[spectre] (no subject)

[Timothy Druckrey]

Spectreologists:

Apropos the comments of Sally on Ars, I thought that that I might post the=
 short response (below) that was requested by a reporter from Lib=E9ration.=
 Sadly, I could not make it to Linz since the semester started here, but I=
 logged into the steam that was jumpy and had both english and german sound=
 running simultaneously. It made for an interesting attempt to decode the=
 cross-over. As the camera panned, I caught sight of pixelated colleagues=
 and was surprised that in what I heard there was always little, if any,=
 time for what seemed to be necessary interventions. I wonder if this=
 spilled into the lobby of Brucknerhaus...

The question from Lib=E9ration is interestingly phrased:

>>Do you think that the thema and programming of this year are more=
 satisfying or do you think like other critics, that it is the end of what=
 made this festival so interesting for years.<<

There is little doubt that the "Takeover" of creativity by a kind of=
 avant-corporatism is a distinct problem for the media arts and the hope=
 that Ars Electronica would confront this issue a good sign for a much=
 needed debate. Since the expanding field is increasingly driven by the=
 imperatives of software (social and system), it is clearly time for a=
 serious consideration of both the normative strategies of corporate=
 innovation and of the reflexive strategies used by a generation of artists=
 willing to undo the logic of engineering as faux aesthetics, to expose the=
 appropriation of art as a rapacious strategy of global marketing, to defeat=
 the insipid self-identification of research, marketing, science,=
 technology, software development as some kind of artistic enterprise, and=
 to constitute communities unimagined by the profit engineers of the market.=
 

Countering the presumptions of incorporation would necessitate an=
 oppositional strategy that accounts for resistance and for a serious=
 rethinking of art in global culture. And while Ars Electronica has the=
 resources and credibility to accomplish this, it seems to have fallen into=
 the complacent view that the 'takeover' has already occurred, that the=
 media arts are in a defensive position, that the 'momentum' has been=
 adopted by business or entertainment, or that institutionalization=
 (corporate or artistic) is depriving a dynamic alternative media art scene=
 from maintaining its autonomy. Rather than breaking the logic of this by=
 organizing an event that decisively situates a generation who understand=
 that the 'takeover' is a two-way street, Ars itself is set into the=
 defensive position even while a broad range of artists working in and with=
 media are persuasively engaged in activities that continue to demonstrate=
 that serious art can be made without capitulation to the death-knell of inc=
orporation.

Tim