Art and Electronic Media: US Book Launch

Visions of the Future: A Book Talk on Art and Electronic Media
with Edward Shanken in conversation with Dorka Keehn at the Exploratorium

Interdisciplinary arts scholar Edward Shanken, the author of [url=http://artelectronicmedia.wordpress.comArt and Electronic Media (Phaidon, 2009), will be interviewed by arts commentator Dorka Keehn at the Exploratorium on Sunday, June 7, at 3pm, followed by a book-signing and reception. This event is included in the price of admission to the Exploratorium.

This highly anticipated book demonstrates the formidable history of artistic uses of electronic media, a history that parallels the growing pervasiveness of technology in all facets of life. Over 200 artists and institutions from more than 30 countries are represented. Among the artists featured, based in the Bay Area are Lynn Hershman Leeson, Paul DeMarinis, Ken Goldberg, Jim Campbell. Survival Research Labs, and Alan Rath. With the possible exception of Rath, each of these artists has had a relationship with the Exploratorium and its artists-in-residence or exhibition programs.

The centrality of artists as theorists and critics is reflected in the focus on artists’ writings. The goal is to enable the rich genealogy of art and electronic media to be understood and seen - literally and figuratively - as central to the histories of art and visual culture.

About the Author
Edward A. Shanken writes and teaches about the entwinement of art, science, and technology with a focus on interdisciplinary practices involving new media. He is Universitair Docent in New Media, University of Amsterdam, and a member of the Media Art History faculty at the Donau University in Krems, Austria. He was formerly Executive Director of the Information Science + Information Studies program at Duke University and Professor of Art History and Media Theory at Savannah College of Art and Design. Recent and forthcoming publications include essays on art and technology in the 1960s, information aesthetics, interactivity and agency, and the cultural implications of cybernetics, robotics, and biotechnology. He edited Telematic Embrace: Visionary Theories of Art, Technology and Consciousness (University of California Press, 2003). His second book, Art and Electronic Media,was published by Phaidon Press in 2009. Author's website: http://artexetra.com

About the Host
Dorka Keehn is an artist and social entrepreneur. She is the CEO of Greenshifters, a distribution system for green content. With Brian Goggin, she completed the North Beach public art installation Language of the Birds. She is the host of Keehn on Art and has produced documentaries for television, including the two-time Emmy Award winner Of Civil Wrongs and Rights: The Fred Korematsu Story. She is currently creating a photography book with Colin Finlay on women environmental leaders.

[img]http://press.exploratorium.edu/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/edwardshanken.jpg[/img]
Annette Wolfsberger with Edward Shanken at NIMk, Amsterdam