Radius 25: Cultural Morphing by Klaus Filip / Nicolaj Kirisits / et al. :: May 20-21, 2012; 8:00 am CST (to coincide with the 2012 Chicago NATO Summit).

Cultural Morphing is an experiment in creating a multi-perspective image of reality from the simultaneous experience of a geographic line by the individual expression of a perceived personal reality. Twelve invited artists traveled by train from Vienna to Shanghai, and selected stops along the route served as their workspace where they would meticulously work out an project that outlined various aspects of cultural transition experienced on the journey. Stopovers at Ulan-Ude, Ulan Bator, Beijing and Shanghai were used to exhibit the works that were created en route. Continue reading

You are invited to apply for a place in the 2012 Session of the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa). The 2012 Session, Futures of Nature, is part of a drive within the humanities to reframe the disciplines and critical theory in light of the environmental emergency that is said to endanger most species on the planet, including our own.

We will reflect on some of the major challenges relating to the contemporary conditions and the long-term sustainability of life on Earth. Ours is an age characterized by the indelible imprint of human activity on the Earth’s climate, its geology and its conditions – a process which may lead to the planet’s becoming inhospitable to human life. It is also an era that blurs the distinction between human history and culture and the Earth’s natural history and material composition. Continue reading

America’s Got No Talent — by Jonah Brucker-Cohen and Katherine Moriwaki — is a web-based software project that synthesizes and processes the steady stream of Twitter feeds for several American reality television shows such as “American Idol,” “America’s Got Talent,” “America’s Next Top Model,” and “X Factor US” among others in this genre. Continue reading

[Sculptor Abdulrahman Katanani is one example of the fact that Arab artists are 'already among us' (Al Jazeera)] On nettime, Prem Chandavarkar wrote:

These are some speculations that have been bouncing around in my head for some time, particularly with reference to architecture — the discipline I practice — but perhaps having wider implications: Ever since the early stages of the modernist movement (since the second half of the 19th century) artistic innovation has been underpinned by the idea of the avant-garde.

The avant-garde are (to use a term from Thomas Kuhn) paradigm shifters. Their work consists of two facets that operate simultaneously. One is a deep critique of current paradigms of cultural production. And the other is production of artistic work that demonstrates a new paradigm and a new set of possibilities. Continue reading

GLI.TC/H 20111: An International Noise && (Dirty) New Media Event - Conference - Festival - Gathering — works by over 100 participants from more than a dozen countries taking place in virtual-space at http://gli.tc/h and in real-space Continue reading

Digital Crossroads: Media, Migration and Diaspora in a Transnational Perspective :: June 28-30, 2012 :: Utrecht University, the Netherlands :: Call for Papers and Panel Proposals — Deadline: January 10, 2012. Continue reading

How Can We Understand Code as a “Critical Artifact”?: USC’s Mark Marino on Critical Code Studies (Part One), by Henry Jenkins:

The Humanities and Critical Code Studies (HaCCS) Lab opened this summer at the University of Southern California with the specific goal of developing the field and fostering discussion between the Humanities and Computer Science. Current members include USC faculty and students and a host of affiliated scholars from other institutions, including and international advisory board. The HaCCS Lab sponsored its first conference this summer and will be sponsoring other get togethers both on campus and online. Central to its mission is to develop common vocabularies, methodologies, and case-studies of CCS, while promoting publications in the field. Continue reading

A Little Less Conversation: A conference about exhibiting contemporary performance :: October 1, 2011; 1:30 - 4:30 pm :: de Appel arts centre, Auditorium, Temporary Stedelijk 2, Amsterdam :: Reservations required through reservations [at] stedelijk.nl.

A Little Less Conversation will question, in an unusual and dynamic fashion, how contemporary performance art is exhibited. Ephemeral and immaterial in its nature, performance becomes tangible the moment it is exhibited, whether experienced live or through documents. Although it is first and foremost an art of the here and now, the widest access we have to a performance, paradoxically enough, is still based on objects and residual elements such as text, photography, audio or video. Continue reading

Art and Sustainability: Connecting Patterns for a Culture of Complexity by Sacha Kagan:

What is the cultural dimension of sustainability? This book offers a thought-provoking answer, with a theoretical synthesis on »cultures of sustainability«. Describing how modernity degenerated into a culture of unsustainability, to which the arts are contributing, Sacha Kagan engages us in a fundamental rethinking of our ways of knowing and seeing the world. We must learn not to be afraid of complexity, and to re-awaken a sensibility to patterns that connect. With an overview of ecological art over the past 40 years, and a discussion of art and social change, the book assesses the potential role of art in a much needed transformation process. Continue reading

Brian Holmes‘ Post-Fordisms and Culture, Presented as part of Living as Form from creativetime.

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