The Ontological Museum

An Art Project by Cecil Touchon

The Museum

ISACA & MUSEUM MEMBERSHIP

 

 The Ontological Museum – http://ontologicalmuseum.org –  Est. 1996 by Cecil Touchon is located in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  The mission of the museum is to create a collection that is gathered together like a scientific museum that collects rocks or bugs or perhaps like an anthropological museum. It is a cultural record of contemporary art that is unique, in that it is not based on artists being famous or based on the collections of wealthy collectors like most art museums are. It is an artist oriented museum developed around living connections to artists all over the world primarily through the internet.  The works that come into the collection are normally donated by the artists as independent gifts or in response to a particular project or exhibition. The collection contains thousands of items with more added continuously.

The Museum is an experimental artwork that could be called a Gesamtkunstwerk (Total Work of Art) and is also inspired by the idea of a Kunstkammer (art room) or Wunderkammer (wonders room) or Cabinet of Curiosities. For some reason the Germans have names for these things! These are all early, even primitive attempts at collecting the world together into a microcosmic environment.

The Museum’s central venue has been the internet websites which we have and will continue to develop and we expect to maintain this focus because the internet provides an excellent and low cost platform to presenting the museum’s collection and advance its programs which are oriented toward the specific arts communities it is intended to serve namely the community of contemporary artists and art groups which the museum maintains contact with – Post-Dogmatists, The Massurrealist Society, The FluxNexus, The Neoist Society, The International Society of Collage and Assemblage Artists, etc..  While it is impossible to be completely inclusive, the Museum staff strives to avoid any attitudes of exclusivity and maintains an open door, open arms and open mind policy.
We will continue to grow and expand and plan for the future to create a special and exciting collection of contemporary art and to document as much as we are able with the help of the community we aim to serve.

The museum has several wings that specialize in specific types of artworks. These are:

The International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction
collagemuseum.com

 As the name suggests the IMCAC – begun in 1998 is focused on Collage/Assemblage art as well as studio documentary materials such as donated sketchbooks, scrapbooks, hand made books, diaries, collections of papers, such as in boxes or dossiers, photographs, ephemera; all of those things that surround the creative process of collage, assemblage and construction.

Our interest is in constructed art as it began in the early 20th century around photography, film, advertising, printing, computers, mass media, etc.

The Fluxmuseum – fluxmuseum.org

FLUXmUSeum was founded in 2006 with the intention of documenting 21st century fluxus artists. The Fluxmuseum is dedicated to the collection, performance, production, publishing, promotion, exhibition, documentation and safekeeping of Fluxus works . The Fluxmuseum is an inclusive venture inviting any artist who feels a connection to fluxus to participate in museum projects and to contribute works to the collection.

The Archives of the Eternal Network
 archivesoftheeternalnetwork.org

The AEN invites mail artists to send samples of their work and/or to donate their collections of accumulated correspondence to the Archives.

The Museum of Snapshot Photography
snapshotsmuseum.org

The MSP collects snap shot and vernacular photography of the 20th century as well as other works created by photographic means such as scanner art, photostatic art, etc.

The Department of Linguistic Records

The DLR collects language related works such as visual poetry, concrete poetry, collage poetry, asemic writing and other related items as well as small and independent press publications.,