ALFREDO CRAMEROTTI – KEYNOTE FOR CONFERENCE IN YEREVAN, ARMENIA

WE ARE NOT SURE WHAT THIS WORK IS: Toward an Ethics of Curatorial Uncertainty

Keynote, Panel 2: Digital Knowledge, AI & the Futures of Art Armenia Modern and Contemporary Art Conference, Yerevan, May 15, 2026

ABSTRACT

What happens when a museum cannot honestly say what a work is, who made it, or whether what you are seeing matches what was first shown? This talk argues that digital instability is not a technical problem awaiting a solution — it is the underlying condition of cultural work today. Moving through three interlocking registers — technical, cognitive, and authorial — it proposes framing as care as a curatorial practice adequate to the present: one that renders uncertainty legible rather than resolving it, and that holds institutions accountable for the systems they host, commission, and call art.

SHORT BIO

Alfredo Cramerotti is Director of the Media Majlis Museum at Northwestern University in Qatar. A curator, writer, and institutional leader with over two decades of international practice, his work spans contemporary art, documentary image culture, and the ethics of digital systems in cultural institutions. He has contributed to major biennials, research publications, and interdisciplinary programs across Europe, Asia, North America, the Gulf region, and beyond.