CHALLENGES OF DIGITAL ART FOR OUR SOCIETIES – International Conference MUMOK - Museum moderner Kunst, Museumsplatz 1, Vienna, December 4th 2015, 1 – 7 pm "What kind of museums are necessary for contemporary (digital) art?" Digital art and technology fundamentally changes our perception and interaction with images. The international conference „Challenges of Digital Art" addresses the impact of this shift for the expressive potential of contemporary media art. 200 biennales and over 100 well-attended festivals dedicated to media art prove that media artists are addressing our ever-changing world view through a multitude of artworks focusing on themes that include climate change, image and media (r-)evolution, globalization, future of the body, surveillance society, and the virtualization of financial markets. Yet, while these outstanding artists engage the social and cultural questions of our time, media art continues to be insufficiently collected and inadequately documented in memory institutions due to problems in museum structures and media storage. Today, media artworks are gradually becoming lost because the museum sector is not able to fulfill its public duty to collect, research, and make accessible contemporary media art. The marginalization of media art and its themes in the public-financed museum sector leads to serious democratic issues – this development should be counteracted. The challenge for the humanities is to document and analyze digital artworks and, moreover, to provide solutions to this essential dilemma in contemporary cultural politics. This pressing agenda was previously addressed in the ‘Liverpool Declaration’, which so far over 500 scientists and museum directors from over 40 countries have signed (http://www.mediaarthistory.org/declaration). It is these questions that frame the conference. Bringing together internationally renowned scholars, the focus of the talks and discussions will be the strengthening of education and training of future curators and archivists in the cultural and arts sector as well as the formation of a sustainable research infrastructure. Towards these goals, the researches in the area of digital humanities will play a vital role. Internationally renowned experts of media art – Prof. Dr. Lev Manovich (New York CityU), Prof. Dr. Sean Cubitt (Goldsmiths), Prof. Dr. Christiane Paul (Whitney New York) and Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. Oliver Grau (DanubeU) – are discussing solutions and are suggesting strategies for improvement on 4th December at the MUMOK. Danube University, Centre for Image Science – www.donau-uni.ac.at/dbw ADA – Archive of Digital Art – www.digitalartarchive.at PROGRAMM 1:00 Introduction 1:15-2:15 Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christiane PAUL (New School NY, Whitney Museum NY):
From Archives to Collections: Digital Art in/out of Institutions 2:15-3:15 Univ.-Prof. Dr. Lev MANOVICH (City University of New York, CUNY): Archiving and analyzing digital art the scale of big data 3:15-3:45 Break 3:45-4:45 Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sean CUBITT (Department of Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, London): Aesthetics and Anaesthetics: Eudaimonism and Melancholia in the Archive 4:45-5:45 Univ.-Prof. Dr. Oliver GRAU, MAE (Department für Bildwissenschaften, Danube University): Political Iconography of Digital Arts, it's Archive and a Museum Infrastructure for the 21 Century 5:45-6:30 Diskussion 6:30 Wine & Get together Speakers:
Lev Manovich is the author of seven books including Software Takes Command (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), Soft Cinema: Navigating the Database (The MIT Press, 2005), and The Language of New Media (The MIT Press, 2001) which was described as "the most suggestive and broad ranging media history since Marshall McLuhan." Manovich is a Professor at The Graduate Center, CUNY, and a Director of the Software Studies Initiative that works on the analysis and visualization of big visual cultural data. He was included in the list of "25 People Shaping the Future of Design" (2013) and also the list of "50 Most Interesting People Building the Future" (2014). Sean Cubitt is Professor of Film and Television at Goldsmiths, University of London, fellow at the University of Melbourne and honorary professor at the University of Dundee. His publications includeVideography: Video Media as Art and Culture (Palgrave, 1993), Timeshift: On Video Culture (Routledge, 2003), Simulation and Social Theory (SAGE, 2001), The Cinema Effect (MIT Press, 2005), EcoMedia (Rodopi, 2005), Digital Aesthetics (Sage, 2009) und The Practice of Light: A Genealogy of Visual Technology from Prints to Pixels (MIT Press, 2014). He investigates the history and philosophy of visual technology, media art histories, and mediation. Furthermore, he is a well-established speaker, who addresses questions of the interconnectivity of digital archives. Christiane Paul (Whitney Museum, New School, NY) is one of the most influential curators of media art. Since the 1990s, she developed countless exhibitions. Recently she prepared INDAF Digital Art Festival (Inchon, South Korea, 2009), Eduardo Kac: Biotopes (Rio de Janeiro, 2010), Cory Arcangel: Pro Tools (New York, 2011), The Public Private (Kellen Gallery, The New School, 2013) and Scalable Relations (California, 2009). Paul is professor at the New School, NY and leads the ‚Media Studies Graduate Program‘. Digital Art (Thames & Hudson 2003) and Context Providers: Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts (Intellect, 2011) are already classics in the field. Oliver Grau is chair professor of image science at the Danube-University. His book Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (MIT Press, 2003) is the internationally most-quoted publication of contemporary art history. He is editor of Mediale Emotionen (Fischer, 2005), MediaArtHistories (MIT Press, 2007) and Imagery in the 21st Century (MIT Press 2011). Grau is member of the Academia Europaea (MAE), his publications were translated in 14 languages, and he was invited to over 300 lectures and key notes all over the world. His research focuses on the history and theory of media art, immersion and emotions as well as the history, idea, and culture of telepresence and artificial life. Moreover, he is developing the digital humanities (Archive of Digital Art, GSSG online etc.). He developed new international programmes such as, among others, the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree-Programm MediaArtsCultures MA, MediaArtHistories MA, Image Science MA.