leute,
ich finde diese medienkunst-diskussion immer
wieder gut, nicht zuletzt auch, weil man ueber
die jahre grad hier auf der rohrpost die
allmaehliche veraenderung der thematischen
schwerpunkte sehen kann. (in ihren wiederholungen
ist sie natuerlich auch ein bisschen komisch ;-)
ich arbeite gerade an einer ausstellung am
stedelijk in amsterdam, bei der es unter dem
titel Deep Screen auch um eine auseinandersetzung
mit den medien der gegenwartskunst gehen wird.
(auf der website steht eine presseerklaerung, die
einen ersten eindruck vermittelt, die aber
inhaltlich arg verkuerzend ist; ich schicke bei
interesse den foldertext, sobald der fertig sein
wird, naechste woche wohl.)
http://www.stedelijk.nl/oc2/page.asp?PageID=1807
fuer meine katalogeinleitung schreibe an einem
'Postskriptum zur Medienkunst', das vielleicht
einen nuetzlichen beitrag zur aktuellen debatte
hier leisten kann? (ich kann zwar die
historischen reminiszenzen verstehen, denke aber
- wie florian? -, dass sich die lage doch sehr
veraendert hat.)
gruss,
-a
ps: dem folgenden wird ein bericht ueber die
themen- und jury-auswahl vorangehen, sowie ein
exkurs ueber die titelgebende thematische
klammer, 'Deep Screen', die sich mit dem
'bild/schirm' als _feld_ beschaeftigt, in dem
objekte, medien, der menschliche
wahrnehmungsapparat, aktions- und
interaktionsangebote, raeumliche und zeitliche
dispositive, etc., einander durchkreuzen und
gegenseitig bedingen.
III. Postscript on Media Art
Some people might expect that an exhibition
curated by the former director of a media art
festival would be somehow 'very digital'. They
will, I hope, be surprised by a show which
presents no particular interest in things
digital, or techno-culture. Some of them,
however, might also be frustrated about the fact
that _Deep Screen_ makes a stronger gesture
towards the 'traditional' art field, than towards
independent media art and culture. This was of
course a conscious choice.
The underlying debate emerges from a cultural
field characterised by interests in art,
technology, internet culture, design, electronic
music, open source software, game culture, and
many related issues. This field, which we can
call _digital culture_, has over the last four or
so decades been growing from a marginal
subculture to a diverse and fractured stratum
that cuts right across contemporary society. As
the first generation grows up that has a more
intimate relation with the personal computer than
with television, it will become less and less
relevant to even distinguish between _digital
culture_ and contemporary culture in general.
This is also why, for artists like Jablonowski,
Visser, Broersen & Lukács, Maurer, and others in
this show, the distinction between digital and
analogue artistic media is not relevant any
longer. For an earlier generation of artists, it
was a decisive step to 'go digital', or not.
Entire artistic careers were ruined by the stigma
of doing 'art with a plug'. (Others were made by
the exclusivity which that stigma offered in
certain circles.)
Mind you, _only the label_ Media Art - in the
sense of art based on 'electronic or digital
media' - will be a thing of the past; a past when
it was also aesthetically crucial if you chose
for the artistic _programme_ determined by those
'technologies formerly known as new'. In the same
way as contemporary artists are free to use
drawing and painting, photography and film, video
and sculpture, they are also no longer risking
their art market career if they develop an
interactive 3D-environment, a generative video
projection, or a sound installation. This will
mean, on the one hand, that part of what has been
produced as Media Art in the past, will at some
point be re-evaluated as important pre-cursors to
the future contemporary art developments - or as
idiosyncratic variations of other possibilities
that were not followed up on. On the other hand,
the described liberation of the artistic media
will require a further broadening of art school
teaching and art funding, in which the
high-ceiling studios for painters and sculptors
are consistently matched by well-equipped studios
for digitally based art production in image,
sound, space, and movement. Artists must have a
choice, and they ought to be as critically aware
of the politics, the historical background, and
the aesthetic potentials and limitations of
software, as of oil and acryllic paint, HD video,
or bronze.
The overall submissions to our call, and
hopefully also the exhibition itself, are
testimony to the fact that artists in the
Netherlands are not doing so badly in terms of
the liberation of artistic media. It is now time
for the museums, for public and private
collectors to acknowledge a change in the arts
that has been going on for decades and that is a
challenge for gallerists, art historians and
conservation experts, much more than for the
artists themselves. In that respect, the
strategic ambition of _Deep Screen_ is to show
how much can be gained in the appreciation of
contemporary art from such a broadening of the
horizon.
--
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