vol 20 no 2 book editors lanfranco aceti & paul thomas editorial manager çağlar çetin In this particular volume the issue of art as interference and the strategies that it should adopt have been reframed within the structures of contempo- rary technology as well as within the frameworks of interactions between art, science and media. What sort of interference should be chosen, if one at all, remains a personal choice for each artist, curator, critic and historian.

ISSN 1071-4391 ISBN 978-1-906897-32-1​ VOL 20 NO 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 1 E SSAY ESSAY

ABSTRACT

IMAGES Considering its technological and thematical contexts, digital art conveys different – even more complex – potentials of expression than traditional art forms (such as sculptures, paintings, etc.), what makes digital art a paradigmatic expression of its time? This article emphasizes the variety (R)-EVOLUTION of (complex) topics that are expressed within digital art, ranging from glo- Media Arts Complex Imagery Challenging Humanities balization, ecological and economic crises (virtual economy), media and and Our Institutions of Cultural Memory image revolution to questions of the body and its societal norms. Due to the imminent problems of archiving, the digital arts are threatened by its loss – a problem that is reinforced by the insufficient practices of cultural

1. LOSING CONTEMPORARY ART institutions to display, collect and research digital art. Post-industrial soci- by eties require digital arts based on contemporary media dispositive to re- Compared to traditional art forms – such as paint- flect upon current and future challenges, just like was always in- ing or sculpture – Media Art has a multifarious potential of expression and visualization; although formed by its contemporary media technologies. By establishing concerted [email protected] underrepresented on the art market which is driven by economic interests, it therefore became “the art international strategies and new scientific tools it is the aim of this essay of our time”; thematizing complex challenges for our to provide a framework to enable media art histories and image science life and societies, like genetic engineering and the 1 as well as the digital humanities to engage more fully with current digital rise of post-human bodies, 2 like ecological crises, 3 like the image and media 4 revolution and with it the developments in order to enable the humanities to meet with its (current) explosion of human knowledge, 5 the rapid grow- ing mega-cities, the change towards virtual financial responsibilities. By discussing examples from a variety of projects from the economies 6 and the processes of globalization 7 and natural sciences and the humanities, this article tries to demonstrate the surveillance to name just a few. Visually powerful, interactive media art, often supported by databases strategic importance of these collective projects, especially in their grow- or the world wide web, is offering more and more de- ing importance for the humanities. grees of freedom in creative expression and evidently is much better equipped to directly address the chal- lenges of our complex times within the very medium that shapes them. Although it has been around for decades and even quantitatively dominated many art schools, digital media art has not fully arrived in the nated approximately ten years ago can often not be Over the last fifty years digital media art has evolved core collecting institutions of our societies. Due to shown anymore. It is no exaggeration to state that into a vivid contemporary factor. Although there are the lack of institutional support and rapid changes we are facing the ‘total loss of an art form’ created in well attended festivals worldwide, 8 funded collabora- in storage and presentation media, works that origi- the early times of our post-industrial digital societies. tive projects, discussion forums, publications 9 and

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2. MEDIA ARTS MULTIFARIOUS POTENTIAL OF EXPRESSION

database documentation projects, 10 digital media art Gerhard Dirmoser has created a diagram to give an his eight min. short What Will Come (Has Already figuration of the attempts of the growing visualization is still rarely collected by museums, barely supported overview of the tremendous development that media Come) and linked a hand-drawn animation film with industries to make our complex time understood. within the mainframe of art history and with relatively art went through during thirty years of Ars Electronica. the anamorphosis, which appears connected now for Since the late 1980s until now, Günthers destroyed in low accessibility for public and scholars. Hundreds of names of artists, of artworks, art trends, the first time with moving images. He is one of the art- his making process more than ten thousand globes, theories of media art in keywords, are presented in ists helping us to put the latest image revolution into a following the attempt to create a more realistic im- It is ironic that this loss takes place in a time, when the an enormous circle. Thirty-two slices are offered as a historical perspective. age of economy, power, and all kinds of meaningful world of images around us changes faster than ever subdivision into themes, like representation, emotion parameters. 22 before. Images are advancing into new domains: new and synesthesia, atmosphere, games, art as spatial ex- Victoria Vesna’s Bodies@ Incorporated allows visitors private platforms like YouTube, Flickr with its billion perience; here we find glimpses of a history of media to construct their own avatars. Using a variety of Web Since Edward Snowden’s release of documents we uploads or Facebook that has now over 1 billion mem- art. 15 tools, the users can make a 3D representation of their know that Facebook also is systematically used for bers and is now the largest image archive in the world. body. References are made throughout the site to NSA Surveillance, but many artists, like Seiko Mikami Television became a zappy field of thousands of chan- Thousands of artworks make use of and express the identity politics and other concepts used to separate in her robotic installation Desire of Codes, 2011, dealt nels, now also in 3D, and 3D experiences a renaissance multifarious potential of media art. In the installations and identify bodies. 19 Also largely ignored by muse- with this big issue of our time already before the in cinema as well. Large projection screens are invad- Osmose (1995) and Éphémère (1998) Charlotte Da- ums was golden Nica awarded Murmuring Fields by worldwide espionage became known. Paolo Cirio’s ing our cities, buildings’ surfaces meld ever more often vies transports us into a visually powerful 3D-simula- Fleischmann & Strauss. The interacting users maneu- and Alessandro Ludivico’s Face to Facebook was a with moving images, so that the old dream of talking tion of a lush mineral-vegetable sphere, which we can ver through a virtual space of media philosophy, where media hack performance through a social experiment: architecture gets a new arsenal of options. 11 Cell explored via a bodily interface consisting of a vest that they can hear statements by Flusser, Virilio, Minsky, stealing one million Facebook profiles, filtering them phones transmit movies in real time, VJing represents monitors breathing; both works are classics of digital and Weizenbaum. Murmuring Fields is a new type of with face-recognition software and then posting them an entirely new amalgamation of music and moving media art that generated more than one hundred sci- a Denkraum – a sphere of thought, 20 – and an early on a custom-made dating website, sorted by their images 12 and Google StreetView and Google Earth entific and art-historical articles but were ignored by prefiguration of web-based knowledge exchange. facial expression characteristics. Cirio’s and Ludovicos’ step up the concepts of panoramic image spaces in- museum collections. 16 mission was to give all these virtual identities a new cluding satellite views, for example of our Center for Today we know that the virtualization and increasing shared place to expose themselves freely, breaking Image Science in Göttweig. Open-ended questions about the complicated ethical complexity of financial products is partly responsible Facebook’s constraints and social rules. 23 During the issues involved in the manipulation of DNA are raised for the global financial crisis that cost us trillions of performance the artists counted one thousand media The historical development of the image between by Eduardo KAc’s installation Genesis. 17 Euros and Dollars. But already more than a decade coverage around the world, eleven lawsuit threats, innovation, reflection and iconoclasm reaches a new ago, the studio Asymptote proposed a 3D info-scape five death threats and three letters from the lawyer level of global complexity in the 21st century. Digi- With UNMAKEABLELOVE and Sarah for the NYSE to manage financial data within a real- of Facebook. In Johanna and Florian Dombois’ work tal images have become ubiquitous and key tools Kenderdine created in their cybernetic theatre Re- time virtual environment, providing a better, more Fidelio, 21st Century, named after Beethoven’s Fidelio, within the global reorganization of work, but these Actor a real time augmented world of thirty humans transparent image and thereby a better idea of trans- for the first time a classical opera was directed as an transformations have hit a society that is to a large inspired by Samuel Beckett’s The Lost Ones. In a dark actions – before we get driven into the next mega- interactive virtual 3D experience. Protagonists em- extent unprepared. 13 All of these visualizations and space or even a prison camp formed by a hexagon of crash. 21 The NYSE, however, did not want further body music, follow the dramaturgic direction and react virtualizations require an unknown and undisclosed six rear-projected silver screens, the artwork functions development of a visualization of their “financial prod- to the interventions of the visitors. 24 amount of material. Google, for example, runs more in the most powerful reappearance and aesthetic in- ucts” – and since the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy in than one million Servers in a dozen countries, even on terpretation of the phantasmagoria.18 For years also 2008 we know why. All these examples demonstrate that media art can the ocean, and processes twenty-four PetaBytes of William Kentridge, one of the most well-known artists deal with the questions and challenges of our time user generated data per day while the four to six mil- of our time, has been working on the subject of a his- Ingo Günthers’ obsessive cartographic work World- in ways that traditional art media simply can’t. In the lion people, who died in the race for so called “conflict tory of vision. Even historic image media, like the mir- processor – an artwork that implicitly conveys the best humanistic traditions, digital media art takes on minerals,” 14 did not even receive a monument for the ror anamorphosis, made its way into his contemporary explosion, ubiquity as well as the availability of data the big contemporary questions, dangers and pro- unknown victim. media art. In 2007 he created a hybrid that had not by the introduction and consolidation of digital media posed transformations but is not adequately collected, existed before in the media history of seeing. He used on illuminated globes – appears as a clairvoyant pre- documented and preserved by our public museums. A

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3. INTEGRATING MEDIA ART INTO ITS MEDIA & IMAGE HISTORIES

techno-cultural society that does not understand its It is essential to create an understanding of the fact In the current social media based image world it has like a second visual sphere. This is where different challenges, which is not equally open for the art of its that the present image revolution, which uses new become even more difficult to provide a definition. ways of seeing the world encounter each other and time, is in trouble. technologies and has also developed a large number Images today, along with the cultures from whence are negotiated actively; this is where the rudiments of of so far unknown visual expressions, cannot be con- they originated, are on the move; myriads of images a new culture form. Nevertheless, if one wants to un- We know that media artists today are shaping highly ceptualized without our image history. 28 Art history flow with extreme mobility in fractions of a second derstand an image then the image, at least in part, has disparate areas, such as time based , and media studies help understand the function of around the globe as messages of transnational and to be considered in context. Contexts are becoming telepresence art, genetic and bio art, robotics, Net Art, today’s image worlds in their importance for building transcultural communication. Images from formerly more and more complicated due to the many different and space art; experimenting with nanotechnology, ar- and forming societies. By telling the history of illusion separate contexts are occupied, interpreted, amalgam- visual media: also there is now apparently no limit to tificial or A-life art; creating virtual agents and avatars, and immersion, the history of artificial life or the tradi- ated, and given new meanings. What we are seeing at the acceleration of visual exchange processes, which, mixed realities, and database-supported art. As we tion of telepresence, art history offers sub-histories the moment is a shift in our image cultures, which are because of their multifaceted branching and connec- know, the relation / guarantee ‘artist-original,’ which of the present image revolution. Art history might be connected to international media, in the direction of a tions, cannot be captured or analyzed by the instru- was still apparent in the age of craftsmanship, became considered a reservoir in which contemporary pro- single image culture that increasingly operates trans- ments employed by the humanities in the nineteenth in the post-industrial era fairly complicated through cesses are embedded, an anthropologic narration, on culturally. Formerly passive recipients – who reflected and twentieth centuries. mechanization and multiplication. Today, software the one hand, and the political battleground where on discrete works of art in a distanced yet intellectual- of digital artwork often exists in a multiplied state by the clash of images is analyzed, on the other. 29 Fur- ly active manner – have now become interactive users If ever the theory of a homogeneous or pure culture, definition. What intensifies this process of multiplica- thermore, art-historical methods may strengthen our with considerable degrees of freedom. What is more, elevated ideologically and repeatedly misused, had any tion are the complicated iterations developed through political-aesthetic analysis of the present through im- they have become active mediators and facilitators of validity, this idea is now virtually obsolete. On the oth- the interactive interventions of the users in the age analyses. Last but not least, the development and image worlds as well as producers of the same in that er hand, a theory of culture that is playful and favors framework of a piece enabled by the varied degrees significance of should be illuminated, since they increasingly collect, modify, distribute and posi- egalitarian exchange may be desirable, but it is rather of freedom offered by the author/artist; the artwork the first utopian expressions of a new medium often tion images selectively and strategically. New visual naïve when one considers the power of commercial becomes a multiplication of the multiplied expressions take place in artworks. information arises not least through dialogue in which international players to create global icons, the in- of the artwork itself. one or more networks are involved. roads of political control over the networks, language Older definitions, by Gottfried Böhm, Klaus Sachs- barriers, inadequate knowledge about digital cultural The more open the construction of the artwork’s Hombach, or W. J. T. Mitchell, of what an image is The mise en scène of the images, singly or in clusters, techniques, and the power of certain media concerns system, the more the creative dimension of the work became problematical in the context of the digital age. their metamorphoses and their dissemination, are sig- that are coming together to form economic cartels. moves towards the normally passive beholder, who is I shall therefore begin by quoting a carefully crafted nificantly determined by the users of social networks. transformed into a player and can select from a multi- definition by Thomas Hensel: Vibrant sub-cultures develop with a speed of image Building bridges for media art means also to further tude of information and aesthetic expressions. He/she turnover that was hitherto unimaginable. Often some- the establishment of new curricula, and we developed can recombine, reinforce or weaken, can interpret, and IMAGES are not reducible to a particular technol- thing completely new arises – from the contradictions, the first international Master of Arts in MediaArtHisto- in part can even create. On the other side, the previ- ogy (like graphic prints or neutron autoradiogra- tensions, and differences – which is manifested visu- ries for working professionals (with faculty members ously perhaps critically distanced relationship towards phy), not to certain devices or tools (paint brushes ally. This process is nothing new for theories of inter- like Erkki Huhtamo, , Christiane Paul the object – the precondition of the aesthetic experi- or telescope), not to symbolic forms (perspective), culturalism: the fruitful fusion of Roman and Greek and Sean Cubitt) which deals also with the practice ence and scientific insight in general, as described by not to genres in the broadest sense (still life or culture, for example, or of Christian and Islamic culture and expertise in curation, collecting, preserving and Cassirer, 25 Adorno 26 or Serres 27 – changes now summation image), not to an institution (museum in medieval Spain, demonstrated this process over archiving of media arts. Students come from five con- towards a field of participative aesthetic experience. or lab), not to a social function (construction or long periods of time. tinents and there is a Facebook forum with more than diagnostics), not to practices/media (painting or four thousand members. 31 Morse Code), materials (canvas or photographic paper) or certain symbolism (Christian iconogra- In addition to global icons, seemingly banal but actu- Already in the 1990s it became clear, that media art phy or alphanumeric code) – but they are virulent ally highly complex, there are also myriads of image- research was spread over many disciplines and the in all of them. 30 clouds arranged in clusters, which overlay the globe need became urgent to give it some common ground.

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Subsequently we organized the Media Art Histories panoramas, phantasmagoria, perspective theaters, Comparable to natural sciences, digital media and net- Together with an important graphic print collection, Conference over the last ten years coordinating more dioramas, camerae obscurae, anamorphoses, magic worked research catapult the humanities within reach the Göttweig Monastery Collection – representing than two thousand papers and applications on Medi- lanterns, etc. And this sounds like redefining images in of new and essential research in the documentation thirty thousand prints emphasizing Renaissance and aArtHistory.org. 32 Held at Banff’s New Media Centre their historical dimension, as we know approaches of and preservation of media art, or as a realistic utopia Baroque works and a library of one hundred and fifty in cooperation with Leonardo, Refresh represented comparison are based on the insight that images act where an entire history of visual media and their hu- thousand volumes going back to the ninth century, a wide array of nineteen disciplines involved in the diachronic, within a historical evolution and not func- man reception might be amalgamated as collections such as the Sankt Gallen Codex – ADA strives to rapidly emerging field of media art histories33 and tion simply without any reference. 40 Reinterpreting of sources. achieve the goal of a deeper media art historical cross through the success of re:place 2007 in ’s House old optical media these artists contextualize and help pollination. Reaching to the present day, the print col- of World Cultures, Melbourne 2009 and Liverpool to reflect on our digital image revolution.41 In 1999 at Humboldt University the first online me- lection has grown to be the largest private collection 2011, the conference series was established. 2013 dia art documentation was originated, known as the of historical graphic art in Austria. 51 Just as the Me- was the last step. 34 The field of media art histories Database of (Archive of Digital Art, ADA). dia Art Histories conference series bridges a gap, the examines the subhistories and implications of present 4. NEW SCIENTIFIC TOOLS FOR OUR FIELD 47 This pioneering database documents renowned combination of the two and other databases hopes to day image revolution in media art: paradigms like arti- media artists, researchers and institutions over the enable further historic references and impulses. The ficial life/automata35 or telepresence, 36 the history Thinking about new tools for media art history in the last decades of digital installation art, as a collective collection also contains proofs of the history of optical of panoramic perception and its knowledge with the twenty-first century we remember Warburg’s Mnemo- open source project. Since today’s digital artworks are image media, intercultural concepts, caricatures, land- related history of immersion 37 or the history of phan- syne Atlas tracking image citations of individual poses processual, ephemeral, interactive, multimedial, and scapes in panoramic illustrations. 52 For the future tasmagoric imagery, 38 an historical continuum of the and forms across media. We might even say that he fundamentally context dependent they require modi- this may provide resources for a broader analysis of image machines developed after the French revolu- redefined art history, as medial bridge-building, argu- fication, which we call an “expanded concept of docu- media art. tion, which are reflected in the aesthetic approaches ing that art history could fulfill its responsibility only mentation.” 48 As probably the most complex media of contemporary artists like Zoe Beloff, Jeffrey Shaw, by including most forms of images. Let us remember art resource available online with several thousand The Göttweig collection is being made public through Rosângela Rennó, Gary Hill or Tony Oursler. too, that film studies was started by art historians: documents and related technical data, the database three strategies: 53 the enormous Film Library at New York’s MoMA was is a platform for information and communication. The Our Archive of Digital Art counts many media art- founded on an initiative by Barr and Panofsky, nick- ADA, which is the only university-based archive, repre- The “Scientific Facsimile”; high resolution allows re- works, which are, for example, part of the history of named the “Vatican of Film.” 42 The same spirit for sents a selection of five hundred of approximately five searchers the chance to find details in digital prints, immersion, a recently recognized phenomenon that new infrastructures and networks for media art of the thousand evaluated artists. The policy determining which are difficult to discover in the “original” prints. can be traced through almost the entire history of last decades is needed today. Although taking a differ- whether an artist is qualified to become a member art. History has shown that there is cross-fertilization ent approach, the history of image databases should includes two criteria: “the number of exhibitions, pub- The concept of Virtual Exhibitions (now adopted by between large-scale spaces of illusion which fully in- also mention André Malreaux with his museé imagin- lications – at least five; high importance we ascribe main museums) offers the public online exhibitions tegrate the human body (360°frescoes, the panorama, are. 43 And now we are witnessing the birth of the vir- also to artistic inventions like innovative interfaces, since 2006 like “Venetian Views,” or “Theory of Ar- Stereopticon, Cinerama, IMAX cinemas, and CAVEs) tual museum, a key project for the digital humanities. displays or software.” Artists can be nominated by the chitecture.” Virtual exhibitions are divided into sub and small-scale images positioned immediately in members of the board. 49 themes and enriched with different picture formats, front of the eyes (peepshows of the seventeenth cen- Looking for a moment beyond the humanities, in the literature and meta data. tury, stereoscopes, stereoscopic television, Sensorama, natural sciences during the last decade, large collec- Media art documentation becomes a resource that or HMDs). 39 The media art landscape of recent years tive projects have addressed new research goals. In facilitates research on the artists and their work for Fortunately, we have the unique situation to have the is even increasingly being seized by a phenomenon, astronomy, the Virtual Observatory compiles several students and academics, who, it is hoped – now in a media art archive next to a historic art collection. The which has yet to receive significant research, the use centuries of celestial observations; 44 global warm- new Facebook-like communication structure – will Collection will be further networked with archives of of historic media configurations. Renowned artists like ing is understood through projects like the Millenium contribute to expanding and updating the informa- contemporary media art via keywording. Douglas Gordon, William Kentridge, Olafur Eliasson, Ecosystem Assessment, 45 at a detail never before tion. 50 In this way, documentation changes from a Mischa Kuball, , Rafael Lozano- calculable, and the Human Genome Project 46 has one-way archiving of key data, to a proactive process Keywording can be a bridge building tool. The hierar- Hammer and others create optical experiments, become legendary. of knowledge transfer. chical thesaurus of ADA constitutes an approach to

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systemize the field of digital art. InOut of the Getty documentation, so that future generations will not be long-term sustainable structures. Only when we Cubitt and Thomas, the exponents of an exclusion of Arts & Architecture Thesaurus and the subject cata- able to get an idea of this art of our time. Even the Eu- develop systematic and concerted strategies of media art justify this by its connection with technol- logue of the Warburg Library in London, keywords ropeana, a large but underfunded project for Europe- collecting, preservation and research will we be ogy. This confession truly is a disaster, not so much for were selected which have relevance also in media wide networks of digital collection documentation is able to fulfill the task that digital culture demands the interests of those people but for the tax-paying art. On the other side, out of the most commonly rendered meaningless if the foundation – the archives in the twenty-first century. In astronomy, funding public, who deserve the right to be enabled to think used terms from media festivals like Ars Electronica themselves – are not continued. To put it another way, agencies developed and modernized their systems about our time through media art. This ignorance is or Transmediale, new keywords were empirically se- until now, no sustainable strategy exits. towards sustainability. The virtual observatory not something we should just tolerate. It means that lected. Important innovations such as “interface” or infrastructure is funded on an ongoing basis and although our societies’ political, financial, and cultural “genetic art” have been considered as well as keywords, If we examine media art research over the last fifteen there is international coordination between more infrastructures are increasingly driven by modern that play a role in traditional arts such as “body”, “land- years, it becomes clear that we need a concentration than a dozen countries that produce astronomical technologies, the art market and a number of bien- scape” or “Illusion” and thus have a bridge-building of high-quality scholarly documentation as well as a data. nales and state-financed contemporary art museums function. It was important to limit the number to huge expansion of strength and initiative. Recommen- deny the public, which pays their bills, the needed approximately three hundred and fifty words so that dations area as follows: A significant commitment has to be made for media aesthetic and intellectual confrontation with current members of the database could keyword their works art research. Let’s recall the enormous and sustain- art. The attempt to separate art from its time is not without an overly complex index. The categories led 1) In the field of documentation – systematic pres- ing infrastructure that was developed for traditional new, it is also comparable with earlier movements of to natural overlapping, so that the hybrid artworks ervation campaigns do not exist so far 54 – it is es- artistic media, painting, sculpture, architecture, even world escapism, like the forms of nineteenth-century could be captured through clustering. sential to unite the most important lessons learned film, photography and their corresponding archives historicism. Our modern societies need to be enabled and strategies developed by initiatives either exist- over the course of the 20th century. What is needed to reflect on their time and future and media art plays ing or abandoned under the single roof of an inter- is an appropriate structure to preserve at least the a seminal role in that process. 5. FOR INTERNATIONAL AND SUSTAINABLE MEDIA national institution, that can guarantee persistent usual one to six per cent of present media art produc- ART RESEARCH existence, such as the Library of Congress or an tion, and the best works. If we compare the worldwide Media Art, as we understand, needs as many bridges equivalent international institution. It would need available budget to preserve and explore traditional as possible: conferences, new scientific tools like Let me finish with remarks on the challenging and to be supported with adequate expertise from the art forms with the one for digital culture then we un- databases and text repositories, new strategies for serious situation of media art research today. With network of important archives and initiatives, orga- derstand how inadequate the support for our present documentation and visual analysis of complex data, ADA involved in the field of tool development, from nized in a corona around the long-lasting institution. digital culture is; it is almost statistically immeasurable. new curricula for the next generation of teachers and its inception, we have witnessed the crisis of docu- The faster this essential modification to our cultural collectors. Maybe in a near future we can create col- mentation during the last years. Since the foundation 2) The establishment of an appropriate research heritage record can be carried out, the smaller the lective tools, as represented in Christa Sommerer and of the Database of Virtual Art (1999 – ongoing) a institution bringing together the best heads of the gap in the cultural memory; shedding light on the dark Laurent Mignonneau’s work The Living Web, which number of online archives have arisen. Langlois Foun- field would be necessary. In Germany interdisciplin- years, which started about 1960 and continue now. generates a spatial sphere from search engines for dation in (1999-2008), Netzspannung at the ary questions incorporating research on digital cul- As recently expressed in our international declaration, web images in a CAVE. Their work represents a new Fraunhofer Institute (2001-2004), MedienKunstNetz tures from computer games to avantgarde art are signed so far by more than four hundred colleagues instrument for visual analysis, with the option of at ZKM (2004-2006) and the Boltzmann Institute too extensive for a single university. Thus, the Max and leading artists from forty-five countries, there is comparing up to one thousand images in a scientific for Media Art Research in Linz (2005-2009) were all Planck Institute structure was created. urgent need to internationalize research and establish discussion. Captivating new visualization tools could major projects of the field that were terminated. Their an international, sustainable platform of interoperable provide access to the BREATH of digital cultural pro- funding expired or they lost key researchers like V2 3) For current digital humanities, the funding struc- archives. 55 duction: Coupled with the DEPTH of historical optical in Rotterdam (2001-present). In this way the original tures must be internationalized in ways similar to media, new unpredictable understandings of today’s scientific archives lose their significance for research those enabling modern astronomy, genomics or Hearing that there are experts of contemporary art image revolution can be enabled. ■ and preservation and in the meantime partly disappear climatology. In order to create enough momentum (old media art, sculpture, painting etc) that try to from the web. So we face the ironic situation that we and the necessary sustainability, sponsors like NSF, exclude the art of our time with the widest need lose not only the media art itself, but also its scientific DFG, Getty, EU etc. need to ensure international is sad – and ironically, as we learned from Shanken,

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References and Notes

1. See Suzanne Anker and Dorothy Nelkin, The Molecular tures: Artistic Aspects of Interaction (Bielefeld: Transcript, 18. Shaw got inspiration from media arts history: “The history on Systematics, Cybernetics and Informatics, vol. X, Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age (New York: Cold Spring Har- 2008); Victoria Vesna, Database Aesthetics: Art in the Age of the cinematic experience is a rich chronicle of viewing Orlando, Florida (July 2001), 370-373. bor Laboratory Press, 2004); Jens Hauser, ed., Sk-inter- of Information Overflow (Minneapolis: University of Min- and projection machines. Before Hollywood imposed its 25. Ernst Cassirer, Philosophie der Symbolischen Formen faces: Exploding Borders – Creating Membranes in Art, nesota Press, 2007); Steve Dixon, Digital Performance: A set of ubiquitous formats, there were a myriad of extraor- (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1954); Technology and Society (Liverpool: Liverpool University History of New Media in Theatre, Dance, Performance Art, dinary devices, like the Lumiere Brothers Photodrama, the Ernst Cassirer, Individuum und Kosmos (Darmstadt: Wis- Press, 2008); Eduardo Kac, ed., Signs of Life: Bio Art and and Installation (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007); Oliver Cyclorama, Cosmorama, Kineorama, Neorama, Uranorama senschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1963). Beyond (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2009); Ingeborg Grau, Virtual Art (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003), a.o. and many more. The Kaiserpanorama – a stereoscopic 26. Theodor W. Adorno, Ästhetische Theorien (Frankfurt am Reichle, Kunst aus dem Labor: Zum Verhältnis von Kunst 10. For example: Database of Virtual Art / Archive of Digital cylindrical panoptic peepshow – is an especially relevant Main: Suhrkamp, 1973). und Wissenschaft im Zeitalter der Technoscience (Wien: Art (ADA), virtualart.at; Netzspannung.org, http://netzs- forerunner of a newly configured display system, Re-Ac- 27. Michel Serres, Capaccio: Ästhetische Zugänge (Reinbek: Springer, 2005), a.o. pannung.org/archive/; V2_Archive, http://framework.v2.nl; tor.” See Sarah Kenderdine and Jeffrey Shaw, “UNMAKE- Rowohlt, 1981), 152. 2. See Lynn Hershman-Leeson, “The Raw Data Diet, All- Docam, www.docam.ca; Daniel Langlois Fondation, www. ABLELOVE: Gaming Technologies for the Cybernetic The- 28. The evolution of media art has a long history and now a Consuming Bodies, and the Shape of Things to Come,” fondation-langlois.org; Variable Media Initiative, http:// atre Re-Actor,” in ACE 09 Proceedings of the International new technological variety has appeared. However, this art in Database Aesthetics: Art in the Age of Information variablemedia.net; Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, Media.Art. Conference on Advances in Computer Enterntainment cannot be fully understood without its history. See Rudolf Overflow, ed. Victoria Vesna (Minneapolis, MN: University Research, http://media.lbg.ac.at; a.o. Technolog, Athens, Greece (October 2009). Arnheim, “The Coming and Going of Images,” Leonardo of Minnesota Press, 2007), 249-252. 11. See Gerd Zimmermann, ed., “Medium Architektur, 9. 19. See Jennifer Gonzales, “The Appended Subject: Race and 33, no. 3 (2000): 167-168. 3. The topic of the Transmediale Berlin in 2009: “Deep Internationales Bauhaus-Kolloquium, Weimar,” special Identity as Digital Assemblage,” in Race in Cyberspace, 29. Bruno Latour and , eds., ICONOCLASH: North; Ars Electronica festival in 2009: “human nature.” issue, Thesis, Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Bauhaus- ed. Beth Kolko, Lisa Nakamura, and Gil Rodman (New Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion and Art (Karl- 4. See Oliver Grau, ed., Imagery in the 21st Century (Cam- Universität Weimar 3 (2003). York: Routledge, 2000), 27-50; Victoria Vesna, “Under sruhe: ZKM, 2002). bridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011); W. J. T. Mitchell, Cloning 12. SOUND:FRAME’s website, www.soundframe.at (accessed Reconstruction: Architectures of BodiesINCorporated,” in 30. Thomas Hensel, “Das Bild im Spannrahmen,” Gegenworte: Terror: The War of Images, 9/11 to the Present (Chicago: December 16, 2013). Veiled Histories: The Body, Place and Public Art, ed. Anna Hefte für den Disput über Wissen, no. 20 (2008): 39. The University of Chicago Press, 2011). a.o. 13. See Oliver Grau, ed., Imagery in the 21st Century. Novakov (San Francisco: San Francisco Art Institute, 1998), 31. Donau-Universität Krems’ website, www.donau-uni.ac.at/ 5. See Lev Manovich, “Info-Aesthetics,” Academia.edu, 2004, 14. See “Congressional Testimony of Les Roberts, Director 87-117. cis/mah (accessed September 28, 2012). https://www.academia.edu/542793/Info-aesthetics (ac- of Health Policy at the International Rescue Committee,” 20. See Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss, “Staging 32. See the website of Media Art History, www.mediaarthis- cessed February 4, 2014). 107th Congress, 2nd session, May 7, 2001, 2. By 2009, of the Thinking Space. From Immersion to Performative tory.org (accessed September 28, 2012). 6. See the forthcoming dissertation of Daniela Plewe, Paris, over 6 million died directly due to the conflict minerals Presence,” in Paradoxes of Interactivity: Perspectives for 33. The content development of Re:fresh! was a highly collec- Sorbonne, 2011: www.transactional-arts.com/summary. trade: U.S. House of Representatives Bill H. R. 4128, 111th Media Theory, Human-Computer Interaction, and Artistic tive process. It involved three producing partners, a large html (accessed February 4, 2014). Congress, 1st Session, November 19, 2009. Investigations, ed. Uwe Seifert, Jin Hyon Kim and Anthony advisory board, 2 chairs for each session, call and review 7. Ars Electronica´s festival theme in 2002: “Unplugged: Art 15. Gerhard Dirmoser, “Art-in-context (Die Kunst der Aus- Moore (Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2008), 266-281; for papers, a planning meeting in 2004, keynotes, poster as the Scene of Global Conflicts,” a.o. stellung),” Servus.at, www.servus.at/kontext/ausstellung- Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss, “Extended session and the development of application content over 8. For example: Ars Electronica, Austria; Transmediale, Ger- skunst/Folie1.GIF (accessed December 16, 2013). See also Performance – Virtuelle Bühne, Selbstrepräsentanz und the time of two and a half years. Before Banff could host many; Intersociety of Electronic Arts (ISEA) Conference; Folies 2 to 4. Interaktion,” Kaleidoskopien 384, no. 3 (2000): 52-57. the conference, this was organised by the team of the Dutch Festival; European Media Art Festival, 16. Char Davies and John Harrison, “Osmose: Towards 21. Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture, “Asymptote Archi- Database of Virtual Art / Archive of Digital Art (ADA). Germany; FILE, Brasil; Microwave Festival Hong Kong; Broadening the Aesthetics of Virtual Reality,” in Computer tecture – NYSE 3D trading Floor (1998),” Asymptote’s The international planning meeting at Vigoni/Italy in 2004 Korean Media Art Festival; Siggraph, a.o. Graphics (ACM) 30, no. 4 (1996): 25-28. Char Davies, website, http://www.asymptote.net (accessed September (hosted by ADA) agreed that it is of importance to bring 9. Beatriz da Costa and Kavita Philipp, eds., Tactical Biopoli- “Landscape, Earth, Body, Being, Space and Time in the 28, 2012). media art history closer to the mainstream of art history tics: Art, Activism, and Technoscience (Cambridge, MA: Immersive Virtual Environments Osmose and Ephemére,” 22. Ingo Günther, “Worldprocessor.com,” in Proceedings of cultivating a proximity to film- cultural and media studies, MIT Press, 2010); Stephen Wilson, Art + Science Now: in Women, Art, and Technology, ed. Judy Malloy, 322-337 ACM SIGGRAPH 2007, San Diego (August 2007), 200. computer science, but also philosophy and other sciences. How Scientific Research and Technological Innovation (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003). 23. Lovely Faces Dating Agency, www.lovely-faces.com (ac- After nomination and acceptance of the chairs, coordinat- Are Becoming Key to 21st Century Aesthetics (London: 17. See Eduardo Kac, Life, Light & Language/ La vie, la cessed September 28, 2012). ed call for papers, review by the program committee and Thames & Hudson, 2010); Hazel Gardiner and Charly Gere, lumière & le langage (Enghien-les-Bains: Centre des 24. Johanna Dombois, “Master Voices: Opernstimmen im Vir- selection of speakers by the chairs organized and funded eds., Art Practice in a Digital Culture (Farnham: Ashgate, Arts, 2011); Eduardo Kac and Avital Ronell, Life Extreme: tuellen Raum. Fidelio, 21. Jahrhundert,’” in Stimm-Welten: by the Database of Virtual Art – the conference brought 2010); Frank Popper, From Technological to Virtual Art An Illustrated Guide to New Life (Paris: Dis Voir, 2007); Philosophische, Medientheoretische und Ästhetische Per- together colleagues from the following fields: invited (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007); Edward Shanken, Art Eduardo Kac, ed., Signs of Life: Bio Art and Beyond (Cam- spektiven, ed. Doris Kolesc, (Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, speakers (based on self description from bios) HISTORIES: and Electronic Media (London: Phaidon, 2009); Christa bridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009); Eduardo Kac, Telepresence 2009), 127-142; Johanna Dombois and Florian Dombois, Art History = 20; Media Science = 17; History of Science = Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau, eds., Interface Cul- and Bio Art: Networking Humans, Rabbits and Robot (Ann “Op.72., II 1-5, 3D. Beethoven’s ‘Fidelio’ in a Virtual Environ- 7, History of Ideas = 1; History of Technology = 1; ARTISTS/ Arbor, Mi: University of Michigan Press, 2005). ment,” in Proceedings of the 5th World Multi-Conference CURATORS: Artists/Research = 25; Curators = 10; SOCIAL

82 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 20 NO 2 ISSN 1071-4391 ISBN 978-1-906897-32-1​ ISSN 1071-4391 ISBN 978-1-906897-32-1​ VOL 20 NO 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 83 E SSAY ESSAY

SCIENCES: Communication/Semiotics = 6; Aesthetics/ wissenschaft (Glücksstadt: Verlag Werner Hülsbuch, 2013); 40 countries, the plan was to acchive the goal in 2010. A 53. Oliver Grau, “Die Graphische Sammlung Stift Göttweig – Philosophy = 5, Social History = 2; Political Science = and Lev Manovich, Software Takes Command (New York: working draft of the genome was released in 2000 and a Perspektiven der Erforschung und Vermittlung digitalisi- 2; Woman Studies = 2, Theological Studies = 1; OTHER Bloomsbury, 2013). complete one in 2003. See International Human Genome erter Druckgraphik” (paper presented at Kupferstichk- CULTURAL STUDIES: Film Studies = 3; Literature Studies 41. While approaches of Media Archaeology by Zielinski or Sequencing Consortium, “Finishing the Euchromatic abinett online Konferenz: Entwicklungen, Ergebnisse, = 3; Sound Studies = 3, Theatre Studies = 2; Performance Huhtamo tend to focus on the media and instruments only, Sequence of the Human Genome,” Nature 431, no. 7011 Perspektiven / Internationale Tagung der Herzog August Studies = 1; Architecture Studies = 1, Computer Science = the MediaArtHistories approach investigates the arts and (2004): 931-945. Bibliothek und des Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museums zu 2; Astronomy 1. images as well and explores among other things the driv- 47. Database of Virtual Art / Archive of Digital Art (ADA), Graphik-Datenbanken im Internet), Wolfenbüttel und 34. Some of the conference results can be found in the an- ing force the arts played historically for the development www.virtualart.at (accessed September 28, 2012). Braunschweig, March 14-16, 2011. thology MediaArtHistories by Oliver Grau, ed. (Cambridge, of the media. See Siegfried Zielinski, Deep Time of the 48. Oliver Grau, “For an Expanded Concept of Documentation: 54. Although there are a number of promising case studies MA: The MIT Press, 2007); recently: Andreas Broeckmann Media (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006); Erkki Huhtamo The Database of Virtual Art,” in Proceedings of ICHIM 03, such as Caitlin Jones’ “Seeing Double: Emulation in Theory and Gunalan Nadarajan, eds., Place Studies in Art, Media, and Jussi Parikka, eds., Media Archaeology: Approaches, Paris, France (September 2003), 2-15. It was a long devel- and Practice, The Erl King Case Study,” (paper presented Science and Technology: Historical Investigations on the Applications, and Implications (Berkeley: California Univer- opment since the classic text by Suzanne Briet, Qu’est-ce at the Electronic Media Group Annual Meeting of the Sites and the Migration of Knowledge (Weimar: Verlag und sity Press, 2011); and Oliver Grau, ed., MediaArtHistories. que la documentation? (Paris: Editions Documentaires American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Datenbank für Geisteswissenschaften, 2009). 42. Film Library, MoMA’s website, http://www.moma.org/ Industrielle et Techniques, 1951). Works, Portland, Oregon, June 14, 2004), http://cool. 35. See Oliver Grau, “New Images from Life,” Art Inquiry: explore/collection/film (accessed December 16, 2013). 49. Roy Ascott, Christiane Paul, Gunalan Nadarajan, Erkki conservation-us.org/coolaic/sg/emg/library/pdf/jones/ Recherches sur les Arts 2, no. 9 (2000): 7-25; Mitchell 43. A prophet of the virtual museum Andrè Malraux describes Huhtamo, Jorge LaFerla, Martin Roth, u.a. Jones-EMG2004.pdf (accessed December 16, 2013). See Whitelaw, Metacreation: Art and Artificial Life (Cambridge, as “imaginary museum” or “museum without walls” col- 50. Oliver Grau, “Das Pionierarchiv der Medienkunst: Virtualart. also the websites of Inside Installations: Preservation and MA: MIT Press, 2004). lections of photographic reproductions comparing a large at,” Kunstgeschichte aktuell 1/09 (2009): 8. Presentation of Installation Art, www.inside-installations. 36. See Oliver Grau, “Telepräsenz: Zu Genealogie und Episte- variety of ages and cultures in a virtual space that could 51. See the website of Graphic Art Collection Göttweig Abbey, org; Independent Media Arts Preservation, www.imap- mologie von Interaktion und Simulation,” in Formen inter- never exist physically. André Malraux, Psychologie de l’art: www.gssg.at (accessed September 28, 2012). preserve.org; CIAO – Conceptual Media Arts Online, www. aktiver Medienkunst, ed. Peter Gendolla et al. (Frankfurt Le Musée Imaginaire – La création artistique – La mon- 52. The digitization of the collection is a project developed by bampfa.berkeley.edu/ciao/, Digital Art Conservation, www. am Main: Suhrkamp, 2001), 39-63. naie de l’absolu (Geneva: Albert Skira, 1947). the Department of Image Science at Danube University digitalartconservation.org; and PACKED, http://www. 37. Oliver Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Cam- 44. The International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA) was and conducted in cooperation with the Göttweig Monas- packed.be/en/, (accessed September 28, 2013). All of bridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003); Jeffrey Shaw and Peter Wei- formed in June 2002 with a mission to “facilitate the inter- tery. The collection of prints at Göttweig Monastery, which those initiatives are fairly small. bel, eds., Future Cinema: The Cinematic Imaginary After national coordination and collaboration necessary for the itself was founded in 1083, is based on acquisitions made 55. See “Media Art Needs Global Networked Organisation & the Film (Electronic Culture: History, Theory, and Practice) development and deployment of the tools, systems and by various monks since the 15th century. The first report of Support – International Declaration,” the website of Media (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003); Sarah Kenderdine, organisational structures necessary to enable the interna- graphic art kept in the monastery dates back to 1621, with Art History, www.mediaarthistory.org/declaration (ac- “Speaking in Rama: Panoramic Vision in Cultural Heritage tional utilisation of astronomical archives as an integrated an archive record that mentions a number of “tablets of cessed December 16, 2013). Visualization,” in Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage: A and interoperating virtual observatory.” The IVOA now copper engraving” (“Täfelein von Kupferstich”). The actual Critical Discourse, ed. Fiona Cameron and Sarah Kender- comprises 17 international VO projects. IVOA’s website, act of founding the collection is attributed to Abbot Gott- dine (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007), 301-332. www.ivao.net (accessed September 28, 2012). fried Bessel whose systematic purchases in Austria and 38. Oliver Grau, ed., “Remember the Phantasmagoria!: Illusion 45. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment assessed the from abroad added remarkably a total of 20,000 pieces to Politics of the Eighteenth Century and Its Multimedial Af- consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being. the collection in a very short span of time! Reaching to the terlife,” in Media Art Histories (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/ From 2001 to 2005, the MA involved the work of more present day, the print collection at Göttweig Monastery Leonardo Books, 2007), 136-161. than 1,360 experts worldwide. Their findings provide a has grown to be the largest private collection of historical 39. Oliver Grau, Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion. state-of-the-art scientific appraisal of the condition and graphic art in Austria with more than 30,000 prints. The 40. Uwe Fleckner, BREDEKAMP, Horst Bredekamp and Martin trends in the world’s ecosystems and the services they Department of Image Science’s digitization center at the Warnke, eds., Der Bilderatlas Mnemosyne, vol.1 (Berlin: provide, as well as the scientific basis for action to con- Göttweig Monastery uses technology to scan paintings Akademie Verlag, 2000); Hans Belting, ed., Bilderfragen: serve and use them sustainably. and prints from the collection (up to 72 million pixels). Die Bildwissenschaft im Aufbruch(München: Wilhelm Fink 46. The Human Genome Project was an international scientific Verlag, 2007); Hans Belting, “Images in History and Images research project with a primary goal to determine the of History,” in Ernst Kantorowicz: Erträge der Doppel- sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA and tagung, ed. R. L. Benson and J. Fred (Frankfurt: Steiner, to identify and map the approximately 20,000-25,000 1997), 94-103. And see also three recent works: L. Bader, genes of the human genome from both a physical and M. Gaier and F. Wolf, eds. Vergleichendes Sehen (München: functional standpoint. The mega project started 1990 Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2010); Hubertus Kohle, Digitale Bild- with the collective work of more than 1000 researchers in

84 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 20 NO 2 ISSN 1071-4391 ISBN 978-1-906897-32-1​ ISSN 1071-4391 ISBN 978-1-906897-32-1​ VOL 20 NO 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 85