Visiting Artist Lecture: Christiane Paul

Digital Art Now: Histories of the Post-Digital Future

As digital technologies have ‘infiltrated’ almost all aspects of art making, many artists, curators, and theorists have pronounced an age of the ‘post-digital’ and ‘post-Internet’ that is deeply informed by digital technologies and networks but takes their language and vernacular for granted, embracing a fusion of art, commerce, advertising and design. The terms post-digital and post-Internet also attempt to describe a condition of artworks and objects that are conceptually and practically shaped by the Internet and digital processes yet often manifest in the material form of objects such as paintings, sculptures, or photographs. The talk will explore the complexities behind the state of the digital art today, outlining its various manifestations and historical lineages, as well as possible futures. Also discussed will be recent developments in technological platforms from augmented reality and (the 3rd wave of) virtual reality to AI; the new opportunities they provide for shaping artistic practice and digital storytelling; and the ways in which artists are critically engaging with these platforms.

Christiane Paul Ph.D is Chief Curator/Director of the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center and Professor in the School of Media Studies at The New School, and Adjunct Curator of Digital Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She has written extensively on new media arts, lectured internationally on art and technology and is the recipient of the Thoma Foundation’s 2016 Arts Writing Award in Digital Art. Her recent books are A Companion to Digital Art (Wiley Blackwell, 2016); Digital Art (Thames and Hudson, 3rd revised edition, 2015), Context Providers: Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts (Intellect, 2011; Chinese edition, 2012), co-edited with Margot Lovejoy and Victoria Vesna, and New Media in the White Cube and Beyond (UC Press, 2008). As Adjunct Curator of Digital Art at the Whitney Museum, she curated exhibitions including Cory Arcangel: Pro Tools (2011); Profiling (2007); Data Dynamics (2001), and the net art selection for the 2002 Whitney Biennial; and is responsible for artport, the Whitney Museum’s website devoted to Internet art. Other recent curatorial work includes Little Sister (is watching you, too) (Pratt Manhattan Gallery, NYC, 2015); What Lies Beneath (Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, 2015); The Public Private (Kellen Gallery, The New School, Feb. 7 – April 17, 2013), Eduardo Kac: Biotopes, Lagoglyphs and Transgenic Works (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2010); Biennale Quadrilaterale (Rijeka, Croatia, 2009-10); Feedforward – The Angel of History (co-curated with Steve Dietz; Laboral Center for Art and Industrial Creation, Gijon, Spain, Oct. 2009); and INDAF Digital Art Festival (Biennale QuadrilateraleIncheon, Korea, Aug. 2009).

This event is made possible by a collaboration between

Joseph Farbrook (School of Art) and

Greg Pierotti (School of Theatre, Film and Television)

And the generous support of the University of Arizona:

College of Fine Arts, Office of the Dean

School of Art

Africana Studies Program

College of Humanities