Media-N Journal Edition: Dynamic Coupling

DYNAMIC COUPLING

How can one navigate an art career based upon collaborative practice? And an academic career where collaboration is pivotal…how can it work? These are some of the many questions our fall 2010 edition guest editors, Jessica Westbrook and Adam Trowbridge, a successful collaborating couple themselves, asked a group of established artist-couples working in new media.

The responses are at times fascinating, intimate and humorous-as we are given a rare glimpse into these artists’ worlds through their shared practice-and at others, informative and thought provoking, as they recount their experiences and describe the advantages and difficulties of “dynamic coupling”.

This edition poses timely questions relating to both the making and teaching of new media. It seems that of all art practices, new media lends itself best to collaboration and shared expertise. Yet while the art world can adapt quickly to evolutions in working modes (embracing them as novel and interesting) the financial and structural model of academia make it less agile in responding to changes that could shift teaching philosophies and curricula in such new directions, re-shaping the way artists think, make and create.

Contributors: Shannon McMullen and Fabian Winkler, Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero of Luftwerk, Annette Barbier and Drew Browning of Un-real Estates, Margarita Benitez and Markus Vogl of // benitez\_vogl, Krista Birnbaum and David Politzer, Jon Brumit and Sarah Wagner, JonCates && Jake Elliot, Ben Chang and Silvia Ruzanka, Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG, Sean Fletcher and Isabel Reichert, Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus of LoVid, Sven Humphrey and Robyn Voshardt, Jennifer and Kevin McCoy, Stephan Hillerbrand and Mary Magsamen, of Hillerbrand+Magsamen, Leila Christine Nadir and Cary Peppermint, of ecoarttech, Julio Obelleiro and Casilda Sanchez, Ken Rinaldo and Amy Youngs, Jessica Westbrook and Adam Trowbridge.
Reviews: Pat Badani, Jim Jeffers and Daniël Ploeger

Rachel Clarke
Editor in Chief, Media-N
Fall 2010