Eva Moraga:
Second Glocal Life: outsiders and insiders in a virtual art world.
Abstract:
My paper tries to challenge concepts of “outsiders” and “insiders” plus “globalization” and “local identities” in an expanded virtual art world. Second Life has become the star-successor of previous unsuccessful virtual worlds (like “active worlds”) in a very short time. It has absorbed those preceding experiences, turning into almost the “only” parallel on-line world that can be imagined or thought. Business and art communities from countries all over the world dream on creating their alter-egos at Second Life. But formal and conceptual cultural homogenization is the common outcome of virtualization process. You do not exist if you are not in Second Life but if you are there, you are not what/who you are in the physical world but a tasteless virtual homogeneous form, similar to other insipid thousands in a non-located “space”. Organizations, institutions and communities with a very strong identity in real world compete to be there before the others, but once they create their “other” at Second Life, this “other” becomes a “glocal” non-entity without own identity. Being an outsider to the virtual world could be the only way to keep identity safe. How are art practices (not only by artists but also by institutions) facing those “identity” issues in Second Life? Are they challenging these questions or are suffering a normalization process? My paper will try to deal with these matters, analyzing current situation of virtual art practices.
Biography:
Interdisciplinary information collector, reflector, producer and ventilator.
Writer, lecturer, curator, artist lawyer and art consultant. Curator of “MAD03NET: A platform for electronic art projects” in MAD03 Festival of Experimental Arts in Madrid (Spain), 2003, http://www.mad03.net. Assistant curator at the Mediamuseum-ZKM (Karlsruhe) in two exhibitions: <Stephano Scheda. “Meteo 2004”. (01/07/06 – 13/08/06)> and <Ignasi Aballí. “0-24 h” (01/09/06 – 15/10/06)>. Last research: a study about the ZKM and learning organizations: “Cultural learning organizations: a model”. Last written text:“New Media, New Museums” which appeared in the catalogue for the exhibition “Sequences 76/2006”, organized by the Spanish-American Museum of Contemporary Art of Badajoz (Spain). Forthcoming: Lecture “The Computation Center at Madrid University, 1966-1973: An example of true interaction between art, science and technology” at “Re:place 2007 – International Conference on the Histories of Media, Art, Science and Technology“ next November in Berlin, co-chaired by Andreas Broeckmann and Oliver Grau. Other relevant texts: “Net-Art: Metamorphosis of Art practice?” in Juan José Gómez Molina (ed.), Machines and draw tools (2002) Madrid, Cátedra. MA Art History thesis: “City and memory: approaching ‘City of News’, active worlds and technological and media art projects from the Art of Memory”. MA in Museum and Gallery Management (London), MA in Art History (Madrid), BA in Visual Arts (Madrid), BA in Law (Madrid).
contact: evamoraga…at….gmail.com
Maciej Ozog:
From CCTV to GPS. How Media Art reflects development of Surveillance Society.
Abstract:
Surveillance is seen as one of the most important features of the world in the time of globalisation. Many authors (Foucault, Deleuze, Virilio, Bauman, Lyon to name a few) has analyzed influence of surveillance technology on development of global media society showing how changes in technology result in new perception and understanding of the role surveillance plays in culture of late XX and XXI century. As new forms of technology appeared shifts in the paradigm of surveillance society could be observed. Oppressive society of control and punishment has turned into society, in which we face “ global democratization of exhibitionism” (Virilio) what leads to notion of surveillance as “spectacle of entertainment” (Weibel). No wonder that the issue of observation, control, tracking, detecting, measuring, gathering, storing and processing information has been undertaken by many contemporary artists. However, complex relationship between changes of social order and development of new technologies is reflected especially in technology-based art. Since the beginning of video art the issue of surveillance has been an important theme but at the same time surveillance technology has formed a material background of media art. As David Rokeby observes, surveillance could be seen as the foundation of any art, which involves the observer into an active participation. Hence, surveillance is both theme and method of media art with video installations, interactive installations, and net art as the most significant examples. The focus of the paper is on analyzing various ways of using surveillance technology in media art. I will try to show how choice of certain technology influence artistic discourse in terms of form and content. But, at the same time, I will analyze subversive strategies by which artists deconstruct dominant mode of thinking about surveillance. By doing so art practice will be shown as critical voice in debate concerning cultural effects of expansion of surveillance technologies in the world of global observation.
Biography:
Maciej Ozog is a theorist and historian of film and new media art. He studied film theory, film history, literature and philosophy at the University of Lodz. In 2002 he received a PhD from the University of Lodz for a dissertation on American avant-garde film. Since 2004 he has worked at the Department of Electronic Media of the University of Lodz.
He published numerous articles concerning avant-garde film and new media art mostly in polish. He has taken part in numerous conferences, among other: ISEA Symposium 2004, Media Art Conference Osnabruck 2006. Performing Places Helsinki 2006.
Besides his academic activities he is also a musician and multimedia artist. In 1991 he started a project Spear. Spear released 5 CDs, took part in numerous collaborations and participated in various festivals and exhibitions in Poland and abroad. In 2005 he stared a new project called ben zeen dedicated to improvised electro-acoustic music. In January 2006 ben zeen released the first CD entitled “siersc”.
contact: info…at….ignisprojekt.com
Lukasz Chrobok and Christoph Faulhaber
Mister Security
Abstract:
On the cynical energy of critical art, the negative reversal of pictorial functions and the status of social discipline and control today Surveillance and discipline as we know them from modern Western societies, seem to feed
from a central impulse: The fear of loss of control. In the process, the adduced need for security on the part of the public turns up as an imaginary construct that is diffi cult to grasp. Security, or the need for security, arises here as the node of a discourse that points to a multitude of social aspects. The current debate on the surveillance of public spaces is coupled with the question of the freedom of the individual in our society and the reformulation of the dynamic relationship between security, freedom and control in democratic societies. State control in private and public space and the techniques of disciplining the individual seem to come across today as virulent social themes, which constantly re-appear in new formulations. The total cultural space of civilization is composed of territories separated from one another, and ranging in size from the nation state to a house. Our segmented world is the result of territorializations whose aim is the exercise of control through the demarcation of particular spaces – no space, no control: no control without a space. It follows that all the new privately operated spaces, dominated by cameras, security staff and rolling grilles, which are the descendants in our world of the Agora, do not imply any change in the concept of space. But they destroy the illusion that this space might belong to the community. It is the appearance of cameras that has fi nally made it clear that behind all this there is always a power and a property relationship. It is not uncontrolled and allegedly unoccupied space that we are losing, but public space as a vision. Every citizen equipped with a mobile-phone camera has long since represented a part of a gigantic fl ood of images and surveillance which is already turning public space into a thoroughly transparent space. Aristotle judged political participation in the ideal city by the criteria of each individual’s visibility and audibility. Our Mister Security business makes it clear that his utopia has become reality in a way that should make us think. „Mister Security“ will be presented in a multi-media presentation and a roundtable discussion. For more information on the project you may also take a look at the recently published book: Mister Security, To serve and to observe, Revolver Books, Frankfurt/Main 2007.
contact: faulhaberchristoph…at….gmx.de
Regine Rapp:
Wired for Sound. Modern Technology in Recent Installation and Peformance Projects
Abstract:
In recent years one has come upon the frequent use of new audio technology in art and theater projects. Numerous projects (at first gallery and theater based, but more recently via the internet) operate with audio works using new technology not only to break the need for the artist or performers physical presence and reach beyond geographical lines, but also to widen the the visitors’ and viewers’ realm of perception. The use of these technologies has important global aspects.
The Canadian artists Janet Cardiff and Georges Bures Miller have made audio walks in San Francisco, Munster, Rome and other cities, going beyond the traditional gallery or museal space. An international art public could visit any of these cities, and by temporarily leaving their passport in exchange for an audio player, be lead on an intimate tour of the local environs.
Following in Cardiff’s foot steps a number of intriguing projects involving new technologies have been able to bridge the time and distance between artists and performers and their audience. Among these is the theatrical collective Rimini Protokoll with their project Call Cutta (Mobile Phone Theater, 2005). In this performance the visitor received a mobile phone and headset, and was guided on a tour through Berlin navigated by an employee in a call center in Kolkata, India.
The recent rise of popular podcasts has offered further technological opportunities for artists and others to share their ideas and concepts with a diverse public. In New York, art students put alternative tours through the collection of MoMA online (Art Mobs, 2005). Museum visitors can download the podcasts, put them on their MP3 players and listen to the podcasts as an alternative to the museum’s conventional audioguides.
In the recent exhibition Urban Interface Berlin the artist Jocelyn Robert created an audio piece, The Politics of Geometry, in conjunction with specific geographic locales in the city. The art public could pick up an audio player at a gallery or alternatively download the podcast from the internet, bypassing the gallery altogether.
Recent developments in technology and a creative demand for new means of art production and consumption are subverting the established relationships between art producer and art consumer and challenging the relevance of the gallery or museum as middle man.
Biography:
Regine Rapp is a doctoral candidate at the Insitute of Art History, Humboldt-University of Berlin. Her dissertation focuses on the Aesthetic Concepts of Space in Installation Art of the 1990s. Her other major area of research is Russian modernism, especially the Russian Avantgarde, and the interdisciplinarity on the correlation of word and image. She is a member of the International Association of Word and Image Studies (IAWIS).
In the course of her curatorial projects she has also given lectures and published essays on contemporary art (e.g. “Beyond Photography” (Berlin, 2001), catalogue text “Kunst – ein Kinderspiel” (Frankfurt/ M, 2004), “Tango with Cows: Russian Futurist Book Art”, Amsterdam New York (Rodopi), 2005).
Next to her scholarly activities she lectures at the Berlin State Museums in the field of modern and contemporary art. Regine Rapp is the co-founder and curator of the non-commercial art space Art Laboratory Berlin (www.artlaboratory-berlin.org).
Lives and works in Berlin.
contact: regine_rapp…at….hotmail.com
Federica Martini:
Platforms, contact zones, and networks. Some notes on biennials in a global art scene
Abstract:
The dissemination of Biennials beyond the Western borders defining their field of action until 2nd World War, has made this exhibition model a favourite occasion of debate on the representation of difference in contemporary art. Compelled to face the globalized art market and the post-colonial debate about canons, along with inclusions and exclusions in the international art system, in the 1990s Biennials brought into question the way curators form contacts with different cultures, also attempting to turn the competitive nationalistic attitude of 19th-century-shows into a critical discourse on the enlargement and plurality of contemporary art geography.
At first, the inclusion of art scenes traditionally considered as marginal was still following a Eurocentric approach. This was the case for Magiciens de la Terre (1989), historically the first exhibition focusing on contemporary creation that has tried to enlarge the map of contemporary art. In the show, curator Jean-Hubert Martin and a scientific committee visited local communities in non-Western countries and eventually selected artists and artworks according to Western aesthetics. Although Magiciens de la Terre was based on the “field work” done by the curator and his correspondents around the world, any physical, direct contact with the local scene (i.e. the context/subject of analysis) where the artworks were selected was excluded from the exhibition discourse. In James Clifford’s terms, we could say that this kind of exhibition did not create an institution structured as a place/situation favourable to crossings and exchanges, as it rather gives way to a distant, global vision such as that of aerial photography.
In this paper, I would like to focus on those perennial exhibitions that, through the 1990s, have tried to dynamically contrast the principles outlined above. Attempting to transform the Biennale into a “contact zone” opened to different art scenes, large-scale exhibitions such as Documenta XI and recent synergies between biennials and art fairs have challenged the dialectics between “curating cultures” and “curated cultures”, proposing an exhibition model as a platform where different cultures can be performed.
Biography:
Federica Martini, born in Turin (Italy) in 1976, lives and works in Turin and Lausanne (Switzerland). After having studied Communication theories and Contemporary Art at the University of Turin, in 2007 she completed a PhD focusing on the evolution of the contemporary art biennial exhibition model.
She is Assistant Curator at Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Rivoli-Turin.
Her main interests and research fields include the globalization of the contemporary art market, installations and displays in contemporary art exhibitions, culture management, public art, collaboration issues in contemporary art, and collection theories.
contact: federica.martini…at….gmail.com
Franz Kasper Kroenig:
What can globalization mean for the »already global« world-system of art?
Abstract:
There can be no doubt about the fact that we have to speak of a world-system of art as opposed to regionally or nationally differentiated art systems. So the globalization of art is not a new and not even a modern phenomenon. When critical thinking tends to connect certain developments in the art system to the process of globalization, the criticism does not focus the art system as such in a global world but rather the condition of art under the circumstances of a world-society, which is dominated by economy. This »economization« is commonly considered responsible for developments like the undermining of cultural idiosyncrasies, tendencies to entertainment, the breakdown of the Avant-Garde, the boost of stardom and the rise of a powerful worldwide operating art market. On the other hand we can learn from the sociological systems theory that economy can in no way steer, instruct or dominate art, since this would mean to connect money to aesthetical operations. Art is either beauty-orientated or it is not art, so that the talk of an economization of art must remain dubious. That works of art are bought is neither new nor something that could be called economization of art.
This paper tries to show that a critical review of the common talk of the »economization of art« can point us to certain art-internal developments, which are not dominated by the world economy, but which can rather be traced back to the autonomous attempt of the art system to gain societal relevance. The thesis is, that the art system tries to connect to the – at a certain historical time – dominant social system. This can be religion (Middle Ages), science (Renaissance) or economy (today).
Biography:
I studied Philosophy, Musicology and Linguistics at the University of Cologne/Germany (M.A.) and just finished my sociological dissertation on Luhmann’s systems theory at the University of Flensburg, where I have a lectureship right now. Besides this I released four albums with own compositions (rock/jazz) under the name of Franz Kasper (Day-Glo Records).
http://www.franzkasper.com
contact: franz-kroenig…at….uni-flensburg.de
Milan Kreuzzieger:
The New Cosmopolitanism and the Museum
Abstract:
Majority of museums around the world are formed by two paradigmatic views: national and westernized. This type of the museum prefers one self-centric perspective (national or cultural) and excludes “others”. I believe that the idea of the museum as the source of national or enclosed cultural identity is not relevant in the global age and should be overcome. We should rethink the basic concepts of the museum of art for the time of radical cultural shifts and dynamic changes. The national or westernized museum of art is based on the presentation of the static canon of art in the inter-national configuration – the space of demarcate borders between “us” and “them”. From this essentialistic view we can not see and articulate many phenomenons, problems etc. which we should identify from the transnational or global view (cultures in-between, nomadic art etc.).
Postmuseum presented by Eilean Hooper-Greenhill represents a new concept of the museum which is more concentrated on the use of artefacts than their accumulation and at the same time is much more open for different cultures, subcultures, social, ethnical and other minority groupes and multiperspective views. But we could go further. Contemporary visual and cultural studies, antropology, etnology, social sciences, political philosophy and global studies could offer new conceptual tools and theories to push forward this discussion. Especially the project of the new cosmopolitanism could be an inspiration to formulate the role of the museum in the possible cosmopolitan world.
Biography:
Art History, Philosophy, Charles University (M. A. 1994, PhD., 2004, thesis: Semiotics, Narratology and Wars of Pictures).
Participant, Art History and Visual Culture Studies, Summer Institute, University in Rochester, USA, 2 months, 1999.
Since 2006 – Center of Global Studies, Prague – transdisciplinary research – specialization on cultural aspects of globalization, inter-cultural and trans-cultural studies, problems of identities.
2002-6 Curator, National Theater, Prague – curated 15 exhibitions based on the relation of visual culture and theatre (especially photography and stage design).
1998-2001 Curator, National Gallery in Prague.
1994-1998 Curator of Art Collections, The Museum of the City of Prague.
contact: milan.kzz…at….centrum.cz
Christian de Lutz:
Berlin-Wedding: The Artist-run Space as New Vanguard
A discussion of alternative strategies in the Berlin art world
Abstract:
In Universe of the Mind, Yuri Lotman discusses the concept of a semiosphere, a whole semiotic structure, mirroring the linguistic realm of a language. He notes that activity at the periphery more vibrant, more vital than in the centre.
In an age where art production functions not unlike the fashion system, a centre of established galleries, institutions, curators and collectors exerts a conservative influence: note the dominance of so called ‘new painting’ much of which re-uses aesthetic strategies of the 1980s. All this despite a revolution in the way we see, use and create visual media over the last two decades.
In Berlin, no less than New York or London, the art world has been dominated by a strong, conservative centre. Yet the city itself, due to its cheap cost of living, and vibrant youth scene, continues to attract artists from the whole world.
Over the last five years a counter-weight to this conservative centre (which is located in the aptly named Mitte) has emerged in the peripheral district of Wedding.
Over thirty spaces, mostly artist-run have been established over this time. The proprietors come from as far afield as Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, the United States, Slovakia, Macedonia and Chile. In the dominant organisation in the district – Kolonie Wedding, an umbrella organisation of artist run spaces- over 40% of the member spaces are run in whole or part by foreigners.
These spaces are extremely varied, ranging from raw atelier-cum-exhibition spaces to full time alternative galleries. They also show much new media such as video, electronic music performance and installation that are often avoided in the more commercially focused galleries in Berlin-Mitte.
In my lecture I will discuss the diversity of media, work and strategies these artist-run spaces employ; and also their location in a peripheral district, whose population is also international and culturally diverse.
Biography:
B.A. in Fine Arts with a minor in German from New York University. Studied Art History/fine Arts and German at New York University.
2000-7 Work in digitally altered photography and New Media (Digital projections, net.art, etc.) Member rhizome.org, metrotribe.org., artlaboratory berlin
1999 During a 2 month residence in Istanbul worked on the series ‘Istanbul: a City of 12 Million’ as well as series on child labor in Turkey.
1998 Active as a freelance photojournalist in Berlin, Albania and the Czech Republic.
1997 Worked as a photojournalist and on two special documentary projects: ‘The Roma in Bulgaria and Romania’ and ‘Tetevo – an Illegal Albanian University in Macedonia’.
1995 – 96 Active as a photojournalist in the countries of the ex- Yugoslavia, Central Europe and Russia. Worked with the press agency Action Press in Hamburg, Germany and The Chicago Tribune. Lived in Prague, Ljubljana, Tuzla and Sarajevo.
1994 – 95 Worked on photo documentaries about the former Yugoslavia, concentrating on the refugee crisis during the ‘Bosnian war’. Lived in Prague and Ljubljana.
Solo Exhibitions:
2007 The Digitalised Image ONYVA, Maastricht, Cordoba, (GAD) Galerie Art Digital, Berlin Art Laboratory Berlin, Berlin
contact: mail…at….cdelutz.net
Carla Maria Camargos Mendonça.
Notes on body: art, fashion and culture
Abstract:
This proposal would like to discuss some concepts on art and fashion, especially the way both look at the body. First of all, thinking fashion as a sister of death – like Walter Benjamin thought – and main point of modernity – because of the way itself gives things a deadline – its important to look at the ordinary body was caught in the middle of a battle that happens everyday: media products try to form them, try to give the idea of a perfect way to be and function. Meanwhile many forms of art lets appear a different kind of body, a modificated one, that gives permition to the subjective to be, not necessarily corresponded to a model pre-given.
Biography:
Journalist, researcher and university teacher. Master in Comunication. Member of the editorial counsil of Dobras Magazine. Participant of documenta halle, a new plataform on documenta 12 that accepts contributions of reseachers.
contact: cmcmendonca…at….uol.com.br
Daniela Richterova:
The Art of People-to-People Lending
Abstract:
The goal of this presentation is to introduce challenges of on line fundraising and microcredit tools available on the Internet. Microcredit as a new approach has become a worldwide phenomenon and is widely recognized not only as a market-driven solution to poverty, great and proven way of investment but also as a concept of modern philanthropy. The presented examples of on line microlending and fundraising tools will demonstrate how they can be used as an alternative way to finance various kinds of businesses and other human activities including art projects.
Biography:
Librarian and Infromation specialist. She graduated in Information Management from the Higher Professional School of Information Services, and currently is finishing her studies at the Centre of Information Studies and Library Sciences, Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University, Prague. She writes her thesis devoted to on line fundraising and microfinance in context of social networks and Web 2.0. Between 2001 and 2005 she worked as a project coordinator specializing in information services and the development of multicultural activities in public
libraries for the Multicultural Centre in Prague. At present she works in the United Nations Information Centre in Prague.
contact: daniela.richterova…at….osn.cz
Glocal & Outsiders conference 