[spectre] Parsing the Pixelated: The Histories of Digital Art

[Oliver Grau]

AAH Conference, Royal College of Art, London, UK, April 10 - 12, 2014
Deadline: Nov 11, 2013

Parsing the Pixelated: The Histories of Digital Art

Session at the Association of Art Historians 2014 Annual Conference

Although digital art precedes the creation of the world wide web in
the early 1990s, it is only more recently, facilitated by affordable
and widely distributed connected technology, that digital art has
become firmly established as an artistic category. Yet the term
remains nebulous, including many disparate forms and types of art:
from manipulated photographs to interactive installations to works
existing on or made by a computer. Furthermore, the History of Art has
yet to substantively account for digital art, frequently deferring to
the tools and methods of visual culture studies in recognition of a
broader cultural phenomenon. Repositories of digital art have also
recently been founded: on the one hand, the Museum of Modern Art, New
York has started to acquire video games for its collection, on the
other, the Google Art Project gathers together a virtual
mega-collection of artworks drawn from the world's leading museums
(including 7-gigapixel images of their masterpieces).

This session will explore the definitions of and approaches toward
digital art. It will be primarily concerned with the digital as an
artistic medium and its relationship to and within art history. Papers
may include but are not limited to: digital artworks (both on- or
offline), historical precursors, digital theories and methodologies,
the internet and the democratisation of art, interactive and
experience-based art, 'curated' content, objecthood vs. virtuality,
conservation and obsolescence, and scopic regimes. The session aims to
locate and investigate discussions about art that is (or was) state of
the art.

Send your abstract directly to Cliff Lauson, Hayward Gallery,
digitalarthistories at gmail.com by 11 November 2013.

This session is a part of: Association of Art Historians 2014 Annual
Conference & Bookfair Royal College of Art, London, UK, 10-12 April
2014

Please see AAH website for session listings, proposal submission
guidelines, and conference fees.
http://www.aah.org.uk/annual-conference/2014-conference