[-empyre-] Week 3: Science, Technology, Art and Fakeness

[Renate Terese Ferro]

Many thanks to Talan Memmott and Mark Marino for being our guests during Week 2. This week on -empye- I am thrilled to introduce Kevin Hamilton.   Kevin has been a guest moderator and participant for a number of years.  As well as being an artist and writer, Kevin is the editor of Media-N, the journal of the New Media Caucus.  We are currently working on a short publication for that journal that encapsulates a recent panel on Bio-Art that was held at the College Art Association. We thought it might be interesting to consider truth and fiction at the  intersections of Art, Technology and Science.  Within this convened panel issues of politics and ethics were a part of the discussion.  

Considering world views on climate change, The Environmental Protection Agency has removed all data on global warming from its website a sign of fake news in itself. the US Environmental Protection Agency will experience a budget cut of by 31 percent over 2017, according to records of the Office of Management and Budget.. Cuts in science and medial research, health and welfare will be slashed. More than 50 EPA programs will be impacted. Among them  Energy Star a guide to consumers that  support energy-efficient products (your home appliances) and buildings.  Also affected are  targeted Air Shed Grants (a program that assists in controlling air pollution at the local level); and the medical programs that  screen for endocrine disruptors, such as mercury and BPA that impact humans’ hormone systems.

I pause here to think about the legacy that Beatriz Da Costa left for us. 
http://blog.creative-capital.org/2013/01/remembering-beatriz-da-costa-1974-2012/


How can we as artists, writers, technologists make sense out of the current shift in politics as it relfects on science through our practices and living.  A serious question for the beginning of the week.  
Here’s Kevin’s bio. 
Renate.  

Kevin Hamilton (US)
is a Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he holds
appointments in the School of Art and Design and the program in Media and
Cinema Studies, and serves as Senior Associate Dean in the College of Fine and
Applied Arts. He works as an artist and scholar to produce artworks, archives,
and scholarship on such subjects as race and space, public memory, history of
technology, and state violence. His articles with Ned O’Gorman on Air Force
film production have appeared in Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Visual Culture,
and Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies. Their book-in-progress and
accompanying digital archive traces the history of the Air Force’s most famous
film unit, Lookout Mountain Laboratory, from 1948 through 1969. Kevin’s
artworks in digital form have appeared in Rhizome, Turbulence, Neural, and the
ASPECT DVD series.
 



Renate Ferro
Visiting Associate Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Art
Tjaden Hall 306
rferro at cornell.edu