[-empyre-] Week 2: Introducing Paul Vanouse and Cecelia Parsburg

[Renate Ferro]

Many thanks to Erin and Carol Ann for launching our first week’s
discussion.  Erin my response to your differences was certainly in
regards to how you both proceed.  Your process oriented,
movement/choreographic based methods at the center of The Sense Lab
have been understood to me to be your signature!
This process has always been understand to be the centralizing force
behind The Sense Lab (perhaps wrongly by me).  You are also working
within an educational institution somewhat insulated from governmental
politics (or perhaps not)  At any rate a huge thank you though for
highlighting your similarities.  That is a pretty extensive list so
perhaps I have misjudged.

At any rate thank you both so much for agreeing to introduce our
topic. Carol Ann I am thrilled to learn that you are an MFA from
Cornell and I am hoping  that upon one of your return trips back to
the states  you will travel through Ithaca and visit Cornell at some
point.  Thanks for sharing your work in France with us.

I would like to welcome Paul Vanouse once again to empyre.  Paul was a
guest of ours in February and has agreed to join us once again this
month.  We also welcome Cecelia Parsburg, a visual artist from
Stockholm.  Ana Valdez recently introduced us to Cecelia's work.
Their biographies are below.

Paul Vanouse (US) has been working in emerging media forms since 1990.
Interdisciplinary and impassioned amateurism guide his art practice.
His electronic cinema, biological experiments, and interactive
installations have been exhibited in over 20 countries and widely
across the US. Venues have included: Walker Art Center, Albright-Knox
Museum, Carnegie Museum, Andy Warhol Museum, New Museum, Museo
Nacional de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, Louvre in Paris, Haus Der
Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin, Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie in
Karlsrhue, Centre de Cultura Contemporania in Barcelona, and TePapa
Museum in Wellington, New Zealand. Recent large-scale solo exhibitions
include: Schering Foundation in Berlin (2011), Kapelica Gallery in
Ljubljana (2011), Muffathalle in Munich (2012), and Beall Center,
Irvine CA (forthcoming in 2013). This work has been discussed in
journals including: Art Journal, Art Papers, Flash Art International,
Leonardo, New Scientist, New Art
Examiner, New York Times and numerous academic books on art and
technology. Vanouse is a Professor of Visual Studies at the University
at Buffalo,
NY. He has been a Senior Artist at Banff Center, Alberta, Canada
(2011), Foreign Expert at Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, China (2006)
Honorary Research Fellow at SymbioticA, University of Western
Australia (2005), Visiting Scholar at the Center for Research and
Computing in the Arts, UC San Diego (1997), and Research Fellow at the
Studio for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University (1997-2003).
He holds a BFA from the University at Buffalo (1990) and an MFA from
Carnegie Mellon University (1996).

Cecilia Parsberg (SE), visual artist, lives and works in Stockholm.
Since Jan 2011, PhD student in Fine Arts
http://www.konstnarligaforskarskolan.se
”Five Actions” in South Africa and eight projects in Palestine and
Israel have shaped my view of art and its meaning. It is not the image
of an event that counts, I produce the images because of the
encounter. And then how and where the image is mediated is a political
question.
The title for my PhD projekt is : Private politics (& Public Secrets)
A practical project that I started last year is “How to be a
successful beggar in Sweden?” I have conducted a market survey, a
method which commercial companies looking to launch a product/service
usually do. I have also interviewed ten beggars in Gothenburg, written
a thesis performed at some international conferences, and more to
come… ( see: http://tiggerisomyrke.se ) The overriding research issue
can be formulated as follows: How can public structures be shaped,
influenced or even created by individuals? It’s about the gift – to
give/take, gift economy and the ability of the individual to change
existing structures of power.

-- 

Renate Ferro
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art
Cornell University
Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office #420
Ithaca, NY  14853
Email:   <rtf9 at cornell.edu>
URL:  http://www.renateferro.net
      http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net
Lab:  http://www.tinkerfactory.net

Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space
http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre