NOMADIC SCREEN EXHIBITION CANCELLATION

NOMADIC SCREEN: APP-ART & VIDEO OF THE HAND
SHOW CANCELLED
Patrick Lichty, Curator

Statement:
This summer, I had launched a call that was an extension of the ongoing observation of the move of art from the screen, onto the body and into space as first expressed in my essay “Towards a Culture of Ubiquity”. This series of curatorial/adjudication projects include (re)distributions, Social Fabrics (co-curated with Susan Ryan), Mobile Exposure, and arte.mov. All of these projects were undertaken with the promise of them being innovative, or at least provocative, exhibitions of works that were not being seen.

I had launched the call that was in formulation for nearly eight months about two weeks after Jonah Brucker-Cohen published “Art in Your Pocket” http://www.rhizome.org/editorial/2744 on Rhizome .org. Christiane Paul had informed me of this, and my response was a slap to the forehead, mainly for having a good instinct, but waiting too long.

Since that time, what I have received has been mainly video, and the app work that I've seen in the community is already being distributed and seen. There are two issues that remain even with the expansion of app art, and might like to explore in the future.

1a: Most handheld art seems to be overshadowed by the iPhone. Although work with the MyTouch/Android platform, etc are extant, as well as other platforms, the Apple paradigm is dominant to the point where I wonder if I want to perpetuate its dominance.

1b: Sites like app-art.org have ostensibly done the job of cataloguing much of the work that I wanted to explore. The Nomadic Screen show would have been unnecessarily redundant.

2: The Apple restrictions of content (acceptability, legality, SDK) create significant limitations in cultural expression. Although I will not attend this year, I will be looking at the subjects covered in Levin, et al's Mobile Art && Code conference at Carnegie Mellon concerning production and expression on mobile platforms outside the hegemonic channels.

IN CONCLUSION:
Nomadic Screen has been canceled due to my belief that aspects of the conversation I wanted to create had been accomplished, and it would be necessary to launch another call in order to redirect the project to the areas where I feel inquiry would be useful. My thanks to people who had submitted, and my deepest apologies for not going further with this.