Symposium addresses new media in art history

By: Angela Martin

Published: Friday, April 14, 2006

The Savannah College of Art and Design’s art history department is hosting a distinguished international panel of speakers for the 2006 symposium, titled “The New Renaissance: An Interactive Paradigm.” The symposium will take place April 14 in Orleans Hall, 201 Barnard St., 1-5 p.m., and will explore how new media art practice has sparked new ways of research and learning.

Areas of investigation include art as system, telematics (a combination of computers and telecommunications), mechatronics (deals with mechanics, electronics and computing), genetic art, art as software, hacktivism (the fusion of technology and politics), interactive installation/performance, generative art and other areas relevant to this concept.

The symposium will provide a forum for dynamic discussion with the following speakers: Don Foresta, Ph.D., a Paris-based art researcher; N. Katherine Hayles, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles; Michael Joyce, Vassar College; and SCAD art history professors Timothy Jackson, Ph.D., and Edward Shanken, Ph.D.

“A rigorous intellectual discourse is fundamental to the education of artists and designers,” said Jackson, who is co-chair of the event along with SCAD art history professor Andrew Nedd, Ph.D. “SCAD students in Savannah and Atlanta will have the rare opportunity to experience a world-class panel of experts on the subject of the New Renaissance. In addition, there will be a dialogue following the presentation when students can ask questions and make comments [about] the subject.”

Nedd said plans are already underway for another symposium in 2008. “[Colleague] James Janson and I are planning a symposium that will deal with issues in museology and collecting,” he said. “The SCAD art history symposium will be a regular biennial event that will profile intellectual trends in our field. The 2008 event is meant to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of the college’s museum studies program.”

The museum studies minor is offered through the School of Liberal Arts at SCAD.

For more information, call Nedd at (912) 525-6091.


Martin is assistant director of communications at SCAD.


“The New Renaissance: An Interactive Paradigm”
SCAD Art History Symposium Agenda
April 14
Orleans Hall, 201 Barnard St.

1 p.m.
Introductory remarks and overview of topic
Timothy Jackson, Ph.D., SCAD

1:15 p.m.
“The Interactive Network and the New Renaissance”
Don Foresta, Ph.D., MARCEL Network, Paris

2 p.m.
“Computing the Human”
Katherine Hayles, Ph.D., UCLA

2:45-3 p.m.
Break

3 p.m.
“Together in their Disharmony: Internet Collaboration and Le Cadavre Exquise”
Michael Joyce, Vassar College

3:45 p.m.
“Artists in Industry and the Academy: Collaborative Research, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, and the Creation of Hybrid Forms”
Edward Shanken, Ph.D., SCAD

4:30-5 p.m.
Audience discussion with panel members