EAST-Workshop on the History of Art, Science and Technology

Speaker:
Eduardo Kac (Chair, The Department of Art and Technology Studies, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Professor）
Eduardo Kac is internationally recognized for his telepresence and bio art. A pioneer of telecommunications art in the pre-Web’80s, Eduardo Kac (pronounced "Katz") emerged in the early’90s with his radical works combining telerobotics and living organisms. His visionary integration of robotics, biology and networking explores the fluidity of subject positions in the post-digital world. His work deals with issues that range from the mythopoetics of online experience (Uirapuru) to the cultural impact of biotechnology (Genesis); from the changing condition of memory in the digital age (Time Capsule) to distributed collective agency (Teleporting an Unknown State); from the problematic notion of the "exotic" (Rara Avis) to the creation of life and evolution(GFPBunny).
At the dawn of the twenty-first century Kac opened a new direction for contemporary art with his "transgenic art"--first with a
groundbreaking transgenic work entitled Genesis (1999), which included an "artist’s gene" he invented, and then with his fluorescent rabbit called Alba (2000).
Kac’s work has been exhibited internationally and has been featured both in contemporary art publications (Flash Art, Artforum, ARTnews, Kunstforum, Tema Celeste, Artpress, NY Arts Magazine) and in the mass media (ABC, BBC, PBS, Le Monde, Boston Globe, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, New York Times). Kac has received many awards, including the Golden Nica Award, the most prestigious award in the field of media arts and the highest prize awarded by Ars Electronica. He lectures and publishes worldwide. His work is documented at
<www.ekac.org>.

Academic Host:
Qiu Zhijie（Dean, School of Experimental Art, CAFA; Professor）
Producer:
Jo Wei (Researcher on Art, Science and Technology, CAFA)
Duration:
26-30th, November, 2018（Public Lecture on Wednesday）

Course description:
This course examines the impact of new technologies on the aesthetics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Issues explored in the course include the structure of synthetic pictorial spaces, creating art in a global scale, responding to images of pure light, the aesthetics of motion, behavior in virtual environments and the experience of interactive artworks. In some cases the emphasis is on a particular new medium and the multiple artistic approaches to it; in other cases, the emphasis is on particular artists and their experimental work. Main lecture topics include: Moholy-Nagy’s work, early radio and the impact of auditory images, kinetic art, robotic art, telecommunication art, computer art, virtual reality, telepresence and bio art. By focusing on the theoretical and historical implications of the aforementioned media and movements, and on the work of several artists, the course places this major trend in modern and contemporary art within its larger context. Through a combination of lectures and discussions, and presentation of films, photos, videos and audio works, we investigate critically the relationship between new technologies and the visual arts.

Course arrangement:
Day 1
The Electromagnetic Landscape
Morning
Radio and the Disembodied Voice
Afternoon
Moholy-Nagy: From the Telephone Pictures to the Light-Space Modulator
Day 2
Kinetic Art: From Representation to Actual Motion
Morning
Kinetic Art: From Representation to Actual Motion — Part 1
Afternoon
Kinetic Art: From Representation to Actual Motion — Part 2
Day 3
The New Image: Electronic, Digital, Photonic
Morning
Television and Video: Art and Mass Media
Afternoon
Computer Art: From Digital Graphics to Interactivity and VR
Day 4
Behavior, Awareness, and Interactivity
Morning
Art and Robotics: Behavioral Aesthetics
Afternoon
Telecommunications, Web Art, and Telepresence: Global Scale in Real Time
Day 5
From Live Art to Life as an Art Medium
Morning
Cyborg Performance: Technology and the Human Body
Afternoon
Bio Art