[spectre] Event Report: ART AND THE TECHNOLOGICAL SUBLIME - Russian Techno-Sublime Futurology

[Image Science]

Russian Techno-Sublime Futurology

May 23, 2010

In parallel to the exhibition *FUTUROLOGY \ RUSSIAN UTOPIAS* the
GARAGE Center for Contemporary Culture (Moscow) hosted a discussion
panel *ART AND THE TECHNOLOGICAL SUBLIME*, convened by Ksenia
FEDOROVA (National Center for Contemporary Arts, Ekaterinburg branch).

In the society where the notion of utopia has been explored all the way
to its glorious, radical bounds, it is especially valuable that this
subject receives critical treatment on the basis of new phenomena - such
as those presented by media art and science art. The social utopia gives
way to the utopia within the scientific realm, while art becomes the
ground for reflection on abstract visions, often engaging the visual
language of the "technological sublime". 
The pervasive use of the term sublime within the technological arts
provokes a need for the deeper and more multifaceted analysis. Sublime
experience is not a state of trance, condition of being overpowered, but
quite the opposite - of being aware of this procedure, of the
differences between multiple states of consciousness that can be
explored only when disrupted. 

The complexity and controversy of the subject was revealed by the
philosophers Helen PETROVSKY (Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy
of Science, editor-in-chief of the philosophical journal *Blue
Sofa*) and Oleg ARONSON (Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy
of Science) who incorporated in the debate the discourse of *affect*
and *fascination* studies, as well as the methodology of
contemporary political aesthetics. Curators and art historians Olga
SHISHKO (director of the MediaArtLab, art director of Media Forum) and
Daria PARKHOMENKO (director of Laboratoria Art&Science Space) reminded
us of the richness of the media art practice itself and discussed such
questions as artist and scientist relationships, motivation and outcomes
of collaboration, and perspectives for the development of diverse media
art in Russia.
    
The debate began with a prelude lecture by Oliver GRAU (Danube
University, Austria) *Media Revolutions and the Discourse of Utopia
vs. Apocalypse: Integrating Media Art in our Societies*. Discussing
media art works by Maurice BENAYOUN, Olaf ELIASSON, Eduardo KAC,
Victoria VESNA, Zoe BELLOF, Berndt LINTERMANN et al, the lecture
emphasized that teleological models, supporting the patterns of
discourse surrounding earlier media revolutions should be incorporated
in building the platform for a deeper understanding of today's
scientific utopias, like A-Life, Nanophysics or our Media Future. 

www.garageccc.ru 
www.ncca.ru 
www.donau-uni.ac.at/cis 
www.mediaartlab.ru 
www.newlaboratoria.ru 
www.iph.ras.ru 


Department for Image Science
Danube University Krems, Austria