A project for »Media Art Net« [www.medienkunstnetz.de], funded by ZKM, Goethe-Institute and the German Ministry of Research and Education BMB+F.
Artists have long been interested in their specific view on maps, on their quality as cartographers and on the impossibility of mapping the world. Nevertheless, especially the advent of the Internet boom and our growing awareness of living in a networked society have stimulated research from media artists as well as scientists and programmers to develop a new topography of the information society. There are mailing-lists and websites dedicated to this phenomenon, see the »Atlas of Cybergeography«, which puts forward the question of the function and interest that is embedded in theses new cartographies.

But there is also a wealth of Internet projects that reflect our attempt at breaking the conditions of browsers, commercial codes and traditional structures of representation to confront us with alternatives, new sensations or critical reflections. To name just a few projects that have inspired this symposium: Ingo Günther’s almost classical work with globes, »Webstalker«, »1:1« by Lisa Jevbratt, Futurefarmers‘ project »They Rule«, the »Carnivore« project by the Radical Software Group, Benjamin Fry and Casey Rea’s software »proce55ing«, Daniela Plewe’s work on linguistics and semantics and many others. But also the more theoretical work by scholars specifically in California [c5 projects or Lev Manovich’s reflection on Database as a Cultural Form] have influenced the ideas behind this symposium.

The symposium »Media Art Net Lectures: Mapping« will take a closer look at various directions of artistic research with links to current strategies from the domain of software development. The confrontation with topological world models is meant to provide a basis for a discussion which could help to formulate and/or inspire a critique of the topographic Weltanschauung and patterns of behavior on which it has had an impact. Christine Buci-Glucksmann will be asked to give a keynote lecture on the cartographer’s view before we will explore more technical and specific issues the next day. We are proposing a two-part structuring of the day: Part 1 is dedicated to strategies to map text and image, part 2 is oriented more towards projects that deal with predominantly spatial issues. Social interaction will be an implicitly or explicitly strong component in all lectures. The range of speakers will reflect the diversity of research that is currently being undertaken.

The concept of this symposium has been developed in the context of the larger research project »Media Art Net«. The scope of this project is to provide content and to mediate histories and current tendencies of media art in the Internet. It is aimed at providing a range of possible contexts for materials that are otherwise dispersed over the Internet or embedded in specialists‘ forums. Focussing on the production of content and topical research, »Media Art Net« will present the texts and issues, raised by this symposium, along with the materials and art works in the fall 2004 as part of a larger online forum of topics and research, accompanied by a book publication [Springer Vienna New York].
Wolfgang Ernst, who recently co-organized a symposium in Berlin on »Search Images« [published in German as »Suchbilder«, Kadmos Verlag Berlin 2003] and professor in the Media Science Department of the Humboldt University, has published and reflected widely on the notion of archives, will moderate the debate.
 

Program

23 January

17.00 Welcome & Keynote Lecture

Rudolf Frieling: Introduction Media Art Net
Note: The presentation of Christine Buci-Glucksmann had to be cancelled due to illness.
Instead, Wolfgang Ernst [Humboldt-University, Berlin] will give an introduction to the symposium.

 

24 January

10.00–13.00
Mapping Text/Image

Daniela Plewe
»GeneralArts« [MKN/Berlin]

Warren Sack, UC San Diego
»Picturing the Public: Algorithms and Interfaces for the Presentation of Public Opinion« [Video]
www.sims.berkeley.edu/~sack/cm/index.html

[Coffee Break]

Stephane Marchand-Maillet
»Collection Guiding« [Computer Vision and Multimedia Lab, University of Geneva]
viper.unige.ch/~marchand/research/index.html

Graham Harwood, Artist, London
»Nine [9] - Linker and other Subjective Mappings« [Video]
9.waag.org

Panel discussion [Moderator: Wolfgang Ernst]

14.00–17.00
Mapping Space – Art – Social Interaction

Brett Stalbaum
»Database Logic and Landscape Art«
[C5 corporation, San Jose, CA]
www.c5corp.com

Anne Nigten
»Beyond the Metaphor: Dynamic Mental Maps« [V2 Rotterdam]
lab.v2.nl/projects/datacloud2.html

[Coffee Break]

Martin Dodge
»Seeing inside the Cloud: Some Ways to Map the Internet«
[Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London]
www.cybergeography.org

Steve Dietz
»Re:mapping the Public« [Video]
[formerly New Media Curator, Walker Art Center, currently Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, and independent curator for ZKM and Media Art Net]
www.walkerart.org/gallery9/
www.yproductions.com/

16.30
Panel discussion
[Moderator: Wolfgang Ernst]
In co-operation with Prof. Michael Saup, Hochschule für Gestaltung [Academy of Design]

Organization / Institution

ZKM

Partners

HfG | Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe