ATC@UCB:
Does the Experience of Immersion Drive Media Art?
Oliver Grau, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany
The Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium
Mon, 2 Dec, 7:30-9:30pm: UC Berkeley,
Location: 160 Kroeber Hall
All ATC Lectures are free and open to the public.
** This event co-sponsored by Goethe-Institut San Francisco
(thanks to Ulrich Everding)
Going beyond technical and ahistorical views of media art, we analyze
what is really new in media art by focusing on recent work against the
backdrop of historic developments. This talk will consider the
ancestors of mixed and virtual realities, telepresence and genetic art
from the history of media of illusion and immersion. Our goal is a
material and theoretical contribution to an emerging discipline: the
science of the image. Where and how does the new genre of virtual art
fit into the art history of the image, that is, how do historical
elements continue to live on and influence this contemporary art?
Immersion is undoubtedly a key to any understanding of the development
of media. What part does this play in the current metamorphosis of the
concepts of art and the image? One example is Mixed Reality, where a
new blend of traditional media is created through combining
architecture, sculpture, painting, and scenography.
The talk draws on the work of contemporary artists and groups like
ART+COM, Maurice Benayoun, Charlotte Davies, Agnes Hegedues, Steven
Schkolne, Christa Sommerer, Michael Naimark, Simon Penny, Daniela
Plewe, Jeffrey Shaw, Karl Sims and Eduardo Kac.
Dr. Oliver Grau is a new-media art historian and lectures at the
Department of Art History, Humboldt University in Berlin. He is a
visiting professor at the Kunstuniversity Linz and is head of the
German Science Foundation project on Immersive Art in Berlin, also he
is developing the first international data base resource for virtual
art, a result of his work on the history of immersion and virtual
art. Grau studied art history, economics, archaeology, and Italian
literature in Hamburg, London, and Siena with further research in
Japan and the U.S.A. He published widely on VR-art and lectured in
Europe, Japan, Brasil and the US. Oliver Grau is a member of the Young
Academy of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (BBAW) and the
Leopoldina. His research focuses on the history of illusion and
immersion in media and art, the history of the idea and culture of
telepresence and telecommunication, genetic art, and artificial
intelligence. Other memberships and collaborations include the "Images
of Knowledge" project at the Academy of Arts, Linz, Austria, and the
Frieda Ackermann Working Group.
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The ATC Colloquium continues our partnership with the Berkeley Art
Museum and the Walker Art Center to present online video of ATC talks,
available both in QuickTime (highlights) or MP3 audio. For links and
the full 2002-2003 series schedule, please see:
www.ieor.berkeley.edu/~goldberg/lecs/
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Does the Experience of Immersion Drive Media Art?
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Type: discussion