My Lectures

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Forked Identities, Mentioned-and-not-mentioned, Authority, and more

October 22, 2010 in Art & Culture, My Lectures | Be the first to comment

This year I was delighted to present at PICNIC, as part of a panel on the future of cultural criticism. The panelists engaged with the topic of journalism in the cultural realm and how it is changing in the face of “everyone’s a critic” in our digital age. The main points that I addressed were the binary of mentioned and not-mentioned in contemporary art criticism (concept courtesy of Boris Groys), how authority is built online, and what I call “forked identities”.

I think my points on mentioned/not-mentioned and building authority are pretty clear from my presentation (embedded below), but to elaborate on “forked identities” a bit: I have about 5 Twitter accounts, 9 friend groups with varying access to my profile on Facebook, and 2 public blogs plus many other websites that I contribute to now and again. In each of these situations I am presenting a slightly different facet of myself. This is just how it is in our contemporary communications environment. I want the ability to communicate my most colourful opinions to a close circle of 7 friends on Twitter, while highlighting only my professional achievements on my fully public Twitter feed with over 500 followers, or this blog. My identity has been forked into several sub-identities, which is (of course) not unlike how I conduct myself in varying social situations in real life.

Here is my Prezi (I added a few slides to it after the fact, to assist in comprehending it, as I thought it a bit opaque as a stand-alone without these modifications):

All the news that’s fit to … on Prezi

 

The Future of Journalism and Cultural Blogging

September 17, 2010 in Art & Culture, My Lectures | 2 comments


Thinking of coming to PICNIC in Amsterdam next week? Be sure to come to a session I am speaking at on September 22 entitled Cultural Criticism in the Age of New Journalism, with Claudine Boeglin, Diana Krabbendam, Wilfried Ruetten, and moderated by Raymond van den Boogaard, Chief Arts Editor, NRC/Handelsblad.

This panel will be followed immediately by the launch of Cultural Bloggers Interviewed, a book by LabforCulture. The launch will feature myself in a Q & A with Annette Wolfsberger, who conducted the interviews for the book. Will I see you there? DM me on Twitter or drop me a line if you will be around.

 

Advocating for Free Culture

February 25, 2010 in Art & Culture, My Lectures | Be the first to comment

Recently, I gave a talk at transmediale as part of their Free Culture Incubator series. I’ve embedded the video below. I highlighted three case studies that I think exemplify how advocating for the arts successfully can make profound differences to how we experience urban spaces.

Firstly I mentioned BeautifulCity.ca, a campaign to introduce a billboard tax in the city of Toronto, with the tax money distributed to art and culture projects. They were very successful in winning the first battle, which was implementing the tax, but now they need people to speak up once more in favour of how the budget is actually allocated. Check out their Facebook event for more details on how you can help this terrific project.

I also mentioned Ile Sans Fil, the wireless community group that I used to work with, that built a grassroots infrastructure in Montreal that is wildly successful. They were also pioneers of using their infrastructure as a platform to distribute art and community content to their users. They have been so successful at building infrastructure and in their advocacy work that wireless internet infrastructure is now an issue in the Montreal municipal elections.

Last but not least, I mentioned Manchester Open Data City, a huge initiative by FutureEverything. FutureEverything is leading the advocacy around making Manchester the UK’s first open data city, by identifying data that can be made available, and looking at issues of data interoperability, quality and management. I’m programming the FutureEverything conference this year, and can tell you that Open Data and its implications for citizen participation and creativity will be a hot topic. Hope to see you in Manchester this May for FutureEverything!

 

Extra Ears and Transhuman Dance Recitals

March 29, 2009 in Art & Culture, My Lectures, Technology | 1 comment

stelarc

I’m really pleased to be chairing a panel that will be exploring what our physical selves could be in the future at the upcoming Edinburgh Science Festival. Entitled “Bodies of the Future“, the panel will examine exactly that, but also the other issues around how technology shapes our relationship with the physical environment and the multifaceted identities we create.

Panelists Stelarc (Brunel University), Martyn Ware (the Illustrious Company), Andrew Shoben (Greyworld), and Dr Jonathan Freeman (Goldsmiths, University of London) will explore the shifting boundaries between the technologically adapted body, concepts of self, and senses of place.

While we’re touching on the subject, I can’t resist embedding this piece by video artist Jeremy Bailey. “Transhuman Dance Recital #1″ humourously raises some of the questions around popular conceptions of transhumanism, that I’m certain we’ll also explore on the panel — among many other issues.

Panel details: “Bodies of the Future”: Stelarc, Martyn Ware, Andrew Shoben, Dr Jonathan Freeman, Chaired by Michelle Kasprzak. Edinburgh Science Festival, Wed Apr 15, 2009, at 19:00. Book tickets here. Presented by PEACH – Presence research in action, and supported by Edinburgh Napier University. Stelarc’s Ear PORTRAIT taken by nina sellars, originally uploaded by k0re.

 

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