always mindful of historical precedents as they look ahead to future developments. When it comes to contemporary design, MoMA’s collection seeks to remain on the cusp of innovation and to support the emerging talents, ideas, and concepts that will become tomorrow’s designed environment.

@ at MoMA

Posted by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Department of Architecture and Design

Ray Tomlinson. @. 1971. Here displayed in ITC American Typewriter Medium, the closest approximation to the character used by a Model 33 Teletype in the early 1970s

MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design has acquired the @ symbol into its collection. It is a momentous, elating acquisition that makes us all proud. But what does it mean, both in conceptual and in practical terms?

Contemporary art, architecture, and design can take on unexpected manifestations, from digital codes to Internet addresses and sets of instructions that can be transmitted only by the artist. The process by which such unconventional works are selected and acquired for our collection can take surprising turns as well, as can the mode in which they’re eventually appreciated by our audiences. While installations have for decades provided museums with interesting challenges involving acquisition, storage, reproducibility, authorship, maintenance, manufacture, context—even questions about the essence of a work of art in itself—MoMA curators have recently ventured further; a good example is the recent acquisition by the Department of Media and Performance Art of Tino Sehgal’s performance Kiss.