Artmedia VIII--From Aesthetics of Communication to Net Art (review)

29 November-2 December 2002, Paris, France <http://www.olats.org/artmedia8.html>

Artmedia is among the first conference series posing theoretical questions as well as looking at experimentations regarding art and communication technologies. It was founded in 1985 by the philosopher Mario Costa at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Salerno and was held there seven times in a roughly bi-annual rhythm. There seem to be different reasons why Artmedia VIII was held in Paris in 2002: one is the possibility of broadening its circle of influence; another is the fact that Paris is currently a place of many interesting new electronic art activities.

Artmedia VIII was co-organized by French artist Fred Forest, Costa and French writer and theoretician Annick Bureaud. They first defined the theme and the rough sequence and special focus of the sessions and then looked for the appropriate speakers to invite. The idealistic goal was to have a 50:50 ratio between theoreticians/philosophers and artists, older generations and younger generations, and foreigners from many different parts of the world and French people, women and men. In some aspects intention and reality did not quite match. The number of female presenters was low. There were no representatives from Eastern Europe, partially due to a rather tight budget that allowed only a small number of foreigners to be invited. This then led to an obvious French domination. The conference was attractive because it brought together established key personalities in the field, such as Costa, Forest, Roy Ascott and Pierre Lévy, and artists and theoreticians from a younger generation such as Oliver Auber, Andreas Broeckmann, Maurice Benayoun, Tina Cassani and Bruno Beusch, Steven Dietz, Eduardo Kac, Wolfgang Strauss, Victoria Vesna and many others.

During the first 3 days, 45 presentations, most of them in French with simultaneous translation, were given. The conference concluded on the fourth day with a panel discussion. The topics of the sessions progressed in a succinct way from history to body, cortex and networks. Personally, I found the first sessions very hard to follow, perhaps because philosophical issues were presented in a rather complicated manner, with too few references to actual artworks or other familiar examples. In contrast, the sessions on "video games and hybrid arts," "net art in the museum context" and "architecture, urban design and communication technologies" were very illustrative and interesting, but in some respects also a bit superficial. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the professional presentation of Beusch and Cassani, who gave an overview of mobile gaming, and also the enlightening speeches about curating net art by the curators Dietz (Walker Art Center) and Jemima Rellie (Tate Gallery).

The third day, Sunday, was the most exciting day of Artmedia VIII, because finally some rather provocative thoughts were expressed. It started with Lévy's presentation of a taxonomy for cultural design. This talk was not entirely appreciated because of the lack of chaos and dynamism in his new approach. Broeckmann criticized Lévy's simplification or idealization of cyberspace and the idea that, though there is not necessarily a collective intelligence, there could well be a collective stupidity. In later sessions Vesna expanded the discourse about networks to include nanotechnology, and Ascott added the aspect of shamanic practices. François Soulages's contribution on the subconscious was, it seems (I was unable to attend), another highlight of the day.

There were also a few small exhibitions in front of the lecture hall. The exhibition on the history of artmedia and aesthetics of communication showed numerous interesting historical documents and, to an artmedia-newcomer like me, communicated a sense for the continuity in the ongoing discourse since 1985. There was also access to an on-line exhibition with works selected by invited curators and symposium participants, but it was basically impossible to find time to look at it. (It is to be hoped that this exhibition will be made accessible on-line.)

The conference was free and attracted a loyal, mostly French, audience over the 3-day "marathon." Even on the fourth morning, Monday, a reasonable crowd showed up for the final discussion...