AliceOnPaperVol2

2009,WHAT ISYOUR IDEAON MEDIA ART?Part.2

2009 APRIL / VOL.2

EXHIBITION INFO.in Seoul

COVERSTORY tag.1

2009,WHAT ISYOUR IDEAON MEDIA ART? part.2

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Following the last issue, the first cover

story of AliceOn, “2009, What’s Your Idea

on Media Art?”, is going to survey the

overseas trend of media art through the

curators’ responds from all around the

world.

AliceOn has made a plan to examine which

process of media art is going on and

which problems media art is faced at. This

cover story is important to know the posi-

tion of contemporary media art and expect

the future media art more or less through

the answers from curators who work in the

internal and external field of media art.

This second part is made up by

the surveys of overseas curators

below.

Nina Colosi _Director of ‘The Project Room’, Chelsea Art Museum

: Nina Colosi is a planner of ‘The Project

Room’ for new media art and performing

art at Chelsea Art Museum. She is also a

founder and a creative director of Stream-

ing Museum.

The Project Room

http://theprojectroom.org/

Domenico Quranta _Independent Curator, Madrid Arco Artfair 2009

: Domenico Quranta is now active in the

field of Media & Technology. He has

planned ‘Expanded Box’ in Madrid Arco

Artfair 2009.

http://www.domenicoquaranta.net/english.html

Andreas Broeckmann _Director of ISEA 2010 Ruhr.

: Andreas Broeckmann, a director of

ISEA 2010, is planning media art events,

lectures and exhibitions in Germany. He

worked as a curator of the 5th Seoul Inter-

national Media Art Biennale in 2008.

http://www.mikro.in-berlin.de /

ISEA 2010:

http://www.isea2010ruhr.org/

Gerfried Stocker _Artistic Director, Ars Electronica Center

: Gerfried Stocker, a famous director of Ars

Electronica in Australia, is well known for

his good lectures on virtuality and reality.

He is very interested in the problems of

space and body which media expand.

http://www.aec.at /

80+1 A Journey Around the World:

http://www.80plus1.org

AliceOn Coverstory TAG.1

Nina Colosi

CuratorThe Project Room for New Media and Performing Arts at

Chelsea Art Museum

Founder / Creative DirectorStreaming Museum

Q2.

What was the core of media art projects you (or

your institute) have (has) done so far?

NC

In 2003 I initiated The Project Room for

New Media and Performing Arts at Chelsea

Art Museum in New York and have pre-

sented over 400 international multi-media

artists in exhibitions, public programs,

lab projects and workshops. The program

is an incubator of new ideas, showcas-

ing groundbreaking concepts in all art

mediums, and the intersection of the arts

through technology.

(Schedules/info here - http://www.theprojectroom.

org & http://chelseaartmuseum.org)

On January 29, 2008 we launched the

Streaming Museum which presents multi-

media exhibitions in cyberspace and pub-

lic spaces on 7 continents. It is produced

and broadcast in NYC in collaboration

with international arts professionals. In

recognition of Nam June Paik’s ideas in

the 1970s about the ‘information super-

highway”, we opened the museum with

an exhibition of Paik’s Good Morning Mr.

Orwell which was viewed simultaneously

throughout the Museum’s global network

of public locations. Now in its second year,

the museum will expand in many ways

including the exhibition and commission-

ing of work created for its cross-reality

platform, for and with the medium.

Q3.

In 2009, at this moment, what do you think

of the present of media art? And what is the

next phase of media art in near future you are

expecting? (Where media art should be moved

forward?)

NC

The present situation and future of new

media art requires finding solutions to

the issues of preservation, which is being

addressed by many professionals and

organizations. Also, the collection and

appreciation of new media art, recognizing

its place in the context of art history, can

be promoted through public educational

programs. Collectors are a key element

to supporting the artists and the future of

the medium.

Statistics prove that the experience of, or

participation in the arts provide a valu-

able contribution to the quality of life and

economic vitality of every culture, and in

addition to the traditional museum and

concert hall, technology makes it possible

for more people to experience artworks in

public spaces or on their computers and

handheld devices.

5AliceOnPaper VOL.2Media Art Database & Online Archive AliceOn

Q1.

Now, what is the media art you are thinking of?

DQ

In recent years, media art has experienced

a serious crisis. This crisis is, on one

side, a growth crisis: the events related

to media art spread all around the world,

the community grew more and more and

in the end stopped thinking about itself

in terms of community. On the other side,

and more importantly, this crisis is an

identity crisis: since all art is now related,

in some way or another, with the digital

medium, it’s increasingly difficult for

media art to identify its own specificity;

what’ s clear is that this identity has little

to do with the medium. Finally, both the

media art scene and the media art label

are acting like birdcages for our pretty

canaries (I mean, the artists) looking for

freedom and for a wider platform where to

perform. They are tired to study in sepa-

rated departments in the university, to be

featured in separated columns in maga-

zines, in separated areas in the museums,

in separated bookshelves in libraries.

Q2.

What was the core of media art projects you (or

your institute) have (has) done so far?

DQ

As an independent curator, I’m particularly

interested in projects based on a strong

content than on a particular approach

to the medium. I’m quite tired of all that

low-brow, hi-tech media art that fills up

most festivals. I like art that comments

upon the techno-social environment we

live in, that embodies and questions

digital culture adopting both “new” and

“traditional” media and addressing dif-

ferent communities: the art audience, the

web surfers, the people walking in the

streets and not interested in art. While

curating the Expanded Box for ARCO 2009

in Madrid I kept the spectrum as open as

possible, in the exhibitions I curated in the

last months I tried to make this approach

visible. For God’s Sake!, the exhibition I

organized for the Pixxelpoint festival in

Nova Gorica (Slovenia) in December 2008,

was an exploration of the relationship that

technology and media in general can have

with our spiritual life, whatever we mean

with this world. Hyperlucid, a little project

I’m going to curate for the Prague Biennal

in May 2009, is a selection of image based

works – digital prints, paintings, embroi-

dery – dealing with the “mediated reality”

we experience in our daily life through

videogames, TV, the Web and other inter-

faces. In both the cases, I focus on digital

culture rather than on media art.

Domenico QuarantaIndependent Curator

AliceOn Coverstory TAG.1

Q1.

Now, what is the media art you are thinking of?

AB

The term ‘media art’ is not as clear any

more as it used to be. Ten years ago, we

used it to describe artworks that were

made using electronic and digital tech-

nologies; often, but not always, these

artworks would reflect on the impact

that these technologies were having on

society, and on the aesthetic dimensions

of the work. Today, digital media have be-

come so prevalent in our culture, and also

in contemporary art, that it is not really a

useful criterion any more to distinguish

between one form of art and another. For

example, many artists are using video and

digital animation in a tradition of image-

making that relates to the history of paint-

ing more than to the history of experimen-

tal video art; here, the fact that something

is done ‘in video’ does not necessarily

help us to fully understand the artwork.

This is an effect of digital media becoming

a normalised (artistic) medium. - There is

a type of art that reflects about the social

construction and the cultural meaning of

media in a more narrow sense - whether

in terms of the mass media, or personal-

ized digital media; maybe it makes sense

to use the term ‘media art’ for this type

of work. But personally I think that there

is so much confusion about what consti-

tutes ‘media art’, that it might be better

to try and not use the term for a while;

if we have to describe what we mean in

other words, maybe we will be able to

find a new description of what it is we are

interested in.

Q4.

What is you next media art project now your

are working on?

AB

I am currently preparing a major festival,

ISEA2010 RUHR, the 16th International

Symposium on Electronic Art, which is

due to take place in Germany in August

2010. ISEA is a biannual festival that first

took place in the late 1980s and that

travels around the world: recent edi-

tions have taken place in Singapore, San

Jose, Helsinki, and Nagoya. Each time it

happens, the local organizers give it a

different spin, and of course the festival

also tries to accommodate new develop-

ments in the relations of art, science, and

technology. It is thus also an opportunity

for taking stock, seeing where we are, and

how different people around us conceive

of the field that we are in - a very dynamic

and open process through which we are

continuously re-negotiating our cultural

map. At the same time, the festival is also

a big public event that presents artworks

and debates to a wider public. At the mo-

ment, for instance, there is a lot of debate

about the relation between art and the

creative industries, whether they are the

same, or similar but different, or com-

pletely unrelated. In ISEA2010 RUHR, this

will be an important issue, and I hope that

we can turn the festival into a celebration

of art, and a celebration of cultural reflec-

tion in the face of social and technological

change. You can find information about it

at www.isea2010ruhr.org

business(exhibition, academy) to real-

ize consistent interrelationship between

outside experts and artists.

In 2005 exhibition <ArtiST PROJECT>, we

examined possibilities and limits on artists

and scientists working together through

workshops. Based on the results, the ex-

hibition <2050 Future Scope> in 2009 has

shown themes on future society with the

Andreas Broeckmann

Director, ISEA 2010 Ruhr

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Q1.

Now, what is the media art you are thinking of?

GS

Media art is so special, not just because of

the extensive use of computers and digital

media but because it is a particular way of

thinking and working. I always thought of

media art as a strategy an artistic strat-

egy to deal with the increasing amount of

technology in our world. A type of investi-

gation and research that is not based on

the reductionist mindset of science but on

a much more holistic and human-centered

approach. Creating experience, introduc-

Gerfried Stocker Director, Ars Electronica

scientists’ advice on artistic works. As a

following step, we are getting ready to set

up a system to sustain cooperative work

between scientists and artists.

ing the values of subjectivity these are

methods which can complement the scien-

tistic view onto our world leading to new

ideas and better understanding.

Considering the enormous impact of new

digital technologies onto our cultures we

have to face, that we might have passed

the digital revolution in its technological

terms. But when it comes to the aftermath

of these new aspects, possibilities and of

course also threats, when it comes to the

challenge of integrating this new “digital

nature” into our lives than we can easy

understand why the contribution of media

art is such an important one. We have to

develop new cultural techniques to digest

it, to design it in new ways which are ap-

propriate to the needs of us humans.

Q3.

In 2009, at this moment, what do you think

of the present of media art? And what is the

next phase of media art in near future you are

expecting? (Where media art should be moved

forward?)

GS

The last decades have been dominated

by the need to introduce the “Digital” to

become aware of the nature of digital – in

technical sense but also in its cultural and

socio-political terms. It was very impor-

tant to experiment with new interfaces,

to explore new devices etc. But the big

challenge of the next decade is to build

bridges between these two spheres of real

and virtual of digital and corporal. This is a

major task for media arts.

Q4.

What is you next media art project now your

are working on?

GS

We have just finished the new Ars Elec-

tronica Center and the next big project is

called 80+1. It is a global journey that will

take us around the world in 80+1 days but

the journey is taking place only by means

of modern digital telecommunication. It

will be a really exciting and also challeng-

ing project.

EXHIBITION INFO. IN SEOUL

A Practice of Behavior_Kwon Sun Kwan (photography)

Sungkok Art Museum2009.03.06 ~ 2009.04.05www.sungkokmuseum.com

The First Stop on the Super HighwayNam June Paik Art Center2009.03.07 ~ 2009.05.16www.njpartcenter.kr

Platform 2009_Tomorrow_Bae Young WhanArtsonje Center 2F / Artsonje Round Project, Artsonje Center 1F 2009.03.07 ~ 2009.04.26 / 2009.03.07 ~ 2009.12.31www.platformseoul.org

Kang Hong Goo (photography)

Mongin Art Center2009.03.13 ~ 2009.05.03www.mongin.org

Christoph Rihs (photography)

Young Eun Museum of Contemporary Art2009.03.14 ~ 2009.04.05www.youngeunmuseum.org

Art & SynesthesiaSeoul Museum of Art2009.03.18 ~ 2009.06.07www.seoulmoa.org

International Interdisciplinary Art Festival_Festival Bo:mArko Arts Theater and other places2009.03.27 ~ 2009.04.12www.festivalbom.org

MultiScape: Reading, Writing, Memorizing3•15 Art Center2009.02.12 ~ 2009.04.14www.315art.net

Duplicity Project-The City_ Lee June Ui (photography)

Gallery K2009.02.26 ~ 2009.03.18www.galleryk.org

Thousands_BreaThings_ Chun Kyung Woo (mixed media)

Total Museum/ Gaain Gallery2009.03.03 ~ 2009.03.29 / 2009.03.03 ~ 2009_03.28www.totalmuseum.org / www.gaainart.com

2009 Kumho Young Artist _Jung Yoon Suk, Kim Min Jeong, Hong Nam Kee, Lee Young Min,

Kumho Museum of Art2009.03.06 ~ 2009.04.05www.kumhomuseum.com

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