The levels of technological resistance in artistic circles irritated C.P. Snow fifty years ago. His 'The Two Cultures' argued that artists were not the radical creatives they liked to see themselves as, but conservative Luddites that resisted technological development in favour of craft practices that positioned themselves as culturally superior to applied art. This explains the unease with which creativity by new means fails to interest a large swathe of the art world, and seems more true now that science has products for creative artists to exploit (though as Snow also points out, the academies and universities very rarely contribute to technological development per se. His examples from the Industrial Revolution show how most innovation happens away from formal structures precisely because they prefer to deal with what they already know).
Gregory
-----Original Message-----
From: Curating digital art - www.crumbweb.org on behalf of Caroline LANGILL
Sent: Fri 26/01/2007 14:45
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc:
Subject: Re: [NEW-MEDIA-CURATING] value for money?
Chris,
You bring up some interesting points with regards to the arts, wealth and
privilege. In fact, recently a friend of mine, a well respected and
nationally known Canadian artist suggested that someone should devote a
thesis to international art success and independent wealth. I suggested that
while everyone knows this to be the case, it is unmentionable.
But I think the case of new media curators is somewhat different as they are
doubly marginalized. I suggest that the low salaries are symptomatic of the
marginalization of new media that continues, regardless of the emergence of
more and more works that employ new media strategies in the museums (there
is also the irony of the plethora of new media technologies used as didactic
tools). People involved in contemporary art practice are disinclined to
engage with new media at any level in spite of the fact that they all, I
assume, own pcs that they are totally dependent on. I have sat on arts
councils juries here in Canada (one quite recently) where I am the only
person in the room who can define what an algorithm is when it comes up in
an application. It is surprising how quickly my colleagues become illiterate
when confronted with new media texts. I find this particularly to be the
case when an artist works from the bottom-up. It seems to be more acceptable
to hire engineers than to do your own physical computing, which perhaps
brings us back to Bourdieu and the problem of the taint of the working
class.
Is this because the new media community is too insular, too exclusive? What
is it about electronic media that continues makes it so untouchable for
those in traditional art practices? As long as the work itself is ghettoized
so will the curators be.
Caroline
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