From: Christian Berger <christian.bergeruni-mainz.de>
Date: Jul 1, 2016
Subject: CFP: Demediatized Media: Conceptualism and Reproducibility

Demediatized Media: Conceptualism and Reproducibility

Panel at IAWIS International Conference, Lausanne (Switzerland) July 10-14, 2017
Panel au Colloque international AIERTI, Lausanne (Suisse) 10-14 juillet 2017

Panel organizers/organisé par:
Christian Berger, christian.bergeruni-mainz.de
Regine Ehleiter, ehleiterhgb-leipzig.de

Notions of reproduction and reproducibility are essential for any understanding of Conceptualism as it developed in the 1960s and 70s in various cultural and geographical contexts. Art could exist “through the ‘reproducibility’ of the written word or a photographic document” (Claude Gintz) rather than only through a unique material manifestation. The concept of art as “primary information” (Seth Siegelaub) opened up entirely new possibilities for the display and dissemination of art in the form of printed media, which, beyond including reproductions of art, dissolved the distinction between reproduction and original. The negation of object-based works in favor of an art practice based on reproducibility is commonly referred to as “dematerialization” (Lucy R. Lippard/ John Chandler). Understanding dematerialization to be “relevant but not all-encompassing,” Luis Camnitzer has proposed “demediatization” as an alternative concept, focusing more on communication than on the question of objecthood. He foregrounds that Conceptualists “wanted to find ways to send messages through no-loss information systems”—an idea deeply rooted in the emergent information theories of the time. As part of this process of “demediatization,” artists favored the use of media and techniques of mechanical reproduction, understanding both text and photography as “documentation [that] aspired to the conditions of a neutral recording apparatus” (Liz Kotz).

This connection between a desire for immediate communication and the resultant use of technologies of reproduction informs our proposed understanding of reproduced texts and images as “demediatized media.” Contributions are encouraged to address, among other things,

(a) ways in which conceptual artists integrated media of reproduction, such as fax or photocopying, into their work,
(b) the specific role of photography as a creator of both reproducible images and reproduced pictures within (photo-)conceptualist practices,
(c) connections between reproducibility, distribution and display in printed media (artists’ books, periodicals, ephemera).

Submit your 250-word proposal (in English or in French) for the panel "Demediatized Media: Conceptualism and Reproducibility" before August 31, 2016 via the link below:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vote850Mssh1r1oLZe3fiKnrpPdSt_WSTBNQNQ_eC14/viewform?c=0&w=1

Envoyez votre projet de 250 mots (en français ou en anglais) destiné au panel "Demediatized Media: Conceptualism and Reproducibility" avant le 31 août 2016 via ce lien:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vote850Mssh1r1oLZe3fiKnrpPdSt_WSTBNQNQ_eC14/viewform?c=0&w=1