Call for Papers

"Media art reconsidered"

11. - 13. December 2008

Institute for Media Arts
University of Potsdam
Neues Palais, Haus 1
14415 Potsdam

The Context of Rubicon: A Neomodernist constructive approach to media art?

According to M. Bartholdy and C. Strasnoff, in contemporary media art a
predominant concept seems to be the concept of material reality. Thus, a new
school of narratives concerning postcapitalist materialism may be found. If
neomodernist constructive theory in media art holds, these works are not to
be discussed in non-postmodern concepts/terms. Moreover, the main theme of
their model of sub-patriarchial theory is a mythopoetical paradox: The
primary theme of contemporary media art is not, in fact, discourse, but
prediscourse like for instance shit. In a certain way, H. Muller suggests
the use of modern Marxism, deconstructing and modifying sexual identity.
Therefore, several discourses concerning predesublimation may be found.

'Art is part of the genre of non-language', says M. Badiou. Thus, he
suggests the use of structural subcultural theory to deconstruct sexist
perceptions of media art. If constructive theory holds, we have to choose
between postcapitalist materialism and materialistic deconstruction.

It could be said that media art is un-dead. On the other hand, the actual
deterritorialisation of subversive postmodern cinema suggests a revival of
what Bartholdy and Strasnoff called the 'impact of digital identity'. If all
this implies a growing epistomologic virtuality, how does this affect our
understanding?

Lit.: Bartholdy and Strasnoff, Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a
Transformative Hermeneutics of Postcapitalist Materialism, Social Text, 12
(3) 2006, pp. 13-27.

We hereby invite you to send exposés of your papers, not more than 2000
characters long. Our conference will be taking place from the 11th until the
13th of December 2008 at the University of Potsdam, Institute for Media
Arts. The deadline of submission is the 30th of April 2008.

Conference language: English

Submissions and further contact: Prof. Dr. David Koslav (david.koslavweb.de
¹)

http://emw.fh-potsdam.de/personen_lehrende_portrait.php?tid=145
²