Perspectives, Ekaterinburg, May 21, 2010

Theory and Practice of Media Art:
Aesthetic Parergons and Perspectives
(International Conference)

Ekaterinburg, May 21, 2010
Ural State University

As new media art becomes more ubiquitous, it is crucial to see through
its trendiness to its epistemological and aesthetic implications.
Operating in the convergence between the arts, science and technology,
media art instigates a new set of cognitive phenomena and mandates new
practical and discursive agendas. With its strong multisensorial
effects, captivating and enthralling, it challenges the world of
traditional art, while in its turn being confronted by the grasping
hands of the entertainment and cultural industry. Its unique modes of
sensory engagement suggest new paradigms of cognition and
proprioception. Empowering the viewer to relate to the work in multiple
ways, electronic/interactive art raises issues of controllability and
determination, refracted through disciplines from physics to politics
and economics.

While there is a growing body of theory pertaining to the practice of
media arts internationally, in Russia the development of this field is
still sporadic. The seminar is intended to introduce to Ekaterinburg
audience some of the most important issues of international media art
theory and practice and to instigate further discussions, research and
practice in this science- and technology-rich region.

Prospective topics:
- practices of illusion: immersivity and virtuality in media arts;
- interactivity as a key construct of media relations;
- histories of media art in the logic of production of immateriality;
- aesthetic questions of media arts;
- the sensorium and the new borders of sensuality;
- science-art practices;
- robotics, locative media, radio electronics;
- processual interface: intermedial performance;
- curatorial strategies of presenting media art;
- media arts in Russia.

In conjunction with the seminar, there will be a presentation of a
series of interactive media installations by Ural artists as well as the
works from the collections of the Center for Art and Media Technologies
(ZKM Karlsruhe), Ars Electronica Center (Linz).

Invited speakers:
- Dr. Oliver GRAU (Germany, Austria), media art theorist and art
historian, head of the Department of Image Science at Danube University,
Krems (Austria);
- Dr. Olga KISSELEVA (France), media artist, theorist, director of the
program Art&Science, Universitet: Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne;
- Dr. Olga YATZUK (Moscow), art historian, head of the program
Informational Technologies in Design, National Institute of
Design;

Chair: Ksenia FEDEROVA, Ural State
University Ekaterinburg and curator of National Center for Contemporary
Art (NCCA)
www.ncca.ru

Ministry of Culture, Russian Federation
National Center for Contemporary Art (NCCA)
Ekaterinburg Branch

Ural State University
Department of Art History and Cultural Studies