Hi all

as this was mentioned now twice by Simon and Sally Jane, I would like to
say that I did not 'lump together all art that ever has been shown at
the ZKM'. I used this institution just as a chiffre, a shorthand for
specific forms of media art which are, by its less well informed
critics, equated with all media art. I am aware that I also created a
quite crude dichotomy between techno-affirmative and critical media art.
however, this was necessary to keep the email short. I made that
distinction to underpin the fact that there are differences and that it
is necessary to spell those out. In my perception the emancipatory
tradition in media art has received not enough attention, and this is
something that needs more work done. 

my brain is not yet fully switched on today and there are urgent things
to be done, but I would like to briefly pick up on issues that came up,
in particular
 
> In order to  
> teach and expand upoon this kind of paradigm, what seems important to  
> share/develop is a sense of two different, but crucial aspects to  
> understand cultural institutions/ art/ aesthetics/ ethics/ identity:   
> 1. in the first instance, a re-think of what and how representation  
> (metaphor, similarity etc) 'works' (or does not work). This would  
> include not only understanding aspects of the so-called 'old' forms of  
> modernity, including psychoanalysis, semiotics, post-structuralism,  
> but doing so by a thorough re-think on the actual methodology that has  
> quietly ground that 'modernity', particularly the dialectical method  
> (Hegel, Marx et al) as well as 'negative' dialectical methodology  
> (primarly Adorno, Benjamin). 

which would mean also to use a materialistic research methodology and
look at the site of production, more traditionally the gallery or
museum, and in recent years more and more the 'lab'. Funding imperatives
in the UK and elsewhere mean that art has to be couched in terms of
research. the question then is how this research is defined, what are
its para-meters? often it looks like art has to use a sort of
pseudo-scientific jargon to make itself acceptable, especially if
artists want to work with labs which receive state and corporate
funding, which seems to be one of the last viable funding opportunities
in many countries which give a level of stability. yet this creates
problems as artistic research maybe should not be measured by the same
criteria as science or technological / design / commercial research and
development. as artists in the 1950s and 1960s moved out of the gallery
and tried to break down the constraints of the white cube, researchers
now, both artists and free software activists, are in a state of
rebellion against 'the lab', insisting that research can also be done
independently, without those structural constraints established by
institutional 'lab culture'.

ironically, maybe, as we just received bad news from Dundee, I will be
doing a talk there on thursday, not at media arts but at contemporary
arts, where this question of artistic research will be the main topic.
If you are in the area, please drop by, information below

best
armin

Who’s Afraid of Artistic Research (2)?

Thursday 23rd October 2008 1pm - 4pm
DCA Seminar Room

An afternoon seminar about the epistemology and context of
practice-based research.

Compared with the established epistemologies of the humanities, the
social sciences and the natural sciences, the discourse surrounding
practice-based research in art and design is relatively young and
includes a range of diverse approaches. What practice-based research is
or is not, is highly controversial. Does it mean that the researcher
investigates his/her own (visual) practice, or rather, that visual
practice is a means of investigation? Other questions arise in the
context of 'normal science' and the knowledge economy: what are the
goals of such research, and what is the desired outcome?  What are the
connecting lines between art and science, between practice and theory? 

Following on from the student-led symposium Who is Afraid of Artistic
Research? that focused on the comparisons of the UK and European systems
of PhD education, this seminar aims to continue the discussion of
practice-based artistic research with an emphasis on the individual,
their subjects, methods and negotiations within the discourse of
methodology. The afternoon will provide an opportunity to hear about
different approaches to study/research followed by a chaired discussion
that will be open to audience participation.

Speakers:
Armin Medosch, artist/curator/author (Goldsmiths College, London)
Dr Lorens Holm, architect/author (Geddes Institute, University of
Dundee)

Chair: Dr Anna Notaro, cultural theorist (MAI, University of Dundee)


The event is free, but advance booking is required: 01382-909900

Dundee Contemporary Arts · Nethergate 152 · Dundee DD1 4DX

http://www.vrc.dundee.ac.uk/Visual_Research_Centre/whats_on.html

-- 
thenextlayer software, art, politics http://www.thenextlayer.org