This week has been crazy. My apologies for not wrapping up our discussion but on this unusually quiet morning I will attempt the task. The last several posts especially the one from Johannes prompted me to reread again the entire month's archive this morning. See
https://lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/ with many thanks to COFA. -empyre soft-skinned space uses a list-serve format. It is a non-hierarchical space that invites practitioners and theoreticians, artists and programmers, to come together to discuss various issues each month. Whether our over 1200 subscribers are actively participating or lurking all of our monthly discussions are archived and have been for the past ten years. For many the list-serve is a construction of the past but in our discussions with Melinda Rackham who began -empyre close to ten years ago and other moderators the ebb and flow of the system is what makes it so distinctive and still currently viable as a venue for our purposes. Over the past few years Tim Murray and I as well as many of our moderators have been working hard to entice a more diverse, global group of participants and have done so by introducing discussions that would invite new interests and points of view especially those in which we do not ordinarily hear from. This past month of all of our invitees only two were already subscribers. I also felt that it was the right time for a more practically applied discussion. So for me this month's discussion opened up a wealth of threads, perspectives, new artists/designers, and interesting links to not only practical issues but also theoretical references from Turkle to Kozel, Heidegger to Bourdieu, to new theoreticians that I had never heard, V. Dureschu and L. Neri Belkaid from Geneva. This is the nature of a list-serve where threads are introduced and articulated and others are left to float. This venue is unlike the crafted conference presentation or the edited published paper, as it is one that invites discussion in real time about issues that are emerging. It is a research platform, a receptacle, a place to return to perhaps in the future for ideas and information. I am so thankful to our guests this month *Janis Jefferies* (UK), *Valérie Lamontagne* (CA), *Ashley Ferro-Murray* (US), *Sabine Seymour* (US), *Susan Elizabeth Ryan* (US), *Danielle Wilde* (AU/FR), *Sarah Kettley (UK), Lucy Dunne* (*US). * Our early discussions of performance and spectacle to materiality that both Janis and Valerie introduced were followed by Ashley's contributions about choreography and sensor technology in her piece Noisense. Sabine's introduction to us of her seminal book *Functional Aesthetics* was appreciated. In her post she extended the definition of technology broadly including biotechnology to nano, digital, and textile technology. At mid-month Susan discussed wearable technologies and the social dimension and reminded us of Susan Kozel's writing. And finally this last week, Danielle asked us to think about and contextualize what we mean by wearable siting her work with performance tools and finishing with her interests in speculative design. Sarah pointed us back to previous discussions about wearables dispersed in the everyday vs. those in spectacle and performance and the social dimension of wearable technology. Lastly, Lucy brought up issues of security and privacy in particular those of personal data and the control of inner states. Thanks to Johannes Barringer for playing such an active role in our discussion this month as well. He shared valuable insights about the posts and information about his own work and perspectives from the point of view of performance studies. David Heckman and Melinda Rackham mentioned how interesting it might be to continue this venue in Istanbul at ISEA. It looks like Tim Murray, Simon Biggs, Patrick Lichty and myself will all be at ISEA. Looks like Melinda and David will also be there and perhaps others of you? We will be hosting our discussion in September influenced by the conferences events and will keep all of you posted on that later this summer. Perhaps we can organize an -empyre get-together during the conference for those of you attending. For now though, Tim Murray and I will be jointly hosting a discussion to commemorate the opening of the 54th Venice Biennale and other biennales happening throughout 2011, "Biennales Plus and Minus" in considering global interfaces, digital environments, and contemporary arts. If there are any subscribers who would like to be featured as special guests for this discussion please contact Tim or Renate via -empyre as soon as possible. Simon Biggs will be hosting our July discussion and then in August -empyre soft-skinned space will take a break for the month to re-open in Istanbul at the 2011 ISEA in September. More information about those discussions a little later this summer. Thanks to all of you again. Renate Ferro > Tim Murray and Renate Ferro, -empyre soft-skinned Moderators > empyre forum <emp...@gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au> -- Renate Ferro Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Cornell University Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office #420 Ithaca, NY 14853 Email: <r...@cornell.edu> URL: http://www.renateferro.net http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net Lab: http://www.tinkerfactory.net Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre Art Editor, diacritics http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dia/
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