From New Media to Old Utopias 'Red' Art in Late Capitalism?

ISEA 2011 International Conference, Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey
14 -21 September 2011

In 2000, the acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist Miltos Manetas presented in Gagosian Gallery in New York the manifesto of “Neen,” a term coined to signify “a new type of theory, art, architecture, music and life style, influenced by computers.” Notably, in the single-page manifesto communism is referenced twice and the idea of pursuing a new utopia through new media imbues the whole text. An examination of the “Neen” manifesto and other prominent theory works in the field of New Media Art brings to light a variety of means of artistic engagement and expression that could serve modes of utopian social being: from multi-modal collaboration to mass participation and from open software to hacktivism, the germs of leftist utopian thought are everywhere. It appears that New Media Art increasingly employs new technologies and especially the computer in order to penetrate all aspects of global social living and propagate such ideas. It has gradually become part of an ideology whose objectives allude to utopian theories of social organization lying closer to certain visions of communism, than to the realities of late capitalism within which new media operate.

This panel session intends to investigate the relevance of communist utopianism to New Media Art’s ideological dispositions. The session seeks for 15-minute papers, manifestos, reviews and project presentations, which will employ communism as a point of reference, from which further political, social and cultural implications of New Media Art could be explored. In this context, proposed topics might include, but are by no means limited to:
• Art, technology and reproducibility
• The rise of New Economy and the rise New Media Art
• New media artworks as commodities: “use” and “exchange” values
• Digital Art and the symbolic or cultural capital
• New Media Art’s reaction to the global economic crisis
• Legal issues and intellectual property
• Internet and the democratization of art
• Artists’ involvement in the “Facebook Revolutions” of the Middle East
• The role of New Media Art in ex-communist countries
• Hacktivism as art: a revolution for the Digital Age?
• Institutionalization of New Media Art
• Cultural Policies and New Media Art

Potential contributors are invited to submit a 300-word paper abstract, accompanied by a brief biography, or CV (including name, affiliation, phone number and e-mail) to the panel chair, Bill Balaskas (bill.balaskasgmail.com) no later than April 1st 2011.

All authors will be informed by April 5th 2011. Please, note, that the deadline for the submission of the full text of the papers will be late May/early June.