[-empyre-] Thanks to Catherine and Kevin, Welcome to Alice and Maurice!

[Timothy Murray <tcm1@cornell.edu>, Renate Ferro <rtf9@cornell.edu>]

Hi, everyone.  We want to extend our warmest 
thanks to Catherine Ingraham and Kevin Hamilton 
for leading us in a highly engaging week, from 
maps to cages!  So sorry about the server glitch 
mid-week (we never heard what took place, but 
things seem to be back on track).

We think the most recent round of postings 
(active still this morning!) provide a perfect 
transition into the work of this week's guests, 
Maurice Benayoun and Alice Miceli, two artists 
for whom critical spatial practice is central to 
their work.  Following this past week's focus on 
American things, and the previous week's blend of 
Asia/America, Maurice and Alice bring decidedly 
European and Latin American perspectives to the 
list.

We've worked with Maurice Benayoun (Mo Ben) on 
various critical initiatives for many years. 
Maurice  teaches video and new media at the 
University of Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne) and is 
Art Director of the CITU research center in Paris 
(University Interactive Transdisciplinary 
Creation).  Maurice  is a transmedia artist who 
explores thepotentiality of various media from 
video, to virtual reality, Web and wireless art, 
public space large scale art installations and 
interactive
exhibitions.  He has designed interactive scenography for large scale
architectural and exhibition projects.   In 1987, 
he co-founded the pionneering CG and VR lab, Z-A, 
and has been involved since in groundbreaking 
projects in new media and design.  His Tunnel 
under the Atlantic (1995), provided visitors 
tothe Centrel Pompidou in Paris and the MOCA in 
Montreal with televisual interaction through a VR 
gaming portal.  In 1998, he received a Golden 
Nica, Prix Ars Electronica, for World Skin: A 
Photo Safari in the Land of War.  He also has 
been involved in a many large scale exhibitions, 
events, and architectural projects such as the 
Navigation Room (1997) and the Membrane (2001) 
for the Cité des Sciences de la Villette, the 
Panaromic Tables for the Planet of Visions 
Pavilion, Hanover EXPO 2000, the Multimedia Tour 
for the Abbaye de Fontevraud, Cosmopolis, 
Overwriting the City, a giant art and science 
immersive installation for the French Year in 
China, and he is now working on the permanent 
exhibition at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.  Last 
fall, Maurice initiated a bilingual 
(French/English) blog, http://the-dump.net/, 
where he invites postings of inventive new media 
iniatives and reflections.  We're happy that he's 
agreed to bring the dump into the -empyre-!

Joining Maurice will be Alice Miceli, an exciting 
artist from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who is now 
working out of Berlin.    Since graduating from 
the  Ecole Supérieure d'Etudes Cinématographiques 
in Paris in 2001, Alice and her projects have 
been featured internationally, from the 
Videobrasil Festival in Sao Paulo and the NY 
Independent Film and Video Festival in New York 
to Art Contact at ForumBOX Gallery in Helsinki 
and Third Asia-Europe Art Camp in Bandung, 
Indonesia.   Since 2006, Alice has been teaching 
video art at Atelie de Imagem, a photography and 
media school in Rio.  Crucial to her ongoing 
"Chernobyl" Project, which we hope she'll 
discuss,  is her investigation of critical 
spatial practice.  She will be joining us this 
week from Berlin before heading back to Rio and 
Sao Paulo for our final week on Critical Spatial 
Practice.

We are delighted to host guests with such 
different backgrounds who share similar 
sensibilities to critical spatial practice. 
Welcome Maurice and Alice. We're looking forward 
to spending the week learning with you.

Renate Ferro and Tim Murray
Co-Moderators, -empyre-
Department of Art/Rose GoldsenArchive of New Media Art, Cornell University

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