Art in the Asia-Pacific
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Art in the Asia-Pacifi c As social, locative, and mobile media render the intimate public and the public intimate, this volume interrogates how this phenomenon impacts art practice and politics. Contributors bring together the worlds of art and media culture to rethink their intersections in light of participatory social media. By focusing upon the Asia-Pacifi c region, they seek to examine how regionalism and locality affect global circuits of culture. The book also offers a set of theoretical frameworks and methodological paradigms for thinking about contemporary art practice more generally. Larissa Hjorth is Professor in the Games Programs, School of Media & Communication, RMIT University, Australia. Natalie King is Director of Utopia at Asialink, The University of Melbourne, Australia. Mami Kataoka is Chief Curator at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan. Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies 1 Ethics and Images of Pain 5 Manga’s Cultural Crossroads Edited by Asbjørn Grønstad & Edited by Jaqueline Berndt Henrik Gustafsson and Bettina Kümmerling- Meibauer 2 Meanings of Abstract Art Between Nature and Theory 6 Mobility and Fantasy in Visual Edited by Paul Crowther and Isabel Culture Wünsche Edited by Lewis Johnson 3 Genealogy and Ontology of the 7 Spiritual Art and Art Western Image and its Digital Education Future Janis Lander John Lechte 8 Art in the Asia-Pacifi c 4 Representations of Pain in Art Intimate Publics and Visual Culture Edited by Larissa Hjorth, Edited by Maria Pia Di Bella and Natalie King, and Mami James Elkins Kataoka Art in Asia-Pacifi c Intimate Publics Edited by Larissa Hjorth, Natalie King, and Mami Kataoka First pu blished 2014 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2014 Taylor & Francis The right of the editors to be identifi ed as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Art in the Asia-Pacifi c : intimate publics / edited by Larissa Hjorth, Natalie King, Mami Kataoka. pages cm. — (Routledge advances in art and visual studies ; 8) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Art and society—Pacifi c Area—History—21st century. 2. Technology—Social aspects—Pacifi c Area—History—21st century. 3. Place (Philosophy) I. Hjorth, Larissa, editor of compilation. II. King, Natalie, editor of compilation. III. Kataoka, Mami, editor of compilation. N72.S6A7515 2014 709.182'3—dc23 2013039562 ISBN: 978-0-415-72274-2 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-85810-4 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents List of Figures ix Acknowledgments xi 1 Intimate Publics: The Place of Art and Media Cultures in the Asia-Pacifi c Region 1 LARISSA HJORTH, NATALIE KING, AND MAMI KATAOKA PART I Reconceptualizing the Region 2 Mega-Exhibitions, New Publics, and Asian Art Biennials 23 ANTHONY GARDNER AND CHARLES GREEN 3 Dots in the Domain: The Asia Pacifi c Triennial of Contemporary Art 37 RUSSELL STORER 4 Beyond Institutional Thinking 49 ELAINE W. NG 5 Making Do: The Making of the Art and Digital Media in Southeast Asia 59 GRIDTHIYA GAWEEWONG 6 On Platform Seoul : Models beyond the Biennale 73 SUNJUNG KIM vi Contents PART II When Art and New Media Collide 7 Red Tape and Digital Talismans: Shaping Knowledge beneath Surveillance 91 ZOE BUTT 8 Screen Ecologies: A Discussion of Art, Screen Cultures, and the Environment in the Region 105 LARISSA HJORTH, KRISTEN SHARP, AND LINDA WILLIAMS 9 Intimacy and Distance with the Public 123 MAMI KATAOKA 10 Regional Standardization: MPEG and Intercultural Transmission 134 SEAN CUBITT 11 PlayStations: On Being Curated and Other Geo-Ethnographies 146 LEE WENG CHOY AND LARISSA HJORTH PART III Vernacular, Media Practice, and Social Politics 12 Public Screens and Participatory Public Space 161 NIKOS PAPASTERGIADIS, SCOTT MCQUIRE, AMELIA BARIKIN, AND AUDREY YUE 13 Mediating the Metropolis: New Media Art as a Laboratory for Urban Ecology in Indonesia 173 EDWIN JURRIËNS 14 The Virtual Extimacies of Cao Fei 191 JUSTIN CLEMENS 15 The Conjugations of Remix: Or, as Kurt Vonnegut Might Say, Being Spastic in Time 204 DARREN TOFTS Contents vii 16 Toward Utopia: A Pan-Asian Incubator 217 NATALIE KING, YUSAKU IMAMURA, SUNJUNG KIM, TAN BOON HUI, AND DEEKSHA NATH 17 Conclusion: Beyond the Intimate? The Place of the Public in the Region 231 LARISSA HJORTH, NATALIE KING, AND MAMI KATAOKA Contributors 243 Index 249 Figures 1.1 Larissa Hjorth, Three Forms of Mobile Novels (2004) 6 1.2 Nikhil Chopra, Yog Raj Chitrakar Visits Lal Chowk (2007) 15 2.1 Paramodel, Paramodel Joint Factory (2012) 24 2.2 Ho Tzu Nyen, Zarathustra: A Film for Everyone and No One (2009) 27 3.1 Yayoi Kusama, The Obliteration Room (2012) 38 3.2 Foreground: Shirley Macnamara, Wingreeguu (2012). Background: Atul Dodiya, Somersault in Sandalwood Sky (2012). 45 4.1 Asia Art Archive website 51 4.2 Christopher Doyle, Away with Words (Artist app) 53 4.3 DSL Collection website 55 4.4 Art Intelligence’s iPad apps 56 5.1 Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Primitive (2009) 67 5.2 Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Primitive (2009) 67 6.1 Lee Bul, Aubade (2007) 81 7.1 Installation view of Nguyen Thai Tuan’s Fullness of Absence (2011) 98 7.2 Dinh Q. Le, Erasure (2011) 101 8.1 2 Degrees of Separation 2028: Akira from the series when I was a buoyant (2012) 108 8.2 Keitai Mizu (2013) 112 9.1 Ai Weiwei: According to What? (October 7, 2012 to February 24, 2013) 126 9.2 WAWA Project 130 10.1 Daniel Crooks, Static No. 17 (algorithm P) (2011) 137 11.1 Shibuya: Underground Streams (2013) 154 11.2 Keitai Mizu (2013) 155 12.1 Seung Joon Choi, Value (2008) 166 12.2 Launch of Tomorrow City (2008) 167 x Figures 13.1 Asia-Europe Foundation Expert Meeting for New Media, Civil Society and Environmental Sustainability at the 2010 Nu-Substance Festival 180 13.2 The Sundanese fusion group Karinding Attack!!! at the opening of the 2010 Nu-Substance Festival 185 14.1 Cao Fei, RMB: Tracey China in Second Life (Since 2007) 193 15.1 Soda_Jerk, After the Rainbow (2009) 210 15.2 Soda_Jerk, After the Rainbow (2009) 211 15.3 Soda_Jerk, The Time That Remains (2012) 212 15.4 Soda_Jerk, The Time That Remains (2012) 212 16.1 Raqs Media Collective, Utopia Is a Hearing Aid (2003) 218 16.2 Seung Woo Back, Signboard (2011) 221 16.3 Apotik Komik, Under Estimate (1999) 226 17.1 Larissa Hjorth, Locating the Mobile (2004) 237 Acknowledgments The editors would like to thank both the writers and the artists for their contributions. Larissa Hjorth would like to acknowledge the Digital Ethnography Re search Centre at RMIT University, Melbourne, and the Australian Research Council Discovery Online@AsiaPacifi c (DP0986998). Natalie King would like to acknowledge Asialink, University of Melbourne, especially her colleagues in the Asialink Arts team. She also thanks her family, David, Lilly, Coco, and Woody Weissman, for their unwavering support. This collection was developed through a special issue of Broadsheet (Volume 40, No. 4, December 2011). Thanks to Broadsheet ’s editor Alan Cruickshank. Utopia@Asialink is supported by Arts Victoria. 1 Intimate Publics The Place of Art and Media Cultures in the Asia-Pacifi c Region Larissa Hjorth, Natalie King, and Mami Kataoka INTIMATE ENTANGLEMENTS In India, one can fi nd the third biggest usage of Facebook with more than 57 million users. In Indonesia, there are nearly 43 million Facebook users in a nation that has been dubbed “Twitter Nation”. In China, where Facebook is banned, a healthy diet of QQ, Weibo, WeChat, and Jiepang dominate, highlighting the signifi cance of media-rich mobile media. For many of the older Chinese users, the mobile phone has been their only portal for the online, especially through QQ, which for many is synonymous with the not just social media but also with the Internet. With a strong shanzhai (copy) phone culture that keeps the smartphone prices down, we see more than 420 million of China’s total 564 million online users doing so from the mobile. The Asia-Pacifi c is home to much of the world’s production of online and mobile technologies as witnessed in the exposé of Foxconn’s inhumane work- ing conditions producing the world’s Apple products. It is also home to the world’s fi rst example of mainstream mobile Internet in Japan more than fi fteen years ago. With strong production and consumption patterns the region’s various and contesting social and mobile media cultures play a pivotal role in everyday life. Yet, discussions about the role of these media cultures and their relationship to art practice have remained relatively cursory. This is partly to do with the discomfort between art and new media practice which was reenacted by Claire Bishop in her recent discussion of the two fi elds. 1 What becomes apparent is that the distance between the two fi elds is no longer tenable in practice, and thus, we need more complex conceptual- izations about art’s role in contemporary online and mobile media.