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

Sat Oct 26 07:24:14 EST 2013

Hmmmm, Gabriel I would say that mobile technologies is a variation on
convergence.... am I misunderstanding what you meant? Renate

On Fri, Oct 25, 2013 at 7:24 AM, Gabriel Menotti
<gabriel.menotti at gmail.com>wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Hey Tim!
>
> Ah, they would be familiar names such as Blast Theory and Trevor
> Paglen. The fact is that these events are not really committed with
> the idea of convergence per se. For instance, Arte.mov was focused on
> mobile technologies and culture, while Tropixel deals with
> natural/technological resources and tactical media. It is more that
> they create good opportunities for critics and practitioners different
> areas to converge.
>
> Best!
> Menotti
>
> 2013/10/23 Timothy Conway Murray <tcm1 at cornell.edu>:
> > ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> > Thanks, this is really helpful and interesting information for you to
> share with all of us.  I'm wondering if there are particular artists from
> Pixelache or Artemov whose experimentations with convergence we all might
> reference?
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Tim
> >
> >
> >
> > Director, Society for the Humanities
> > Curator, Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art
> > Professor of Comparative Literature and English
> > A. D. White House
> > Cornell University
> > Ithaca, New York. 14853
> > ________________________________________
> > From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [
> empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] on behalf of Gabriel Menotti [
> gabriel.menotti at gmail.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2013 4:16 PM
> > To: soft_skinned_space
> > Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Week 3 on empyre: thoughts about the first two
> weeks and moving on
> >
> > ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> > 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.
> > From what I heard, the said phone carrier cut all of its support for
> > cultural programmes.
> >
> > Smaller and sporadic events are still running, making do with whatever
> > they can get. Right now, there is a local edition of Pixelache going
> > on in Ubatuba, in the coast. It was quite an adventure for the
> > organization to get means of travelling for everyone interested, but
> > it worked out in the end (the solution was refunding participants’
> > long-distance bus tickets). What prevented me from attending was
> > mostly the clash with the classes calendar.
> >
> > Best!
> > Menotti
> >
> >
> > 2013/10/23 Timothy Conway Murray <tcm1 at cornell.edu>:
> >> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> >> Gabriel,
> >>
> >> It's interesting that your experience at Socine parallels my thoughts
> about the Bosun Festival.  You put it well that Bosun, apparently as with
> Socine, could have been more successful in integrating experimental medial
> approaches into its programming and discourse.  So that if convergence
> figured, as it did so prominently as the theme of the Festival Conference,
> it did so primarily as folded into the screen of more traditional cinema
> discourse.
> >>
> >> It's very disconcerting that those organizations most committed to
> articulating and promoting artistic convergences have fallen on the
> budgetary chopping block.  Would you be willing to say more about the
> context and histories of Arte.mov, Prêmio Sérgio Motta, MIS-SP?
> >>
> >> I suspect that Dale is experiencing an alternative and more robust
> approach to funding the arts.  Dale, could say something about this and
> what difference it's making for thinking convergence and alternative
> approaches to the screen arts?
> >>
> >> Thanks so much,
> >>
> >> Tim
> >>
> >> Director, Society for the Humanities
> >> Curator, Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art
> >> Professor of Comparative Literature and English
> >> A. D. White House
> >> Cornell University
> >> Ithaca, New York. 14853
> >> ________________________________________
> >> From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [
> empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] on behalf of Gabriel Menotti [
> gabriel.menotti at gmail.com]
> >> Sent: Monday, October 21, 2013 9:41 AM
> >> To: soft_skinned_space
> >> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Week 3 on empyre: thoughts about the first two
> weeks and moving on
> >>
> >> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> >> Hello, Tim!
> >>
> >>> So would you mind elaborating a little more specifically about
> >>> the particular institutional contexts about which your thinking in
> Brazil.
> >>
> >> Oh, sorry if I was unclear. I was referring mostly to academia and
> >> academic forums. Particularly, I was thinking about Socine, the
> >> biggest cinema/screen/film studies congress in the country, which is
> >> fresh in my mind because I was participating of it two weeks ago. I
> >> was hoping to see a more heterogeneous event, but it ended up very
> >> traditional. The only working group *slightly* opened to convergence
> >> (or issues of technology and culture) was the arts & cinema one.
> >>
> >> I was presenting a paper about piracy and ended up in a panel with
> >> someone doing statistical research on the participation of women in
> >> the production of Brazilian features in the last 20 years. While there
> >> could have been an interesting dialogue between our two projects, if
> >> the panel was better planned and chaired, it ended up feeling simply
> >> as the place where they throw the misfits. The point being: there is
> >> not enough people working in certain areas to constitute productive
> >> fields of academic dialogue and criticism.
> >>
> >> On the other hand, it is interesting to notice how sometimes it is
> >> non-academic events and institutions (like FILE) that work as
> >> catalysts of thought, creating conditions for the displacement of
> >> current research culture. Didi-Huberman, for instance, was brought to
> >> Brazil for a lecture by the newly opened Rio Museum of Arts (MAR), and
> >> this certainly played an important role in his recent surge of
> >> popularity.
> >>
> >> Such events have the conceptual freedom and necessary fundings to
> >> propose new questions/ bring new people. It is a shame that lots of
> >> them that were involved with arts & media were recently discontinued
> >> due to cuts in cultural budgets (Arte.mov, Prêmio Sérgio Motta,
> >> MIS-SP). FILE is one of the few in the area that survived - perhaps
> >> because of its popularity with a wider public. Time will tell how
> >> negative will be the effects of these cuts to the variety of research.
> >>
> >> Best!
> >> Menotti
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> 2013/10/19 Timothy Conway Murray <tcm1 at cornell.edu>:
> >>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> >>> Hi, Menotti,
> >>>
> >>> It's so nice to hear your voice back on -empyre- and to receive it
> from your home territory of Brazil.  It strikes me as extremely important
> that you situate the possibilities for or restrictions of convergence in
> relation to resources or institutions.  In some cultural contexts, it seems
> like minimal resources might have enhanced the possibility for and
> necessity for convergence (such as the Arte Povera movement, etc.).  So
> would you mind elaborating a little more specifically about the particular
> institutional contexts about which your thinking in Brazil.  Many of our
> readers, for instance, might associate Brazil with the FILE Festival in Sao
> Paulo, which historically has been known for celebrating the convergence of
> artistic medial practice.  Is FILE the exception or do you see FILE being
> held back economically, etc.?
> >>>
> >>> Best,
> >>>
> >>> Tim
> >>>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> 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
> > _______________________________________________
> > 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
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
>
>

-- 

Renate Ferro
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art,
(contracted since 2004)
Cornell University
Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office:  306
Ithaca, NY  14853
Email:   <rferro at cornell.edu <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/
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