Sunday January 21

Media Metaphors: Society / Information / the Body

Our notions of society, nature and the individual are undergoing a deep
transformation. Media artists are tackling the questions arising from this
process in installations, video work, and texts. The language about media is
steeped in metaphors, and often media themselves - like the electronic
networks, like DWTKS, or the Alien Staff -, appear as metaphors for certain
social facts. They point to cultural and political, ethical and aesthetic
issues which have an immediate impact on the way in which we perceive
society and ourselves, they mould reality and embodied experience.

The programme will engage artists and critics in a discussion about two
fields which are of particular importance for the current reconfiguration of
personal and social identities. The impact of digital and bio-technologies
on our conceptions of nature, the human body and the self will be
discussed by members of Knowbotic Research (Köln) and by Stephan
Geene (minimal club, Berlin). The question about the critical potential of
artists' work in this field will be raised, and strategies for counteracting the
trends of immaterialisation and alienation will be discussed. Herwig
Turk (Vienna) will present a series of 'Super-Organs', and talk about his
research about the myths of eternal life related to technology.

Feminism has, over the past years, been crucial for the further break-down of
established conceptions of subjective and gendered identities. The
exploration of new forms of subjectivity (Alla Mitrofanova) and the impact of
medical discourses on conceptions of body and society (Czegledy/Arns)
will inform the second part of the afternoon. The Critical Art Ensemble
will be invited to formulate an ad-hoc intervention.

V2-Exhition space
14.00 - 18.00
Debate with Knowbotic Research and Stephan Geene of Minimal Club (Berlin),
with video screenings, about technology, nature, biotechnology, and
a_tech.
Herwig Turk: Super-Organs and Eternal Life.
Nina Czegledy/Inke Arns: http://new.territories/
appropriation.of.medical.discourse/art.com.
A discourse about cyberfeminism and subjectivity by Alla Mitrofanova
(St. Petersburg).
Plus an intervention by the Critical Art Ensemble (Chicago).

Moderator: José van Dijck, Rijksuniversiteit Limburg