»Present Continuous Past(s)«

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

May 14. ­ 15, 2004

VIDEO ART. STRATEGIES OF PRESENTATION AND MEDIATION.

UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS, BREMEN


PROGRAM


Friday, May 14, 2004


10.30 ­ Registration

11.00 - Welcome, Prof. Dr. Peter Rautmann, Director, University of the Arts
Bremen

11.15 - Introduction, Mona Schieren, University of the Arts Bremen

I. State of the Art: Original ­ Concept ­ Format ­ Reproduction

11.30 - Re-viewing / Re-framing: Historicity and Context in Video Art.
Prof. Dr. Ursula Frohne, International University Bremen

12.15 - Thirty Years of Media Art by Ulrike Rosenbach ­ Experience in
Mediation and Reproduction.
Prof. Ulrike Rosenbach, Hochschule der Künste Saarbrücken

13.00 - Lunch break

II. New Media Conditions: Intention ­ Reception

14.00 - Form Follows Format ­ Tensions between Museum, Media Technology and
Media Art.
Rudolf Frieling, ZKM, Karlsruhe

14.45 - Withdrawal as an Artform. Between Withdrawal and Representation ­
The Body in Media Art.
Dr. Sabine Flach, Geisteswissenschaftliche Zentren, Berlin

15.30 - Coffee Break

16.00 - Cut / Collage / Montage. Connections between Text and Video.Prof.
Dr. Elke Bippus, University of the Arts Bremen, Dirck Möllmann, art
historian, Hamburg

16.45 - Approaches to a Curatorial Practice in the Age of the
Non-Reproducible Work of Art. On ²Re-Presentation² of Video Installations.
Iris Dressler and Hans D. Christ, hartware medien kunst verein, Dortmund

19.00 - Welcome at the exhibition »Keep the Faith!« Diana Thater ­ Video
Installations 1993 ­ 2003.
Prof. Dr. Wulf Herzogenrath, Director Kunsthalle Bremen. Parallel exhibition
at the Kunsthalle Bremen and the Museum for Contemporary Art in Siegen,
March 19 / 21, ­ June 20, 2004


Saturday, May 15, 2004


9.30 - Welcome

III. Closed Circuit: Distribution ­ Dissemination ­ Documentation

9.45 - Television ­ Art or Anti-Art? Questions of the 1960s / 70s with an
Outlook to Net.Art since the 1990s.
Prof. Dr. Dieter Daniels, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig

10.30 - How to deliver what is asked.
Bart Rutten, Montevideo / TBA, Amsterdam

11.15 - Break

11.30 - Preservation of ³unstable media² ­ Open Systems?
Rens Frommé, V2_, Rotterdam

12.15 - The Digital Mystique: Video Art, Aura and Access.
Lori Zippay, Electronic Arts Intermix, New York

13.00 - Lunch break

IV. Open Source: Perspectives of Mediation

14.00 - Between Event and Structure: The Database as Crystallization.
Prof. Dr. Gregor Stemmrich, Hochschule für bildende Künste, Dresden

14.45 - En construction. iMediathek.
Mona Schieren, Jean-François Guiton, University of the Arts Bremen,
Thierry Destriez, Heure Exquise, Lille

15.30 - Break

15.45 - International Media Art at Institutions in the West.
Prof. Dr. Lydia Haustein, Kunsthochschule Weißensee, Berlin

16.30 ­ Outlook, Prof. Jean-François Guiton

17.00 - End of the symposium


As an art medium, video has transformed the perception of artistic practices
since the late 1960s. Under the influence of new image technologies not only
the formal aspects of presentation have changed, but also the conditions of
reception have also been affected by this radical transformation of
representational modes. Video art has played a central role in international
museums and survey exhibitions since the 1960s. Beyond their temporary
visibility in changing contexts of presentation however, video works are
often insufficiently documented.

Which perspectives can be developed to make the time-based, acoustic and
often also installative characteristics of video art accessible for the
scholarly discourse and within the Academy? Are models of decentralized
mediation conceivable besides commercial distribution systems of video art
that do not play off artists¹ justified claim for gratification against
growing research interest? Which methods are emerging in order to open up
the closed-circuit of the art system for discursive approaches?

As programmatically reflected in the borrowed title from Dan Graham¹s video
installation »Present Continuous Past(s)«, the symposium is dedicated to
central questions of the presentation and reception of video art,
particularly its spatial and temporal dimensions. The conference offers a
forum for international scholars, curators, artists, experts and
distributors a forum to develop joint future-perspectives and to open up new
ways of communication.

I. State of the Art: Original ­ Concept ­ Format - Reproduction
The principle reproducibility of video material raises questions concerning
the status of the ³original², authorship, and conceptual authenticity. Which
are the transformations that the notion of the artwork is subjected to and
how can useful models of reception be developed, allowing for an inclusion
of visual material concerning historical positions into the discourse?

II. New Media Conditions: Intention ­ Reception
Video art is often presented in immersive accessible projection spaces. In
which way does the relation between the artist¹s intention and the viewers¹
reception change when a multiple- channel video installation is made
retrievable accessible as surrogate version on the computer?

III. Closed Circuit: Distribution ­ Dissemination - Documentation
Internet-presentations are currently booming as public platforms for
artists¹ works. Such decentralized forms of publication counteract in
principle the closed-circuit of the monopolizing art system. Which forms of
appropriate distributions for video art could be developed, that would
fulfil the demands of scholarly research without neglecting artistic claims
and economic interests?

IV. Open Source: Perspectives of Mediation
It is essential for the reception of video art to have access to the works
without major constraints. Other visual art genres, painting or photography,
are retrievable accessible via reproductions in the print media. Still
images or installation photographs however, cannot give an appropriate idea
of works, which are usually based on moving images and variable projection
levels. Which presentational forms can be thought of to make video works
accessible to scholarly analysis in the long term?


Further information:
www.imediathek.org


iMediathek
University of the Arts
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