[spectre] Forthcoming from [i-DAT]: ARTIST AS ENGINEER symposium

[joasia]

For your information:

INTERRUPT: artists in socially engaged practice
ARTIST AS ENGINEER: a partnership between i-DAT, University of Plymouth &
Arts Council England for the Interrupt symposium series.
<http://www.interrupt-symposia.org/>

Where does socially engaged, participatory and education arts activity stand
within current debates around contemporary arts practice?

ARTIST AS ENGINEER

Location: Sherwell Centre, University of Plymouth, UK
Dates: 2-3 June 2003

This symposium organised by i-DAT seeks to investigate a recent radical
shift in the artist's social role influenced by the advent of new
technologies and new collective practices.

Walter Benjamin (in 'The Author as Producer' of 1934) describes the shift in
the role of the cultural producer 'from a supplier of the productive
apparatus, into an engineer who sees his [/her] task in adapting that
apparatus thus reconciling the means of intellectual production with
technical quality.'

The symposium asks what conclusions might be drawn from a parallel between
the contemporary practice of 'techno-art collectives' and Benjamin's
statement that it is simply not enough to have political commitment without
at the same time thinking through its relationship to the means of
production and the technical apparatus?

Speakers:

Etoy (International)
<http://www.etoy.com/>
The Institute of Applied Autonomy (USA)
<http://www.appliedautonomy.com/>
Piotr Wyrzykowski/CUKT, Central Bureau for Technological Culture (Poland)
<http://cukt.art.pl>
James Wallbank/Redundant Technology Initiative (UK)
<http://www.lowtech.org/>
Natalie Jeremijenko/Bureau of Inverse Technology (USA)
<http://cat.nyu.edu/natalie>
Harwood/Mongrel (UK)
<http://www.mongrel.org.uk/>

Symposium curated and introduced by Geoff Cox & Joasia Krysa (i-DAT,
University of Plymouth) and chaired by Armin Medosch (UK/Austria).

i-DAT (Institute of Digital Art and Technology) is a new organisation
engaged in the production and distribution of digital media with a broad
cultural remit across the fields of art, industry and education.
<http://www.i-dat.org/>

For more information:
email: contact at i-dat.org
or phone 01752 232560 [Joasia Krysa / Geoff Cox]