jihui - Digital Salon
presents
Kathleen Brandt + Brian Lonsway
Thursday, June 19, 2003 7 PM
@ Parsons Center for New Design
55 West 13th Street, 9th Fl.
New York, NY 10011
Live Webcast @ (http://agent.netart-init.org) starts 7pm EST.
The artists will explore the seemingly increasing craving for data in our
everyday lives and will present a series of projects that take this craving
as a critical starting point. The work of "brandway," their artist
organization, looks at the way in which the concept of data has shifted from
a primarily scientific necessity to a measure of social existence. The
artists argue that data is a concept inextricable from the acts of
collection, storage, and representation, and that its existence in this
social realm embodies the power structures of the organizations performing
these acts. As the scientific concept of data has become increasingly
significant in areas of society outside of the scientific community –
mass-marketing, opinion polls, weather predictions, environmental awareness
– it has become both a measure of "truth" and a measure of the extents of
political and social manipulation. Brandway's artistic work looks creatively
at these ambiguous measures of data as a way of exploring its politics,
especially in areas where its "truth" is (or is intended to be) taken for
granted.
Prudent Avoidance, brandway's most recent project, was funded through
Franklin Furnace's THE FUTURE OF THE PRESENT 2002 program, and looks at data
through the lens of electro-magnetic frequency exposure. Through an evolving
online database and wearable data collection device, the work explores the
contradictions of data collection, measurement, and representation when used
to measure things like "human risk." The artists will talk about the
development of this work, as well as other projects that explore related
issues in the creative representation of data.
Artist Bios:
Kathleen Brandt is an electronic media and installation artist whose work
engages the assumed relationships we have with technology and
technologically-mediated environments. Of her most recent installations,
Exclusion Zone documents the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion through the
cultural and social representations of radioactive exposure; Maximum
Security explores the construction of the maximum-security prisoner through
the engineering of prison furnishings; and Prudent Avoidance – in
conjunction with Brian Lonsway – critically examines the role that
'scientific' data plays in the construction of environmental risk. Kathleen
is also an instructor of video and installation art and has taught at
numerous universities, including Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, The State
University of New York at Albany, and Siena College.
Brian Lonsway is a cultural theorist, information technology researcher, and
architectural designer who studies the relationships between advancing
technologies and spatial design. He is director of the Informatics and
Architecture program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, and is
a founding researcher in the Synthetic Space Environment, a technologically
mediated environment for embodied tele-collaboration. He has published on
various subjects, from the political structure of spatial environments to
the architectural applications of computation. His current work includes the
completion of a book entitled Making Leisure Work: Architecture and the
Entertainment Economy, an in depth exploration of design practices in themed
environments; and the development of a series of essays on the historical
and contemporary relationship between design and computational theory.
THE FUTURE OF THE PRESENT is Franklin Furnace's artist residency program,
founded in 1998 when Franklin Furnace transformed itself from a real to a
virtual entity. Franklin Furnace offers artists an honorarium and a
residency to create "live art on the Internet" for a 2-4 month duration at a
physical or online venue appropriate to the artists' work. THE FUTURE OF THE
PRESENT 2003 is made possible by grants from Jerome Foundation, and The Andy
Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
jihui (the meeting point), a self-regulated digital salon, invites all
interested people to send ideas for discussion/performance/etc.
jihui is where your voice is heard and your vision shared.
jihui is sponsored by Digital Design Department and Center for New
Design @ Parsons School of Design
jihui is organized by agent.netart (http://agent.netart-init.org), a joint
public program by NETART INITIATIVE and INTELLIGENT AGENT
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jihui presents Kathleen Brandt + Brian Lonsway -- Thursday June 19, 7PM
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Type: discussion