Rewire Conference Paper on Furtherfield
Ah, I am back in England (and already eating less 😉 to talk at Rewire, the Fourth International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology. My first encounter with this conference was back in its Refresh! incarnation when it was held at the Banff New Media Institute. This time it hits lovely Liverpool, hosted by FACT and the Art and Design Academy at Liverpool John Moores University. It has an amazing line up – honestly I’m barely over the brain-food that was ISEA2011, I really don’t have room to cram more thought-stuffs in!
Anyway, I should say that I’m talking on Thursday 29th in an afternoon session on media labs. Here’s my paper abstract:
Furtherfield, Seeing and Doing
This paper will look at how the socially transformative artworks of New Media arts community and platform, Furtherfield, can be understood and historicised using Gregory Sholette’s concept of art world ‘dark matter’. It will illustrate, through three of their projects (DIWO, Zero Dollar Laptop, Visitor’s Studio), how Furtherfield’s work can be described as ‘dark matter’ in that it is both embedded in established art world traditions and yet somehow generally invisible when viewed from traditional art historical vantage points. However, the discussion will be nuanced towards emphasising this type of work’s unseeableness, which occurs as by-product of its performative elements. It will be argued, therefore, that this artistic practice not only moves away from the production of objects or visuals – focusing instead on technologies, networks and social engagement – but, via an enacted element, towards other sense-making systems. It will find that despite being a useful way of shedding light on work generally over-shadowed by more traditional practice, Sholette’s focus on art as either seen or not conforms precisely the type of art historical discourse that fails to fully confront work characterised instead by being somehow done or not done.
Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about my long-time muse, Furtherfield!
I’ll also be representing Arts Future Book, so if you have an idea for a book you’d like to publish with us, do seek me out and ply me with tea, I’ll be all ears!