Post Digital : Computer Art Congress 3 : Recap

Okay! Ye$$$!!!!¡¡¡¡

bare with me - i'm just now back to central PA from abroad and my mind is racing. the last week has been an amazing experience : new countries, new peoples, new arts, new ideas : not 'new' entirely, but 'new' for me = double good times.

I'm going to post a little recap, but it will likely be dreadfully incomplete = too many things and too little spaces and captures to be conclusive.

Computer Art Congress 3 : Post Digital

check the website (i missed the group photo on a private tour around paris)

First of all, I was flattered to be included in this international event... and to have two inclusions made it that much more important to me. First, I displayed 'gridSol_altar1' and 2nd the paper I wrote with GOTO80 was published and I presented the text. These things sparked great conversations and I was pleased to be IRL in the environment of the congress. A general common thread I found within the proceedings could be summed up in questions regarding 'digital archiving' - i.e. should we archive? how should we archive? who selects/catalogs/organizes/controls archive? is it necessary? - which all, in a sense, point back to something i'm increasingly interested in: history/future of works/communities online: fundamentally, things come and go - sites move, change, go down, are reinvented, not updated, etc - all of which effect how/who can view/use our works. It is a large ball of wax, i think, and is sometimes good to see it play out although its quite messy. it would be naive to think I could present the tip of the iceberg here, so i'd rather share some photos and a few notes.

I'm deeply indebted to the generosity and accommodating spirit of the congress organizers: Khaldoun ZREIK and Robin Gareus

Our paper 'Future Potentials for ASCII art' in the published conference proceedings. We will be releasing it online fairly soon : stay tuned in

[me] presenting our paper on the first day of the conference!!!!! it was amazing and humorous to me to show giant ascii art on a jumbo sized screen in public. i guess its not so funny though since i'm interested in this topic and so present what i like to think about and consider this way makes sense.

the group N O R M A L S present their thoughts - i may have forgotten some of what they discussed, but I was enthralled with the idea of a speculative design process ( think speculative fiction or SF more generally ) and the presentation aesthetic was also quite interesting. Good conversation!

not pictured: U-RSS presented some ideas about the life of online works. A project of theirs that relied on api and streams from other online sources fell out of development, causing the work to die. they resolve to let the work die, to give it a burial, and not to emulate or recreate. i very much like this idea... if it has been documented in some form, then it doesn't go away completely. But perhaps it is good to allow ones own work to have a finish point - where it stops being available as it was originally created, almost like the photograph of a someone who has passed on into another life.

not pictured: everardo reyes-garcia presented some methods for disrupting 3D models/design. this was a really great work to see - its in a boundary with glitch aesthetics in that he has taken 3D forms and developed ways to manipulate the data into something else. The models explode/expand beyond their intended appearance - the information is the same, its processed and presented in a new/different form. also, i thought, because the work requires him to develop ways to move information or transcode it to be a model he can manipulate it - it may be interesting to try other ways i.e. interactive/kinetic/physical... woo hoo

The final forum/panel was a great chance to open up the common threadz discussionz. it was a really nice way to pull everything together - and rather than attempt to resolve - to open up the conversation and allow it to carry on.

performances

AnAhAtA - performed in the second evening of the events using custom physical controls. the sound moved back and forth - atmospheric, sometimes beat driven, evolving compositions : interesting to watch.

angel faraldo - this was perhaps my favorite performance, although somewhat impossible to describe adequately or photograph. It was a feedback based work, generated within the lecture/performance hall... very experience based, but demonstrating the control/uncontrol that i've come to love (this to me also relates to glitch aesthetics).

VehF - this was a livecoding performance to close the conference also. i know only a little about this sort of stuff, but as you could probably guess - i want to know more. if anyone out there wants to help me get started - i have some ideas re: feedback/ascii art/live that i want to do

exhibitions

the art exhibitions were in two atelliers close by the lecture hall. I only got a few photos. I'd like to describe and talk about everything... but instead I'll just mention a few things. Some great sound installations - can't really 'show' them to you since they, like performances, are meant to be experienced and can't be photographed per se. interactive and game works also fall in this end of the spectrum if you ask me - a momentary image doesn't capture what it is. these artists included: Paul Magee, Fred Périé, Can Henne, Kerry Hagan, Lyndal Hansby, and Lindsay Grace - these weren't the only artists involved, but the ones whose work I felt most drawn to and who I was able to talk to quite extensively.

Finally, I did get some time to visit the city as well. I went exploring with a friend (Agathé André ) but I'll share those photos another time. I can't stress enough, how interesting this experience was. thanks again, to everyone involved. CAC4 will be in Brazil I think in 2014, maybe I will see you there???? in the meantime, I have to get my presentation ready for GLI.TC/H !_!_!__!_!¡1¡1111¡¡¡¡¡111!!!!!!!!

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Commentary on Foundations Education

Okay. I try not to post commentary here because I prefer to keep this area as a medium for drawing. But lately I've had to post a few more words and a few less text-based images. I can't help myself this time because I'm on my way back from a conference that was both good and troubling.

MOstly it was good except for this guy who talked at two back to back panels about the same thing with horrible slide presentations running behind him. I actually got his book in the mail at my department without asking a few years ago and didn't realize it was the same person until he started talking.

What was troubling was that he presented an argument that I think is old and boring and I really couldn't believe that people were still arguing about it. Aside from all the inside jokes and jabs at other universities/instructors/artists, what I gathered from his talk(S) was that digital media is dangerous for first year students.

Brian Curtis' second panel was hand picked because he was the organizer and also presented so we got to her this theme over and over again. NOt to mention this other guy who thinks used a juggling analogy unti I almost puked.

Basically, they think that the computer or software run on computers makes art, not the people working with those things. I think they don't get it that software and digital media are just another media and you have to teach people how to use it, how it works, and why it does what it does so that they can understand it too. Ofcourse you can always use defaults and cheats, but those aren't what is progressive about digital media. What's progressive about digital media is understanding how/why they work or don't work and teaching how to use them as a tool for the creation of content. Only jerks think that the computer does all the work. It does some of the work, just like paint, just like charcoal but the rest of it comes from inside the programmer/artist.

I think it bothered me the most because there are still people that think that using a computer means you turn your brain off and are passive. That it doesn't take any physical memory at all and that you don't have to do anything. Sure at the Foundations level students have only used computers for limited interaction. That doesn't mean they shouldn't learn how to use the tool properly. YOu just have to take the time to engage them with that tool in a way that opens it up. For example, most students don't draw much before art school... maybe they drew cartoons or whatever they were interested in but we still should teach them what drawing is and how it works. I guess I just don't see any difference between how you teach/learn different media.

Oh, and someone on that panel said that art shouldn't have any meaning and that it should only be entertainment.
WTF?
jerks
Whatever, they were out palling around while I talked about how to incorporate traditional drawing methods with digital media practice in a way that doesn't compromise either of them.

_______end rant________
goto: startstop

In Portland

Got in to Portland late last night.
Here is what it looks like where I'm staying:

Went for a hike at Tryon State Park which is only about 1 minute from my accomodations.

A little later I'll be at the Foundations in Art: Theory and Education conference downtown in Portland.

Its a short break from grid related activities, but well worth it!