Next week from September 16-19th, San Jose will host the digital art biennial ZER01. Taking place at locations across the city, events will include a symposium on collaborative environmental art, films (with a program geared towards live cinema), public art projects throughout the city, and exhibitions at partnering institutions Anno Domini, MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, and South Hall centered around the biennial's theme "Build Your Own World" and much more.
Rhizome will show "Domain" as part of their film program, which will present live performances by Jeremy Bailey, Petra Cortright, Constant Dullaart, and JODI nightly at the Empire Drive-In inside South Hall. You can read more about the program below. If you are planning to attend the biennial, please join us!
We have recently arrived at the moment in human history when the networked computer is no longer the mystical facilitator of communication, entertainment, and research; it is an appliance, as pervasive as the microwave and nearly as boring. Developments in technology and network infrastructure have delivered a networked computing experience that is affordable, instantaneous, user-friendly, and richly interactive to a broad audience. What is most unique about this moment is not technology's inevitable deliverance of a widely accessible networked space, but the virgin cultural aptitude for navigating this space that has accompanied the computer's ascendance to the mundane.
This cultural shift towards a visceral acceptance of networked space has rendered the spectacle of its inner workings inert, and in the process has opened up tremendous possibilities for artists using these spaces to finally connect with an audience undistracted by the underlying mechanics of the interaction itself. This presents an interesting opportunity for both artist and audience alike as they can now approach the work on equal footing in a shared domain. The networked computer is as much the natural habitat of the contemporary internet user as it is the contemporary internet artist.
Domain presents four telematic performances by an international group of artists whose work is informed and mediated by the personal computer and the internet. The performances consist of live streaming video sourced directly from the artist's webcams or screencasts broadcast directly from the artist's computer. The casual nature in which this type of performance can now be pulled off echoes the process in which many contemporary internet artists create their work. Art can be made cheaply, quickly, and independently of institutional support; the bedroom is the new studio and the personal computer is the only tool they need to inform, create, and distribute their work.
Artists include: Jeremy Bailey, Petra Cortright, Constant Dullaart, and JODI