[-empyre-] Hope you will all post--One last day to discuss New Media and the MIddle East

Tue Mar 1 02:22:32 EST 2011

Dear all,  I have absolutely enjoyed the discussion this past month and have
actually shared it with a group of young students in a Visual Culture class
here at Cornell.  From the detailed descriptions of new media artists
difficulty in getting tech equipment to the nuanced cultural translations
that you have laid out before us, the discussion has been timely and
informative for all of us. I was fascinated by Isak's post on Saturday about
the young child who will go through life with the name Facebook (?!).
 Indeed the reports that I have been following have painted a picture of a
vast network of both technological networks, Facebook, Twitter, Cable
television, cellphone technology, and even UPS, that have allowed incredibly
brave, courageous, and committed citizens to rise up for what they believe
to be injustices.  Obviously the younger generation has been inspired to
rise up against years of what they know to be antiquated ways of
governmental abuse. I am incredibly humbled and inspired though not by not
the technological tools being used, but the people who are using that
technology in innovative, creative, and inspiring ways. If there were not
people on the ground willing to confront the regime's they are facing, no
technological innovation would have been or will be successful.  The
videotape feeds of Egyptian citizens locking arms to prevent intrusion into
Liberation Square was an image that for me that especially memorable.  Here
in the states both Tim and I have been involved in grassroots politics.  If
only the citizens of democratized countries such as the US could become as
committed in the process as what we have been witnessing in the MIddle East.
I'm so sad to report that so many neighbors as well as students are
complacent or  "too busy" to become involved in the process.

Many years ago I attended a information panel for an artist's granting
panel.  The first item of business was simply a question...Are you
registered to vote? This granting agency wanted all of the attendees to
become actively engaged with a government who would be in control of how
much granting money and support was distributed. My hope is that our Middle
Eastern friends will inspire all of us to remember that active participation
in governmental processes is imperative to keep it relevant and just in
meeting the needs of its people.

Later tonight we will be closing out this month's discussion on empyre and
welcoming Christina McPhee to introduce a new discussion topic tomorrow. I'm
inviting all of you to make wrap up posts and encourage all of our
subscribers to chime in for one more day of discussion, New Media and the
Middle East.

Renate

On Sat, Feb 26, 2011 at 3:49 PM, Isak Berbic <isakberbic at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
> http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/family-parenting/man-names-his-firstborn-daughter-‘facebook’-blog-17-yahoo-lifestyles.html
> A young Egyptian man has decided to call his first-born daughter Facebook
> in a tribute to the social media site’s role in his country’s political
> revolution.
> Even though initial Facebook pages by Google executive Wael Ghonim and
> others were a significant means of information dissemination and a rally for
> protest, I find it over-insistent that Facebook was the most significant
> medium in Egypt and the other recent protests across the Middle East.
>
> I would think that mobile phone text messaging is the more relevant and
> powerful catalyst for the organizing of assembly that is occurring. This is
> how people came together, and this is also how the Egyptian government
> rallied for supporters to go and demonstrate their own numbers.
>
> On the other hand television is major since the whole country came out into
> the streets on the day they heard of Hosni Mubarak's resignation on the
> state channel. Only at this point did everyone feel the safety of the "mass"
> and the ubiquity of the revolution.
>
> Critical Mass is also an interesting example where text messaging and fliers
> are the dominant means of communication. (At least 3-4 years ago it was)
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass
>
> In my opinion there is something suspicious about the fact that western
> media channels keep referring to the happenings in the Middle East as
> "Facebook Revolutions". I can assure you that while this kind of title was
> mentioned on the television channels in the Middle East, by no means did it
> become a constant branded title.
>
> During the winter holiday season of 2010/2011 I was watching a North
> American television station: CNN, or MSMBC; and a few times daily they
> reported on FedEx and the enormous historical count of packages they are
> delivering. They did a story LIVE from a delivery truck. They talked about
> the recipients joy as they open the present inside the purple and white box.
> These last few weeks, the stories on the snow storms in the US north-east
> and mid-west are accompanied by a Home Depot worker (an american hardware
> store) telling us how to operate a roof rake and get the dangerous heavy
> snow and icicles off.
>
> Isak Berbic
>
>
>
> *From:* Isak Berbic <isakberbic at yahoo.com>
> *To:* soft_skinned_space <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> *Cc:*
> *Sent:* Wednesday, February 23, 2011 9:28 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [-empyre-] beyond screens
>
> Coincidentally this might be relevant to the discussion:
>
> Suzanne Cotter and Rasha Salti, as joint curators of the 10th edition of
> the Sharjah Biennial, describe in their curatorial statement the Biennial as
> a script to be followed. (as a film, with chapters, with a plot and
> characters).
>
> http://www.e-flux.com/shows/view/7873 <http://www.e-flux.com/shows/view/7873>
>
> While I find this particular (initial) press release of the curatorial
> statement rhetorical and convoluted, I have to see the exhibition first,
> which opens in a couple of weeks, to determine whether as I walk from
> gallery space to the next I am metaphorically inhabiting the space of an
> imagined "film". A key aspect to this year's Biennial is that a large
> section of participants are filmmakers and musicians. I believe that Rasha
> Salti has a long standing experience in curating film and video which surely
> contributes to the moving image nature of this Biennial. I am curious to see
> how this will unfold in relation to the concurrent art fair in neighboring
> Dubai (Art Dubai) whose galleries are mostly in the business of selling
> beautiful artifacts (and not videotapes) and thus the objects on display
> will be as expected: objects. To the buyer their materiality is a palpable
> worth.
>
> I was in Singapore a couple of years ago and many of the local Singaporean
> artists were commenting on the Singapore Biennial and how it's first
> rendition (2006) was luxurious with big commissions and large installations.
> But this time around (2008) the work was predominantly projections, images,
> text. The artists send in the DVD's. The requirements mostly are: floor to
> ceiling projection on loop, stereo sound. There is no shipping, there is no
> conservation regulations, there is no guards to keep you form leaving finger
> prints, there is no insurance. It is simply cheaper for the organizers.
>
> -
>
> I would also add that in the case of my own practice, I have noticed that
> my video works (as opposed to my photography, installations…) are far more
> traveled and exhibited. The practicality of shipping a DVD is doing this to
> my exhibition record: (the medium of international currier shipping has a
> great affect on my career). I humbly believe that this experience is shared
> by many artists working today.
>
> Isak Berbic
>
> "Kafka was a realist",  György Lukács
>
> *From:* Mayssa Fattouh <mayssa.f at gmail.com>
> *To:* soft_skinned_space <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> *Cc:* soft_skinned_space <empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 22, 2011 4:22 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [-empyre-] beyond screens
>
> Hi Laura,
>
> Yes true that there are many artists who produce video works in the ME but
> not many do it for the gallery space specifically which was the base of the
> intended archive.
> By trying to answer your question about "what makes artists decide to show
> media works in galleries rather than in the film circuit", I've realized one
> has to question the approach of artists to audiences, the medium, the
> gallery relationship versus festival organizers, the gallery image for
> artists as well as collectors and museums... and is a question that has no
> straight answer I feel, maybe a part of the answer can be found in my
> interview with Hassan Khan on Art Territories where I asked him "is the
> gallery space your preferred choice for showing your work and how would you
> treat your work if it were outside the art space context"
> http://www.artterritories.net/?page_id=1577
> I look forward to the continuation of your conversation and thank you again
> for the food for thought.
>
> Best,
> Mayssa
>
> On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 3:06 AM, Laura Marks <lmarks at sfu.ca> wrote:
>
> Hi Mayssa, Nat, thanks for these developments.
>
> I am puzzled that the BFI archiving initiative you mention (Mayssa) didn't
> find enough material, because there are so many artists working in video in
> the region.
>
> My point was more to ask what makes artists decide to show media works in
> galleries, rather than in the film circuit? Gheith al-Amine, for example,
> shows his experimental narrative work at film festivals, while the others
> you've mentioned show more in the gallery. (Oddly, now that most people work
> in digital video, these works are called "films," but I prefer to call them
> the medium-free "movies") This then gets to the question of distribution,
> which I'll pursue in a later post.
>
> Nat, and Ayah, great points about technical difficulties of installing
> complex work.
>
> Yours, Laura
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "nat muller" <nat at xs4all.nl>
> To: "soft_skinned_space" <empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2011 3:31:35 AM
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] beyond screens
>
>
> just to add into the mix:
>
>
> lara baladi's installations (albeit not video) offer a more site-specific
> approach within this context. good examples are the walk-in caleidoscope of
> redundant images "roba vecchia" (2006) and " Al-Fanous Al-Sehri" (2002).
> however, it is hard to imagine them being realised without the big factory
> space of cairo's townhouse gallery. lara's earlier work, which is so much
> about the process of image making, was very much influenced by her move from
> paris to cairo well over a decade ago. she has told me that initially the
> lack of professional photo labs in egypt and the lack of other resources
> dramatically changed the way she worked.
> more on lara's work:
> http://www.bankgalerie.com/content/pdf/pdf1/racinelarabaladi.pdf
>
>
> it's also interesting to note that hassan khan showed his 4-channel
> installation "the hidden location" (2004) for the first time in cairo during
> photocairo4 (2008-9). previously he could not show it in cairo because the
> proper video synchroniser was not available in egypt. this echoes ayah's
> post on logistical difficulties.
>
>
> /nat
>
>
>
> On Feb 19, 2011, at 09:40, Mayssa Fattouh wrote:
>
>
>
> Sorry forgot to mention Wael Shawky as well.
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Feb 19, 2011 at 11:38 AM, Mayssa Fattouh < mayssa.f at gmail.com >
> wrote:
>
>
>
> Hi Laura,
>
> I think that most artists who have produced single channel videos have
> mainly done so as installations, I'm finding a hard time identifying artists
> who approach single video in a gallery context in the way that Hassan Khan
> does.
> Those who I found are closest to this direction in some of their videos are
> Mounir Fatmi, Jayce Salloum, Ahmet Ogut, Sharif Waked...
> Over a year ago during the Tate curators workshop, Elisabetta Fabrizi from
> the BFI exhibitions had suggested to create an archive of Middle Eastern
> artists videos dedicated for the gallery context, the problem was that there
> were very few examples that would give life to this project.
> Again the gallery system in the Middle East wasn't very developed a few
> years ago for many reasons, this again is changing and with it the artists
> works. Galleries have now created good contacts with collectors and museums,
> the number of galleries showing video is also increasing due also to the
> fact that video is very cost efficient for transportation. It is true though
> that very few collectors in this region are interested in acquiring video
> works as we are still here in the concern of the display.
> I wonder if this issue will be discussed in the near future in one of the
> art fair forums or other, it would certainly be very beneficial for all.
> Thank you Laura for bringing up the subject.
>
> Best,
> Mayssa
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 5:14 PM, Laura Marks < lmarks at sfu.ca > wrote:
>
>
> Hello Nat, Mayssa, Mirene, Ayah,
>
> This is such an interesting discussion. I have some questions about
> single-channel vs. installation, and distribution. It seems a lot of artists
> are turning to gallery projection where possible (following the
> long-standing example of Hassan Khan, for example) because they want to
> shift from the cinematic context to a gallery one. This has happened in
> Western countries earlier, so there's quite a split between those who
> present work at festivals and distribute them like films, or get picked up
> by distributors, and those who present work at galleries and hope to get
> represented by galleries. The latter I think is more lucrative but more
> difficult to achieve. I recall Hassan Khan saying at Homeworks last summer
> that his work is finally being collected by galleries and museums (he's
> represented by Chantal Crousel), but not being shown--and I think this is
> because it's not distributed as single-channel work.
>
> Do you have some thoughts or other examples?
>
> Laura
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "nat muller" < nat at xs4all.nl >
> To: "soft_skinned_space" < empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au >
> Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2011 6:48:43 AM
> Subject: [-empyre-] beyond screens
>
> dear mirene, ayah and mayssa,
>
> thanks for your great posts!
>
> re: ayah's and mayssa's observation - as well as my own - that the
> dominance of the screen is very prominent and that spatial
> considerations (a.o. in installations, multi-channel, etc) and more
> interactive/participatory media-based work is scarce, was wondering
> about your thoughts why this is the case. do you think this is due to
> a lack in access, resources, financial constraints,..? perhaps in the
> case of beirut a lack of venues - though now matters might have
> changed with the beirut art centre? or does the prominence of the
> screen mean something different (in the case of lebanon)? i have to
> say that i somehow i have noticed more spatial (media) installations
> in egypt.
>
> looking fwd to your thoughts.
>
> /nat
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