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Artist, curator, and strategist Diane Drubay shares her journey through digital art, sustainability, and emotional scenography. From low-tech exhibitions to the power of stillness, this episode invites us to rethink how we experience art and technology — and how to slow down in a fast-paced world.
At the Artverse Paris space, something unexpected happened: each artwork was shown for just one and a half minutes, then a black screen. Visitors stayed for one to two hours. They talked to strangers. They reflected. Diane Drubay had designed for slowness in a medium defined by speed - and it worked better than anyone expected. This is a conversation about what happens when you give digital art the time it actually needs.
Diane Drubay is a visual artist and cultural entrepreneur whose practice spans photography, video, museum strategy, and digital curation. She started a blog about museums and new technologies in 2007, founded the Museo Mix hackathon and the We Are Museums international conference, and co-launched WAC Lab in 2021 with Maxime Labrade and Fanny Lakoubay of 100 Collectors. Her "Futurum Velute" series - photographer and video work made in Iceland - represents her own artistic practice, which now includes experiments with "low-tech curation": old monitors from museum storage, plants, coffee grounds for titles, materials that slow the encounter down rather than accelerating it.
The digital world is optimised for speed and abundance - more content, faster access, infinite scroll. Diane Drubay has been building a counter-argument through her curatorial practice: that digital art deserves the same quality of attention we give to painting, and that attention requires design. The Artverse project's use of black screen intervals - forcing pauses, creating space for exchange - is a practical demonstration of what slowness enables. This conversation explores how that conviction developed, what the "Down the Silicon Meadow" exhibition on Common Garden demonstrated, and what low-tech curation produces that high-tech presentation doesn't.
Black screen as curatorial tool
Choosing to show nothing for intervals between works is a radical curatorial decision - a deliberate refusal of the abundance logic that governs most digital presentations. At Artverse, it produced two-hour visits and genuine conversation between strangers.
Low-tech curation as aesthetic position
Old monitors, plants, coffee grounds for titles: Drubay's material choices are not budget constraints but arguments. The warmth and imperfection of analogue materials change how digital works are perceived - slowing the encounter and signalling care.
WAC Lab and digital infrastructure for museums
The WAC Lab project she co-founded with Fanny Lakoubay and Maxime Labrade builds capacity for arts and cultural organisations to engage with Web3 tools seriously. It reflects Drubay's conviction that institutions need support rather than just criticism.
Common Garden and the sustainable exhibition
The "Down the Silicon Meadow" virtual exhibition on Common Garden - generating 59% less carbon than conventional alternatives - reflects Drubay's integration of environmental thinking into exhibition practice. Sustainability is a design requirement, not an afterthought.
"Each artwork was actually being shown for one minute and a half... people were taking more time focusing on one artwork and then they had time without having anything to watch. And this was beautiful because it was a time to stop, a time to reflect, a time to exchange with your neighbor."
If you collect digital art, the question of how you live with it - how you display it, how much attention you give it, how you encounter it over time - matters as much as what you acquire. Diane Drubay's thinking about slowness, attention, and the designed encounter is directly applicable to building a collection that does more than accumulate. Press play before your next display decision.
Unlocked is the podcast by 100 collectors - the global network for digital art collectors. Each episode, we speak with artists, curators, collectors, and builders shaping the digital art world. No market speculation. No hype. Just honest, substantive conversations about art, practice, and what it means to collect today. New episodes release throughout the year. Find Unlocked on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. 100 collectors is a membership network. [Explore membership →]
