[-empyre-] Week 3 on empyre: thoughts about the first two weeks and moving on

[Gabriel Menotti]

Hey!

Some years ago, around 2007, there was a lot of institutions dealing
with media arts in the country, particularly in São Paulo. Looking
back now, it feels like another intoxicating side-effect of the wave
of optimism provoked by what seemed another “Brazilian miracle”. That
is when the Museum of Image and Sound (MIS-SP) reopened under a new
direction, with a strong international residency programme attached to
a media lab. However, the lack of popularity of this programme,
combined with some political disagreements between the museum
management and SP government, took things some steps back. Right now,
most exhibitions are ready-made travelling shows imported from abroad,
repeating the same old topics. Kids love them, though.

Artemov is another interesting case: a festival for locative media
convened by artists and academics who engaged critically with this
area (among whom were Lucas Bambozzi and Marcus Bastos, participants
of the list). Supported by the sponsorship of a local mobile phone
carrier, it managed to have a quite substantial programme, including
very good seminars with international guests. These events resulted in
what I believe to be one of the most updated essay collections on
media arts and locative technology published in Portuguese - a
priceless resource for classes. Sadly, the festival is hibernating.