Fwd: "Echoes of Art" Emulation Symposium May 8 at Guggenheim

April 28, 2004

Type: discussion

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Jon Ippolito" <[email protected]>
> Date: April 28, 2004 4:54:05 AM EDT
> To: "Jon Ippolito" <[email protected]>
> Subject: "Echoes of Art" Emulation Symposium May 8 at Guggenheim
>
> Echoes of Art: Emulation As a Preservation Strategy
> Peter B. Lewis Theater
> Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
> 1071 Fifth Avenue (at 89th Street)
> New York City
> Saturday, May 8, 2004
> 9:45 am - 4 pm
> http://variablemedia.net/e/seeingdouble
>
> The Sistine ceiling waited patiently for centuries before being
> restored, but the digital soot that afflicts artworks trapped in more
> recent technologies can obliterate them in a matter of years or
> months. "Echoes of Art," a symposium offered at New York's Guggenheim
> Museum on May 8, examines the successes and failures of emulation, a
> promising and powerful technique for resurrecting art made with
> obsolete software, hardware, or materials.
>
> 1. SYMPOSIUM DESCRIPTION
> Someday all works in ephemeral media, from film and video to computer-
> and Internet-based art, may only be visible in re-creations. "Echoes
> of Art" probes what is gained or lost when artists dare to translate
> past technologies into present or future ones.
>
> The symposium is offered on the occasion of the Guggenheim exhibition
> SEEING DOUBLE, a project of the Variable Media Network that pairs
> artworks in endangered mediums side by side with their re-created
> doubles–and sometimes triples–in newer mediums. Attenders of the
> symposium and exhibition will enjoy a unique opportunity to judge
> whether the emulated works capture the spirit of the originals. The
> show includes new media artists young and old, including Cory
> Arcangel, Mary Flanagan, jodi, Nam June Paik, and John F. Simon, Jr.
>
> Of the works revived by emulation in SEEING DOUBLE, one of the most
> venerable–and hence most vulnerable–is The Erl King by Grahame
> Weinbren and Roberta Friedman, one of the first interactive video
> installations. On view in the gallery is the original version, ca.
> 1982, running on a rackful of analog equipment plugged into an antique
> computer with no hard drive. Next to it is a version made expressly
> for this exhibition, running on a single PC with all the video loaded
> on a half-terabyte hard drive.
>
> The debate sparked by the comparisons in SEEING DOUBLE will be played
> out in the "Echoes of Art" symposium, where artists, programmers,
> conservators, and curators reflect on emulation's value for the case
> studies in the exhibition, its possible application to preserving
> other aspects of endangered culture, and the role of emulation and
> technological nostalgia in contemporary gaming and art.
>
>
> 2. SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE
> __________________________________
> ***Welcome 9:45 - 10:00 am***
> John G. Hanhardt, Senior Curator of Film and Media Arts, Guggenheim
> Jean Gagnon, Director of Programs, Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art,
> Science, and Technology, Montreal
>
> __________________________________
> ***Morning Session 10 am - noon***
> "Magic Bullet or Shot in the Dark? Emulation As Preservation Strategy"
> The artists, programmers, and conservators in this session begin by
> reviewing the elaborate process required to emulate The Erl King
> (1982-85) by Grahame Weinbren and Roberta Friedman. This case study
> serves as a point of departure for examining such questions as how the
> technique of emulation can be applied to software, hardware, or
> ephemeral materials. Panelists also attempt to draw lessons about
> which artworks lend themselves to emulation, and which to storage,
> migration, or re-interpretation.
>
> *Presenters
> Isaac Dimitrovsky, programmer, New York
> Roberta Friedman, artist, New York
> Jeff Rothenberg, computer scientist, RAND
> Grahame Weinbren, artist, New York
>
> *Respondants
> Caitlin Jones, Variable Media Specialist, Guggenheim
> Pip Laurenson, Sculpture Conservator for Electronic Media and Kinetic
> Arts, Tate Gallery, London
> Jill Sterrett, Head of Conservation, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
>
> *Moderator
> Carol Stringari, Senior Conservator, Contemporary Art, Guggenheim
>
> __________________________________
> ***Lunch and Exhibition Viewing noon - 1:30 pm***
>
> __________________________________
> ***Emulation Performance 1:30 - 2:00 pm***
> jodi (Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans), artists, The Netherlands
>
> __________________________________
> ***Afternoon Session 2:00 - 4:00 pm***
> "Generation Emulation: Games, Art, and Technological Nostalgia"
> This session takes a broader look at the impact of emulation culture.
> Participants compare the strategies available to artists for
> resurrecting obsolete technologies and analyze the SEEING DOUBLE
> survey for signs of consensus from the experts and the lay public on
> the success of emulation. Participants also examine the retro
> aesthetic motivating emulation among players of computer games and
> creators of game "mods," speculating to what extent emulation will
> become part of everyday life in an increasingly technological future.
>
> *Presenters
> Cory Arcangel, artist, New York
> Mary Flanagan, artist, New York
> John F. Simon, Jr., artist, New York
>
> *Respondants
> Tilman Baumgaertal, writer and critic, Berlin
> Francis Hwang, artist and Director of Technology, Rhizome.org, New York
> Christiane Paul, Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts, Whitney Museum of
> American Art
>
> *Moderator
> Jon Ippolito, Associate Curator of Media Arts, Guggenheim and artist,
> Still Water for networked art and culture, University of Maine
>
> __________________________________
> The symposium is free with the purchase of admission to the museum.
>
>
> 3. CREDIT
> The SEEING DOUBLE exhibition is organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim
> Museum in partnership with the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art,
> Science, and Technology.
>
> This exhibition is generously supported by the Daniel Langlois
> Foundation.
>
> Support for the "Echoes of Art" symposium is provided by the support
> of the National Endowment for the Arts.
>
>
> 4. FOR MORE INFORMATION
> Please contact [email protected] or visit:
> http://variablemedia.net/e/seeingdouble
> http://variablemedia.net/
> http://www.guggenheim.org/press_releases/downloads/seeing_double.pdf
>