[-empyre-] interactivity and Digital Futures

[eliza fernbach]

I would be very interested in hearing about the "social promise" of new media platforms....




Tell me what you forget, I will tell you who you are.
                                                                                              - Marc Augé


--- On Sun, 1/11/09, Timothy Murray <tcm1 at cornell.edu> wrote:

> From: Timothy Murray <tcm1 at cornell.edu>
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] interactivity and  Digital Futures
> To: "soft_skinned_space" <empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> Date: Sunday, January 11, 2009, 8:47 PM
> >Johannes,
> 
> If I read between the lines, I sense that your 
> "resolution" would be for
> "interactivity" to 
> respond to social questions about "how to care to 
> act, how to give and how to receive" but that you 
> are pessimistic about this possibility.  While 
> "interactivity" could surely result in non-social
> 
> behavior, I suspect that a good many subscribers 
> to -empyre- are invested in new media platforms 
> precisely for their social promise, whether it be 
> through "critical spatial practice,"
> "eco-art," 
> "tactical media," etc.
> 
> We would be very interested in receiving more 
> resolutions that detail the possibility of such 
> practices.
> 
> Best,
> 
>   Tim and Renate
> 
> 
> 
> >A few years ago it seemed inevitable that digital
> >culture and new media arts would
> >be based on interactivity and the paradigm
> >changes implied by participatory play/ creativity
> >and networking. The promise of a new aesthetics
> >of interaction made me think that technically
> >derived interface performances could adopt the
> >digital into social processes that also taught us
> >new techniques of behavior, new "acting"
> >techniques. So over the past few years, my lab in
> >Germany has been trying to publish a manifesto on
> >"interaction"
> >(http://interaktionslabor.de/manifesto.htm).
> >While we try, we also become more disillusioned.
> >In the new year, I want to examine why
> >interactivity (the technical kind) is not
> >working. And why the growth of virtual reality,
> >gaming environments and second lives does not
> >answer any social questions about how to care to
> >act, how to give and how to receive.
> >
> >
> >
> >(bio)
> >
> >Johannes Birringer (UK)  is a choreographer and
> >media artist. As artistic director of the
> >Houston-based AlienNation
> >Co.(www.aliennationcompany.com), he has created
> >numerous dance-theatre works, video installations
> >and digital projects in collaboration with
> >artists in Europe, the Americas, and China. His
> >most recent production, the digital oratorio
> >Corpo, Carne e Espírito,  premiered in Brasil in
> >2008. He is founder of Interaktionslabor
> >Göttelborn in Germany
> >(http://interaktionslabor.de) and director of
> >DAP-Lab at Brunel University, West London, where
> >he is a Professor of Performance Technologies in
> >the School of Arts. His new book, Performance,
> >Technology and Science, was released by PAJ
> >Publications in 2008.
> >
> >--
> >Renate Ferro and Tim Murray
> >Co-Moderators, -empyre- a soft-skinned-space
> >Department of Art/ Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media
> Art
> >Cornell University
> >_______________________________________________
> >empyre forum
> >empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> >http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> 
> 
> -- 
> Timothy Murray
> Director, Society for the Humanities
> http://www.arts.cornell.edu/sochum/
> Curator, The Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell
> Library
> http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu
> Professor of Comparative Literature and English
> A. D. White House
> Cornell University
> Ithaca, New York 14853
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