[Fwd: kuda lounge> Inke Arns]

April 8, 2004

Type: discussion

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Subject: kuda lounge> Inke Arns
From: "kuda.org" <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, April 8, 2004 8:26 am
To: "kuda.org" <[email protected]>
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kuda.lounge09.04.20:00h lecture:Inke Arns, Berlin Title:Read_me, run_me,
execute_me: Some notes about software art The heuristic term "software
art" describes an artistic activity which in the medium of software allows
for a critical reflection of software (and its cultural impact). Software
art does not regard software merely as a pragmatic, invisible tool
generating certain visible results or surfaces, but on the contrary
focuses on the program code itself - even if this code is not explicitely
being laid open or put in the foreground. Software art makes visible the
aesthetic and political subtexts of seemingly neutral technical commands
(F. Cramer). Doing so, software art can happen on different levels: it can
be located on the level of the source code, on the level of abstract
algorythms or on the level of the result generated by a certain program
code. Thus it comes as no surprise that there is a wide variety of
software artworks ranging from so-called "Codeworks" consisting
predominantly of ASCII-Code (not being executables), to experimental web
browsers (e.g. "WebStalker", 1997), and fully-executable programmes.
Lately there has been a growing confusion between the notion of
"generative art" and "software art" which very often led to a blurring of
boundaries between the two. In this lecture she will argue that a clear
distinction needs to be made between these two notions. While in the
context of generative art software is seen as a pragmatic tool generating
certain results of surfaces (while the tool remains unquestioned), in the
context of software art software is understood as a culture which is being
scrutinised and questioned for its aesthetical and political subtexts.
Software in this context can be "experimental" and "non-pragmatic", and it
is considered as an independent work, rather than simply serving code. In
software art, code can be an extravaganza and does not need to be
efficient. It can be useless, luxurious, growing exuberantly, consciously
anti-elegant code. Furthermore, in the context of generative art and
design generative processes are often employed in order to negate
intentionality. Software artists, on the contrary, conceive of generative
systems not as negation of intentionality, but as balancing of randomness
and control: "Far from being simply art for machines, software art is
highly concerned with artistic subjectivity and its reflection and
extension into generative systems." (1) Inke Arns will argue that in the
context of software art a far more interesting notion than the
"generative" is that of the "performativity" of code. This notion -
borrowed from the context of speech act theory - does not only comprise
the ability to generate in a technical context, but also encompasses the
implications and repercussions of code in the realm of the aesthetic, the
political and the social. (1) Florian Cramer / Ulrike Gabriel, quoted
after Andreas Broeckmann, "On Software as Art", in: Sarai Reader 2003:
Shaping Technologies, New Delhi 2003, pp. 215-218, here: p. 216.
———————————— Arns will mainly talk about the
following projects: **Projekt Gnutenberg/textz.com: walser.php (2002)
http://textz.com/trash/http://textz.com/trash/readme.txt **Robert
Luxembourg: "The Conceptual Crisis of Private Property as a Crisis in
Practice" (2004) http://www.rolux.net/crisis/index.php [see also
description/transmediale:
http://www.transmediale.de/page/detail/detail.0.projects.38.html][see also
transmediale Software Art Jury Statement 2004:
http://www.transmediale.de/page/awards/award.0.software.1.html] **Dragan
Espenschied & Alvar Freude: insert_coin (2001)http://odem.org/insert_coin/
————— Inke Arns * 1968 in Duisdorf/Bonn, lives in Berlin
(Germany). Inke Arns (Dr. des. / PhD) is an independent curator and
author focussing on media art, net cultures and Eastern Europe. After
spending four years in Paris (1982-86) she studied Eastern European
cultural studies, Slavistics, Political Science, and Art History at the
Free University Berlin and The University of Amsterdam (Erasmus
scholarship 1992); 1996 M.A. thesis "Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) -
analysis of their artistic strategies in the context of Yugoslavia in the
1980s" (published 2002). 1998 - 2000 PhD grant of the Berlin Senate
(NaFoeG). 2000 - 2001 lecturer at the Institute of Slavistics at the
Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. Since 2002 guest-lecturer at the art
academy Hochschule fur Grafik und Buchkunst (HGB) Leipzig. In 2004 she
completed her PhD at the Institute of Slavistics of the Humboldt
University, Berlin, Germany. Her dissertation, entitled "Objects in the
Mirror may be Closer Than They Appear: The Avant-garde in the Rear View
Mirror", researches a paradigmatic shift in the way artists reflect the
historical avant-garde in visual and media art projects of the 1980s and
1990s in (ex-)Yugoslavia and Russia. Projects Her curatorial work includes
media art exhibitions and conferences like - OSTranenie 93: Shattered
Myths, New Realities. Video Focus on Central, Eastern and South-Eastern
Europe, Bauhaus Dessau 1993; - Minima Media. Medienbiennale Leipzig 94,
Buntgarnwerke Leipzig-Plagwitz 1994; - V2_East Meeting on Documentation
and Archives of Media Art in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe,
conference of the V2_Organisation, Rotterdam 1996; - discord. sabotage of
realities, Kunstverein & Kunsthaus, Hamburg 1996/97; - body of the
message, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, 1998; - Body and the East:
Performance and Body Art in Eastern Europe 1960 - today, Moderna
Galerija, Ljubljana, 1998; - update 2.0, Zentrum fur Kunst und
Medientechnologie (ZKM) Karlsruhe, curated for the Goethe-Institute, 2000;
- Kinetographien, interdisciplinary conference of the Institute of
Slavistics at the European Academy Berlin, 2001;- Social Technologies,
exhibition on net activism at Kokerei Zollverein, Essen, 2003;- IRWIN:
Retroprincip 1983-2003, exhibition of the Slovenian artists' collective at
Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Sep 26 - Oct 26, 2003; Karl Ernst
Osthaus-Museum, Hagen, Nov 14, 2003 - Jan 4, 2004; Museum of Contemporary
Art, Belgrade, April 17 - May 17, 2004. Initiatives Founding member of the
translocal Syndicate network (1996-2001), co-founder of the Berlin-based
mikro, association for the advancement of new media cultures (since 1998)
as well as a co-founder of Spectre, a mailing list for media culture in
Deep Europe (since 2001). Publications Publications include Netzkulturen
(Hamburg 2002) and Neue Slowenische Kunst (Regensburg 2002); numerous
articles on media art and net culture, e.g. in the journals Leonardo
Electronic Almanach (USA), Kunstforum International (D) and Convergence:
Journal of Research into New Technologies (UK). Most recently she
published "Interaction, Participation, Networking: Art and
Telecommunication" and "Social Technologies: Deconstruction, Subversion
and the Utopia of Democratic Communication", in: Dieter Daniels / Rudolf
Frieling (eds.), Media Art Net, Vienna/New York 2004
[www.medienkunstnetz.de]. She is also the editor of several exhibition
catalogues (most recently: Irwin: Retroprincip 1983-2003, Frankfurt/Main:
Revolver 2003). See also [http://www.v2.nl/~arns]. Dr. des. Inke Arns,
Pestalozzistr. 5, 10625 BerlinT +49-30-313 66 78, F +49-30-31017559mobile
+49-178-313 66 78, [email protected]://www.v2.nl/~arns Irwin Retroprincip
1983-2003Berlin, Hagen, BelgradeMuseum of Contemporary Art, BelgradeApril
17 - May 17, 2004 (opening April 17, 2004, 1
pm)http://www.irwin-retroprincip.de >to unsubscribe from this list, reply
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