Notes
“Art & Tech” versus “Art & Science”
- in 1965, more science-oriented and non-political, because a) world was less political (pre-vietnam, counterculture, etc.), b) access to tools required day jobs in big labs
- “Op Art” can be “happy art” (usually science-oriented) but also disturbing (bordering on political, e.g. Bridget Riley, Vasulkas)
Issues of “Delivery” (i.e., new medium)
- “Flash art” is different from text only and from 16mm film
- If new delivery form, how can a critic review it?
- How much “personality” can be in it?
- How reflexive is it?
- Value of “no frills” but “stylized
Art and “Value”
- Issues around permanence (important for collectors only?)
- What do patrons “buy?” (e.g., supporting perfomance)
- Collecting artifacts versus collecting art (e.g., Guggenheim collecting Matta-Clark documents)
- Issues around cost (is it a factor in judging quality?, What about judging proposals?)
Leads
--- Howard Wise gallery, NYC (big player in 70s)
--- Bridget Riley (british op art painter)
--- Robert Smithson (earth art)
--- Christo (environmental art)
--- Woody and Steina Vasulka (early video art)
--- cybernetic serendipity show – London – c1967
--- art and technology show – LA museum of contemporary art – c 1972
--- 9 evenings show – NYC – c1969
--- art/funding at burning man
Notes
art-as-revealer of
-personal imagination (classic view, e.g., Michelangelo "freeing" marble)
-science (Edgerton, Sand Etching, Protrude Flow)
- interpersonal relationships (Snibbe’s Boundary Function)
solo versus collaborations in art+tech work
- who does programming?
- painter model versus filmmaking model
more on art in context of artist
- does performing nonstop have an affect (Orlan)?
- showing work together (Paik’s magnet with his Bhudda TV?)
- knowing one work is earlier than the rest (Fiengold’s Head)?
role of self-promotion/hype
- more good or harm? (outrageous claims e.g., "cured fear of death")
- did Picasso hype everyone? only selected few?
VR as expanded painting versus realtime interaction
- Ephemere and Habitat
art in earlier contexts
- difficulty interpreting meaning (e.g., dead man next to bison)
- did cave paintings look real (like Lumiere’s film of oncoming train)?
Leads
Guess what kids, we have 48 entries!(Actually I think some are missing.) Please take a look at them here and look for both obvious omissions (Leonardo, etc.) and obscure gems.
New Media, 1740-1915
2003, MIT Press
Edited by Lisa Gitelman and Geoffrey B. Pingree
Reminding us that all media were once new, this book challenges the notion that to study new media is to study exclusively today's new media. Examining a variety of media in their historic contexts, it explores those moments of transition when new media were not yet fully defined and their significance was still in flux. Examples range from familiar devices such as the telephone and phonograph to unfamiliar curiosities such as the physiognotrace and the zograscope. Moving beyond the story of technological innovation, the book considers emergent media as sites of ongoing cultural exchange.
[Another one. It's in the air. -M]
----------
From: Melinda Klayman
Date: Thu, 04 Mar 2004 13:51:25 -0800
To: LEO ADV BOARD
Subject: Preliminary Announcement: International Art and Technology History Conference
*Apologies for cross-posting*
This is a preliminary announcement for the first international art history
conference covering art and new media, art and technology, art-science
interaction, and the history of media as pertinent to contemporary art.
The conference will be held Sept 28-Oct 2, 2005 at the Banff Centre, Canada.
There will be a three day conference followed by a two day follow-up
speakers' and organizers retreat in order to plan follow-up.
The event is co-sponsored by Leonardo/ISAST, Leonardo/OLATS, UNESCO
DIGIARTS, Database for Virtual Art and the Banff New Media Institute. An
International Advisory Board chaired by Oliver Grau of Humboldt University
is currently designing the program.
A description of the program will be available this summer and the formal
call for papers will be announced in the fall.
Scholars and researchers interested in participating in the conference may
send an email of intent to:
banffleoarthistconfinfo-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Panels and workshops in the disciplines above will have invited speakers
chosen by the Advisory Board and speakers chosen by peer review. We
encourage graduate students currently carrying out theses in the field to
participate in the conference.
--
Receive your FREE subscription to the Leonardo Electronic Almanac e-mail
digest at http://mitpress.mit.edu/lea/e-mail -- just provide your email
address, name, and password, and check off that you'd like to be added to
the Leonardo Electronic Almanac monthly e-mail list to keep on top of the
latest news in the Leonardo community.
Notes
sampling versus ripping off
--- way before duschamp, "everyone" sampled (folksongs, painters, etc)
--- isn’t ripping off usually about technique rather than content?
--- whose responsibility is it to know prior art? (the artist?, curator? critic?)
--- how much time should an artist spend seeking prior art?
--- does google totally change things here?
virtuosity and voice
--- is being the first to explore a new tech a fast track to "virtuosity"
--- (doesn’t true virtuosity require years, and a tech that is very pliable?)
--- is art that demos nature lacking "the artist’s voice"?
context (why was Duschamp so successful?)
--- he was first
--- the time was right
--- he continued to have a long career
Leads
no one has done anything by Leonardo yet
Gyorgy Kepes (major figure in art+science from Bauhaus to Media Lab)
early examples of sampling-related work (e.g., the Moody Blues use of the Mellotron)
[This is related to the CACHe entry below. -M]
----------
From: nisar keshvani
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2004 15:12:37 +0700
To: Recipient List Suppressed: ;
Subject: [LEAuthors] LEA cfp - RE:SEARCHING OUR ORIGINS: Critical and Archival Histories of the Electronic Arts
** Sincere apologies for cross-posting **
Please feel free to spread the word widely:
LEA Special Issue: RE:SEARCHING OUR ORIGINS: Critical and Archival Histories of the Electronic Arts
Guest Editors: Paul Brown
Catherine Mason
The Leonardo Electronic Almanac (ISSN No: 1071-4391) is inviting papers
The mid to late 20th Century has become a popular topic for humanities research in recent years. Many projects are attempting to re-discover and re-contextualise the somewhat neglected field of history of art and technology. International histories of electronic and digital arts are now beginning to be written and voice given to the pioneers of these artforms. Additionally, with contemporary 'new media' artforms such as video and net art enjoying high prominence at present, much discussion is taking place about the foundations of current practice and about reception of electronic arts in cultural institutions, including curatorial practice as well as archiving and conservation issues.
This special issue of LEA seeks to report on international projects and initiatives working to recover, document or construct critical and historical contexts for the electronic arts.
Topics of interest might include (but are not limited to):
- Origins of electronic and digital arts
- Key transition points, for example - from analogue to digital
- Art and technology collaborations
- Educational/access initiatives
- Critical analyses
- Cultural analyses
- Acquisition and conservation issues
- Etc…
For the LEA February 2005 issue, we invite contributions from artists, practitioners, curators, theorists and historians that engage with histories of the electronic/digital arts and art/science/technology collaborations. These can include:
- full papers
- works in progress
- artists' statements
- museum and gallery initiatives
- etc…
Under three levels of submission:
- Fully refereed papers
- Shorter work that may be sent to peer review and
- Personal reminiscences and experiences that may be editorially selected and not peer reviewed.
The guest editors are members of CACHe: Computer Arts, Contexts, Histories, etc… a major research and archiving project based in the School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media at Birkbeck, University of London and funded by the UK Government's Arts and Humanities Research Board. CACHe is documenting and contextualising the early days of computer arts in the UK from its origins in the 1960s to 1980, when the first "User Friendly" systems began to appear. http://www.bbk.ac.uk/hafvm/cache/
LEA encourages international artists / academics / researchers / students to submit their proposals for consideration. We particularly encourage authors outside North America and Europe to send proposals for articles/gallery/artists statements.
Proposals should include:
- 200 - 300 word abstract / synopsis
- A brief author biography
- Any related URLs
- Contact details
Timeline
1 May 2004 - submission of abstracts
31 May 2004 - short-listed candidates informed
31 Sept 2004 - Contributors to submit full papers for peer review
Deadline for abstracts: 1 May 2004
Please send proposals or queries to:
Paul Brown
Catherine Mason
and
Nisar Keshvani
LEA Editor-in-Chief
lea@mitpress.mit.edu
http://lea.mit.edu
********************************************************************************
LEA Information and URLs
-------------------------------------------
Receive your FREE subscription to the Leonardo Electronic Almanac e-mail digest at http://mitpress.mit.edu/lea/e-mail -- just provide your email address, name, and password, and check off that you'd like to be added to the Leonardo Electronic Almanac monthly e-mail list to keep on top of the latest news in the Leonardo community.
How to advertise in LEA?
http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/Leonardo/isast/placeads.html#LEAads
For a paid subscription (to become an ISAST member and access archives dating back to 1993):
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=4&tid=27&mode=p
The Leonardo Educators Initiative
-------------------------------------------------------
The Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS) is a listing of Masters and Ph.D. theses in the art/science/technology field, for the benefit of scholars and practitioners. LEA also maintains a discussion list open only to faculty in the field. Students interested in contributing and faculty wishing to join this list should contact lea@mitpress.mit.edu
What is LEA?
----------------------
Established in 1993, the Leonardo Electronic Almanac (ISSN No: 1071-4391) is jointly produced by Leonardo, the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST) and published under the auspices of MIT Press. LEA is an electronic journal dedicated to providing a forum for those who are interested in the realm where art, science and technology converge.
Content
-------------
For over a decade, Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA) has thrived as an international peer-reviewed electronic journal and web archive, covering the interaction of the arts, sciences and technology. LEA emphasizes rapid publication of recent work and critical discussion on topics of current excitement. Many contributors are younger scholars and artists, and there is a slant towards shorter, less academic texts.
Contents include Leonardo Reviews, edited by Michael Punt, Leonardo Research Abstracts of recent Ph.D. and Masters theses, curated Galleries of current new media artwork, and special issues on topics ranging from Artists and Scientists in times of War, to Zero Gravity Art, to the History of New Media.
Mission
------------
LEA's mission is to maintain and consolidate its position as a leading online news and trusted information filter while critically examining arts/science & technological works catering to the international CAST (Community of Artists, Scientist and Technologists)
_______________________________________________
Leaauthors mailing list
Leaauthors@mit.edu
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/leaauthors
Government funded, no less. -M
CACHe: Computer Arts, Contexts, Histories, etc. is a major research and archiving project based in the School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media at Birkbeck, University of London and funded by the UK Government's Arts and Humanities Research Board. CACHe is documenting and contextualising the early days of computer arts in the UK from its origins in the 1960s to 1980, when the first "User Friendly" systems began to appear. http://www.bbk.ac.uk/hafvm/cache/
Notes
Where are the "Netiquette" guidelines and who will be the Net’s Emily Post?
Did artists follow tech development during their day (e.g., Marey and the Post-Impressionists)?
What are implications when technology allows artistic style to eventually become codified (e.g., Cubism becoming a PhotoShop plug-in)?
Lots of art issues about showing or hiding the technology.
"Spirograph art" – art that shows natural phenomena, how do we "see the artist" (and is this important). Like Pollack, must the artist "write his/her own book?"
Leads
The Sims and earlier role-playing games.
Anamorphic Painting (e.g., Holbein) (how did they do this) (Hockney optics controversy)
Rotoscope works
Duschamp
Lygia Clark
Early robot type works. (maybe also "transgenic" art)