What Urban Media Art Can Do - Why When Where & How, 2016
Urban media art is possibly one of the most momentous expansions within the field of contemporary... more Urban media art is possibly one of the most momentous expansions within the field of contemporary public art. Referring to various forms of media-aesthetic, artistic engagement in urban environments and evolving from a mix of genealogies of media art, avant-garde, architecture, urban development, design and technology, and biology, urban media art creates a space in which artists make, utilize and critically explore innovations in software and technology to create artworks, installations and situations in response to the urban discourses and urgencies of our time.
What Urban Media Art Can Do – Why When Where and How? engages leading thinkers, artists, curators, architects and designers in an exploration of the aesthetic, theoretical, technological and practical conditions of what urban media art can do. The publication considers artistic responses to current urban threats and discourses in a time characterised by specific technological literacies and constructions of meaning, contextualised within theoretical perspectives.
The publication departs from the global, exploratory research undertaken by the Connecting Cities Network into media art’s contribution to urban culture and environments, architecture and co-creation of cities (2013-2016). It features a number of recent artworks and urban media environments from around the world, which critically engage with geospatial, (trans)local, hybrid, intelligent urban contexts and visions for digital placemaking. These artworks contribute to developing the still-emerging domain of urban media art.
New and classic benchmark essays by Inke Arns, Josef Bares, Moritz Behrens, Maurice Benayoun, Claire Bishop, Martin Brynskov, Sandy Claes, Matthew Claudel, Marcus Foth, Eric Kluitenberg, Susa Pop, Carlo Ratti, Ava Fatah gen. Schieck, Mark Shepard, Henriette Steiner, Norbert Streitz, Tanya Toft, Martin Tomitsch, Andrew Vande Moere, Kazys Varnelis, Kristin Veel, Nanna Verhoeff, Martijn de Waal, Peter Weibel, Katharine Willis, Niels Wouters, Mark Wright, and Soenke Zehle outline major historical moments and critical concerns relating to the current transformation of society in our digital era, to which urban media art respond.
Edited by Susa Pop, Tanya Toft, Nerea Calvillo and Mark Wright
Published by av edition, 2016. ISBN: 978-3-89986-255-3
This book takes you through and beyond a map of Nordic artistic experiments, conceptual reconfigu... more This book takes you through and beyond a map of Nordic artistic experiments, conceptual reconfigurations and new modes of artistic agency.
Offering an in-depth exploration of art’s contingent evolution with technology and digital culture, this book goes far beyond familiar depictions of ‘Nordic aesthetics’ in art. It explores art’s role and inquiries in response to changing sociopolitical realities in the welfare state and in the wider world. First-hand perspectives of pioneering and pivotal artists form the basis of chapters penned by leading scholars and curators of Nordic art. Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art recasts the Nordic art context in an expanding digital condition and reveals horizontal ways to write its histories.
Chapters by Tanya Toft Ag, Jamie Allen, Laura Beloff, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Bernhard Garnicnig, Elizabeth Jochum, Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen, Jens Tang Kristensen, Mads Dejbjerg Lind, Björn Norberg, Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir, Jøran Rudi, Lorella Scacco, Morten Søndergaard, Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen, and Stahl Stenslie.
Artist testimonials by Katja Aglert, Matti Aikio, Hrund Atladóttir, AUJIK (Stefan Larsson), Laura Beloff, Bombina Bombast (Emma Bexell and Stefan Stanisic), Niels Bonde, Jesper Carlsen, A K Dolven, Tor Jørgen van Eijk, Aberto Frigo, Søren Thilo, Funder, HC Gilje, Goto80 (Anders Carlsson), Marie Munk Hartwig, Bjørn Erik Haugen, Ilpo Heikkinen, Marianne Heske, Hanna Husberg, IC-98 (Patrik Söderlund and Visa Suonpää), Illutron (Nicolas Padfield and Mads Høbye), Marie Kølbæk Iversen, Ewa Jacobsson, Mogens Jacobsen, Johan Knattrup Jensen, Vibeke Jensen, Lisa Jevbratt, Erik Johansson, Arijana Kajfes, Tove Kjellmark, Kollision, Jette Gejl Kristensen, Kristina Kvalvik, Marita Liulia, Lundahl & Seitl (Christer Lundahl & Martina Seitl), Anastasios Logothetis, Dark Matters, Mia Makela, Teemu Mäki, Elisabeth Molin, Tone Myskja, N55, Nuleinn (Rine Rodin & Magga Ploder), Marjatta Oja, Erik Parr, Andrew Gryf Paterson, Pink Twins (Juha Vehviläinen & Vesa Vehviläinen), Tuomo Rainio, Juan Duarte Regino, Jacob Remin, Stian Remvik, Carl-Johan Rosén, Petri Ruikka, Anne Katrine Senstad, Joonas Siren, Mats Jørgen Sivertsen, Jacek Smolicki, Lisa Strömbeck, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Tina Tarpgaard (recoil performance group), Hanne Lise Thomsen, Björk Viggósdóttir, Magnus Wassborg, Jana Winderen, Kristoffer Ørum.
Tanya Toft Ag (editor) is a curator and scholar specializing in media and digital art and its urban implications.
Published by Intellect 2019, distributed by Chicago University Press and John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN 9781783209484
Cover image: Jana Winderen, Jana Winderen (2014). Krísuvik, Iceland. Photo by Finnbogi Pétursson. Courtesy of the artist.
During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceiv... more During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceived at the time as a manifesto supporting virtuality as a medium. 25 years later, we propose a new understanding of the work and its emergence along with a reconfiguration of the ontological status of contemporary media art. Rather than mere object, as defined by normalized code of representation, the artwork can now be characterized as a subject with operational sensitivities that allow complex reactive behaviors. Real-Time processing of information has played a major role in this mutation. Virtuality-understood as design of the potentialities of the work-sensors and other input devices keeping the work aware of the existence of its 'public' and environment seem to have converted the interactive artwork into a sentient entity, empowered with perceptive functionalities and new cognitive capacities: memory, artificial intelligence, and intentionality. This transductive process leading to the evolution of the original art-object into the art-subject announces an expansion of what is considered the artwork's milieu and potentiality. More recent works of Benayoun help us to envision the next steps in this evolution: opening the ontology of art further towards its subjective capacities and possible dynamic implications in society.
The article considers the urban digital gallery as an opportunity to reclaim public space from di... more The article considers the urban digital gallery as an opportunity to reclaim public space from digital factors of spatial determinism in the media city. It considers the affective quality of urban digital artworks as interface between 'human' and 'technology'. The urban digital gallery is proposed to contribute to media architectural discourse by establishing situations of presence through which public space might be reclaimed, re-inhabited and re-evaluated.
This book takes you through and beyond a map of Nordic artistic experiments, conceptual reconfigu... more This book takes you through and beyond a map of Nordic artistic experiments, conceptual reconfigurations and new modes of artistic agency. Offering an in-depth exploration of art’s contingent evolution with technology and digital culture, this book goes far beyond familiar depictions of ‘Nordic aesthetics’ in art. It explores art’s role and inquiries in response to changing sociopolitical realities in the welfare state and in the wider world. First-hand perspectives of pioneering and pivotal artists form the basis of chapters penned by leading scholars and curators of Nordic art. Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art recasts the Nordic art context in an expanding digital condition and reveals horizontal ways to write its histories. Chapters by Tanya Toft Ag, Jamie Allen, Laura Beloff, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Bernhard Garnicnig, Elizabeth Jochum, Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen, Jens Tang Kristensen, Mads Dejbjerg Lind, Björn Norberg, Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir, Jøran Rudi, Lorella Scacco, Morten Søndergaard, Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen, and Stahl Stenslie. Artist testimonials by Katja Aglert, Matti Aikio, Hrund Atladóttir, AUJIK (Stefan Larsson), Laura Beloff, Bombina Bombast (Emma Bexell and Stefan Stanisic), Niels Bonde, Jesper Carlsen, A K Dolven, Tor Jørgen van Eijk, Aberto Frigo, Søren Thilo, Funder, HC Gilje, Goto80 (Anders Carlsson), Marie Munk Hartwig, Bjørn Erik Haugen, Ilpo Heikkinen, Marianne Heske, Hanna Husberg, IC-98 (Patrik Söderlund and Visa Suonpää), Illutron (Nicolas Padfield and Mads Høbye), Marie Kølbæk Iversen, Ewa Jacobsson, Mogens Jacobsen, Johan Knattrup Jensen, Vibeke Jensen, Lisa Jevbratt, Erik Johansson, Arijana Kajfes, Tove Kjellmark, Kollision, Jette Gejl Kristensen, Kristina Kvalvik, Marita Liulia, Lundahl & Seitl (Christer Lundahl & Martina Seitl), Anastasios Logothetis, Dark Matters, Mia Makela, Teemu Mäki, Elisabeth Molin, Tone Myskja, N55, Nuleinn (Rine Rodin & Magga Ploder), Marjatta Oja, Erik Parr, Andrew Gryf Paterson, Pink Twins (Juha Vehviläinen & Vesa Vehviläinen), Tuomo Rainio, Juan Duarte Regino, Jacob Remin, Stian Remvik, Carl-Johan Rosén, Petri Ruikka, Anne Katrine Senstad, Joonas Siren, Mats Jørgen Sivertsen, Jacek Smolicki, Lisa Strömbeck, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Tina Tarpgaard (recoil performance group), Hanne Lise Thomsen, Björk Viggósdóttir, Magnus Wassborg, Jana Winderen, Kristoffer Ørum. Tanya Toft Ag (editor) is a curator and scholar specializing in media and digital art and its urban implications. Published by Intellect 2019, distributed by Chicago University Press and John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781783209484 Cover image: Jana Winderen, Jana Winderen (2014). Krísuvik, Iceland. Photo by Finnbogi Pétursson. Courtesy of the artist.
During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceiv... more During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceived at the time as a manifesto supporting virtuality as a medium. 25 years later, we propose a new understanding of the work and its emergence along with a reconfiguration of the ontological status of contemporary media art. Rather than mere object, as defined by normalized code of representation, the artwork can now be characterized as a subject with operational sensitivities that allow complex reactive behaviors. Real-Time processing of information has played a major role in this mutation. Virtuality-understood as design of the potentialities of the work-sensors and other input devices keeping the work aware of the existence of its 'public' and environment seem to have converted the interactive artwork into a sentient entity, empowered with perceptive functionalities and new cognitive capacities: memory, artificial intelligence, and intentionality. This transductive process leading to the evolution of the original art-object into the art-subject announces an expansion of what is considered the artwork's milieu and potentiality. More recent works of Benayoun help us to envision the next steps in this evolution: opening the ontology of art further towards its subjective capacities and possible dynamic implications in society.
During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceiv... more During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceived at the time as a manifesto supporting virtuality as a medium. 25 years later, we propose a new understanding of the work and its emergence along with a reconfiguration of the ontological status of contemporary media art. Rather than mere object, as defined by normalized code of representation, the artwork can now be characterized as a subject with operational sensitivities that allow complex reactive behaviors. Real-Time processing of information has played a major role in this mutation. Virtuality-understood as design of the potentialities of the work-sensors and other input devices keeping the work aware of the existence of its 'public' and environment seem to have converted the interactive artwork into a sentient entity, empowered with perceptive functionalities and new cognitive capacities: memory, artificial intelligence, and intentionality. This transductive process leading to the evolution of the original art-object into the art-subject announces an expansion of what is considered the artwork's milieu and potentiality. More recent works of Benayoun help us to envision the next steps in this evolution: opening the ontology of art further towards its subjective capacities and possible dynamic implications in society.
This book takes you through and beyond a map of Nordic artistic experiments, conceptual reconfigu... more This book takes you through and beyond a map of Nordic artistic experiments, conceptual reconfigurations and new modes of artistic agency. Offering an in-depth exploration of art’s contingent evolution with technology and digital culture, this book goes far beyond familiar depictions of ‘Nordic aesthetics’ in art. It explores art’s role and inquiries in response to changing sociopolitical realities in the welfare state and in the wider world. First-hand perspectives of pioneering and pivotal artists form the basis of chapters penned by leading scholars and curators of Nordic art. Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art recasts the Nordic art context in an expanding digital condition and reveals horizontal ways to write its histories. Chapters by Tanya Toft Ag, Jamie Allen, Laura Beloff, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Bernhard Garnicnig, Elizabeth Jochum, Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen, Jens Tang Kristensen, Mads Dejbjerg Lind, Björn Norberg, Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir, Jøran Rudi, Lorella Scacco, Morten Søndergaard, Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen, and Stahl Stenslie. Artist testimonials by Katja Aglert, Matti Aikio, Hrund Atladóttir, AUJIK (Stefan Larsson), Laura Beloff, Bombina Bombast (Emma Bexell and Stefan Stanisic), Niels Bonde, Jesper Carlsen, A K Dolven, Tor Jørgen van Eijk, Aberto Frigo, Søren Thilo, Funder, HC Gilje, Goto80 (Anders Carlsson), Marie Munk Hartwig, Bjørn Erik Haugen, Ilpo Heikkinen, Marianne Heske, Hanna Husberg, IC-98 (Patrik Söderlund and Visa Suonpää), Illutron (Nicolas Padfield and Mads Høbye), Marie Kølbæk Iversen, Ewa Jacobsson, Mogens Jacobsen, Johan Knattrup Jensen, Vibeke Jensen, Lisa Jevbratt, Erik Johansson, Arijana Kajfes, Tove Kjellmark, Kollision, Jette Gejl Kristensen, Kristina Kvalvik, Marita Liulia, Lundahl & Seitl (Christer Lundahl & Martina Seitl), Anastasios Logothetis, Dark Matters, Mia Makela, Teemu Mäki, Elisabeth Molin, Tone Myskja, N55, Nuleinn (Rine Rodin & Magga Ploder), Marjatta Oja, Erik Parr, Andrew Gryf Paterson, Pink Twins (Juha Vehviläinen & Vesa Vehviläinen), Tuomo Rainio, Juan Duarte Regino, Jacob Remin, Stian Remvik, Carl-Johan Rosén, Petri Ruikka, Anne Katrine Senstad, Joonas Siren, Mats Jørgen Sivertsen, Jacek Smolicki, Lisa Strömbeck, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Tina Tarpgaard (recoil performance group), Hanne Lise Thomsen, Björk Viggósdóttir, Magnus Wassborg, Jana Winderen, Kristoffer Ørum. Tanya Toft Ag (editor) is a curator and scholar specializing in media and digital art and its urban implications. Published by Intellect 2019, distributed by Chicago University Press and John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781783209484 Cover image: Jana Winderen, Jana Winderen (2014). Krísuvik, Iceland. Photo by Finnbogi Pétursson. Courtesy of the artist.
There is no doubt that contemporary art has and is changing in relation to the digital sphere, an... more There is no doubt that contemporary art has and is changing in relation to the digital sphere, and that the technological development of recent decades has greatly influenced art’s production, distribution, interfaces and forms. Curator and scholar Tanya Ravn Ag has focused her research on the study of the ways in which the meanings, places and roles of art change with contemporary technological culture. In 2019 she published 'Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art' based on artist interviews and perspectives from curators and theorists. She has continued this work since the book's publication, creating a series of four conversations with artists, scholars and curators grouped around specific themes focused on art's new virtual and augmented environments, art's new ways of making with digital materiality, art's new representations, and art's new natures when acting in a world undergoing lockdown and social distancing. The below interview, titled Art’s New Representations, is the third of these conversations and is a reflection on the concept of representation and the ways in which this idea continues to evolve in relation to new digital technologies. The conversation includes perspectives from Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir, Saemundur Thor Helgason, Bernhard Garnicnig and Jonatan Habib Engqvist. The text is initiated and introduced by Tanya Ravn Ag and edited by Vanina Saracino.
After the Tunnel, on Shifting Ontology and Ethology of the Emerging Art-Subjectcal Shift , 2020
During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceiv... more During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceived at the time as a manifesto supporting virtuality as a medium. 25 years later, we propose a new understanding of the work and its emergence along with a reconfiguration of the ontological status of contemporary media art. Rather than mere object, as defined by normalized code of representation, the artwork can now be characterized as a subject with operational sensitivities that allow complex reactive behaviors. Real-Time processing of information has played a major role in this mutation. Virtuality-understood as design of the potentialities of the work-sensors and other input devices keeping the work aware of the existence of its 'public' and environment seem to have converted the interactive artwork into a sentient entity, empowered with perceptive functionalities and new cognitive capacities: memory, artificial intelligence, and intentionality. This transductive process leading to the evolution of the original art-object into the art-subject announces an expansion of what is considered the artwork's milieu and potentiality. More recent works of Benayoun help us to envision the next steps in this evolution: opening the ontology of art further towards its subjective capacities and possible dynamic implications in society.
Art’s conceptual expansion beyond object and form to becoming experience, sphere, and environment... more Art’s conceptual expansion beyond object and form to becoming experience, sphere, and environment, nurtured by the growing interest in affective experience, has launched both excitement and concern with digitally-afforded experience. With immersive art environments, artists explore what it feels like to be present in our contemporary world of particular temporal-sensorial conditions. Artistic concerns with representation, with what is represented to us, seems to transfer to a concern with how we are present and what factors condition our sense of presence today. This conversation, taking a point of departure in the book Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art (Intellect, 2019), seeks to take a deeper shovel to what (if anything) is actually ‘new’ about art’s environments when conditioned by digitally-afforded experience: What might the imaginary pursuit of the ‘new’ in art’s environments eventually promise, demonstrate, and feed forward? Participants of the conversation include (in order of responses), Jamie Allen, Lundahl & Seitl, Ulrik Schmidt, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen, and Jøran Rudi. It is initiated and edited by Tanya Ravn Ag.
Digital technology and culture continue to radically change the conditions for art’s production, ... more Digital technology and culture continue to radically change the conditions for art’s production, distribution, interfaces, and forms. With a point of departure in the book Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art (Intellect, 2019) that examines how digital technology and culture influence contemporary art, this conversation addresses the topic of ‘art’s new making’ by asking: What drives creative artistic pursuits today? How can we understand art’s ecologies when involved in making the ‘new’? What might the pursuit of art’s ‘new’ making promise, demonstrate, and feed forward?
Participants of this conversation include (in order of response) Laura Beloff, Elizabeth Jochum, Saara Ekström, Morten Søndergaard and Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen. It is initiated and introduced by Tanya Ravn Ag and edited by Vanina Saracino.
In the last two decades, we have witnessed a gradual shift observable in the approaches of artist... more In the last two decades, we have witnessed a gradual shift observable in the approaches of artists working with technology. This shift can be characterized as moving from the digital and virtual realm towards the physical world. More recently, this can be seen in terms of an inclusion of the biological realm into experiments and artworks that address a wide range of technological developments and their impact on society. Many of the artists working in this field – broadly termed ‘art and science’ – have a background in digital arts. This chapter traces specifically the emerging inclusion of the biological realm into the technology-based arts as a trajectory towards which the field of digital art appears to be developing.
Given that readers of this chapter probably have general knowledge about digital and technology-based art as an existing field, it focuses primarily on artistic interests that involve biological organisms and living matter in combination with technology. The trajectory is introduced through the actors and milestones in the development of Nordic new media art. It continues with examples of Nordic works, artists and active organizers who are working with a combination of digital and biological matter. The chapter divides the artistic examples into works that focus on the environment and those that focus on humans as biological organisms. Underlying the chapter is my first-hand experience in the Nordic development of new media art and my recent interest in, specifically, biological matter with digital technology. This development has two historical predecessors: one is based on the traditions of art and technology; the other is based on the traditions of landscape art and earth works. The chapter addresses our evolving understanding of concepts such as real, natural and artificial, as well as biological and technological.
What Urban Media Art Can Do - Why When Where & How, 2016
Urban media art is possibly one of the most momentous expansions within the field of contemporary... more Urban media art is possibly one of the most momentous expansions within the field of contemporary public art. Referring to various forms of media-aesthetic, artistic engagement in urban environments and evolving from a mix of genealogies of media art, avant-garde, architecture, urban development, design and technology, and biology, urban media art creates a space in which artists make, utilize and critically explore innovations in software and technology to create artworks, installations and situations in response to the urban discourses and urgencies of our time.
What Urban Media Art Can Do – Why When Where and How? engages leading thinkers, artists, curators, architects and designers in an exploration of the aesthetic, theoretical, technological and practical conditions of what urban media art can do. The publication considers artistic responses to current urban threats and discourses in a time characterised by specific technological literacies and constructions of meaning, contextualised within theoretical perspectives.
The publication departs from the global, exploratory research undertaken by the Connecting Cities Network into media art’s contribution to urban culture and environments, architecture and co-creation of cities (2013-2016). It features a number of recent artworks and urban media environments from around the world, which critically engage with geospatial, (trans)local, hybrid, intelligent urban contexts and visions for digital placemaking. These artworks contribute to developing the still-emerging domain of urban media art.
New and classic benchmark essays by Inke Arns, Josef Bares, Moritz Behrens, Maurice Benayoun, Claire Bishop, Martin Brynskov, Sandy Claes, Matthew Claudel, Marcus Foth, Eric Kluitenberg, Susa Pop, Carlo Ratti, Ava Fatah gen. Schieck, Mark Shepard, Henriette Steiner, Norbert Streitz, Tanya Toft, Martin Tomitsch, Andrew Vande Moere, Kazys Varnelis, Kristin Veel, Nanna Verhoeff, Martijn de Waal, Peter Weibel, Katharine Willis, Niels Wouters, Mark Wright, and Soenke Zehle outline major historical moments and critical concerns relating to the current transformation of society in our digital era, to which urban media art respond.
Edited by Susa Pop, Tanya Toft, Nerea Calvillo and Mark Wright
Published by av edition, 2016. ISBN: 978-3-89986-255-3
This book takes you through and beyond a map of Nordic artistic experiments, conceptual reconfigu... more This book takes you through and beyond a map of Nordic artistic experiments, conceptual reconfigurations and new modes of artistic agency.
Offering an in-depth exploration of art’s contingent evolution with technology and digital culture, this book goes far beyond familiar depictions of ‘Nordic aesthetics’ in art. It explores art’s role and inquiries in response to changing sociopolitical realities in the welfare state and in the wider world. First-hand perspectives of pioneering and pivotal artists form the basis of chapters penned by leading scholars and curators of Nordic art. Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art recasts the Nordic art context in an expanding digital condition and reveals horizontal ways to write its histories.
Chapters by Tanya Toft Ag, Jamie Allen, Laura Beloff, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Bernhard Garnicnig, Elizabeth Jochum, Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen, Jens Tang Kristensen, Mads Dejbjerg Lind, Björn Norberg, Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir, Jøran Rudi, Lorella Scacco, Morten Søndergaard, Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen, and Stahl Stenslie.
Artist testimonials by Katja Aglert, Matti Aikio, Hrund Atladóttir, AUJIK (Stefan Larsson), Laura Beloff, Bombina Bombast (Emma Bexell and Stefan Stanisic), Niels Bonde, Jesper Carlsen, A K Dolven, Tor Jørgen van Eijk, Aberto Frigo, Søren Thilo, Funder, HC Gilje, Goto80 (Anders Carlsson), Marie Munk Hartwig, Bjørn Erik Haugen, Ilpo Heikkinen, Marianne Heske, Hanna Husberg, IC-98 (Patrik Söderlund and Visa Suonpää), Illutron (Nicolas Padfield and Mads Høbye), Marie Kølbæk Iversen, Ewa Jacobsson, Mogens Jacobsen, Johan Knattrup Jensen, Vibeke Jensen, Lisa Jevbratt, Erik Johansson, Arijana Kajfes, Tove Kjellmark, Kollision, Jette Gejl Kristensen, Kristina Kvalvik, Marita Liulia, Lundahl & Seitl (Christer Lundahl & Martina Seitl), Anastasios Logothetis, Dark Matters, Mia Makela, Teemu Mäki, Elisabeth Molin, Tone Myskja, N55, Nuleinn (Rine Rodin & Magga Ploder), Marjatta Oja, Erik Parr, Andrew Gryf Paterson, Pink Twins (Juha Vehviläinen & Vesa Vehviläinen), Tuomo Rainio, Juan Duarte Regino, Jacob Remin, Stian Remvik, Carl-Johan Rosén, Petri Ruikka, Anne Katrine Senstad, Joonas Siren, Mats Jørgen Sivertsen, Jacek Smolicki, Lisa Strömbeck, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Tina Tarpgaard (recoil performance group), Hanne Lise Thomsen, Björk Viggósdóttir, Magnus Wassborg, Jana Winderen, Kristoffer Ørum.
Tanya Toft Ag (editor) is a curator and scholar specializing in media and digital art and its urban implications.
Published by Intellect 2019, distributed by Chicago University Press and John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN 9781783209484
Cover image: Jana Winderen, Jana Winderen (2014). Krísuvik, Iceland. Photo by Finnbogi Pétursson. Courtesy of the artist.
During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceiv... more During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceived at the time as a manifesto supporting virtuality as a medium. 25 years later, we propose a new understanding of the work and its emergence along with a reconfiguration of the ontological status of contemporary media art. Rather than mere object, as defined by normalized code of representation, the artwork can now be characterized as a subject with operational sensitivities that allow complex reactive behaviors. Real-Time processing of information has played a major role in this mutation. Virtuality-understood as design of the potentialities of the work-sensors and other input devices keeping the work aware of the existence of its 'public' and environment seem to have converted the interactive artwork into a sentient entity, empowered with perceptive functionalities and new cognitive capacities: memory, artificial intelligence, and intentionality. This transductive process leading to the evolution of the original art-object into the art-subject announces an expansion of what is considered the artwork's milieu and potentiality. More recent works of Benayoun help us to envision the next steps in this evolution: opening the ontology of art further towards its subjective capacities and possible dynamic implications in society.
The article considers the urban digital gallery as an opportunity to reclaim public space from di... more The article considers the urban digital gallery as an opportunity to reclaim public space from digital factors of spatial determinism in the media city. It considers the affective quality of urban digital artworks as interface between 'human' and 'technology'. The urban digital gallery is proposed to contribute to media architectural discourse by establishing situations of presence through which public space might be reclaimed, re-inhabited and re-evaluated.
This book takes you through and beyond a map of Nordic artistic experiments, conceptual reconfigu... more This book takes you through and beyond a map of Nordic artistic experiments, conceptual reconfigurations and new modes of artistic agency. Offering an in-depth exploration of art’s contingent evolution with technology and digital culture, this book goes far beyond familiar depictions of ‘Nordic aesthetics’ in art. It explores art’s role and inquiries in response to changing sociopolitical realities in the welfare state and in the wider world. First-hand perspectives of pioneering and pivotal artists form the basis of chapters penned by leading scholars and curators of Nordic art. Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art recasts the Nordic art context in an expanding digital condition and reveals horizontal ways to write its histories. Chapters by Tanya Toft Ag, Jamie Allen, Laura Beloff, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Bernhard Garnicnig, Elizabeth Jochum, Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen, Jens Tang Kristensen, Mads Dejbjerg Lind, Björn Norberg, Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir, Jøran Rudi, Lorella Scacco, Morten Søndergaard, Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen, and Stahl Stenslie. Artist testimonials by Katja Aglert, Matti Aikio, Hrund Atladóttir, AUJIK (Stefan Larsson), Laura Beloff, Bombina Bombast (Emma Bexell and Stefan Stanisic), Niels Bonde, Jesper Carlsen, A K Dolven, Tor Jørgen van Eijk, Aberto Frigo, Søren Thilo, Funder, HC Gilje, Goto80 (Anders Carlsson), Marie Munk Hartwig, Bjørn Erik Haugen, Ilpo Heikkinen, Marianne Heske, Hanna Husberg, IC-98 (Patrik Söderlund and Visa Suonpää), Illutron (Nicolas Padfield and Mads Høbye), Marie Kølbæk Iversen, Ewa Jacobsson, Mogens Jacobsen, Johan Knattrup Jensen, Vibeke Jensen, Lisa Jevbratt, Erik Johansson, Arijana Kajfes, Tove Kjellmark, Kollision, Jette Gejl Kristensen, Kristina Kvalvik, Marita Liulia, Lundahl & Seitl (Christer Lundahl & Martina Seitl), Anastasios Logothetis, Dark Matters, Mia Makela, Teemu Mäki, Elisabeth Molin, Tone Myskja, N55, Nuleinn (Rine Rodin & Magga Ploder), Marjatta Oja, Erik Parr, Andrew Gryf Paterson, Pink Twins (Juha Vehviläinen & Vesa Vehviläinen), Tuomo Rainio, Juan Duarte Regino, Jacob Remin, Stian Remvik, Carl-Johan Rosén, Petri Ruikka, Anne Katrine Senstad, Joonas Siren, Mats Jørgen Sivertsen, Jacek Smolicki, Lisa Strömbeck, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Tina Tarpgaard (recoil performance group), Hanne Lise Thomsen, Björk Viggósdóttir, Magnus Wassborg, Jana Winderen, Kristoffer Ørum. Tanya Toft Ag (editor) is a curator and scholar specializing in media and digital art and its urban implications. Published by Intellect 2019, distributed by Chicago University Press and John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781783209484 Cover image: Jana Winderen, Jana Winderen (2014). Krísuvik, Iceland. Photo by Finnbogi Pétursson. Courtesy of the artist.
During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceiv... more During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceived at the time as a manifesto supporting virtuality as a medium. 25 years later, we propose a new understanding of the work and its emergence along with a reconfiguration of the ontological status of contemporary media art. Rather than mere object, as defined by normalized code of representation, the artwork can now be characterized as a subject with operational sensitivities that allow complex reactive behaviors. Real-Time processing of information has played a major role in this mutation. Virtuality-understood as design of the potentialities of the work-sensors and other input devices keeping the work aware of the existence of its 'public' and environment seem to have converted the interactive artwork into a sentient entity, empowered with perceptive functionalities and new cognitive capacities: memory, artificial intelligence, and intentionality. This transductive process leading to the evolution of the original art-object into the art-subject announces an expansion of what is considered the artwork's milieu and potentiality. More recent works of Benayoun help us to envision the next steps in this evolution: opening the ontology of art further towards its subjective capacities and possible dynamic implications in society.
During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceiv... more During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceived at the time as a manifesto supporting virtuality as a medium. 25 years later, we propose a new understanding of the work and its emergence along with a reconfiguration of the ontological status of contemporary media art. Rather than mere object, as defined by normalized code of representation, the artwork can now be characterized as a subject with operational sensitivities that allow complex reactive behaviors. Real-Time processing of information has played a major role in this mutation. Virtuality-understood as design of the potentialities of the work-sensors and other input devices keeping the work aware of the existence of its 'public' and environment seem to have converted the interactive artwork into a sentient entity, empowered with perceptive functionalities and new cognitive capacities: memory, artificial intelligence, and intentionality. This transductive process leading to the evolution of the original art-object into the art-subject announces an expansion of what is considered the artwork's milieu and potentiality. More recent works of Benayoun help us to envision the next steps in this evolution: opening the ontology of art further towards its subjective capacities and possible dynamic implications in society.
This book takes you through and beyond a map of Nordic artistic experiments, conceptual reconfigu... more This book takes you through and beyond a map of Nordic artistic experiments, conceptual reconfigurations and new modes of artistic agency. Offering an in-depth exploration of art’s contingent evolution with technology and digital culture, this book goes far beyond familiar depictions of ‘Nordic aesthetics’ in art. It explores art’s role and inquiries in response to changing sociopolitical realities in the welfare state and in the wider world. First-hand perspectives of pioneering and pivotal artists form the basis of chapters penned by leading scholars and curators of Nordic art. Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art recasts the Nordic art context in an expanding digital condition and reveals horizontal ways to write its histories. Chapters by Tanya Toft Ag, Jamie Allen, Laura Beloff, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Bernhard Garnicnig, Elizabeth Jochum, Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen, Jens Tang Kristensen, Mads Dejbjerg Lind, Björn Norberg, Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir, Jøran Rudi, Lorella Scacco, Morten Søndergaard, Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen, and Stahl Stenslie. Artist testimonials by Katja Aglert, Matti Aikio, Hrund Atladóttir, AUJIK (Stefan Larsson), Laura Beloff, Bombina Bombast (Emma Bexell and Stefan Stanisic), Niels Bonde, Jesper Carlsen, A K Dolven, Tor Jørgen van Eijk, Aberto Frigo, Søren Thilo, Funder, HC Gilje, Goto80 (Anders Carlsson), Marie Munk Hartwig, Bjørn Erik Haugen, Ilpo Heikkinen, Marianne Heske, Hanna Husberg, IC-98 (Patrik Söderlund and Visa Suonpää), Illutron (Nicolas Padfield and Mads Høbye), Marie Kølbæk Iversen, Ewa Jacobsson, Mogens Jacobsen, Johan Knattrup Jensen, Vibeke Jensen, Lisa Jevbratt, Erik Johansson, Arijana Kajfes, Tove Kjellmark, Kollision, Jette Gejl Kristensen, Kristina Kvalvik, Marita Liulia, Lundahl & Seitl (Christer Lundahl & Martina Seitl), Anastasios Logothetis, Dark Matters, Mia Makela, Teemu Mäki, Elisabeth Molin, Tone Myskja, N55, Nuleinn (Rine Rodin & Magga Ploder), Marjatta Oja, Erik Parr, Andrew Gryf Paterson, Pink Twins (Juha Vehviläinen & Vesa Vehviläinen), Tuomo Rainio, Juan Duarte Regino, Jacob Remin, Stian Remvik, Carl-Johan Rosén, Petri Ruikka, Anne Katrine Senstad, Joonas Siren, Mats Jørgen Sivertsen, Jacek Smolicki, Lisa Strömbeck, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Tina Tarpgaard (recoil performance group), Hanne Lise Thomsen, Björk Viggósdóttir, Magnus Wassborg, Jana Winderen, Kristoffer Ørum. Tanya Toft Ag (editor) is a curator and scholar specializing in media and digital art and its urban implications. Published by Intellect 2019, distributed by Chicago University Press and John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781783209484 Cover image: Jana Winderen, Jana Winderen (2014). Krísuvik, Iceland. Photo by Finnbogi Pétursson. Courtesy of the artist.
There is no doubt that contemporary art has and is changing in relation to the digital sphere, an... more There is no doubt that contemporary art has and is changing in relation to the digital sphere, and that the technological development of recent decades has greatly influenced art’s production, distribution, interfaces and forms. Curator and scholar Tanya Ravn Ag has focused her research on the study of the ways in which the meanings, places and roles of art change with contemporary technological culture. In 2019 she published 'Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art' based on artist interviews and perspectives from curators and theorists. She has continued this work since the book's publication, creating a series of four conversations with artists, scholars and curators grouped around specific themes focused on art's new virtual and augmented environments, art's new ways of making with digital materiality, art's new representations, and art's new natures when acting in a world undergoing lockdown and social distancing. The below interview, titled Art’s New Representations, is the third of these conversations and is a reflection on the concept of representation and the ways in which this idea continues to evolve in relation to new digital technologies. The conversation includes perspectives from Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir, Saemundur Thor Helgason, Bernhard Garnicnig and Jonatan Habib Engqvist. The text is initiated and introduced by Tanya Ravn Ag and edited by Vanina Saracino.
After the Tunnel, on Shifting Ontology and Ethology of the Emerging Art-Subjectcal Shift , 2020
During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceiv... more During ISEA1995, the Tunnel Under the Atlantic presented an artwork that Maurice Benayoun conceived at the time as a manifesto supporting virtuality as a medium. 25 years later, we propose a new understanding of the work and its emergence along with a reconfiguration of the ontological status of contemporary media art. Rather than mere object, as defined by normalized code of representation, the artwork can now be characterized as a subject with operational sensitivities that allow complex reactive behaviors. Real-Time processing of information has played a major role in this mutation. Virtuality-understood as design of the potentialities of the work-sensors and other input devices keeping the work aware of the existence of its 'public' and environment seem to have converted the interactive artwork into a sentient entity, empowered with perceptive functionalities and new cognitive capacities: memory, artificial intelligence, and intentionality. This transductive process leading to the evolution of the original art-object into the art-subject announces an expansion of what is considered the artwork's milieu and potentiality. More recent works of Benayoun help us to envision the next steps in this evolution: opening the ontology of art further towards its subjective capacities and possible dynamic implications in society.
Art’s conceptual expansion beyond object and form to becoming experience, sphere, and environment... more Art’s conceptual expansion beyond object and form to becoming experience, sphere, and environment, nurtured by the growing interest in affective experience, has launched both excitement and concern with digitally-afforded experience. With immersive art environments, artists explore what it feels like to be present in our contemporary world of particular temporal-sensorial conditions. Artistic concerns with representation, with what is represented to us, seems to transfer to a concern with how we are present and what factors condition our sense of presence today. This conversation, taking a point of departure in the book Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art (Intellect, 2019), seeks to take a deeper shovel to what (if anything) is actually ‘new’ about art’s environments when conditioned by digitally-afforded experience: What might the imaginary pursuit of the ‘new’ in art’s environments eventually promise, demonstrate, and feed forward? Participants of the conversation include (in order of responses), Jamie Allen, Lundahl & Seitl, Ulrik Schmidt, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen, and Jøran Rudi. It is initiated and edited by Tanya Ravn Ag.
Digital technology and culture continue to radically change the conditions for art’s production, ... more Digital technology and culture continue to radically change the conditions for art’s production, distribution, interfaces, and forms. With a point of departure in the book Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art (Intellect, 2019) that examines how digital technology and culture influence contemporary art, this conversation addresses the topic of ‘art’s new making’ by asking: What drives creative artistic pursuits today? How can we understand art’s ecologies when involved in making the ‘new’? What might the pursuit of art’s ‘new’ making promise, demonstrate, and feed forward?
Participants of this conversation include (in order of response) Laura Beloff, Elizabeth Jochum, Saara Ekström, Morten Søndergaard and Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen. It is initiated and introduced by Tanya Ravn Ag and edited by Vanina Saracino.
In the last two decades, we have witnessed a gradual shift observable in the approaches of artist... more In the last two decades, we have witnessed a gradual shift observable in the approaches of artists working with technology. This shift can be characterized as moving from the digital and virtual realm towards the physical world. More recently, this can be seen in terms of an inclusion of the biological realm into experiments and artworks that address a wide range of technological developments and their impact on society. Many of the artists working in this field – broadly termed ‘art and science’ – have a background in digital arts. This chapter traces specifically the emerging inclusion of the biological realm into the technology-based arts as a trajectory towards which the field of digital art appears to be developing.
Given that readers of this chapter probably have general knowledge about digital and technology-based art as an existing field, it focuses primarily on artistic interests that involve biological organisms and living matter in combination with technology. The trajectory is introduced through the actors and milestones in the development of Nordic new media art. It continues with examples of Nordic works, artists and active organizers who are working with a combination of digital and biological matter. The chapter divides the artistic examples into works that focus on the environment and those that focus on humans as biological organisms. Underlying the chapter is my first-hand experience in the Nordic development of new media art and my recent interest in, specifically, biological matter with digital technology. This development has two historical predecessors: one is based on the traditions of art and technology; the other is based on the traditions of landscape art and earth works. The chapter addresses our evolving understanding of concepts such as real, natural and artificial, as well as biological and technological.
Mine erfaringer og refleksioner over mit projektorienterede forløb hos tegnestuen StudioMDA i New... more Mine erfaringer og refleksioner over mit projektorienterede forløb hos tegnestuen StudioMDA i New York over sommeren 2010 er samlet i en humanistisk (selv) refleksion. Arkitekturbegrebet udspiller sig i dag ikke som et ensidigt praksisbegreb. Op igennem ...
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What Urban Media Art Can Do – Why When Where and How? engages leading thinkers, artists, curators, architects and designers in an exploration of the aesthetic, theoretical, technological and practical conditions of what urban media art can do. The publication considers artistic responses to current urban threats and discourses in a time characterised by specific technological literacies and constructions of meaning, contextualised within theoretical perspectives.
The publication departs from the global, exploratory research undertaken by the Connecting Cities Network into media art’s contribution to urban culture and environments, architecture and co-creation of cities (2013-2016). It features a number of recent artworks and urban media environments from around the world, which critically engage with geospatial, (trans)local, hybrid, intelligent urban contexts and visions for digital placemaking. These artworks contribute to developing the still-emerging domain of urban media art.
New and classic benchmark essays by Inke Arns, Josef Bares, Moritz Behrens, Maurice Benayoun, Claire Bishop, Martin Brynskov, Sandy Claes, Matthew Claudel, Marcus Foth, Eric Kluitenberg, Susa Pop, Carlo Ratti, Ava Fatah gen. Schieck, Mark Shepard, Henriette Steiner, Norbert Streitz, Tanya Toft, Martin Tomitsch, Andrew Vande Moere, Kazys Varnelis, Kristin Veel, Nanna Verhoeff, Martijn de Waal, Peter Weibel, Katharine Willis, Niels Wouters, Mark Wright, and Soenke Zehle outline major historical moments and critical concerns relating to the current transformation of society in our digital era, to which urban media art respond.
Edited by Susa Pop, Tanya Toft, Nerea Calvillo and Mark Wright
Published by av edition, 2016.
ISBN: 978-3-89986-255-3
Offering an in-depth exploration of art’s contingent evolution with technology and digital culture, this book goes far beyond familiar depictions of ‘Nordic aesthetics’ in art. It explores art’s role and inquiries in response to changing sociopolitical realities in the welfare state and in the wider world. First-hand perspectives of pioneering and pivotal artists form the basis of chapters penned by leading scholars and curators of Nordic art. Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art recasts the Nordic art context in an expanding digital condition and reveals horizontal ways to write its histories.
Chapters by Tanya Toft Ag, Jamie Allen, Laura Beloff, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Bernhard Garnicnig, Elizabeth Jochum, Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen, Jens Tang Kristensen, Mads Dejbjerg Lind, Björn Norberg, Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir, Jøran Rudi, Lorella Scacco, Morten Søndergaard, Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen, and Stahl Stenslie.
Artist testimonials by Katja Aglert, Matti Aikio, Hrund Atladóttir, AUJIK (Stefan Larsson), Laura Beloff, Bombina Bombast (Emma Bexell and Stefan Stanisic), Niels Bonde, Jesper Carlsen, A K Dolven, Tor Jørgen van Eijk, Aberto Frigo, Søren Thilo, Funder, HC Gilje, Goto80 (Anders Carlsson), Marie Munk Hartwig, Bjørn Erik Haugen, Ilpo Heikkinen, Marianne Heske, Hanna Husberg, IC-98 (Patrik Söderlund and Visa Suonpää), Illutron (Nicolas Padfield and Mads Høbye), Marie Kølbæk Iversen, Ewa Jacobsson, Mogens Jacobsen, Johan Knattrup Jensen, Vibeke Jensen, Lisa Jevbratt, Erik Johansson, Arijana Kajfes, Tove Kjellmark, Kollision, Jette Gejl Kristensen, Kristina Kvalvik, Marita Liulia, Lundahl & Seitl (Christer Lundahl & Martina Seitl), Anastasios Logothetis, Dark Matters, Mia Makela, Teemu Mäki, Elisabeth Molin, Tone Myskja, N55, Nuleinn (Rine Rodin & Magga Ploder), Marjatta Oja, Erik Parr, Andrew Gryf Paterson, Pink Twins (Juha Vehviläinen & Vesa Vehviläinen), Tuomo Rainio, Juan Duarte Regino, Jacob Remin, Stian Remvik, Carl-Johan Rosén, Petri Ruikka, Anne Katrine Senstad, Joonas Siren, Mats Jørgen Sivertsen, Jacek Smolicki, Lisa Strömbeck, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Tina Tarpgaard (recoil performance group), Hanne Lise Thomsen, Björk Viggósdóttir, Magnus Wassborg, Jana Winderen, Kristoffer Ørum.
Tanya Toft Ag (editor) is a curator and scholar specializing in media and digital art and its urban implications.
Published by Intellect 2019, distributed by Chicago University Press and John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN 9781783209484
Cover image: Jana Winderen, Jana Winderen (2014). Krísuvik, Iceland. Photo by Finnbogi Pétursson. Courtesy of the artist.
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Participants of this conversation include (in order of response) Laura Beloff, Elizabeth Jochum, Saara Ekström, Morten Søndergaard and Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen. It is initiated and introduced by Tanya Ravn Ag and edited by Vanina Saracino.
Given that readers of this chapter probably have general knowledge about digital and technology-based art as an existing field, it focuses primarily on artistic interests that involve biological organisms and living matter in combination with technology. The trajectory is introduced through the actors and milestones in the development of Nordic new media art. It continues with examples of Nordic works, artists and active organizers who are working with a combination of digital and biological matter. The chapter divides the artistic examples into works that focus on the environment and those that focus on humans as biological organisms. Underlying the chapter is my first-hand experience in the Nordic development of new media art and my recent interest in, specifically, biological matter with digital technology. This development has two historical predecessors: one is based on the traditions of art and technology; the other is based on the traditions of landscape art and earth works. The chapter addresses our evolving understanding of concepts such as real, natural and artificial, as well as biological and technological.
What Urban Media Art Can Do – Why When Where and How? engages leading thinkers, artists, curators, architects and designers in an exploration of the aesthetic, theoretical, technological and practical conditions of what urban media art can do. The publication considers artistic responses to current urban threats and discourses in a time characterised by specific technological literacies and constructions of meaning, contextualised within theoretical perspectives.
The publication departs from the global, exploratory research undertaken by the Connecting Cities Network into media art’s contribution to urban culture and environments, architecture and co-creation of cities (2013-2016). It features a number of recent artworks and urban media environments from around the world, which critically engage with geospatial, (trans)local, hybrid, intelligent urban contexts and visions for digital placemaking. These artworks contribute to developing the still-emerging domain of urban media art.
New and classic benchmark essays by Inke Arns, Josef Bares, Moritz Behrens, Maurice Benayoun, Claire Bishop, Martin Brynskov, Sandy Claes, Matthew Claudel, Marcus Foth, Eric Kluitenberg, Susa Pop, Carlo Ratti, Ava Fatah gen. Schieck, Mark Shepard, Henriette Steiner, Norbert Streitz, Tanya Toft, Martin Tomitsch, Andrew Vande Moere, Kazys Varnelis, Kristin Veel, Nanna Verhoeff, Martijn de Waal, Peter Weibel, Katharine Willis, Niels Wouters, Mark Wright, and Soenke Zehle outline major historical moments and critical concerns relating to the current transformation of society in our digital era, to which urban media art respond.
Edited by Susa Pop, Tanya Toft, Nerea Calvillo and Mark Wright
Published by av edition, 2016.
ISBN: 978-3-89986-255-3
Offering an in-depth exploration of art’s contingent evolution with technology and digital culture, this book goes far beyond familiar depictions of ‘Nordic aesthetics’ in art. It explores art’s role and inquiries in response to changing sociopolitical realities in the welfare state and in the wider world. First-hand perspectives of pioneering and pivotal artists form the basis of chapters penned by leading scholars and curators of Nordic art. Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art recasts the Nordic art context in an expanding digital condition and reveals horizontal ways to write its histories.
Chapters by Tanya Toft Ag, Jamie Allen, Laura Beloff, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Jonatan Habib Engqvist, Bernhard Garnicnig, Elizabeth Jochum, Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen, Jens Tang Kristensen, Mads Dejbjerg Lind, Björn Norberg, Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir, Jøran Rudi, Lorella Scacco, Morten Søndergaard, Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen, and Stahl Stenslie.
Artist testimonials by Katja Aglert, Matti Aikio, Hrund Atladóttir, AUJIK (Stefan Larsson), Laura Beloff, Bombina Bombast (Emma Bexell and Stefan Stanisic), Niels Bonde, Jesper Carlsen, A K Dolven, Tor Jørgen van Eijk, Aberto Frigo, Søren Thilo, Funder, HC Gilje, Goto80 (Anders Carlsson), Marie Munk Hartwig, Bjørn Erik Haugen, Ilpo Heikkinen, Marianne Heske, Hanna Husberg, IC-98 (Patrik Söderlund and Visa Suonpää), Illutron (Nicolas Padfield and Mads Høbye), Marie Kølbæk Iversen, Ewa Jacobsson, Mogens Jacobsen, Johan Knattrup Jensen, Vibeke Jensen, Lisa Jevbratt, Erik Johansson, Arijana Kajfes, Tove Kjellmark, Kollision, Jette Gejl Kristensen, Kristina Kvalvik, Marita Liulia, Lundahl & Seitl (Christer Lundahl & Martina Seitl), Anastasios Logothetis, Dark Matters, Mia Makela, Teemu Mäki, Elisabeth Molin, Tone Myskja, N55, Nuleinn (Rine Rodin & Magga Ploder), Marjatta Oja, Erik Parr, Andrew Gryf Paterson, Pink Twins (Juha Vehviläinen & Vesa Vehviläinen), Tuomo Rainio, Juan Duarte Regino, Jacob Remin, Stian Remvik, Carl-Johan Rosén, Petri Ruikka, Anne Katrine Senstad, Joonas Siren, Mats Jørgen Sivertsen, Jacek Smolicki, Lisa Strömbeck, Egill Sæbjörnsson, Tina Tarpgaard (recoil performance group), Hanne Lise Thomsen, Björk Viggósdóttir, Magnus Wassborg, Jana Winderen, Kristoffer Ørum.
Tanya Toft Ag (editor) is a curator and scholar specializing in media and digital art and its urban implications.
Published by Intellect 2019, distributed by Chicago University Press and John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN 9781783209484
Cover image: Jana Winderen, Jana Winderen (2014). Krísuvik, Iceland. Photo by Finnbogi Pétursson. Courtesy of the artist.
Participants of this conversation include (in order of response) Laura Beloff, Elizabeth Jochum, Saara Ekström, Morten Søndergaard and Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen. It is initiated and introduced by Tanya Ravn Ag and edited by Vanina Saracino.
Given that readers of this chapter probably have general knowledge about digital and technology-based art as an existing field, it focuses primarily on artistic interests that involve biological organisms and living matter in combination with technology. The trajectory is introduced through the actors and milestones in the development of Nordic new media art. It continues with examples of Nordic works, artists and active organizers who are working with a combination of digital and biological matter. The chapter divides the artistic examples into works that focus on the environment and those that focus on humans as biological organisms. Underlying the chapter is my first-hand experience in the Nordic development of new media art and my recent interest in, specifically, biological matter with digital technology. This development has two historical predecessors: one is based on the traditions of art and technology; the other is based on the traditions of landscape art and earth works. The chapter addresses our evolving understanding of concepts such as real, natural and artificial, as well as biological and technological.