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Computing Culture: Defining New Media Genres
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Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1998 08:35:48 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bruce Jones
COMPUTING CULTURE: DEFINING NEW MEDIA GENRES, the Symposium
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
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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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
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.
12:15 pm - 2:00 pm Lunch Break
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: 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.
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.
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Directions to CRCA and the Visual Arts Facility at UCSD
From downtown San Diego: Take 5 north to the Gilman Drive exit. At the end of the ramp take a left onto Gilman. Continue on this road, past condos, etc. go through the campus entrance. After the entrance go through 4 stop signs, at the 5th stop sign take a left onto Russell Lane. After another stop sign park in the large lot on the left (but not in the parking next to the Credit Union). Continue walking down Russell Lane (Physical Plant facilities will be on the right side). CRCA is on the left hand side, it is a wood and concrete building. The entrance is up a walkway leading from Russell Lane. The Visual Arts Facility is a large gray building on the right, across the street from CRCA.
From Los Angeles: Take 5 south to the La Jolla Village Drive exit. At the light take a right onto La Jolla Village Drive. At the next light, take a right onto Villa La Jolla Drive. At the second stop sign take a left onto Gilman Drive. At the first stop sign (numbered #5), take a right onto Russell Lane. After a stop sign park in the large lot on the left (but not in the parking next to the Credit Union). Continue walking down Russell Lane (Physical Plant facilities will be on the right side). CRCA is on the left hand side, it is a wood and concrete building. The entrance is up a walkway leading from Russell Lane. The Visual Arts Facility is a large gray building on the right, across the street from CRCA.
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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
Computing Culture Lecture Series and Symposium are made possible by funding from the Department of Visual Arts and the Dean of Arts and Humanities, University of California, San Diego.
Visual Arts Department
UC San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive (0327)
La Jolla, CA 92093-0327
Phone: 619-534-2860
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Computing Culture Lecture Series
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