I agree with Seth Thompson:
"I think that if artists and curators wish to act as conduit for social change they must be aware of the language that they are using and the audience they are addressing. If they proceed with a language of discourse that is inaccessible to their target audience, then their efforts are futile."
As soon as an artist [or anyone for that matter] attempts to make a political statement through a work of art [item], there exists an immediate detachment that tends to negate the political process of discussion and resolve. The work [item] becomes nothing more than a "lashing out" that does little for negotiations. Leave face-to-face discussions ... "at the round table" ... for political resolve; and leave intellect and the creative act for this concept we call ART.
Tom R. Chambers
Visiting Lecturer, 2005-2006
Digital/New Media Art and Digital Photography
Fine Arts Department
Zhaoqing University
Zhaoqing, China
http://www.zqu.edu.cn/dept/msx/
http://tomrchambers.com
NEW-MEDIA-CURATING automatic digest system <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
There are 7 messages totalling 431 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Ecopetics and Metamute Commission
2. Art and Activism (6)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2006 22:07:15 -0400
From: timothy murray
Subject: Ecopetics and Metamute Commission
Dear Friends,
I'm pleased to announce the launch of my two most recent curatorial projects=
=2E
I'm happy to call your attention to the launch of my first commission
as a curator for Metamute.org's online art series. Out-of-Sync's
creative interaction with Georges Perec's Life: A User's Manual can
be accessed at:
http://www.metamute.org/out-of-sync.
EcoPoetics is an on-line art exhibition, which I have co-curated with
Patricia Zimmermann and Tom Shevory for the Finger Lakes
Environmental Film Festival
(http://www.ithaca.edu/fleff/exhibitions.html). The exhibition will
run during the Festival at Ithaca College and at Cinemapolis and Fall
Creek Theaters, Ithaca, New York, from March 30-April 6. In addition
to being accessible on-line,
http://www.ithaca.edu/fleff/exhibitions.html, EcoPoetics will be
screened in the Festival's Digital Salon in Park 220, Ithaca College.
We plan to archive the exhibit in The Rose Goldsen Archive of New
Media Art, Cornell Library, following the Festival. The exhibition
includes works by Judy Malloy, Diane Ludin, Ryan Griffis, Ian M.
Clothier, Andrew Bucksbarg, Thorsten Knaub, Sam Smiley, Olga
Kisselva, Ollivier Dyens, Joseph Rabie, Lillian Ball, Katerie Gladys,
Annette Weintraub, Tiffany Holmes, Maria Damon and mIEKAL aND,
Agricola Cologne, and Regina C=E9lia Pinto.
Best wishes,
Tim
--
Timothy Murray
Professor of Comparative Literature and English
Acting Chair and Director of Graduate Studies in Comparative Literature
Director of Graduate Studies in Film and Video
Curator, The Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell Library
Co-Curator, CTHEORY Multimedia: http://ctheorymultimedia.cornell.edu
285 Goldwin Smith Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853
office: 607-255-4012
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 11:03:18 +0100
From: Ele Carpenter
Subject: Art and Activism
Hi All,
Just a reminder that this months=92 topic is Art and Activism.
I'd also like to welcome invited respondent Shaina Anad, an artist who=20=
use video and televised media. Currently in Delhi starting=A0a residency =
=20
using cheap=A0surveillance=A0equipment and=A0RF to create an open =
circuit=20
interface, the=A0'creative use' of which=A0Shaina will be exploring over=20=
the next=A0month with the peple of Khirkee village, New Delhi.
To recap: Self-organisation, direct action, collaboration and social=20
networks have long been the characteristics of activism and socially=20
engaged art practice. They are now the characteristics of much new=20
media art, within the public realm of the web, and interdisciplinary=20
practice. But the spheres of discourse still remain distinct.
I=92d like to start the discussion by asking: How can curators and=20
art-activists help facilitate a more inclusive dialogue?
Thanks Monica and Tim for your links.
Will respond shortly,
Best,
Ele
Invited Respondents:
Saul Albert and Michael Weinkove, London, Artists, =91Let The People=20
Speak=92
http://theps.net http://talkeoke.com
Ruth Catlow and Marc Garrett, London, Furtherfield, HTTP Gallery.
www.furtherfield.org
Minerva Cuevas-Mexico, (MEX).
Artist, member of Espora.org and Irational.org. Her political practice
is based on technical and cultural projects, her artistic work responds
to specific social contexts worldwide.
http://www.espora.org
http://www.irational.org/mvc
http://www.minervacuevas.org
Leigh French, co-editor, Variant magazine: Glasgow / Belfast. (UK)
Free magazine concentrating on social, political and cultural issues.
http://www.variant.org.uk
Geert Lovink (NL/AUS), media theorist, net critic and writer.
Member of Adilkno collective (Cracking the Movement, The Media Archive);
Co-founder of Internet projects The Digital City, Nettime, Fibreculture=20=
and
Incommunicado; Director of the Institute of Network Cultures=20
(www.networkcultures.org);
Professor at Interactive Media (Hogeschool van Amsterdam); Associate=20
professor at the
Media & Culture department, University of Amsterdam. Fellow at=20
Wissenschaftkolleg,
Berlin Institute for Advanced Study, 2005-6. Web archive:=20
www.laudanum.net/geert
Aisling O=92Beirn, Artists, Belfast, Northern Ireland
www.aislingobeirn.fsnet.co.uk
Virtual Urban, collaborative web project with Marjetica Potrc=20
www.potrc.org/vu
Kate Rich, Artist
Bureau for Inverse Technology, Feral Trade
http://sparror.cubecinema.com/feraltrade/
http://www.bureauit.org/
Nato Thompson, Curator,
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA).
Curated =91The Interventionists=92 exhibition 2004-5. Co-ed with Gregory=20=
Sholette,
=91The Interventionists: Users Manual for the Creative Disruption of=20
Everyday Life=92 2004.
http://www.massmoca.org/=20=
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 14:20:54 +0200
From: geert lovink
Subject: Re: Art and Activism
> How can curators and art-activists help facilitate a more inclusive
dialogue?
Thanks, Ele.
Preventing political correctness would be a first step. Art needs
autonomous space to question. The last thing we need is to treat the
museum/gallery/exhibition space as a 'megaphone' for political
campaigns. There are much better, and effective other channels if you
want to reach audiences with your message. So, the dialogue would be
used to create common ground for experimentation.
What is needed is an open aesthetics to overcome the current visual
poverty of activist messages. By that I mean a tradition in which new
programs and languages are being created while the current practices
are being investigated. What we need are more temporary labs where
networked, audio-visual vocabularies can be developed. This is where
curators and activists can meet as such endeavour can be in the
interest of both.
Geert
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 09:18:09 -0400
From: Camille Turner
Subject: Re: Art and Activism
On Monday, April 3, 2006, at 08:20 AM, geert lovink wrote:
> > How can curators and art-activists help facilitate a more inclusive
> dialogue?
>
> Thanks, Ele.
>
> Preventing political correctness would be a first step. Art needs
> autonomous space to question. The last thing we need is to treat the
> museum/gallery/exhibition space as a 'megaphone' for political
> campaigns. There are much better, and effective other channels if you
> want to reach audiences with your message. So, the dialogue would be
> used to create common ground for experimentation.
>
hi,
camille turner here from toronto, canada. i am an
artist/curator/cultural producer involved in socially engaged media. i
work both within the grassroots and within the gallery system. a
project i have been involved with from its beginning three years ago is
the container project directed by mongrel member mervin jarman. it is a
media lab in a 40 foot shipping container in a rural village in
jamaica. three artists including myself returned a couple of days ago
from a month-long residency we spent working with participants of the
project. jennifer lafontaine and myself facilitated a digital
storytelling project and jim ruxton created an interactive sensor
system to allow participants to control video using dance.
http://www.year01.com/containerproject/blog.html
i think its important to bring these projects into galleries. i don't
think of it as "political correctness" but i think it should be the
mandate of especially public institutions to create an interface with a
wide range of practices including these outside-the-box street level
practices and as a curator, my job is to provide the link between the
work that takes place on the street and the various publics and
communities.
camille
> What is needed is an open aesthetics to overcome the current visual
> poverty of activist messages. By that I mean a tradition in which new
> programs and languages are being created while the current practices
> are being investigated. What we need are more temporary labs where
> networked, audio-visual vocabularies can be developed. This is where
> curators and activists can meet as such endeavour can be in the
> interest of both.
>
> Geert
>
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 09:30:56 -0500
From: Randall Packer
Subject: Re: Art and Activism
If as you suggest art can serve as a mediational tool, a catalyst for
dialogue, a platform for exchange (and change), then creative means
need to be explored to engage those who are involved with
socio-political issues outside of artistic circles. For example, here
in Washington, DC, where political dialogue rarely involves input
from the arts, and where the artistic community is surprisingly
disengaged from contemporary political events, we are establishing a
critical dialogue between the Art Department and the School of
International Services at American University where I teach media
art. Last week we invited a representative from the cultural division
at the State Department to discuss the role of the artist in society
and ways in which countries engage art as a communications tool. I am
not so naive as to suggest we are going to change the policies of the
US Government, particularly the current administration, but it is my
hope to establish dialogue that extends beyond the boundaries of the
art world, and furthermore, establishes a conduit between politically
engaged artists, curators, critics and representatives in government
/ international relations, where the front lines of cultural policy
operate and endlessly fail.
At 11:03 AM +0100 4/3/06, Ele Carpenter wrote:
>Hi All,
>Just a reminder that this months' topic is Art and Activism.
>
>I'd also like to welcome invited respondent Shaina Anad, an artist
>who use video and televised media. Currently in Delhi starting a
>residency using cheap surveillance equipment and RF to create an
>open circuit interface, the 'creative use' of which Shaina will be
>exploring over the next month with the peple of Khirkee village, New
>Delhi.
>
>To recap: Self-organisation, direct action, collaboration and social
>networks have long been the characteristics of activism and socially
>engaged art practice. They are now the characteristics of much new
>media art, within the public realm of the web, and interdisciplinary
>practice. But the spheres of discourse still remain distinct.
>
>I'd like to start the discussion by asking: How can curators and
>art-activists help facilitate a more inclusive dialogue?
>
>Thanks Monica and Tim for your links.
>Will respond shortly,
>Best,
>Ele
>
>
>Invited Respondents:
>
>Saul Albert and Michael Weinkove, London, Artists, 'Let The People Speak'
>http://theps.net http://talkeoke.com
>
>Ruth Catlow and Marc Garrett, London, Furtherfield, HTTP Gallery.
>www.furtherfield.org
>
>Minerva Cuevas-Mexico, (MEX).
>Artist, member of Espora.org and Irational.org. Her political practice
>is based on technical and cultural projects, her artistic work responds
>to specific social contexts worldwide.
>http://www.espora.org
>http://www.irational.org/mvc
>http://www.minervacuevas.org
>
>Leigh French, co-editor, Variant magazine: Glasgow / Belfast. (UK)
>Free magazine concentrating on social, political and cultural issues.
>http://www.variant.org.uk
>
>Geert Lovink (NL/AUS), media theorist, net critic and writer.
>Member of Adilkno collective (Cracking the Movement, The Media Archive);
>Co-founder of Internet projects The Digital City, Nettime, Fibreculture and
>Incommunicado; Director of the Institute of Network Cultures
>(www.networkcultures.org);
>Professor at Interactive Media (Hogeschool van Amsterdam); Associate
>professor at the
>Media & Culture department, University of Amsterdam. Fellow at
>Wissenschaftkolleg,
>Berlin Institute for Advanced Study, 2005-6. Web archive:
>www.laudanum.net/geert
>
>Aisling O'Beirn, Artists, Belfast, Northern Ireland
>www.aislingobeirn.fsnet.co.uk
>Virtual Urban, collaborative web project with Marjetica Potrc www.potrc.org/vu
>
>Kate Rich, Artist
>Bureau for Inverse Technology, Feral Trade
>http://sparror.cubecinema.com/feraltrade/
>http://www.bureauit.org/
>
>Nato Thompson, Curator,
>Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA).
>Curated 'The Interventionists' exhibition 2004-5. Co-ed with Gregory Sholette,
>'The Interventionists: Users Manual for the Creative Disruption of
>Everyday Life' 2004.
>http://www.massmoca.org/
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 09:54:57 -0400
From: Seth Thompson
Subject: Re: Art and Activism
I think that if artists and curators wish to act as conduit for
social change they must be aware of the language that they are using
and the audience they are addressing. If they proceed with a language
of discourse that is inaccessible to their target audience, then
their efforts are futile.
>If as you suggest art can serve as a mediational tool, a catalyst
>for dialogue, a platform for exchange (and change), then creative
>means need to be explored to engage those who are involved with
>socio-political issues outside of artistic circles. For example,
>here in Washington, DC, where political dialogue rarely involves
>input from the arts, and where the artistic community is
>surprisingly disengaged from contemporary political events, we are
>establishing a critical dialogue between the Art Department and the
>School of International Services at American University where I
>teach media art. Last week we invited a representative from the
>cultural division at the State Department to discuss the role of the
>artist in society and ways in which countries engage art as a
>communications tool. I am not so naive as to suggest we are going to
>change the policies of the US Government, particularly the current
>administration, but it is my hope to establish dialogue that extends
>beyond the boundaries of the art world, and furthermore, establishes
>a conduit between politically engaged artists, curators, critics and
>representatives in government / international relations, where the
>front lines of cultural policy operate and endlessly fail.
>
--
Seth Thompson
Wigged Productions
[log in to unmask]
http://www.wigged.net
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 10:59:23 -0400
From: Robert Labossiere
Subject: Re: Art and Activism
The artist-run centre YYZ Artists' Outlet in Toronto recently held an
exhibtiion called Art + Activism, curated by Kym Preusse. Our website
doesn't allow me to give you the exact page URL but if you dig a little you
will find info about it att:
http://www.yyzartistsoutlet.org/exhibitions.asp?language=en
use the drop down box for ARCHIVES > 2006
Art + Activism is the last show listed (the 1st one scheduled in 2006)
I work at YYZ but not on exhibitions so my observations here are "casual"...
I was surprised how the show drew a whole different audience into the
gallery. Activists, hactivists, politico's, union people; it was really
interesting for us, being more used to the "usual suspects:" artists,
critics, teachers, students, people gallery hopping...
No small part of the success of the exhibition was due to the diversity of
the program, which included screenings and workshops, and the partners
involved, Interaccess, a Toronto media arts centre, and the Canadian Auto
Workers Union. There was something different going on every week and the
press was very responsive with several articles about public performances or
other aspects of the program.
About the issue of the autonomous space of art, with few exceptions, the
work in this exhibition did not pivot on that, most were more like
documentation of works that are "active" in other contexts. The gallery
operated more like a museum in this respect. Similarly, screenings and
workshops did not operate in the "neutral zone" of critical reflection
typical of art galleries and art discourse, but were made for and attended
by activists who are artists and artists who are activists.
Our 'zine, a 16 pp. tabloid newspaper, acts as a kind of catalogue for the
exhibition. Request a free copy by emailing [log in to unmask]
YYZINE: VOLUME 6, ISSUE 1 (on Art + Activism)
Robert Labossiere
Managing Editor, YYZBOOKS
__
------------------------------
End of NEW-MEDIA-CURATING Digest - 1 Apr 2006 to 3 Apr 2006 (#2006-57)
**********************************************************************
Tom R. Chambers
Visiting Lecturer, 2005-2006
Digital/New Media Art and Digital Photography
Fine Arts Department
Zhaoqing University
Zhaoqing, China
http://www.zqu.edu.cn/dept/msx/
http://tomrchambers.com
---------------------------------
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