Much has been written about how museums, galleries, and other traditional memory institutions can extend their reach online. But what can an institution become when it is organized with the network at its core? This forum will feature curators, programmers, and critics in conversation to inaugurate a significant research thread on the nature of the “born-digital institution” as Rhizome approaches its twentieth anniversary in 2016.

Architect and critic Keller Easterling will open the program with a keynote introduction about the latent political capacities of network dispositions. A conversation about traditional collecting museums and the network will follow, between art critic Mike Pepi and Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator of the Department of Architecture and Design as well as the Director of R&D at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The evening will conclude with a panel on born-digital institutions, featuring Kimberly Drew (“Black Contemporary Art” Tumblr project), Anna Mikkola (V4ULT), and Molly Kleiman (Triple Canopy).

This program is co-organized by Rhizome’s Executive Director Heather Corcoran and Assistant Director Zachary Kaplan.

The project “The Born-Digital Institution” is generously supported by VIA Art Fund.