un_imaginable (Opening)

un_imaginable is the first instalment in the ZIP Digital Arts Edition series jointly produced by the ZKM | Karlsruhe, the iCinema Centre, Sydney and the University of Pittsburgh. This new editorial cooperation envisages the production over the next five years of three publications encapsulating the latest research on topics of central importance to media arts. The launch of the un_imaginable issue is combined with a one-day symposium at ZKM Karlsruhe and an exhibition of the DVD artworks at ZKM Karlsruhe and the Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney.
Recent developments affecting different spheres of life—from the ecological through to the judicial—have redefined our notion of the unbelievable. While maintaining continuities with a long history of the irreal, this new unimaginary confronts us with radically diverse realities, reformulating the condition and expression of life itself. Digital imagery plays a critical role in this reformulated notion, since it presents itself not only as a medium but also as a limit of contemporaneity. The un_imaginable project invites a range of artists and writers to investigate this new unimaginary and explore the unique qualities of its terrain.