Hi Peeps!
I did go to the Barbican to see the Digital Revolution exhibition. I'm
now annoyed that I did not explore the Hack the Artworld show while I
was there. The work in the physical exhibition was absorbing, I didn't
have the presence of mind or a "personal device" to comfortably seek out
and explore the squatter exhibition.
The Digital Revolution exhibition is excellent for what it is. I heard
and saw people enjoying themselves.
It presents a continuum of "things" as landmark developments in digital
technology culture. From a popular archeology of games and net art, to a
theme-park of immersive interactive works designed to engage the child
in us all. It's popular! Good! But it ain't no kind of revolution!
Many of the interactive works are wonderfully alluring and playful.
However, the exhibition isolates this set of practices from their
cultural, social and philosophical roots, and excludes work with any
political or activist content (of which there is A LOT!- there's been a
lot going on politically these last 30-40 years and people have been
making art about it).
My instinct tells me that I might have gained more satisfaction from an
engagement with artworks in the hack art platform but unfortunately I
can't see it without going back to the Barbican. And this is frustrating.
I had a dig through a list of links posted on the Hack the Artworld
forum here http://hacktheartworld.com/discus.html
There's lots to productively discuss.
But I haven't yet found a review of any of the art on the Hack the
Artworld exhibition.
Shardcore, perhaps you can help out with this. Even a list of works or a
little taster of images and a description to whet our appetites. What is
rationale of this collection?
Finally, and to pick up on Rob's comment.
I think that Adam Harvey is attempting to defend the blending of
commercial and fine art contexts in DevArt when he says "There is no
inherent difference of artistic value between art that is made for
advertising and art that is not made for advertising." I think that this
is like saying that there is no inherent difference of political value
between politicians whose influence is bought by lobbyists and those
whose are not? I'm not saying that an artist can't work in advertising,
but I don't think that it's interesting or valuable to scrap the
distinction between work that is set to achieve a singular commercial
outcome and work that sets out to generate other forms of exchange and
social relations.
From a London/UK perspective we are currently seeing a massive
centralising of public resources and media attention for art and
technology, around Digital Revolution, The Space and Google DevArt.
We need an equally massive horizontal mobilization of forces... to
reclaim and expand the space and resources for more diverse,
emancipatory production, encounters and engagement by more people.
: )
Ruth
On 01/08/2014 20:04, Rob Myers wrote:
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On 01/08/14 02:32 AM, shardcore wrote:
Some of it's good, but there's a hell of a lot that feels like
'tech demos'
To the extent that a "tech demo" doesn't illustrate Theory that's
good, but to the extent that it really is just marketing that's bad.
There's lots of art that is just demos really, whether of tube paint,
railway timetables, acrylic resin or large format printers. What's
curious is that digital art is more visible as / conceptualised as this.
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