Introducing Dirk van de Leemput

On 1 October 2018, Dirk van de Leemput started as a PhD candidate on precarity in social-material networks of technology-based artworks. Time based media art is dependent on technologies for its access and display. Museums are not equipped to work with these often-obsolete technologies and depend on networks outside the museum to keep their artworks alive. Van de Leemput, who has a background in STS and Archival studies, will study these networks and their impact on conservation strategies.

The PhD research is part of ‘Reshaping the Collectable: When Museums Live in the Museum’, a three-year research project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and led by Pip Laurenson, Head of Collection Care at Tate, and Professor in the Maastricht Centre for Arts and Culture, Conservation and Heritage.