How do we produce, disseminate, and exchange images? How does the Internet challenge art conventions?
This seminar is focused on the troubled relation between contemporary art and the Internet.
We will analyze dozens of artworks from the mid Nineties to today and stimulate group discussion around the latest critical issues in contemporary art and media theory. Special attention will be given to how the Internet is reshaping art: its production, distribution and how we experience it. Versions, dispersion and collaboration versus originality, uniqueness, and authorship in art are crucial elements for class discussion. We will examine works by artists who use digital media to produce art or, inversely, use conventional media to explore the digitized condition of contemporary life.
Topics to discuss in class include: post production, Net Art, Surf Clubs, Post Internet, branding vs. invisibility, meme-making, Internet ugly, images circulation, crowdsourcing, performing on the Internet, the Darknet, data mining, surveillance, anonymity, the nothing, the horror.
Each class includes a group conversation based on readings and presentation of case studies (images, videos and websites). Readings will be given after each class to be discussed the following week.
A core element of this seminar are guest speakers. They include artists, curators and critical thinkers who will come to the class to present their work. We expect you to actively participate in these informal conversations. In general, we encourage wild speculation, a suspicious attitude towards anything presented in class and thoughts sharing. Among past guest speakers are:
Artie Vierkant
Rafael Rozendaal
Amalia Ulman
BHQFU Sean Patrick Carney
Brad Troemel
David Horvitz
Kari Altmann
Paolo Cirio
Travess Smalley
During the semester we will give assignments in the form of creative projects that may include: deep web diving, social media raid, meme-making, imagining a new porn genre and inventing exhibition formats. These exercises can be carried out individually or collaboratively and the results will be presented in class. Whether your ideas were original, stolen, appropriated or reinterpreted, you must be ready to defend your practice.
These exercises represent hands on experiences to better understand practical aspects of the topics discussed in class and may develop into future artworks.
At times we will organize field trips to exhibitions:
MoMA
Whitney Museum
Case studies will include 4chan, Cory Arcangel, Natalie Bookchin, Maurizio Cattelan, DIS Magazine, Simon Denny, Constant Dullaart, Etoy, Harun Farocki, GCC, David Horvitz, Internet Surf Clubs, Jodi, Jogging, Oliver Laric, Olia Lialina, Jill Magid, Christian Marclay, Metahaven, Trevor Paglen, Philippe Parreno and Pierre Huyghe, Frances Stark, Ryan Trecartin, Amalia Ulman, Artie Vierkant, VVORK. You are welcome to start familiarizing with their work:
Texts by writers such as Walter Benjamin, John Berger, Jesse Darling, Nick Douglas, Brian Droitcour, Kenneth Goldsmith, Boris Groys, Seth Price, Hito Steyerl, Brad Troemel and An Xiao Mina will be explored and discussed.
The aim of the seminar is to expose you to a variety of relevant artistic practices and critical issues with special emphasis on how the Internet is challenging art conventions. We aim at helping you refining your artistic practice through class discussion, assignments and field trips and at the same time developing a critical personal position in relation to the art practices analyzed in the course.
You are expected to attend scheduled classes and field trips (on time!). To actively participate in the class discussions it’s important to complete suggested readings. Final grades will be based on class participation.
Eva & Franco Mattes ;-)