Positions in flux: On the changing role of the artist and institution in the networked society

Friday, May 8th, 2009
Organised by Netherlands Media Art Institute (NIMk), Amsterdam
Symposium venue: Trouw Amsterdam Wibautstraat 131, Amsterdam www.trouwamsterdam.nl

The symposium 'Positions in flux: On the changing role of the artist and
institution in the networked society' will center on some of the major
parameters for the current and future development of contemporary art.
In particular it will reflect on the aspect of cultural sustainability
of art projects, art and technology initiatives and art curating.
'Positions in flux' will give floor to international artists,
theoreticians, critics, cultural producers and aims to initiate a truly
critical debate. The symposium is designed for a broad audience working
in the field of contemporary culture and art, with a desire to
understand what comes ahead and how to respond to these changes on an
artistic or institutional level. 'Positions in flux' will provide a
platform and “thinkspace” for artists, cultural workers, theoreticians
and a broader public to envision the future in our field and to provide
us with the necessary information to make choices for a meaningful and
sustainable development of society and culture.

The symposium will be streamed from the symposium venue, Trouw
Amsterdam. Online audiences will have the opportunity to participate in
the debate in the live discussion forum. The results of the debate and
its main contributions are reviewed and published online on the new
Media Art Platform. www.mediaartplatform.org

Speakers and panels
Please note that speakers and times are subject to change.

9:00 – 10:00 Registration
9:45 Welcome and Introduction
by Heiner Holtappels, director of NIMk and Susanne Jaschko, the
symposium's curator
10.30 – 12.30 Panel 1: Art goes politics
In this session we will discuss the potential of art to contribute to
global and local problems such as religious conflicts, environmental or
social crisis. Or is art constrained to raising awareness only? Should
art become an agency for political and social affairs at all? How to
successfully implement and conduct art projects in zones of crisis? What
does it take to successfully implement and conduct projects in zones of
crisis? How far do these projects benefit from the dubious attention of
the mass media?

Hans Bernhard (AT), artist, UBERMORGEN.COM http://www.ubermorgen.com
Wafaa Bilal, artist (IQ/US)http://www.wafaabilal.com
Knowbotic Research, artist group (DE/CH), artist in residence at NIMk 2008/2009 http://www.krcf.org
Moderated by Chris Keulemans, writer and journalist (NL) (tbc)
http://roadtrip.submarinechannel.com/content/view.jsp?mapid=5986&itemid=4897&menu=true

12.30 – 13.30 Lunch break
13.30 – 15.30 Panel 2: New territories and cultures of the digital
This panel will look at the geographical shift that media culture
currently undergoes and that will shape the future of this field. In the
past, Europe, North America and Japan were at the forefront of digital
production, design, art and technological research. Now that digital
technologies become available at lower prices and spread more widely on
the globe, new digital communities flourish. This panel looks
specifically at new initiatives and bottom-up organisations in other
parts of the world such as East Europe, the Middle East, Africa and
South America, trying to understand what characterizes these
initiatives. In how far do local and national cultures shape digital
culture? Do these initiatives share common experiences and challenges,
or is there no common ground to be found? Which kind of art arises from
these new nodes on the digital map? How can we support the growth and
establishment of these organisations?

Bronac Ferran (UK), researcher, consultant and founding member of bricolabs http://www.boundaryobject.org
Nat Muller, independent curator and critic (NL)
Marcus Neustetter, media artist, curator and co-founder of Trinity
Session (ZA) http://www.onair.co.za/thetrinitysession/index_temp.html
Adam Somlai-Fischer, artist and architect, programme director of Kitchen Budapest(HU) http://www.kitchenbudapest.hu
Moderated by Rob van Kranenburg, thinker, networker and author (NL/BE)

15.30 – 16.00 Coffee Break

16.00 – 18.00 Panel 3: Open Source – A scheme for art production and
curating?
This session deals with the concept of open source for art production
and its presentation. The open source movement is driven by the idea of
collective, process-based, sustainable production and improvement. In
software development this strategy has already proven to be valid;
however can this model be applied to other products such as artworks or
even exhibitions? In how far does the open source model differ from
other forms of artistic collaboration? Is there a new role model for
both the artist and the curator in the future? Which (economic) value
and impact has expertise in open source production? How could
institutions and organisations respond to this trend?

Marcos Garcia, director of Interactivos, Medialab Prado (ES)http://www.medialab-prado.es
Jaromil, dyne.org and researcher at NIMk http://jaromil.dyne.org/journal/
Joasia Krysa, curator, founder of KURATOR (PL/UK) http://www.kurator.org
Moderated by Susanne Jaschko, chief curator NIMk (DE/NL)http://www.sujaschko.de

Roy Ascott retrospective, "The Syncretic Sense"

http://www.plymouthartscentre.org/art/future.html
starting: April 4th 2009
end: May 24th 2009
Plymouth


from the Plymouth Arts Center's website:

"The first UK retrospective exhibition of the pioneering cybernetic artist Roy Ascott, curated in collaboration with
i-DAT (Institute for Digital Art and Technology, University of Plymouth).

Long before email and the internet, Roy Ascott started using online computer networks as an art medium and coined the term telematic art. Since the 1960s he has been a pioneer of art, which brought together the science of cybernetics with elements of Dada, Surrealism, Fluxus and Pop Art. Parallel to his artwork, Roy Ascott is a highly acclaimed teacher and theorist of art pedagogy.

This exhibition explores the influences and rhetoric of Roy Ascott’s work, mapping the impact, history and development of technology and looking to the future of Web2 and Second life. Roy Ascott sees telematic art as the transformation of the viewer into an active participant in creating the artwork, which remains in process throughout its duration. Significantly, the content of his projects were often spiritual: staging the first planetary casting of the I Ching with an early form of network in 1982; whilst his major installation at the Ars Electronica centre in 1989 explored Gaia theory.

The exhibition also looks back at the impact of Roy Ascott’s experimental years of art education. In the 1960s Roy Ascott was the head of Groundcourse at Ealing College of Art and developed one of the most influential and unorthodox approaches to teaching foundation studies in art. The basis of the course was developed around cybernetic theories of systems of communication: the flow of information, interactive exchange, feedback, participation and systemic relationship.

Roy Ascott studied under Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton at King’s College, Newcastle, University of Durham. His exhibitions include Venice Biennale, Ars Electronica Linz and Biennale do Mercosul, Brazil. He was President 
of the Ontario College of Art and Dean of San Francisco Art Institute. He is President of the Planetary Collegium, an international research network based in the University of Plymouth www.planetary-collegium.net

Press enquiries: Contact Hannah Prothero
Marketing & Communications Manager
Phone: 01752 276993
Email: hannah at plymouthartscentre dot org"

"

"ARTFORUM goes CRITICALARTWARE" - jonCates (2009)

ARTFORUM March 2009

i've written a short response to the Media Art Histories approach that the current ARTFORUM takes in relation to their cover feature: "IN CONVERSATION: DARA BIRNBAUM AND CORY ARCANGEL" (an interview/discussion between (Video) artist Dara Birnbaum and (New Media) artist Cory Arcangel). the response is on my blog:

http://joncates.blogspot.com/2009/03/artforum-goes-criticalartware.html

Marisa Plumb reviews COPY-IT-RIGHT Furtherfield

Marisa Plumb reviews COPY-IT-RIGHT: The Phil Morton Memorial Research Archive on Furtherfield.org:

http://www.furtherfield.org/displayreview.php?review_id=335

new online journal on New Media Art - Past, Present, Futures from Australia

http://media-space.org.au/journal/issue1.html

Media-Space Journal

Media-Space Perth Inc is a non profit arts organisation, dedicated to the development, production and promotion of experimental electronic arts research. Media-Space began as an experimental art group established in Perth, Western Australia, in February 1981. The initial Media-Space group met weekly to develop a series of artistic resources in the form of an ‘ArtsLab’ concept. Media-Space was also part of the first global link-up with artists connected to ARTEX.

In 2002, Media-Space reformed as a collective of artists and academics committed to the research and development of living and electronic art. Currently, Media-Space facilitates workshops, lectures and presentations of current research from artists, PhD and Masters students. Media-Space offers cross-institutional research opportunities by providing resources and critical advice to the research and development of local electronic art projects.

Broadly, the aims of Media-Space are:

• to define a cross-institutional hybrid database focusing on collaborations between art and science.
• to develop processes of critical interrogation which identify and define areas of arts research.
• to nurture National and International collaborations.
• to explore processes of collaboration in the area of high-end research in living and electronic art.

Through the establishment of the online Media-Space Journal, Media-Space continues its role in the dissemination of emerging art and critical interrogation of electronic and digital arts culture. The Media-Space Journal is a peer-reviewed international journal of both scholarly and artistic contributions that explore the issues and ideas which are of interest to the local, national and international network of electronic, digital, experimental and new media artists. The journal encourages critical and speculative interventions in the debate and discussions concerning the production and critique of new media art forms. Read more →

The Media-Space Journal encourages submissions that extend research into critical and investigative networked theories, knowledges and practices.

ISSN: 1449 - 1443
Published in Australia
The journal is peer reviewed as per section 4.3.4 of the HERDC Specifications.

White Heat Cold Logic British Computer Art 1960-1980

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11548&mode=toc

Edited by Paul Brown, Charlie Gere, Nicholas Lambert and Catherine Mason
+you can read charlie gere's introduction here

IASA 2009 conference in Athens

IASA 2009 conference in Athens

Deadline for receipt abstracts: 20 February 2009

When IASA was founded 40 years ago few could imagine the realities with which today’s audiovisual archives are confronted. As we approach the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the digital age for archives, libraries and museums is not an option, but a reality. Huge digitisation projects have been or are being implemented while at the same time the production and distribution of the new content is mostly digital.

What is the role of the audiovisual archives in this new technological environment? How distinct are the roles of the various cultural heritage institutions? What methods and techniques will ensure the accountability and continuity of the audiovisual content? How have users’ expectations been changed and what strategies have been employed to meet them? Which is the role of international organizations and of the IASA in this new environment? How can the National Archives of big and smallest countries can cope with this new environment?

Conference Themes

• Archives, Libraries and Museums. Moment of Truth - Time to Converge?
• The disappearing Archive I: the loss of physical substance through digitisation
• The disappearing Archive II: aging and physical deterioration of analogue media
• The disappearing Archive III: obsolete carriers but no replay equipment
• Born to die? Selection policies in the 21st century
• Between archivists and users, taking advantage of the archive
• Digital preservation and audiovisual preservation: Is there a divide?
• 40 years of IASA
• The role of the National Audiovisual Archives
• Archiving the web and the new media audiovisual content
• Ethics of digital archives

FORTHCOMING

White Heat, Cold Logic

Edited by Paul Brown, Charlie Gere, Nicholas Lambert and Catherine Mason

Technological optimism, even utopianism, was widespread at midcentury; in Britain, Harold Wilson in 1963 promised a new nation "forged from the white heat of the technological revolution." In this heady atmosphere, pioneering artists transformed the cold logic of computing into a new medium for their art, and played a central role in connecting technology and culture. White Heat Cold Logic tells the story of these early British digital and computer artists--and fills in a missing chapter in contemporary art history.

In this heroic period of computer art, artists were required to build their own machines, collaborate closely with computer scientists, and learn difficult computer languages. White Heat Cold Logic's chapters, many written by computer art pioneers themselves, describe the influence of cybernetics, with its emphasis on process and interactivity; the connections to the constructivist movement; and the importance of work done in such different venues as commercial animation, fine art schools, and polytechnics.

The advent of personal computing and graphical user interfaces in 1980 signaled the end of an era, and today we do not have so many dreams of technological utopia. And yet our highly technologized and mediated world owes much to these early practitioners, especially for expanding our sense of what we can do with new technologies.

Paul Brown is Visiting Professor of Art and Technology at the University of Sussex. Charlie Gere is Reader in New Media Research, Institute for Cultural Research, at Lancaster University. Nicholas Lambert is Research Officer, School of History of Art, Film, and Visual Media, at Birkbeck College, University of London. Catherine Mason is an art historian at work on a book about computers and artistic practice in art schools and academic institutions.

Contributors: Roy Ascott, Stephen Bell, Paul Brown, Stephen Bury, Harold Cohen, Ernest Edmonds, María Fernández, Simon Ford, John Hamilton Frazer, Jeremy Gardiner, Charlie Gere, Adrian Glew, Beryl Graham, Stan Hayward, Grisham Howard, Richard Ihnatowicz, Malcolm Le Grice, Tony Longson, Brent MacGregor, George Mallen, Catherine Mason, Jasia Reichardt, Stephen A. R. Scrivener, Brian Reffin Smith, Alan Sutcliffe, Doron D. Swade, John Vince, Richard Wright, Aleksandar Zivanovic.

About the Editors

Paul Brown is Visiting Professor of Art and Technology at the University of Sussex.

Charlie Gere is Reader in New Media Research, Institute for Cultural Research, at Lancaster University.

Nicholas Lambert is Research Officer, School of History of Art, Film, and Visual Media, at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Catherine Mason is an art historian at work on a book about computers and artistic practice in art schools and academic institutions.


February 2009
The MIT Press
A Leonardo Book
ISBN:0-262-02653-8
568 pp., 63 figures

transmediale 09 (live) streaming

As part of its online programme, Berlin's festival for art and digital culture *transmediale.09 DEEP NORTH* will offer a selected package of live video streams from the House of World Cultures in Berlin from 28 January to 1 February 2009.
For details of where and what we will stream please visit

Dedicated transmediale IRC channels provide platforms for extended discussion leading up to and during the actual event, giving the remote community a powerful voice and a chance to engage with the sessions in Berlin. For details how to get involved please visit

useful linklist published by DOCAM (20090122)

GLOSSARIES AND THESAURI

Variable Media Glossary. Depocas, A., Ippolito, J., and Jones, C. (eds) (2003). Permanence Through Change: The Variable Media Approach. New York: Guggenheim Museum Publications and the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art Science and Technology.
http://www.variablemedia.net/e/preserving/html/var_pub_index.html

Capturing Unstable Media Glossary, V2
http://capturing.projects.v2.nl/glossary.html

UNESCO Thesaurus
http://www2.ulcc.ac.uk/unesco/

Independent Media Arts Preservation (IMAP), Glossary
http://www.imappreserve.org/cat_proj/glossary.html

Dictionnaire des arts médiatiques. 1996, Groupe de recherche en arts médiatiques, Université du Québec à Montréal.
http://132.208.118.245/Accueil.html

Inside Installations Glossary
http://glossary.inside-installations.org

Bay Area Video Coalition - Glossary
http://www.bavc.org/preservation/dvd/resources/gloss.htm

Digital Curation Centre Glossary
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resource/glossary/

AMIA Glossary
http://www.amianet.org

Besser, Howard. Introduction to imaging : issues in constructing an image database : revised edition. Los Angeles : Getty Research Institute, 2003.
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/standards/introimages/glossary.html
[includes Glossary]

InterPARES Glossary (International Research on Permanent Authentic Records in Electronic Systems)
http://www.interpares.org/display_file.cfm?doc=ip1_glossary.pdf
[archival context]

Grand dictionnaire terminologique, Office québecois de la langue française
http://www.granddictionnaire.ca

Kodak Glossary of Film/Video Terms.
http://motion.kodak.com/US/en/motion/Education/Film_Video_Glossary/index.htm

Lexical and Classification Resources from CoOl
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/lex/
[With links to glossaries and thesauri, this CoOl site offers information specific to magnetic media preservation as well as other areas of archival research.]

Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science (ODLIS), Joan M. Reitz.
http://lu.com/odlis/odlis_r.cfm

WordNet
http://wordnet.princeton.edu/

Preserving Access to Digital Information (PADI) Glossaries
http://www.nla.gov.au/padi/format/gloss.html

Recording institute of Detroit, Audio Recording Terms Glossary
http://recordingeq.com/glossary/glospt.htm

Structured Glossary from the Technology Assessment Advisory Committee of the Commission on Preservation and Access
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/lynn/
[This extensive glossary breaks terms down by document medium, format, properties, content, and condition. It also includes storage terms, specific preservation terms, methodology, and more].

Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT)
http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/aat/

Tech Terms Dictionary
http://www.techterms.com

Technical Glossary of Common Audiovisual Terms (developed by National Film and Sound Archive - Australia)
http://www.nfsa.afc.gov.au/preservation/audiovisual_terms/

Universal Preservation Format Glossary
http://info.wgbh.org/upf/glossary.html
[Developed in conjunction with the Universal Preservation Format, this glossary has cross-domain definitions of preservation terms and provides links to glossaries that have additional source information.]

OTHER TERMINOLOGY SOURCES / RESSOURCES

Documentation and capturing methods for unstable media arts, V2
http://archive.v2.nl/v2_archive/projects/capturing/1_2_capturing.pdf

Description models for unstable media art. V2.
http://archive.v2.nl/v2_archive/projects/capturing/1_3_metadata.pdf

Class Hierarchy for cmcm_final Project, V2
http://archive.v2.nl/v2_archive/projects/capturing/cmcm/html/

CIDOC CRM – Conceptual Reference Model
http://cidoc.ics.forth.gr/

Audio and Video Carriers, TAPE (Training for Audiovisual Preservation in Europe)
www.tape-online.net/docs/audio_and_video_carriers.pdf

JISC Techwatch A-Z Technologies
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/services/techwatch/aztechnologies.aspx

Computer Forensics Tools Testing Website
http://www.cftt.nist.gov/

Disk Imaging Specification Comments and Responses
http://www.cftt.nist.gov/DI-SPEC-COMMENTS-AND-RESPONSES-5.doc

Sustainability of Digital Formats, Library of Congress
http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/intro/intro.shtml

UK Archival Thesaurus
http://www.ukat.org.uk/
[SKOS implementation]

Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) Home Page
http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/

Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) Reference
http://www.w3.org/TR/skos-reference/

Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR)
http://www.ifla.org/VII/s13/frbr/

DCC Curation Lifecycle Model
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/docs/publications/DCCLifecycle.pdf