Intelligent Agent Issue 9.1 Call

Intelligent Agent Magazine Issue 9.1:
Art in Virtual Worlds & The Age of “All at Once”
Since the turn of the millennium, an increasing amount of effort has been placed in the exploration of art in virtual worlds from first-person shooters to Massively Multiuplayer Online Roleplaying Games like World of Warcraft and worlds such as Opensim and Second Life. Even in the last year, Artists like Cao Fei and Stephanie Rothenberg have exhibited Second Life works in the Venice Bienniale and Sundance New Horizons, to name a few. Why are virtual worlds a “hot” medium for contemporary art? What issues are being evoked by the coming of these online agoras, and are they redefining the cultural functions of art?

The art world, as mentioned by painter Jay Van Buren, is “everywhere, all at once”. In addition, the coming of the global economic downturn has caused groups like NYC-based ArtistsMeeting.com to ask the community what will become of the foundering art world in the post-boom landscape. Are we just now sets of web 2.0-baed “surf clubs” as Olson et al have suggested, and are groups like Paperrad, the Cute Show, and NastyNetsemblematic of the time? Has culture become a truly flat, rhzomatic playing field with no central dialogues, has it become cellular, or is the culture of non-direction created an era of indistinctness, where the cultural impact of a Youtube video may rival that of a Murakami? Are Lolcats and Weezer's “Pork and Beans” as indicative of contemporary culture as a Murakami panel?

Scholarly texts, essays, artist's works and missives are welcomed.

Deadline for proposals: Mar. 1

Deadline: Apr. 15

About Intelligent Agent:
Intelligent Agent is a service organization and information provider dedicated to interpreting and promoting art that uses digital technologies for production and presentation. Through its online magazine and programs, Intelligent Agent provides a platform of critical discourse for discussing issues relevant to digital media, their social and cultural impact, and the parameter shifts they have brought about for the arts.


Publisher: Christiane Paul, Adjunct Curator of Digital Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC
Editor-in-Chief: Patrick Lichty, Assistant Professor, Interactive Arts & Media, Columbia College Chicago