Critical review: Digital Analogue. Pioneers of New Media.

Personally, I suggest a revision around questions such as ethics, deontological code, professionalism, permission and authority in curatorial models and participatory practices in art, science and technology. Regarding the curating model used in the exhibition Digital Analogue, this is not what I do, this is not my curatorial line, this is not my work, and this is not curated by me. Actually, the participatory models of curating new media art have created new structures where to engage curators, theorist and artists in a hybrid form of exhibition, workshop, and live performance. Models that are constantly against the mainstream and the policies of power supported by authority and based within the ego of the artists: elitism and paternalism. Another point to consider is that the exhibition Digital Analogue has a lack of investigation, the research is weak,  doesn’t achieve the standards of the experienced d.i.y. artists, the art electronic avant-garde and the art –science – technology experts, curators and artists. There is a lack of coherence, strength and unity. Although is a very good local exhibition and a potential project for the future, it is a very paternalist project, too.  

There is an excellent point and is the fact that the exhibition offers help and support to local artist to be contextualized in international frameworks. Most part of local emergent talented artists from Colombia are not well represented in their own art circuit or in the international art scene. This is part of post-colonial history. Although this, there is a lack and a very disappointed participation of the real pioneers of new media from Colombia. Pedro Soler states “A pair of my favorite South American pioneers: Juan Downey (from Chile, pioneer of video and interactive art, co-editor of Radical Software) and Jacqueline Nova, the first electroacoustic music composer in Colombia. Both artists lived much of their lives in the north (Juan in NYC and Jacqueline in Paris). However, they are both dead.” 
 

There is a lack of women artists; pioneers and not, too. Rosalind Franklin, Amy Alexander, Maja Ratkje, Sarah Cook, Alison Craighead, Ruth Catlow, Mary Flanagan, Kate Rich, Lynn Hershman,  Annie Abrahams, Renee Turner, Delia Derbyshire, Ele Carpenter, Auriea Harvey, Linda Dement, Virginia Barratt, Donna Haraway, Sadie Plant, Francesca da Rimini, Cornelia Sollfrank, Hope Kurtz, Tatiana Wells, Katherine Hayles, Margaret Morse, Vera Molnar, Rachel Falconer, Jennifer Chan, Steina Vasulka, Joan Jonas, Jess Loseby, Marisa Olson, Pauline Oliveros, Kathy Rae Huffman, Anne Marie Duguet, Christiane Paul, Katharine Norman, Laurie Anderson, Magali Babin, Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram, Josephine Bosma, Vicki Bennett, Ada Lovelace, Judith Butler, Olia Lialina, Brenda Laurel, Hildegard Westerkamp, Sara Diamond, Susan Kennard, Sally-Jean Shackleton, Natalie Jeremijenko, Coco Fusco, Giselle Beiguelman, Mez Breeze, Ghislaine Boddington, Rachel Baker, Leanne Bird, Guerilla Girls, Ilze Black, Larisa Blazic,
 

We are tired, exhausted and discomforted to defend machismo, we don’t work like this, we have surpassed the borders of curatorial mainstream inside the whitecube, we work local and with deep meaning for life and social contribution. We work and develop with very low budgets and financial support. Art inside the whitecube is not our center or action. We operate in labs, blackboxes and within experiences of life.  So, following it can be said that the exhibition has not gone so good.

 

Regarding budgets: Some artists complained because a lack of the organization. Once you have the experience of working with countries in development (Africa, Asia, South-America), is commonly understood that development plans, strategies for events and management are difficult and with very low budgets. The MAC Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Bogota has not any budget for the exhibition. The Planetario was also not offering any budget. The financial support comes from the universities, where the artists did the workshops and will be a very tight amount for 2 or 4 hours work. We, the team of artists and I, were expecting to meet the curator in Bogota, but he was not there. Because of an economical reason, he sent an email to the artists and lecturers demanding for financial support to pay transport fees from London. This is very curious, a new methodology, perhaps. If the curator cannot be present in the exhibition has to delegate someone in order to help organization and artists, more directly and improving communications. Andres Burbano, has taken part of the curatorial role and it has been an excellent conductor. I sincerely told him that I was not approving certain practices.  Some artists have complained as well regarding communications and expectations.

 

Regarding curating: some participants have commented me if I was the curator. I want to clarify that no, I am not. This lack of professionalism deceives me. Moreover, I must say that a few years ago, in 2011, I wrote an investigation project entitled Language Code. In collaboration with CED – MACBA Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona, I studied the relations of conceptual art and code art. I did a similar work in the style of Thomas Dreher. Once the research was finished, I asked permission to international artists, local artists from Barcelona, activists and other theorists and curators to work in a public presentation of the Project. The event was one week and hold in Conservas, an underground lab in Barcelona. I was trying to break conventional models of exhibition. It was a workshop, a seminar, an exhibition and a live event with screenings and performance. It also engaged the audiences to participate to create a language artwork based in cut-up projects. Jorn Ebner, Michael Kargl, Roy Ascott, John Angel were presented in Language Code exhibition among a total number of 20 artist more. As a researcher, critic, artist and curator I disapprove some cultural practices and curatorial models. Some artists from Digital Analogue commented and understood that I was curating part of this exhibition in Bogota, because part of my research project from MACBA is also presented in MAC Museum of Contemporary Art Bogota. I have never been asked for permission to use part of the research project I developed. I simply was noticed one month before Christmas and the curator was demanding to participate as a lecturer. According methodologies of curating, there is a new curatorial role based in appropriation. It creates new exhibition strategies. Taking artists’ works without permission or non-demanding artist participation is changing the administrative model of exhibition. Contracts, infrastructure and participation offer a new possibility to engage creation and hopefully create more opportunities for emergent and youth talented unnamed artists.

 

Regarding press, communications and management, the organization was bad; there wasn’t any press dossier with information about exhibition, workshops, and lectures. I think that this is completely required when you are working with artists such Roy Ascott or Michael Kargl. Moreover, I think any project and any artist, any type of artist, deserves a good communication strategy, with the required press dossier and supportive information. Even though there was a catalogue, there was not all the information there. The workshop, the lectures and other supportive artists and lecturers are not presented on it. It supplies biographies and information about the artist and artworks. It pays the same attention to the artists that are exhibiting physically in the exhibition space, as well as the artist in s/edition. This is giving a general false idea about what is the exhibition and is confusing the audiences. This is unbalanced.

 

Regarding the exhibition space distribution, it has to improve. The TV screens are damaging the view of other installations and artworks. Although this, it has to be recognized that the work of Alberto Lezaca is really well installed and exhibited. Congrats! During the montage, there were serious problems regarding printing and materials. Artworks were not well printed and artists should have to use other materials, different from those they asked for.  We suggest that the s/edition has to be presented in a loop session, like a screening in a black box cinema. The museum space has it space so it could be a really good solution. It will liberate the exhibition space for the installations and the spectators could enjoy a program of more than 40 minutes videos sitting in a kind of cinema inside a museum space. We suggest that workshops and talks have to be done in the same museum space. The Museum has this equipment. There is a room upstairs where talks and workshops could be done. This will contribute to generate local practices engaging audiences to move there and growing the local circuit. The events program has to be set up in a more comfortable timetable.

 

Regarding content: 1) pioneers. 2) feminism. 3) local/brit artist. There are 6 artists exhibiting physical artworks, 3 local artists and 3 international artists. There are no women. The use of big mainstream names from the s/edition is trying to attract expectations, like a suggestive intention, but really it is a screening loop in two screens.

 

1)      Pioneers. The exhibition title is not corresponding to the goals of the exhibition. It cannot be said that is a pioneer’s exhibition. This is not the case. There are specialized media art historians that will recognize that this is lack and a misunderstanding. “Edward Shanken comes to mind. And in my own University, historian Charissa Terrranova.” says Roger Malina.

 

2)      Feminism. There is an important failure; there is no woman in exhibition. This is unacceptable in the context of electronic, new media, and within the frame of cyberfeminism. Women artist has contributed to the development of media art in a very deep and profound sense, changing structures and contributing to the social benefit of human behavior. This is a strong point. Some relevant data regarding feminism practices in art curating represent the problem about women in art:

- 13.5% of works by women in Federal Art Collections

- 18% of female professors at Art Universities

- 22% of female directors at Art Museums

- 27% average of female percentage at exhibitions in art museums

- 32% of honorary prizes in the visual arts are won by women

- 42% of all freelance employees in the visual arts are women

- 55% of students in the visual arts are women

- 22% of female artists at Documenta X (in 1990s: the 29% in documenta XI, 46% in documenta XII, and back to 38% in documenta XIII).

Data by Katy Deepwell, Editor of n.paradoxa.

More data about Women in music industry from BBC: Mandy Parnell, mastering engineer of Vampire Weekend and Bjork declares that there is any women in mixing desks, it is thought women are not attracted to the technical side of music, because of electrical engineers implies lots of physics. They rather perform sound. The female participation in social industry or music industry is affected by the evidence of a lack of models.

- PRS 13% of members are females

- Music Producers Guild only 4% of members are women

 

3)      Local artsits / Brit artist. There is a sense that the use of “big names” from s/edition is like an attractive suggestion rather than a matter of history or knowledge, or information. Rather, I think the curator is trying to persuade, giving an illusion of history of media art. I think this is a more commercial and digital project that I am not interested in.  I think this is what exactly Baudrillard defined as Simulacra and the tendency in consumerism object to persuade the spectator. I have received many complains and it is thought that is a very paternalist project. And it does not consider the social and actual needs of its country.  Marc Garret also commented “On one hand it's because the choice of ‘now’ disreputable ‘BritArt’ artists, and on the other, it's because there is an embarrassing lack of women included in the exhibition. It is not representative of the amazing women in arts and technology who deserve so much better than this”.  It is really well received the local collaboration. The artists have a really talented work and the effort and fight with the institutional frame and universities grow and enrich the cultural context of Bogota, an incredible city with massive social disorder and inequalities. Is very important and is a really good to exhibit 3 local artists altogether 3 international artists, this helps cultural practices of Colombia, increases the level of participation of institutions to electronic art or new media practices, and helps emergent artists with good level, quality, interested and professionalism. According this, I have to say that it is super-interesting and thanks to this kind of exhibitions, new models of distributing video- art are developed. It could probably respond to new distribution roles and methodologies of production in new media. Surely, it changes capitalist and economically structures. I remember the editions of Picasso and Dali: thousands of copies resembled millions of millions and investment for art. The videos presented under s/edition are works from Damien Hirst, Casey Reas, Memo Atken, etc... Recently, Alessandro Ludovico has written about new techniques of printing and distributing. This is amazing, but in the case of Digital Analogue the selection result not interesting because from my point of view is supporting commercial and capitalist structures of art as merchandise. According post-marxist discourse it can damage lots of theoretical works done in the area of value and object-hood in contemporary art. We demand live art and live performance to sustain our way of life as artists, developers and creators.

 

I appreciate and consider the effort the curator is doing to realize this exhibition. I have to congratulate his work even though I would curate very differently. I strongly encourage the curatorial team, or the curator, to develop and work and to improve relations within the frame of curatorial practices and cultural management. I always like to support collaboratively practices. I am interested in grow projects, in the deep ontology of art, in good intentions and emotions and in hard-working.

 

Thanks to Marc Garret, Pedro Soler, Tamas Banovich, Anick Bureaud, Ashok Mistry, Bronac Ferran, Sarah Cook, Paul Brown, Roger Malina, Ghislaine Boddington, Vicente Matallana, Joasya Krysa, Andres Burbano.

 

 

http://macbogota.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/analogia-digital-pioneros-de-nuevos-medios/

 

http://furtherfield.org/blog/laure-les-aus/critical-review-digital-analogue-pioneers-new-media

https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A1=ind1402&L=new-media-curating#5

 

http://www.netbehaviour.org/pipermail/netbehaviour/20140217/031115.html