Syndicate: COMPUTING CULTURE Symposium

[manovich@ucsd.edu (Lev Manovich)]

The Visual Arts Department, University of California, San Diego presents:
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COMPUTING CULTURE: DEFINING NEW MEDIA GENRES,
the Symposium
<http://jupiter.ucsd.edu/~culture/symposium.html>

Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2
Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA)
Address: 408 University Center (off of Russel Lane),  UCSD campus
CRCA phone number 619-534-4383
 <http://crca-www.ucsd.edu/>

The symposium will explore new conceptual categories appropriate for
analyzing computer culture and its objects focusing on four categories:
database, interface, spatialisation, and navigation. We will interrogate
these categories and use them to map out two key genres of computer
culture:  the multimedia database and navigable space.

Participants:
        SHELDON BROWN (UC San Diego)
        ADRIENE JENIK (UC San Diego)
        MARSHA KINDER (Univeristy of Southern California)
        NORMAN KLEIN (California Institute of the Arts)
        PETER LUNENFELD (Art Center College of Design)
        STEPHEN MAMBER (UC Los Angeles)
        LEV MANOVICH (UC San Diego)
        MARGARET MORSE (UC Santa Cruz)
        MARCOS NOVAK (UC Los Angeles)
        VIVIAN SOBCHACK (UC Los Angeles)
        VICTORIA VESNA (UC Santa Barbara)
        FABIAN WAGMISTER (UC Los Angeles)
        JOHN WELCHMAN (UC San Diego).
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COMPUTING CULTURE: DEFINING NEW MEDIA GENRES

New media requires a new critical language -- to describe it, to analyze it
and to teach it. Where shall this language come from? We can't go on simply
using technical terms such as "a web site" to refer to works radically
different from each other in intention and form. At the same time,
traditional cultural concepts and forms prove to be inadequate as well.
Image and viewer, narrative and montage, illusion and representation, space
and time -- everything needs to be re-defined again.

The goal of our symposium is to explore new conceptual categories
appropriate for analyzing computer culture and its objects. We focus on
four categories:  DATABASE, INTERFACE, SPATIALISATION, and NAVIGATION. Each
of these categories provides a different lens through which to inquire
about the emerging logic, grammar and poetics of new media; each brings
with it a set of different questions.

DATABASE. After the novel and later cinema privileged narrative as the key
form of cultural expression of the modern age, the computer age brings with
it a new  form -- database. What are the origins, ideology and possible
aesthetics of a database? How can we negotiate between a narrative and a
database? Why is database imagination taking over at the end of the 20th
century?

INTERFACE. In contrast to a film which is projected upon a blank screen and
a painting which begins with a white surface,  new media objects always
exist within a larger context of a human-computer interface. How does a
user's familiarity with the computer's interface structure the reception of
new media art? Where does interface end and the "content" begin?

SPATIALISATION. The overall trend of computer culture is to spatialise all
representations and experiences. The library is replaced by cyberspace;
narrative is equated with traveling through space ("Myst"); all kinds of
data are rendered in three dimensions through computer visualization. Why
is space being privileged? Shall we try to oppose this spatialisation
(i.e., what about time in new media)? What are the different kinds of
spaces possible in new media?

NAVIGATION. We no longer only look at images or read texts; instead, we
navigate through new media spaces. How can we relate the concept of
navigation to more traditional categories such as viewing, reading, and
identifying? In what ways do current popular navigation strategies reflect
military origins of computer imaging technology? How do we de-militarize
our interaction with a computer? How can we describe the person doing the
navigation beyond the familiar metaphors of "user" and "flaneur"?

During the symposium we will interrogate these categories and use them to
map out two key genres of computer culture. That is, creating works in new
media can be understood as either constructing the right interface to a
multimedia database or as defining navigation methods through spatialised
representations.

Why does computer culture privilege these genres over other possibilities?
We may associate the first genre with work (post-industrial labor of
information processing) and the second with leisure and fun (computer
games), yet this very distinction is no longer valid in computer culture.
Increasingly, the same metaphors and interfaces are used at work and at
home, for business and for entertainment. For instance, the user navigates
through a virtual space both to work and to play, whether analyzing
financial data or killing enemies in "Doom."

To articulate the critical language of new media we need to correlate older
cultural/theoretical concepts and the concepts which describe the
organization/operation of a digital computer.  INTERFACE, DATABASE,
NAVIGATION and SPATIALISATION: are these the categories that bridge the gap
between more traditional genres and the evolving forms of new media? Join
us as we interrogate the logic of computing culture.

-- Lev Manovich
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SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM

Friday, May 1

7:30 pm Opening Party @ CRCA (Music, food and drink)
Featuring a selection of computer games, animations and video clips which
suggests new interface and navigation strategies for new media. Protected
by etoy <www.etoy.com>.

Saturday, May 2

10:00 am        Symposium welcome and introduction: Lev Manovich

10:15 am - 12:15 pm     Session 1: DATABASE/INTERFACE
Introduction: John Welchman
Presenters: Vivian Sobchack, Fabian Wagmister, Victoria
Vesna, Stephen Mamber, Marsha Kinder.

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm               Session 2: NAVIGATION/SPATIALISATION
Introduction: Adriene Jenik
Presenters: Marcos Novak, Sheldon Brown, Margaret
Morse, Norman Klein, Peter Lunenfeld.

4:00 pm Closing remarks, refreshments to follow

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COMPUTING CULTURE LECTURE SERIES, Spring 1998
<http://jupiter.ucsd.edu/~culture/lectures.html>

        Grahame Weinbren, March 13, 7:00 pm
        Shu Lea Cheang, April 6, 3:00 pm
        Bit Plane (Natalie Jeremijenko and Kate Rich), May 13, Time: TBA
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All events are free and open to the public.
Computing Culture events are organized by the New Media Visitors Committee
of the Department of Visual Arts. Chair: Lev Manovich. Members:  Sheldon
Brown, Adriene Jenik, Rachel Mayeri, John Welchman.
Events Coordinator:  Laura Nix

Visual Arts Department (0327), UC San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla,
CA 92093-0327.        Phone: 619-534-2860
<http://visarts.ucsd.edu>
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Computing Culture Lecture Series
        <http://jupiter.ucsd.edu/~culture/lectures.html>
Computing Culture: Defining New Media Genres, the symposium
        <http://jupiter.ucsd.edu/~culture/symposium.html>
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