Hi everyone Have been on holiday and just read this. Is the show still on? dave
On 4 August 2014 09:07, Marco Donnarumma <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > good to see this discussion going on. My 2cents here. > > To think that largely incorporated entities, such as the Barbican and > Google (Google Creative Lab to be precise), are being ingenuous or ignorant > or naive and thus, that their initiatives won't have a relevant impact > implies a rather distorted viewpoint. > > It's like staring at a man putting a match to a haystack, and think that > nothing bad will happen because the man doesn't know the haystack will be > reduced to hashes. Well, let him do it, you know. > > This is an easy way to discard a much deeper problem which outlines some > seriously worrying links between digital art curation and its relation to > the art establishment and the incorporated lobbies. Links of which most > times, we are either unaware of or worst, not interested in. > > To bring more arguments to the table, the ones below are some other tips > of that monstrous iceberg: > > a) the involvement of Sound and Music in another Google-curated open call > for emerging sound artist happened earlier this year under very dim lights > [1]; note, another intervention in the UK. > > b) the massive cultural hijacking project by Google, which they aptly > termed, "Google Cultural Institute". Which, far from being a mere > digitisation of museums catalogues, is being used as a means to curate > events and open calls which, as for the DevArt, are aimed at inspiring (or > brainwash) **young artists**, as in the case of the collaboration with > Sound and Music above [2]. Young artists does not mean 30-years old > emerging artists. Young artists are student, part-time workers that follow > their passion and dream of being able to live with their art, or maybe > simply being able to express their art. As all of us started. > > c) on a slightly different but related note, the boom of Sedition, an > online platform designed as an appealing app market for well-packaged and > well-known artworks. And I do not mean to take away any of the artistic > value of the works sold there. Despite the fact they just opened doors so > very recently, they had a stand at this year Sonar+D. Just to exemplify the > links already in place. > > Now, all of this shows that Google, the Barbican, Sound and Music, and > many other entities which we are not aware of yet, have *already > established* intimate links to work towards new ways of "curating" (or > perhaps "commodifying" is a more accurate term) digital art, sound art, > music, etc.. > > What we see and discuss today is the result of several months, if not > years of discussion, planning and agreements, both financial and curatorial. > > I don't think there's anything we can do to directly disrupt those links, > given the scary results they have led to so far, but what one must do is to > become aware that this is not a game of capricious millionaires. > > Google is one of the reachest capital holder in the world, a corporation > who owns and develops the best machine learning techniques, who bought the > best 6 companies in humanoid robotics, who works with US military defense > developing technologies for them, etc. etc. > > Stating the obvious here, but sometimes it does not hurt. > > If they are investing so much in digital art it is fair to think this is > not a caprice but a well-thought and far-reaching business plan. As any of > their other businesses. > > How do we claim our position in their business plan? Is that what we want? > > Or perhaps, can we work towards alternative programs? and how? > > the comparison with art patronage across the centuries does not work in > this case, it's just more smoke in the eyes. Renaissance art patrons > didn't have a database of all your documents, pictures, chats, videos, > calendar and locations. > > wishing you very well, > M > > > [1] > http://soundandmusic.org/projects/google-cultural-institute-new-voices-curator > > [2] > https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/exhibit/new-voices-in-contemporary-british-music/QRFBBGkM?hl=en-GB > > > -- > Marco Donnarumma > Performer, body tinkerer, teacher and writer. > #soundandmusic #biotech #freeculture > EAVI - Goldsmiths, University of London > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Portfolio: http://marcodonnarumma.com > Research: http://res.marcodonnarumma.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >
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