EXPANDING THE FIELD. Or, 8 good reasons to talk about new media (in an art fair)

EXPANDING THE FIELD. Or, 8 good reasons to talk about new media (in an art fair)

Director: Domenico Quaranta
Lecturers: UBERMORGEN.COM, Marius Watz, Trevor Paglen, Oron Catts, Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn, Paul D. Miller / DJ Spooky
ARCO Art Fair, Forum Auditorium 2, Hall 6.
February 18, 2010, from 12.30 to 2.30 p.m. and from 4 to 8 p.m.

Download the complete program: http://domenicoquaranta.com/public/pdf/ARCO2010\_seminar.pdf

Something is happening in the field of art. Postmodernism seems to have been replaced, but nobody is really able to say by what. Art critics such as Nicolas Bourriaud and Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev explained this change looking backwards to Modernism, but Modernism itself is many things, and it’s still not clear if this new modern, or Altermodern, is rooted in a new utopianism, as argued by Christov-Bakargiev, or in creolisation, globalisation and travelling, as suggested by Bourriaud.

What is clear to both is that new technologies, in the broader meaning of the term, are having a central role in this change. Starting from here, and appropriating Ippolito and Blais’ idea that the change will come from artists operating “at the edge of art” - Expanding the Field will involve artists and researchers that address, with different approaches, various new technologies - from the Internet to videogames and biotechnology - and issues and practices of the digital culture, from media hacking to data mining and surveillance. Some of them developed groundbreaking tools now used worldwide by artists operating in different fields; others - such as Tale of Tales - dropped out from the traditional art world in order to bring their idea of art to a different, possibly wider audience. Some feel more comfortable in labs than in museums, and most of them are strongly connected to online communities. Along the panel, they will be invited to introduce their work, addressing their relationship with technology and digital culture, and explaining how the fields they explore are affecting our culture and our concept of art.