[NetBehaviour] EXPANDING THE FIELD. Or, 8 good reasons to talk about new media (in an art fair).

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EXPANDING THE FIELD. Or, 8 good reasons to talk about new media (in an 
art fair).

Posted by Domenico Quaranta, on netbehaviour a few days ago...

EXPANDING THE FIELD. Or, 8 good reasons to talk about new media (in an 
art fair)

Director: Domenico Quaranta
Lecturers: UBERMORGEN.COM, Marius Watz, Trevor Paglen, Oron Catts, 
Auriea Harvey & Michael Samyn, Paul D. Miller / DJ Spooky
ARCO Art Fair, Forum Auditorium 2, Hall 6.
February 18, 2010, from 12.30 to 2.30 p.m. and from 4 to 8 p.m.

Download the complete program: 
http://domenicoquaranta.com/public/pdf/ARCO2010_seminar.pdf

Something is happening in the field of art. Postmodernism seems to have 
been replaced, but nobody is really able to say by what. Art critics 
such as Nicolas Bourriaud and Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev explained this 
change looking backwards to Modernism, but Modernism itself is many 
things, and it’s still not clear if this new modern, or Altermodern, is 
rooted in a new utopianism, as argued by Christov-Bakargiev, or in 
creolisation, globalisation and travelling, as suggested by Bourriaud.

What is clear to both is that new technologies, in the broader meaning 
of the term, are having a central role in this change. Starting from 
here, and appropriating Ippolito and Blais’ idea that the change will 
come from artists operating “at the edge of art” – Expanding the Field 
will involve artists and researchers that address, with different 
approaches, various new technologies – from the Internet to videogames 
and biotechnology – and issues and practices of the digital culture, 
from media hacking to data mining and surveillance. Some of them 
developed groundbreaking tools now used worldwide by artists operating 
in different fields; others – such as Tale of Tales – dropped out from 
the traditional art world in order to bring their idea of art to a 
different, possibly wider audience. Some feel more comfortable in labs 
than in museums, and most of them are strongly connected to online 
communities. Along the panel, they will be invited to introd