Art Panels

Local Concerns - Global Art

9 - 10:45 am
Monday, 6 August
Room 30 A

Digital art is native to a global forum. Its immaterial methods of production and distribution are comparable with those behind economic globalization. What occurs when sensibilities are prompted by the particularities of local conditions? Do these ideas fall victim to some of the same forces that critics of globalization bemoan, such as homogenization of culture in the service of a hegemonic aesthetic status quo? Or does the work gain insight from a broad discourse of artistic sensibility? In this panel, several artists present work that grows out of particular aesthetic, political, and conceptual conditions connected to issues of concern in the artworld at large.

Organizer
Sheldon Brown
University of California, San Diego
sgbrown (at) ucsd.edu

Panelists
Sheldon Brown
Professor of Visual Arts
University of California, San Diego

Ricardo Dominquez
Assistant Professor of Visual Arts
University of California, San Diego

Alex Dragulescu
Manager, Experimental Game Lab
University of California, San Diego

Shahrokh Yadegari
Assistant Professor of Theater and Dance
University of California, San Diego

Alternative Networks

11 am - 1 pm
Monday, 6 August
Room 30 A

Despite Thomas Friedman's contention in The World is Flat that digital technologies have equalized or "flattened" differences in the world, the members of this panel are convinced that many variations and disparities remain to be described and analyzed. Networks and infrastructures are certainly not the same all over the world. They are amalgams of old and new systems, relics of various stages of capitalism and/or socialism, they involve both bodies and machines, and they have different histories and uses. They are embedded in different patches of earth, operate at various scales and speeds, and serve different populations.

This panel features presentations by artists and scholars who work on the visualization of networks and infrastructures in different parts of the world. They explore the social, cultural, and economic effects of network technologies, the visualization of different systems, and the tactical appropriation of them by disenfranchised groups. The goal of the session is to provoke discussion of the variations and differences within categories such as "network" and "infrastructure," and to develop new modes of aesthetic and critical engagement with them.

Organizer
Lisa Parks
Department of Film and Media Studies
University of California, Santa Barbara
parks (at) filmandmedia.ucsb.edu

Panelists
Lisa Jevbratt
Department of Art
University of California, Santa Barbara

Rita Raley
Department of English
University of California, Santa Barbara

Warren Sack
Department of Film and Digital Media
University of California, Santa Cruz

Cristina Venegas
Department of Film and Media Studies
University of California, Santa Barbara

Lisa Parks
Department of Film and Media Studies
University of California, Santa Barbara

Chinese Media Art Preview

3:30 - 5:15 pm
Monday, 6 August
Room 30 A

Chinese economic and institutional reforms have helped create a new media art scene in China that is accomplished and capable of international recognition. This panel focuses on significant historical predecessors of media art since the 1990s and the extensive development of media art in China since 2000. In addition, topics such as cultural and social issues, art form changes, media art education, and technological advancements involved with Chinese modern media art creation are addressed. Finally, Chinese media artists in the US are highlighted and compared to media artists in China.

Organizer
LiQin Tan
Rutgers University

Panelists
Weihua Gao
Communication University of China

LiQin Tan
Rutgers University

Robert Wang
Peking University

The World Has Changed: The Leonardo Network After 40 Years

The Leonardo network was founded 40 years ago in Paris. In these two panels, members of the Leonardo Education Forum discuss the work of artists who are addressing environmental issues, how the art-science-technology landscape has evolved over 40 years, and new initiatives such as the YASMIN Mediterranean Region Network.

Organizer
Roger Malina
Leonardo/ISAST, Leonardo Education Forum

ISAST I: The Planet Has Changed: Art, Environment, and Sustainable Development

9 - 10:45 am
Tuesday, 7 August
Room 30 A

Human societies face a number of important issues related to the problems of sustainable development, environmental change, and climate change. Many artists have been involved in these issues over the last decades within the environmental and green movements. A new generation of artists, scientifically and technically literate, is engaging in new ways. The new planetary information-technology infrastructures and new-media technologies provide different approaches than were possible 40 years ago.

Moderator
Sheila Pinkel
Pomona College

Panelists
Roger Malina
Leonardo, The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology

Sheila Pinkel
Pomona College

Mike Phillips
University of Plymouth

ISAST II: Artists Have Changed: Art, Science, Technology Interaction

11 am - 12:45 pm
Tuesday, 7 August
Room 30 A

When Leonardo was founded 40 years ago, the theoretical context was the "two cultures" debate of C.P.Snow. Few artists were trained in science or engineering contexts, and access to new technologies drove a number of initiatives such as the E.A.T. programs and the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, and new venues such as the SIGGRAPH Art Gallery, Ars Electronica, and ZKM. A new generation of artists, born digital and scientifically literate, is now radically altering the way these issues will be addressed in the future. This panel provides a 40-year perspective on how the work of artists and institutions has evolved, new trends, and future directions.

Moderator
Michael Naimark
University of Southern California

Panelists
Roger Malina
Leonardo, The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology

Stephen Wilson
San Francisco State University

Eddie Shanken
Savannah College of Art and Design

Anna Ursyn
University of Northern Colorado

Michael Naimark
University of Southern California

Database Documentaries and Global Knowledge Production: Transnational City Symphonies, Interactive Science, and Constructivist Courseware on Russian Modernism From The Labyrinth Project

3:30 - 5:15 pm
Tuesday, 7 August
Room 30 A

Theory and practice in database documentaries from USC's Labyrinth Project: Tracing the Decay of Fiction, a transnational city symphony; Einstein in California, a contradictory portrait; and Russian Modernism, constructivist courseware.

Moderator
Marsha Kinder
Director of The Labyrinth Project and Professor of Critical Studies, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California

Panelists
Rosemary Comella Creative Director, The Labyrinth Project, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California

Kristy H.A. Kang
Creative Director, The Labyrinth Project and Adjunct in the Division of Animation & Digital Arts, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California

Scott Mahoy
Creative Director, The Labyrinth Project, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California

Indigenous People and Digital Media

1 - 2:45 pm
Wednesday, 8 August
Room 30 A

An exploration of the role of digital media-making in indigenous communities: its uses, forms, issues, and intentions. Representing several unique and varied cultural groups from across the globe, these esteemed aboriginal filmmakers, photographers, and multimedia artists discuss how contemporary technologies allow them to simultaneously work with their respective cultural and ancestral iconographies while creating new ones and how issues of identity, sexuality, cultural/political sovereignty, and land are played out through their art, not only in their respective post-colonial contexts, but also in this era of intense globalization.

Organizer
Cedar Sherbert
Artist and Filmmaker
Santa Ysabel Band, Kumeyaay Nation
iipay (at) hotmail.com

Panelists
r e a
Artist
New South Wales, Australia

Anthony Deiter
Artist
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

Cedar Sherbert
Artist and Filmmaker
Santa Ysabel Band, Kumeyaay Nation

Yolanda Cruz
Filmmaker
Director, Petate Productions
Los Angeles, California, USA
Oaxaca, México

Global Environment and Digital Media

11:15 am - 1 pm
Thursday, 9 August
Room 30 A

This panel of experts in interactive art, visualization, and socially responsible media explores the use of graphical and interactive technology for art relating to global environmental issues.

Organizer and Moderator
Bill Tomlinson
University of California, Irvine
wmt (at) uci.edu

Panelists
William Brent
University of California, San Diego

Heitor Capuzzo
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Natalie Jeremijenko
University of California, San Diego

Michael Moshell
University of Central Florida

Vibeke Sorensen
University at Buffalo

Shahrokh Yadegari
University of California, San Diego