[rohrpost] Und es gibt sie doch

[Andreas Broeckmann]

leute,

ich finde diese medienkunst-diskussion immer 
wieder gut, nicht zuletzt auch, weil man ueber 
die jahre grad hier auf der rohrpost die 
allmaehliche veraenderung der thematischen 
schwerpunkte sehen kann. (in ihren wiederholungen 
ist sie natuerlich auch ein bisschen komisch ;-)

ich arbeite gerade an einer ausstellung am 
stedelijk in amsterdam, bei der es unter dem 
titel Deep Screen auch um eine auseinandersetzung 
mit den medien der gegenwartskunst gehen wird. 
(auf der website steht eine presseerklaerung, die 
einen ersten eindruck vermittelt, die aber 
inhaltlich arg verkuerzend ist; ich schicke bei 
interesse den foldertext, sobald der fertig sein 
wird, naechste woche wohl.)
http://www.stedelijk.nl/oc2/page.asp?PageID=1807

fuer meine katalogeinleitung schreibe an einem 
'Postskriptum zur Medienkunst', das vielleicht 
einen nuetzlichen beitrag zur aktuellen debatte 
hier leisten kann? (ich kann zwar die 
historischen reminiszenzen verstehen, denke aber 
- wie florian? -, dass sich die lage doch sehr 
veraendert hat.)

gruss,
-a


ps: dem folgenden wird ein bericht ueber die 
themen- und jury-auswahl vorangehen, sowie ein 
exkurs ueber die titelgebende thematische 
klammer, 'Deep Screen', die sich mit dem 
'bild/schirm' als _feld_ beschaeftigt, in dem 
objekte, medien, der menschliche 
wahrnehmungsapparat, aktions- und 
interaktionsangebote, raeumliche und zeitliche 
dispositive, etc., einander durchkreuzen und 
gegenseitig bedingen.



III. Postscript on Media Art

Some people might expect that an exhibition 
curated by the former director of a media art 
festival would be somehow 'very digital'. They 
will, I hope, be surprised by a show which 
presents no particular interest in things 
digital, or techno-culture. Some of them, 
however, might also be frustrated about the fact 
that _Deep Screen_ makes a stronger gesture 
towards the 'traditional' art field, than towards 
independent media art and culture. This was of 
course a conscious choice.

The underlying debate emerges from a cultural 
field characterised by interests in art, 
technology, internet culture, design, electronic 
music, open source software, game culture, and 
many related issues. This field, which we can 
call _digital culture_, has over the last four or 
so decades been growing from a marginal 
subculture to a diverse and fractured stratum 
that cuts right across contemporary society. As 
the first generation grows up that has a more 
intimate relation with the personal computer than 
with television, it will become less and less 
relevant to even distinguish between _digital 
culture_ and contemporary culture in general. 
This is also why, for artists like Jablonowski, 
Visser, Broersen & Lukács, Maurer, and others in 
this show, the distinction between digital and 
analogue artistic media is not relevant any 
longer. For an earlier generation of artists, it 
was a decisive step to 'go digital', or not. 
Entire artistic careers were ruined by the stigma 
of doing 'art with a plug'. (Others were made by 
the exclusivity which that stigma offered in 
certain circles.)

Mind you, _only the label_ Media Art - in the 
sense of art based on 'electronic or digital 
media' - will be a thing of the past; a past when 
it was also aesthetically crucial if you chose 
for the artistic _programme_ determined by those 
'technologies formerly known as new'. In the same 
way as contemporary artists are free to use 
drawing and painting, photography and film, video 
and sculpture, they are also no longer risking 
their art market career if they develop an 
interactive 3D-environment, a generative video 
projection, or a sound installation. This will 
mean, on the one hand, that part of what has been 
produced as Media Art in the past, will at some 
point be re-evaluated as important pre-cursors to 
the future contemporary art developments - or as 
idiosyncratic variations of other possibilities 
that were not followed up on. On the other hand, 
the described liberation of the artistic media 
will require a further broadening of art school 
teaching and art funding, in which the 
high-ceiling studios for painters and sculptors 
are consistently matched by well-equipped studios 
for digitally based art production in image, 
sound, space, and movement. Artists must have a 
choice, and they ought to be as critically aware 
of the politics, the historical background, and 
the aesthetic potentials and limitations of 
software, as of oil and acryllic paint, HD video, 
or bronze.

The overall submissions to our call, and 
hopefully also the exhibition itself, are 
testimony to the fact that artists in the 
Netherlands are not doing so badly in terms of 
the liberation of artistic media. It is now time 
for the museums, for public and private 
collectors to acknowledge a change in the arts 
that has been going on for decades and that is a 
challenge for gallerists, art historians and 
conservation experts, much more than for the 
artists themselves. In that respect, the 
strategic ambition of _Deep Screen_ is to show 
how much can be gained in the appreciation of 
contemporary art from such a broadening of the 
horizon.