Leonardo Art, Science and Technology Lecture Series 2016
FROM SENSORS TO SENSATION: The “Sensory Turn” in Contemporary Art
Leturer: Chris Salter
Time: 2016.07.09 15:00-17:00
Venue: Chronus Art Center (Building 18, No 50 Moganshan Road, Shanghai)
Language: English with Chinese translation
Organizer: Chronus Art Center, CAFA, CAFA School of Experimental Art, Leonardo/ISAST
About The Lecture
While the role of new technologies has often been downplayed in many art historical accounts of sensory environments in the visual arts, there has been a long set of historical precedents within modernism and postmodernism focused on how new technical means expand the sensorium through aesthetic strategies – for example, the interest in synaesthesia from artists in the early 20th century. More recently, however, the visual, performing and now media or digital arts have been quick to capitalize on the so-called “sensory turn” by focusing on the interaction between the sensing subject and an ever increasingly “sensory aware” environment; a shift that involves not only new technologies but also new paradigms arising from cognitive science, philosophy of mind, engineering and anthropology. This talk highlights a range of research-creation projects between 2010-2015 as well as several new projects currently in development that seek to merge haptic, visual, acoustic and other phenomena in collaboration with anthropologists, cultural historians of the senses, engineers and artists and that explore new links between sensory studies and the arts within our contemporary technosphere.
About The Lecturer
Chris Salter is an artist, Concordia University Research Chair in New Media, Technology and the Senses, Co-Director of the Hexagram Network for Research-Creation in Media Art, Design, Digital Culture and Technology, Director of Hexagram Concordia and Associate Professor, Computation Arts in the Department of Design and Computation Art at Concordia University, Montreal. He studied philosophy and economics at Emory University and completed a PhD in directing and dramatic criticism at Stanford University where he also researched and studied at CCMRA. He collaborated with Peter Sellars and William Forsythe/Frankfurt Ballet in the 1990s. Salter’s work has been shown at major international exhibitions and festivals in over a dozen countries.
Salter is a regular presenter at national and international conferences, has given numerous invited talks at universities and festivals worldwide and has sat on many juries including the Prix Ars Electronica, among others. In addition to his artistic work, Salter’s critical research can be found in his seminal book Entangled: Technology and the Transformation of Performance (MIT Press, 2010) and Alien Agency: Experimental Encounters with Art in the Making (MIT Press, 2015). He is currently working on a new collaborative book project for MIT Press focused on the interconnections between art, research and politics within the contemporary technosphere.
About THE LEONARDO ART, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY LECTURE SERIES
Co-organized by CAC and Leonardo/ISAST in collaboration with CAFA School of Experimental Art, each installment of the series will feature renowned guest speakers from around the world on topics within the ever-expanding scope of Art/Science. CAC and its partner institutions will provide the venues for the events.
About Leonardo
Leonardo/The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (Leonardo/ISAST) serves the global network of thinkers and practitioners working in the realms where art, science and the humanities connect. Since its beginnings nearly 50 years ago, Leonardo has fostered and supported the work of artists, scientists and scholars dedicated to breaking down the barriers that often separate fields of endeavor. Today, Leonardo/ISAST continues its leadership in cross-disciplinary creativity through the publication of content on evolving platforms (in collaboration with the MIT Press); the presentation of events, residencies and art/science projects; and other programs designed to address the interests of the art/science/humanities community.
About Chronus Art Center
Established in 2013, Chronus Art Center (CAC) is China’s first nonprofit art organization dedicated to the presentation, research / creation and scholarship of media art. CAC with its exhibitions, residency-oriented fellowships, lectures and workshop programs and through its archiving and publishing initiatives, creates a multifaceted and vibrant platform for the discourse, production and dissemination of media art in a global context. CAC is positioned to advance artistic innovation and cultural awareness by critically engaging with media technologies that are transforming and reshaping contemporary experiences. CAC brings to the public awareness of the impending post-human reality and the resulting social and political implications by accentuating the dynamic synergy of art and science as a response to the challenges and opportunities that contemporary media society has give.
