(I)Migrants, Hegemony, New Internationalism
Marina Grzinic

Exhibitions that are prepared as project(s) realizing the new internationalisation of the Third and Second Worlds demonstrate an incredible viability. It seems that these exhibitions have found a way to involve the “world”, and at the same time (and this is very important) to prolong their proper life. The inclusion of the Third World is also in the balance, with the proliferation of cultural studies in the capitalist First World, as the Second World (former Eastern Europe) is still (!) on the waiting list, and reserved for special purposes. The former Eastern European art and culture is namely forced to wait, just as when you wait to take a charter flight. You are waiting for the call, and you have to be ready.

Discipline Design: The Rise of Media Philosophy
An Email Exchange with Frank Hartmann
Geert Lovink

Lately, in German speaking countries a “media philosophy” debate has unfolded. [...] At least, the antagonists have so far failed to make clear what the controversy over this concept is all about - presuming there is one. From the outside it looks a failed cockfight over non-existing institutional arrangements, in a time of rising student numbers and shrinking education budgets. Like all academic disciplines, philosophy is also confronted with the rise of the computer. This has been the case for half a century, but it is only now that the knowledge itself is being produced and stored in networks and databases. Technology is no longer an object of study for some, but alters studying in general.

Estetica delle catastrofi
Conversazione con Agnese Benassi, Roberta Buiani, Rossella Maspoli, Marcello Pecchioli, Emanuele Quinz, Chiara Somajni, Lorenzo Taiuti, Franco Torriani, a cura di Bruna Piras

E’ importante chiedersi che cosa diventino le arti, arti quali ‘altra natura’ e, con un impulso ancestrale, arti frutto di processi intuitivi e produttivi dell’arte–tekhne. Che cosa diventino, non solo per effetto e insieme a quanto sta producendo l’era dell’informazione, ma anche per processi di fondo, dall’esplosione demografica alle modifiche dell’ecosistema. La sensibilità umana da una parte e, dall’altra, un sistema caotico; un dis–equilibrio fra un richiamo all’estetica delle origini, l’aisthetikos della percezione sensoriale, e un ambiente in continua mutazione; il confronto, infine, fra organico e inorganico.

Due o tre cose che so di Eveline
Ernesto Ferrari

Eveline è stata pensata per fare cinema e quindi se ne sta fuori dal Web. Eveline crede ancora che per condividere lo sguardo ci si debba incontrare, come si fa adesso quando si va a vedere un film. Una persona da sola seduta su una sedia scomoda davanti al monitor di un computer in attesa che compaia il francobollo animato è un’immagine patetica e straziante. Così come ci si sposta per andare al cinema, e sappiamo che questa pratica implica qualcosa di molto simile all’andare al tempio per riunirsi e partecipare a un rito collettivo, allo stesso modo ci si dovrà spostare per andare da Eveline, perché si starà andando a vedere cinema. E a farlo con gli altri. Quella che segue è una descrizione del modo un cui ho pensato che Eveline debba funzionare.

An interview with Lev Manovich in Malmö
Kristoffer Gansing

I think that basically what I’m saying is this, that you have two traditions in the history of using the computer to create art and moving images. On the one hand you have this traditional algorithmic tradition, with people like James and John Whitney who made beautiful, abstract algorithmic films, and today this tradition continues with lots of Flash art. Then we have this other tradition which begins in the seventies and really picks up in the eighties, with software that allows you to manipulate figurative media. Today we have Hollywood films like Star Wars that rely on the computer to create realistic, figurative objects and environments. I’m interested in exploring the area that lies in between these two extremes, but not only to generate abstract stuff but also to generate or manipulate a part of a fictional, presentational universe.