<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">I have recently been thinking a lot about how artwork restructures space. Taking on Renate’s opening thread of this month, I want to share my recent experience and perhaps reflect on the global identity that -empyre- as a platform has instituted throughout the years. <br class=""><br class="">I was at a conference called “Global Asias” earlier this month. And for some, the title itself may already invite controversies. As paradoxical as it sounds, how could a geographical area called Asia be global?<br class=""><br class="">With that question in mind, I was fascinated by a presentation by Terry K Park, who analyzed the works of the Korean-American artist Michael Joo (who was born in Ithaca to a South Korean couple studying at Cornell!), from his earlier works like Salt Transfer Cycle (<a href="https://redflag.org/magazine/issue-8/salt-transfer-cycle-a-video-piece/" class="">https://redflag.org/magazine/issue-8/salt-transfer-cycle-a-video-piece/</a>) to more recent ones like Migrated at the Smithsonian (<a href="https://www.apollo-magazine.com/meditations-on-migration-michael-joo-at-the-smithsonian/" class="">https://www.apollo-magazine.com/meditations-on-migration-michael-joo-at-the-smithsonian/</a>). As seen in both works, the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) becomes a recurring trope in Michael Joo’s oeuvre, not simply as an identifier of the physical space, but rather a constituent of a spatial narrative about movement and migration, whose ecological and/or humanitarian consequences demand a global identity. <div class=""><div class=""><br class="">Some of my recent research on contemporary art in China/Hong Kong/ Taiwan also resolves around this restructuring of space as a global narrative. I have been writing about artworks like Liquid Borders (<a href="http://cargocollective.com/samsonyoung/Liquid-Borders/" class="">http://cargocollective.com/samsonyoung/Liquid-Borders/</a>) and Sonic Territories (<a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/taiwan-kinmen-island-sonic-territories-1332893/" class="">https://news.artnet.com/art-world/taiwan-kinmen-island-sonic-territories-1332893/</a>), where the spatial narrative is exactly an integral part of the global geopolitical discourse. But in any case, I appreciate that -empyre- provides the space for discovering the connections we need towards that global identity.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Junting</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class="">
<div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Junting Huang<br class="">Department of Comparative Literature<br class="">240 Goldwin Smith Hall<br class="">Cornell University<br class="">Ithaca, NY 14853<br class=""></div>
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<div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Apr 30, 2019, at 9:36 PM, Renate Ferro <<a href="mailto:rferro@cornell.edu" class="">rferro@cornell.edu</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div class="">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<br class="">Welcome to May 2019 on –empyre- soft-skinned-space<br class="">OPEN MONTH: Who are our –empyre- subscribers?<br class=""><br class="">As we enter into our seventeenth year our global community of artists, curators, theorists, producers, and others are currently 2,183 subscribers. This group reflects artistic and curatorial pioneers in the field of new media art and new emerging artists and research scholars as well. While our online discussion topics encourage critical perspectives on contemporary cross-disciplinary issues, practices and events in networked media occasionally we open up our discussion template to invite you, our subscribers, to share current research, book projects, exhibitions, projects, and news from the institutions you are affiliated with.<br class=""><br class="">What has been most fascinating for us is to consider the power of this online forum and how the rhizomatic flow between our subscribers’ research and projects directly imprint upon the ebb and flow of our global identity. That flow can be reviewed through our –empyre- archive since 2002.<br class=""> <a href="http://lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/" class="">http://lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/</a><br class=""><br class=""> We invite each of our subscribers to post directly by sending an email to this address. <br class=""><a href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au" class="">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au</a><br class="">PUT YOUR NAME IN THE SUBJECT HEADING.<br class=""><br class="">Our –empyre- website is hosted by Cornell University. It is currently being redesigned which is very long overdue. This might be an appropriate time to let you all know that we are looking for those interested in hosting a month on –empyre-. While this month is a more open format, the month of June is open right now. If you have an idea or concept you would like to organize a discussion around please send me an email back channel. <br class=""><br class="">Best. Renate Ferro<br class=""><br class="">Renate Ferro<br class="">Visiting Associate Professor<br class="">Director of Undergraduate Studies<br class="">Department of Art<br class="">Tjaden Hall 306<br class="">rferro@cornell.edu<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">_______________________________________________<br class="">empyre forum<br class="">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au<br class="">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</div></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></div></body></html>