MEDIA ART HISTORIES 2013:

RENEW 2013

The 5th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology

Riga / October 8 – 11, 2013

"Archaelogy" Participants

Gabriel VANEGAS

Back to the Future in a Place Called America

Session:Media Archeology

Panel:Presentation Session (5min-short presentations)

Time:17.00-18.00

Venue:Stockholm School of Economics in Riga

ABSTRACT
Our media and current technologies are the result of a global form established by Western thought. This thought, as in many parts of the world was imposed particularly in The New Spain in the discovery by Christoph Columbus in the late 16th century. Before the European contact, pre-America had a different way of thinking to the West and therefore a different development and understanding of concepts such as media, technology, time, body and space. On one hand the official history shows a pre-Columbian poor picture in technological developments, but on the other hand archaeological discoveries demonstrate an illuminated past with a more sustainable and different form of “hight technology.” To get closer to this form, we have to consider the worldview of pre-Columbian cultures as the central matrix for their technological developments. The aim of this research is to extend the pre-Columbian understanding so that we could approach archaeological discoveries and access to alternative forms of knowledge to expand Western boundaries.

BIO
His research in the areas of American history, media sociology, relational aesthetics have
influenced his creative production, exhibiting, coordinating and publishing internationally in
festivals, exhibitions, symposiums and forums.
In 2004 founds the magazine El Niuton, one of the first publications in Latin America that
explores the relations art, science and technology. 2011 founds Botaniq, a platform for
conservation and archive of contemporary art.
Nowadays he is doing a D. Phil fellowship at the Institute of Time-based Media at the Berlin
University of the Arts with Professor Siegfried Zielinski, working in the area of media sociology
in the pre-Columbian America.

Renew programme

MAH website

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RIXC

RIXC Centre of New Media Art

Maskavas street 10, Riga, LV-1050, Latvia
E-mail:
Ph. +371 67228478, +371 26546776 (Rasa Smite)

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