FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2007
Media Insurgencies: Panel Discussion
11 – 1 p.m. Polycentric Session, UC-Berkeley, Townsend Center
for the Humanities
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Digital technologies and networked, translocal
new media art have expanded, challenged, or even redefined concepts
of what constitutes public space, the public domain, and public art.
Today's culture is to a large extent revolving around flows -- of data
(texts, images, and sounds), technologies, communication, and interaction
-- and supports the concept of a networked commons, which raises questions
about agency, control, and governance. As David Garcia (1998) has pointed
out, "these flows are not just one element in the social organization,
they are an expression of processes *dominating* our economic, political,
and social life."
The paper will examine how digital media art
has used electronic networks to redefine the notion of public space
by enhancing possibilities of various kinds of interventions. These
interventions can take the form of social softwares, or collectivist
and activist strategies and tactical response; an archiving and filtering
of public contributions; a merging of physical and virtual space; and
an augmentation of physical sites and architectures.
The networked commons will be discussed in relationship
to concepts such as authority, control, and governance and the ways
in which they manifest in art projects that address issues ranging from
community building to environmental activism.
Participant's Bio:
Christiane Paul is the Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts at the Whitney
Museum of American Art and the director of Intelligent Agent, a service
organization and information resource dedicated to digital art. She
has written extensively on new media arts and her book Digital Art (part
of the World of Art Series by Thames & Hudson, UK) was published
in July 2003. She is currently editing an anthology on curating new
media (forthcoming from UC Press) and co-editing, with Victoria Vesna
and Margot Lovejoy, the anthology Context Providers - Context and Meaning
in Media Arts (forthcoming from U of Minnesota Press). She teaches as
an adjunct in the MFA computer arts department at the School of Visual
Arts in New York and the Digital Media Department of the Rhode Island
School of Design and has lectured internationally on art and technology.
At the Whitney Museum, she has curated the shows "Profiling"
(2007) and “Data Dynamics” (2001); the net art selection
for the 2002 Whitney Biennial; the online exhibition "CODeDOC"
(2002) for artport, the Whitney Museum’s online portal to Internet
art for which she is responsible; as well as "Follow Through"
by Scott Paterson and Jennifer Crowe (2005). Other curatorial work includes
"Feedback" (Laboral Center for Art and Industrial Creation,
Gijon, Asturias, Span, 2007); "Second Natures" at the Eli
& Edythe Broad Art Center, Los Angeles, CA; the blackbox at ARCO
art fair, Madrid (2006); "The Passage of Mirage" (Chelsea
Art Museum, New York, 2004); "Evident Traces" (Ciberarts Festival
Bilbao, 2004); "eVolution -- the art of living systems" (Art
Interactive, Boston, 2004); "CODeDOC II" (Ars Electronica,
2003); the New York Digital Salon's 10th anniversary exhibition (NYC,
2003); “Mapping Transitions” at the University of Boulder,
Colorado (2002); "Re-Media" (Fotofest, Houston, Texas, 2002);
and a net art selection for “Evo1” (Gallery L, Moscow, October
2001).
Christiane Paul has participated in numerous
panels on new media and presented at conferences worldwide. Her speaking
engagements included the Tate, London (2003 / 2005); the LA County Museum
of Art; ZKM (Center for Culture and Media), Karlsruhe, Germany; ARCO
Expert Forum 2004, 2005, 2006, Madrid, Spain; the Museum of Contemporary
Arts (MACBA), Barcelona, Spain; the Boston Cyberarts Festival; the Royal
Academy of Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark; the Royal Academy of Arts, Stockholm,
Sweden; the annual College Art Association conference (New York); the
International Summit on Multimedia and the Internet (Abu Dhabi, UAE);
invenção thinking the next millennium (São Paulo,
Brazil); consciousness reframed 2 (CAiiA, Wales, Newport, UK); and the
Governor’s Conference on the Arts (San Francisco).