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

The Politics of Visibility: Mediating the Global, Local and the In-between :: November 4, 2011 :: Parasol Unit, 14 Wharf Road, London, N1 7RW, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

A collaboration between Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art and City University London, The Politics of Visibility: Mediating the Global, Local and the In-between is a one-day conference that brings artists and academics together to examine the relationship between art, media, transnationalism and power. Continue reading

[I Love Your Work by Jonathan Harris] Social Media :: September 16 - October 15, 2011 :: Opening: September 15; 6:00 - 8:00 pm :: The Pace Gallery, 510 West 25th Street, New York, NY.

The exhibition focuses on contemporary artists exploring public platforms for communication and social networks through an aesthetic and conceptual lens. In an era of increasingly omnipresent new technologies, Social Media examines the impact of these systems as they transform human expression, interaction, and perception. The exhibition will feature works by Christopher Baker, Aram Bartholl, David Byrne, Jonathan Harris, Robert Heinecken, Miranda July & Harrell Fletcher, Sep Kamvar and Penelope Umbrico. Continue reading

Blowup: Every Artist, A Journalist: Examining the tension between documentary methods and artistic expression, and address where notions of truth and beauty fit in this mix — with Lino Hellings (NL), Alfredo Cramerotti (UK), Gair Dunlop (UK) :: August 25, 2011; 8:00 - 11:00 pm :: V2_, Eendrachtsstraat 10, Rotterdam.

Documentary images are a common method to measure and reflect on the monumental scale of change occurring in contemporary society. These images are also highly aestheticised, making beauty even of images of the most desolate slum or industrialised landscape. As a crossover point between art and journalism, the documentary image also allows us to question the veracity of world events from multiple viewpoints, often offering multiple uncomfortable realities instead of a single, easily-digestible worldview. Continue reading

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

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Unlike Us – Understanding Social Media Monopolies and their Alternatives: Proposal for a research network, a series of events and a reader [Concept: Geert Lovink (Institute of Network Cultures/HvA, Amsterdam) and Korinna Patelis (Cyprus University of Technology, Lemasol)]

The aim of this proposal is to establish a research network of artists, designers, scholars, activists and programmers who work on ‘alternatives in social media’. Through workshops, conferences, online dialogues and publications, Unlike Us intends to both analyze the economic and cultural aspects of dominant social media platforms and to propagate the further development and proliferation of alternative, decentralized social media software. Continue reading

[Esther Hunziker, "DUMP," 2010. Still.] Connect. Art between Media and Reality :: until September 11, 2011 :: 
Shedhalle Zurich, Seestrasse 395, 8038 Zurich, Switzerland.

Smart technologies, everywhere available and tailored to our needs, determine our daily lives. We gossip, have affairs, send and receive our information electronically. Even support for revolutions is stoked up virtually. Mobile phone, Email, WLAN, Apps, YouTube, Facebook or Twitter define not only our communication behaviour, but even our very existence. The world has become more transparent, we are always any time anywhere, at least we think we are.

We have long suspected, or known, that freedom is deceptive and that we are paying a high price for it. The software may be user-friendly and social, but it is limited, and predefined. Continue reading

[Image: Insurance.AES256 by Michael Takeo Magruder. See video below.] All That Fits: The Aesthetics of Journalism — Curated by Alfredo Cramerotti & Simon Sheikh :: until July 31, 2011 :: QUAD Gallery, Market Place, Cathedral Quarter, Derby, DE1 3AS.

The exhibition All that Fits: The Aesthetics of Journalism presents the provocative idea that art and journalism are two sides of a unique activity; the production and distribution of images and information. The exhibition brings to the surface how images and information are communicated, and the aesthetic principles used in the act of transmission.

Whereas journalism provides a view on the world, as it ‘really’ is, art often presents a view on the view, as an act of reflection. Continue reading

Journalism in the Age of Data from Geoff McGhee on Vimeo.

Ubicidade | Ubicity :: June 27-30, 2011; 9:00 am - 4:00 pm :: Electronic Computational Center - University of São Paulo, Avenida Professor Gualberto, 71, travessa, 3 Cidade Universitária, Butantã, São Paulo, Brazil.

Ubicity is a Telematic Art Project, proposed to stimulate conceptual, mediatic and aesthetic experimentation through streaming, videoconferencing and social media. Its main goal is to establish a structure that will enable artistic and cultural exchanges specially among research centers in Universities around the world. Ubicity, a word created through the conjunction of Ubiquity and City, is proposed to enhance Internet-based communication between artists and researchers of geographically distant places around the world. Continue reading