[-empyre-] interactivity and Digital Futures

Thu Jan 15 14:47:39 EST 2009

dear Renate and Tim, dear all:

you ask whether I am pessimistic?
not sure how to answer this, as i was trying to address a more direct and practical sense of disappointment, coming from physical interaction with technological interfaces rather than collaboration between artists. these are interactions within collaborative workshops, labs and productions. the collaborative dimensions (and the organizing of such collaborative sharing of composition) obviously are the part that i hope to be more concretely involved with (continuing experiences that I have made). they have social promise to me,  
not second life nor beaux gestes nor academic theories on tactical media art or locative this or that. 
not sure whether i care to discuss the experiences under a rubric such as 'relational aesthetics,' 
even though i did come across its critical-promotional texts when reading about Francis Alÿs and his piece in the mountains (when he suggested that "faith can move mountains"). I wanted to examine  what was collaborative about "cuando la fe mueve montañas" and why it was considered an important beau geste (in the sense of futile), and why its futility can be justifiedly criticized or praised.  I also tried to say, in my earlier post, that I'd be shy about making resolutions that promote rhetorical stakes (whether they are politicized projects or activisms or artistic theories, regarding the promise of social networks or platforms, or regarding the elections in the US or the military conflict in Gaza., 
i can't say much about Gaza. i am not sure that talking about myspace or facebook or youtube and games relates to critical spatial practices, nor how critical spatial practices relate to bodies torn apart by grenades and rockets. i am discouraged by discourse. 

I think when a questions comes back about what the social promises are in new media platforms, one would have to start slowly and carefully, asking what is meant by social promise, and what is meant by platforms, and where / how are these platforms used and by whom and when and for what purposes and with what expectations.   for my post on interaction i was mostly thinking about methods of working together which we can define for each specific situation that brings some of us together with a concern or an artistic vision. 

can others suggest what they might think of when the notion of the social or the relational is addressed in art (rather than electoral politics or journalism or acticism)? is there a social dimension of art or are we talking about the conditions (and means) of production?    (the dissemination and consumption of media art, and its curation and institutionalization are other topics). 

with regards
Johannes Birringer

>>>>>

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

--- 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 <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 <http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu/> 
> Professor of Comparative Literature and English
> A. D. White House
> Cornell University
> Ithaca, New York 14853
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
_______________________________________________
empyre forum
empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
http://www.subtle.net/empyre

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 9630 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : https://mail.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/attachments/20090115/24a063a6/attachment.bin 