Guest: Zhao Qianfan
Date: 2014-08-31 14:00 ~ 2014-08-31 16:00
Address: Chronus Art Center (Room101, Bldg18, NO.50 Moganshan Rd, Shanghai)
LIVE INFO MAPPING: Li Zhenhua, Hu Jieming, Hu Weiyi, aaajiao (Xu Wenkai), Wu Juehui, Yuan Keru (in no particular order)
LANGUAGE:Chinese
a New Series of Lectures on Art at Chronus Art Center——Lecture 2: Rethinking the Problem of Distraction
Reservations via membership@chronusartcenter.org (please supply your full name, contact information, and the number of people attending)
ABOUT THE LECTURE:
‘Distraction’ was a concept developed by German cultural philosophers in the early 20th century (Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin). In this lecture ‘distraction’ will be re-examined against the new developments of digital media and the internet. In relation to this a set of themes will be investigated, such as the transformation of the human apparatus of perception, the technological innervation of the bodily collective, and media space as play space.
Another highlight of this event is the 'Live Info Mapping', which will take place simultaneously with the talk. This will change the traditional binary relations within a talk – that of speaker/audience, and speaking/listening. The things which appear on the screen become divorced from the speaker. Instead, they are controlled and transmitted by a group of media artists, including Li Zhenhua, Hu Weiyi, Hu Jieming, Wu Juehui, aaajiao, Yuan Keru, etc. In this way a 'distractive' environment is established.
ABOUT THE SERIES OF LECTURES:
On the Borders of New Media Art: Creation, Spectatorship, Presentation, and Collection
New media art is generating a new sociality and reaching beyond our contemporary understandings of artistic theory and basic approaches, indicating ways to interpose into reality and history, providing a more general attitude towards political intervention, suggesting the total reform of the traditional art museum, creating different modes of observation, and so on. A great number of practices encourage us to reflect on methodology and epistemology. However, the arrival of a new mode of creation and exhibition is truly pushing us to face and summarize it in theory and practice.
Through a series of discussions, art theorists, philosophers, new media artists, and associated professionals engaged in the exhibition of new media art will be invited to launch a train of discussions addressing the core concepts of new media theoretical research, including distraction, consumption, contribution, solo, chat & curiosity, gossip & imitation, new comics, the re-criticism of Internet values, resistance & surveillance, the technological subconscious of semi-group, the fan economy, etc. In the lectures and discussions we are trying to explore and generalize some underlying prerequisites of theory and the principles of practice in new media artworks and their exhibition.
ABOUT SPEAKER:
Zhao Qianfan (1977–), Associate Professor in Philosophy, Tongji University, 2008–2009, German Chancellor Scholar of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, in Philosophical Seminar, Hamburg University. 2013–2014, Visiting Scholar in Institute for Philosophy, Humboldt University in Berlin. Research fields: Frankfurt School (especially Adorno and Benjamin), Nietzsche, Mimesis theory.
ABOUT LIFE INFO MAPPING ARTISTS:
Li Zhenhua, hasbeen active in the artistic field since 1996, his practice mainly concerning curation, art creation and project management. Since 2010 he has been the nominator for the Summer Academy at the Zentrum Paul Klee Bern (CH), as well as for The Prix Pictet (CH).
Hu Jieming, was born in 1957 in Shanghai. He is one of the pioneers of digital media and video installation art in today's China. For more than two decades, Hu continuously conducts creation and experimentation via a variety of media including photography, video and digital interactive technologies. His works are widely exhibited.
Hu Weiyi (b. 1990, Shanghai) is a young Artist work and live in Shanghai, now continuing his studies as a graduate student of Zhang Peili at the Media Department of the China Academy of Art, after having graduated from the Department of Public Art at the China Academy of Art in 2012.
WU Juehui, Media Artist, Teaching at School of Intermedia Art, China Academy of Art, Art Director of UFO Media Lab, Recipient of TASML | Carroll Fletcher Residency Award @Eyebeam.
Aaajiao (XU Wenkai) was born in 1984 in Xi’an, and later moved to Shanghai, where he continues to live and work. Aaajiao is one of China’s foremost media artists, bloggers and free culture developers.
Yuan Keru, Artist, 1990 Born in Hangzhou Province, China, 2009 BFA, School of Inter-media Art, China Academy of Art , 2011 Experimental Image Studio, China Academy of Art, 2013 MFA, Experimental Image Studio.
ABOUT PLANNER OF THE LECTURE SERIES:
Lu Xinghua, teaches at School of Humanities of Tongji University and at the Center of Social Thought and Contemporary Art, China Academy of Art. His research interests go across modern Chinese politics, aesthetics and Chinese contemporary art since 1985. He was member of acting committee for 2010 Shanghai Biennale. His recent works include Against Claims from Contemporary Art (2012) and The Future of Political Art (2014).
