"New Imagery" Participants

ABSTRACT
Digital Aesthetics Now and Tomorrow Over the past five decades there have been significant developments in the form and context of digital artworks, from the early Internet to the WWW and social media platforms; from the data abstractions of cyberspace to converging realities (hybrid, mixed, and augmented) and an Internet of Things. At the same time these different forms and expressions have been addressing some continuously reemerging themes, from identity and embodiment to socio-political constructs, among others. The presentation will explore the taxonomies and histories of digital art as they define and reflect aesthetics; the obstacles that the aesthetics of the digital have posed to the reception of the art; and the changes that the aesthetics of the digital have brought about in the traditional art world. By taking a critical look at over-hyped phenomena such as the much-discussed “New Aesthetics” (and tracing its historical lineages) and discussing the tension between a need for media-specificity and “post-media” conditions, the talk will raise questions of how we can define digital aesthetics in all their complexities today.

BIO

School of Media StudiesChristiane Paul is Associate Prof. at the , The New School, and Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts at the Whitney
Museum of American Art. She has written extensively on new media arts and lectured internationally on art and technology. Her recent books are Context Providers – Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts (Intellect, 2011; Chinese edition, Beijing Beepub Media & Culture Publishing Co., 2012), co-edited with Margot Lovejoy and Victoria Vesna; New Media in the White Cube and Beyond (UC Press, 2008); and Digital Art (Thames and Hudson 2003; expanded new edition 2008). As Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art, she curated several exhibitions—including Cory Arcangel: Pro Tools, Profiling (2007), Data Dynamics (2001) and the net art selection for the 2002 Whitney Biennial—as well as artport, the Whitney Museum’s website devoted to Internet art. Other recent curatorial work includes The Public Private (Kellen Gallery, The New School, Feb. 7 – April 17, 2013), Eduardo Kac: Biotopes, Lagoglyphs and Transgenic Works (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2010); Biennale Quadrilaterale (Rijeka, Croatia, 2009-10); and Feedforward – The Angel of History (co-curated with Steve Dietz; LABoral Art Center, Gijon, Spain, Oct. 2009).