Christiane Paul
Context as Moving Target: Mapping the Digital World
Date 11/19/01
Affiliation Curator of New Media Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Abstract
The networked, digital world is a multi-layered informational system in constant flux that seems to defy systematic arrangement of its constituent elements. Digital media proved a "denatured context," simultaneously enriching context and making the notion of context redundant.
The concepts of recycling, reproduction and continuous flow of information are key issues in networked, digital art. Digital artists face the pressing challenge of inventing new visual models that can represent this dynamic flow of data. Dr. Paul's talk will discuss issues of mapping in relation to the fluctuating contexts of the digital world and the challenges of exhibiting artworks that address these issues.
Bio
Christiane Paul is the Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts at the Whitney Museum and the co-founder and director of Intelligent Agent, a service organization and information provider dedicated to interpreting and promoting art that uses digital technologies. Paul received her MA and Ph.D. from the University of Düsseldorf, Germany. She has taught at New York University and Fordham University and is currently teaching in the MFA Computer Graphics Dept. at the School of Visual Arts, NY. Dr. Paul curated "Data Dynamics," an exhibition of net art at the Whitney Museum (March 30 - June 10, 2001), and is responsible for the Whitney's Artport site (http://artport.whitney.org), a portal for Web-based art. Dr. Paul is currently working with Margot Lovejoy and Victoria Vesna on a book titled Context Providers -- Context and Meaning in Digital Art, forthcoming from MIT Press.
-- As of 11/19/01