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March 09, 2007

Technology Expanding the Horizon:

LandscapeSymposium.jpg

A Reinterpretation & Investigation of the Landscape

Technology Expanding the Horizon: A Reinterpretation & Investigation of the Landscape: A symposium sponsored by the Battelle Endowment for Technology and Human Affairs, the Ohio State University Department of Art and the Wexner Center for the Arts.

In the past the landscape was understood as a physical place; the distance you could see to the horizon or the rows of corn needing to be plowed before sundown. Now, with ubiquitous Google Maps, the World Wide Web, digital photography and nanotechnology, the landscape, a physical place has been evolving into the landscape as a virtual place. As experimenters and meaning-makers, artists create an important dialogue about how technology impacts and changes our notion of the meaning of this landscape. To address these issues the Art & Technology area and the Photography Area within the Department of Art have invited artists, theorists, and scientists to participate in a free public symposium of art and ideas about today’s reinterpretation and creative investigations of the landscape. During the symposium there will be exhibitions and performances allowing the symposium participants, as well as the general public, to engage with the landscape of the Ohio State University and the city of Columbus.

Four panel discussions take place over this two-day symposium scheduled for March 29 & 30, 2007 at the Wexner Center of the Arts.

1. The Imaged Landscape / How Technology Changes Our Perception of the Land: This panel will consider how the imaged landscape has been used and continues to be used as a device for changing our perception of the land. An ongoing dialogue between truthful representation and fictional construction, the imaged landscape contributes to our understanding and perceptions of our environment.

Panelists: theorist videographer/photographer Peter Garfield, photographer Lori Nix, and author/historian Vicki Goldberg. Moderator: film historian, Ron Green.

2. Remapping Power: Action in Virtual and Physical landscapes: Artists are increasingly using electronic media to create, disseminate and research their projects, which has resulted in an expansion in the notion of public art and activism. The Internet audience is engaged in ways that cause a rethinking, and possibly a reconnecting to physical places, people and communities.

Panelists: cyberart activist Ricardo Dominquez and culture jammers The Yes Men, with performance philosopher Shannon Bell as respondent. Moderator: Amy Youngs.

3. Creating and Exploring Technological and Biological Nanoscapes: Nanotechnology, or working within the nano-scale, means grappling with a new landscape. Though it is much too small to “see” in the traditional sense, we are nevertheless confronted with an increasing number of images and narratives emerging from this realm.

Panelists: Russian theorist/biotech artist Dmitry Bulatov and nanotechnology scientist/artist James Gimzewski with Robert Davis, Director of Nanotech West OSU as respondent. Moderator: Ken Rinaldo.

4. Rediscovering Geography in the Everyday Landscape: Where do irrationality, spontaneity, and surprise fit into our daily existence? How do performance, sculpture, and architecture in the everyday environment disrupt notions of similitude? How can artists use geography as a canvas to introduce a new wildness in the city?

Panelists: architect/artist Vito Acconci and conceptual artist/ sculptor Erwin Wurm with art historian Martha Buskirk as respondent. Moderator: Robert Ladislas Derr.

All panels will be videotaped and available to the public as downloadable media on the symposium website: http://artandtech.osu.edu/simhorizon/

EXHIBITIONS:

Technoscape - Hopkins Hall Gallery will be hosting an exhibition of artwork and writings by the invited panelists, with related student artwork in the corridor. Opening March 29th.

Re-Surfacing – A juried exhibition of new media performances, videos and installations, organized by graduate and undergraduate students in the Department of Art. March 26th – April 6.

Posted by jo at March 9, 2007 12:05 PM

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