New Aesthetic New Anxieties - Institute for the Unstable Media

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arguably animated all of these scenes; an aesthetic turn brought about itself througha 'new nature' (Bridle 2011c).Irit Rogoff argues in her essay on the notion of 'turns' in contemporary art's trajectory(including those within the practice of curation itself), that "it seems pertinent to askwhether this umbrella is actually descriptive of the drives that have propelled thisdesired transition" (2008). Contemporary art workers encounter suggestions ofturns with ambivalence and a certain secret sense of relief - everyone needs sensesof movement in their frames for working, the styles of comportment for what they do,in order to enable a capacity to absorb, recognize, situate and insightfully propelindividual practices into intelligible scenes of aesthetic encounter - usually this takesshape as an exhibition. But what constitutes a turn, and what kind of comportment dospecific turns register in relation to the larger historical presents in to which they arepitched and thrown? Rogoff asks:Are we talking about a 'reading strategy' or an interpretative model, aswas the understanding of the 'linguistic turn' in the 1970s, with itsintimations of an underlying structure that could be read across numerouscultural practices and utterances? Are we talking about reading onesystem—a pedagogical one—across another system—one of display,exhibition, and manifestation—so that they nudge one another in waysthat might open them up to other ways of being? Or, are we talkinginstead about an active movement—a generative moment in which a newhorizon emerges in the process—leaving behind the practice that was itsoriginating point? (2008)For Rogoff, who seems very much aware of the relationship of art world trends tonetworked connectivity and socio-technological change, what is at one momentheralded as a turn can easily "harden" into a series of "generic or stylistic tropes," andmight risk even resolving “the kinds of urgencies that underwrote it in the first place”given that it is designed to deal with interdisciplinary challenges at the precise pointswhere things "urgently need to be shaken up and made uncomfortable" (2008).Taking up this challenge to consider disruption, Michelle Kasprzak (Curator at V2_Institute for the Unstable Media in Rotterdam) invited one facilitator and six writers tocome together in a 'book sprint' to explore these issues. The book sprint formatinvolves a group tasked with writing a book over a few intensive days - in this case, wemet over approximately four and a half days. Talking, writing, editing, eating, drinking,and debating ensued and the result of those focused days of effort is this publication.We are proud of what emerged in this interdisciplinary group of curators, writers, andacademics, although of course as we neared the end of this process we foundourselves wishing for "just one more day". As an initial step towards a deeper analysisof this contemporary moment where new aesthetics appear against the backdrop ofglobal discord and unrest, we hope you find it as interesting to read as we have foundit to (collaboratively) write.Rotterdam, June 20125
2. CONTRIBUTORSDavid M. Berry is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Media in the Department of Political andCultural Studies at Swansea University. He is currently a guest researcher at Instituttfor medier og kommunikasjon (IMK), University of Oslo. He is author of The Philosophyof Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age (2011), Copy, Rip Burn: ThePolitics of Copyleft and Open Source (2008), and editor of Understanding DigitalHumanities (2011) and Life in Code and Software: Mediated life in a complexcomputational ecology (2012). He is @berrydm on Twitter http://twitter.com/berrydmand also http://www.swan.ac.uk/staff/academic/artshumanities/berryd/.Michel van Dartel (NL) is a curator at V2_Institute for the Unstable Media andthe Dutch Electronic Art Festival. Currently he is a guest teacher at Transmedia, apostgraduate program in art, media, and design at Sint-Lukas Brussels University College of Art and Design. Michel also works as externaladvisor to the Mondriaan Foundation and the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; guestcurator of ARTICLE, a biennial for electronic and unstable art; and, associate editorof the Journal for Artistic Research. Prior to his current appointments, Michelundertook research on knowledge representation in robot models of cognition, forwhich he received a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and an MSc in Cognitive Psychologyfrom Maastricht University. (@MichelvanDartel | michel@v2.nl| www.v2.nl/archive/people/michel-van-dartel)Michael Dieter (AUS) is a lecturer in New Media at the University of Amsterdam. Hisresearch interests focus on relations of media art, ecology and politics. He is finishinghis PhD on contemporary technoscientific art practices, entitled 'Reticular Aesthetics'.His publications have appeared in Fibreculture, M/C and the Australian HumanitiesReview.Adam Hyde (NZ/DE) is a Book Sprint facilitator, Project Manager of an open sourcebook production platform (Booktype) and founder of FLOSS Manuals. Adam startedthe Book Sprint methodology 4 years ago and has been pushing the facilitationprocess further into new contexts of collaborative knowledge and culture production.http://www.booksprints.netMichelle Kasprzak (CA/PL) curator and writer based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.She is a Curator at V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media, the Dutch Electronic ArtFestival (DEAF), and part of the global curatorial team for the 2012 ZERO1 Biennial inCalifornia. She has appeared in Wired UK, on radio and TV broadcasts by the BBC andCBC, and lectured at PICNIC. In 2006 she founded Curating.info, the web’s leading6
Page 2 and 3: NEW AESTHETIC NEW ANXIETIES
Page 4: TABLE OF CONTENTSNew Aesthetic New
Page 8 and 9: 1. AESTHETIC TURNSA month before th
Page 12 and 13: esource for curators. She has writt
Page 14: INTRODUCTION3. INTRODUCTION4. NEW A
Page 17 and 18: This is followed by a series of ref
Page 19 and 20: Jumping from the medium of the scre
Page 21 and 22: Aesthetic seems to evoke what alrea
Page 23 and 24: 4. NEW ANXIETIESThe # tumblresque i
Page 25 and 26: worked to propane-fuel this intelle
Page 27 and 28: “pigeon language” that takes pl
Page 29 and 30: NET EFFECTSThe new aesthetic episod
Page 31: CURATORIAL READINGS5. A BLOGPOST AS
Page 34 and 35: the image are those that can be dis
Page 36 and 37: which radiate a lightness of form,
Page 38 and 39: intends to produce connections betw
Page 40 and 41: 7. ERROR 404: NO AESTHETIC FOUNDAt
Page 42 and 43: privacy, or lack thereof, in the di
Page 44: IRRUPTIONS8. THE NEW AESTHETIC AS R
Page 47 and 48: are in danger of further 'screen es
Page 49 and 50: 9. WHAT ARE THE CONDITIONS OF POSSI
Page 51 and 52: at-hand/ ready-to-hand) - this is a
Page 53 and 54: the difference between aesthetic fo
Page 55 and 56: engaged which computationally inter
Page 57 and 58: Kant argues that ‘mere reason’
Page 59 and 60: 11. THE POLITICS OF EMERGENT AESTHE
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We now find ourselves in a situatio
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crisis-ridden economic condition, i
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ultimately responses that together
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‘informational societies’? How
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12. BIBLIOGRAPHYADILKNO (The Founda
Page 71 and 72:
Bridle, J. (2011a) 'The New Aesthet
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Heidegger, M. (1977) The Question C
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Globally', empyre, http://www.maila
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13. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSBy its very nat
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