Not Here Not There, Leonardo Electronic Almanac
Leonardo Electronic Almanac in collaboration with The Samek Art Gallery and with Kasa Gallery announces a special issue titled: Not Here Not There. This issue arises out of the territory between two cultural streams.
In the 1960’s, artist Robert Smithson articulated the strategy of representation summarized by ‘site vs. non-site’ whereby certain artworks were simultaneously abstract and representational and could be site-specific without being sited. In the 1990’s net.art re-de-materialized the art object and found new ways to suspend the artwork online, between (web)site and non-site. In the 21st century, new technologies suggest a reconsideration of the relationship between the virtual and the real. With Augmented Reality technology (almost) any image in the real environment can become a trigger for the virtual, and any real site can be overlaid per GPS with a virtual environment, merging sites through sight. ‘Hardlinks’ such as QR codes attempt to bind a virtual link to our physical environment. Augmented Reality technology uses GPS to overlay virtual environments and real sites, merging sites through sight.
Throughout the 1970’s, institutional critique brought political awareness and social intervention to the site of the museum. In the 1980’s and 90’s, street artists such as Banksy went in the opposite direction, critiquing the museum by siting their art beyond its walls. Sited art and intervention art met in the art of the trespass. What is our current relationship to the sites we live in? What representational strategies are contemporary artists using to engage sites? How are sites politically activated? And how are new media framing our consideration of these questions?
Other questions that the call seeks to address are related to interventionist practices and appropriations of public and private spaces, which contemporary technology has rendered ‘virtually’ possibly everywhere.
Starting from the historical concepts of expanded cinema and future cinema, which refer to Valie Export and Peter Weibel who “anticipated many of the trends that were later to be described as conceptual art, context art, institutional criticism, and intervention,” [Early (conceptual) photographs, (expanded) films, (body) videos and (contextual) works, 1964-1975, “Peter Weibel, Rewriter,” Slought Foundation Online Content, January 31, 2009, http://slought.org/content/11415/ (accessed December 2, 2011.)] the call wishes to also address the concept of virtual artistic intervention.
“If air space is regulated and property rights include everything that is below and above the land, ‘cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos,’ what governs the virtual territory?” [Lanfranco Aceti, “The Virtual Places We Own: When Communities and Artists Occupy Your Place without Your Consent,” Internet Research 9.0: Rethinking Community, Rethinking Place, 15–18 October 2008.]
The Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA) is inviting proposals for an issue on these themes with Senior Editors Lanfranco Aceti, Director of Kasa Gallery, Sabanci University and Richard Rinehart, Director of the Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University. Artists that work with AR technology and curators and writers that work on issues related to AR, sited art in relation to new media, or site-specific interventions are particularly welcome to submit proposals for consideration.
The Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA) will produce an online and printed issue, as well as host curated images and videos online.
Proposals to: info@leoalmanac.org
a) Subject heading: Not Here Not There
b) 500 hundred word abstract for articles – submission of full articles preferred for this special issue by proposal deadline January 31, 2012
c) Deadline for proposal submission: January 31, 2012
d) Deadline for submission of full article: March 1, 2012
e) 2 images at 72 dpi resolution no larger than 700pixels width for artists
f) Links to previous work, videos or personal sites
Our publication formats allow for full-color throughout and we encourage rich pictorial content where relevant and possible. Note however that all material submitted must be copyright cleared (or due diligence must be evidenced). For online publication a wide variety of media content may be considered (animation, mp3, flash, java, etc…)
• For scholarly papers please submit the final paper ready for peer review. Your contribution will be reviewed by at least two members of the LEA board and revisions may be requested subject to review.
• For themed and pictorial essays please submit an abstract or outline for editorial consideration and further discussion.
• Please keep your news, announcements and hyperlinks brief and focused – include contact details and a link to an external site where relevant. We reserve the right to sub-edit your submissions in order to comply with LEA policies and formats. Where material is time-sensitive please include both embargo and expiry dates.
• In all cases specify special system considerations where these are necessary (platform, codecs, plug-ins, etc…)
We look forward to hearing from you!