CRITICAL INFORMATION GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE

The MFA program in Art Criticism & Writing at the School of Visual Arts presents Critical Information, an interdisciplinary graduate student conference examining the contemporary dialogue between art, media, and society. The Critical Information conference provides a critical forum for current scholarship exploring the juncture of media, theory, criticism, and the visual arts. Boris Groys, Distinguished Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University and Senior Research Fellow at the Karlsruhe University of Arts, will deliver the keynote address, “Art on the Internet.”

An essayist, art critic, curator, media theorist, and Kulturfilosof (philosopher of culture), Boris Groys is the author of many books on art, including Art Power, The Total Art of Stalinism, Medium Religion (with Peter Weibel), The Communist Postscript, and a number of books on the works of, and in dialogue with, Ilya Kabakov. For his keynote speech, Professor Groys will address how since the beginning of the 20th century, art of the historical avant-garde tried to reveal the factual, material, non-fictional dimension of art. Through the Internet this avant-garde impulse finds its realization, its telos. The Internet user is informed about art as a specific kind of reality: as a working process or even life process taking place in the real, off-line world. This does not mean that the aesthetic criteria do not play any role in the presentation of data on the Internet. However, in this case we have to do not with art but with the data design–with the aesthetic presentation of documentation about real art events.

The Critical Information conference showcases an international roster of graduate student participants from a wide cross-section of disciplines, who will present papers and projects on the following six panels: Fragmentation and Trauma; The Art and Poetics of Technical Production; Border / Media / Bodies; Mediating Space; Interdisciplinarity; and The Disappearing Identity.

The MFA program in Art Criticism & Writing at SVA offers a two-year course of study leading to an MFA degree. For students who want to improve their writing and advance their knowledge of contemporary art, theory, literature, and history, this concentrated program offers seminars by practicing critics, editors, philosophers, poets, and artists. The focus in writing is on the essay as form, as well as on shorter forms of review, through intensive writing practicums. http://artcriticism.sva.edu/

The School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City is an established leader and innovator in the education of artists. From its inception in 1947, the faculty has been comprised of professionals working in the arts and art-related fields. SVA provides an environment that nurtures creativity, inventiveness and experimentation, enabling students to develop a strong sense of identity and a clear direction of purpose.