[-empyre-] new media galleries VS new media labs

[Gabriel Menotti]

SARAH

>At Eyebeam I am learning what it means to curate within the context
>of a new media lab... […] on the CRUMB side I am tasked with
>transfering knowledge as to what it means to be curating new media
>art in or from a lab rather than in the more traditional gallery context.

That's interesting because, if we consider that the technologies are
collapsing (the same frameworks/ architetures/ facilities are being
use for production and consumption), the fact that some new forms of
audience can't be taken apart from techniques of creation (remixing,
for example) and that we are more and more interested in the aesthetic
dimension of (creative) processes, there should be not much difference
between the structure of a media art gallery and a media lab – since
both are spaces for postproduction (in the sense bourriaud employs
this term).

(I usually believe that the ideal model for a new media gallery is the
penny arcade, or the science fair, which are also places for
experimentation.)

At Cine Falcatrua, for example, the only thing that takes the moment
of screening apart from the moments of setting things up is the social
protocol governing each specific situation. The same technologies,
people and space suddenly start acting differently, as if "movie
theater", "subtitling room" and "distribution central" (and
"videogame" =)) were just different circunstances ("modes") of the
same architetural apparatus, which could be shifted in seconds.

(which media lab would be complete without some random human
interactors the artists could test their experiments with? ^^)

* * *

Since Sarah already talked about Star and Shadow cinema, maybe she
could also tell us something about the International Seminars held at
Baltic center (Newcastle), which resulted in some nice publications on
curating new media, residence for artists and such.

Best!
Menotti