This series of presentations introduces a number of theoretical ideas that are the bases for the symposium. In the midst of a pandemic that calls for a revision of our paradigms, five specialized researchers address issues that echo current artistic and social challenges. In these various presentations, their reference points all highlight the thought-provoking nature of the event’s theme.
Sofian Audry is an artist, scholar and Professor of Interactive Media in the School of Media at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). His work draws inspiration from artificial intelligence, artificial life, biology and cognitive sciences. Sofian's computational artistic practice branches through multiple mediums such as robotics, interactive installations, immersive environments, physical computing interventions, internet art and electronic literature. He has presented his work and research at major events and venues around the world.
Human-Machine Collaboration in Digital Arts in the Age of Machine Learning
This presentation discusses how new artificial intelligence technologies, more specifically machine learning, reconfigure the relationships among artists, algorithms and media matters within digital art practices. Various models of human-machine relationships are proposed and are illustrated with historical and contemporary examples.
Sofian Audry is an artist, scholar and Professor of Interactive Media in the School of Media at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). His work draws inspiration from artificial intelligence, artificial life, biology and cognitive sciences. Sofian's computational artistic practice branches through multiple mediums such as robotics, interactive installations, immersive environments, physical computing interventions, internet art and electronic literature. He has presented his work and research at major events and venues around the world.
Gwenola Wagon is an artist and research professor in visual arts at the University of Paris 8. She has created many sound installations and videos in France and abroad, such as Globodrome, Cyborgs in the Mist, and World Brain, co-created with Stéphane Degoutin.
Stéphane Degoutin’s main research is in mankind after man, the contemporary city after public space, architecture after pleasure and the Umwelt of data. His projects focus on ambivalent situations between war and dance, sexual pleasure and nonplaces, the city and its potential, posthuman theories and the obsolescence of mankind. He has created films, video and sound installations, theoretical texts and places. Online installations he has produced are Googlehouse, What Are You? and the temporary massage structure Here is Where We Meet. He is a co-founder of the Nogo voyage projects and of the LOPH research lab, and is the author of the Propositions / spéculations blog. He co-founded the Terrorism Museum, the collective Nogo Voyages, and he wrote the essay Prisonniers volontaires du rêve américain (Voluntary Prisoners of the American Dream).
Digital Ecocide: From Big Data to Monopolistic Practices
Here, artists Gwenola Wagon and Stéphane Degoutin present a selection of their works to address the ecosystemic destruction caused by the exponential use of digital technologies, which is consolidated by extractivist logic and widespread automatization.
Gwenola Wagon is an artist and research professor in visual arts at the University of Paris 8. She has created many sound installations and videos in France and abroad, such as Globodrome, Cyborgs in the Mist, and World Brain, co-created with Stéphane Degoutin.
Stéphane Degoutin’s main research is in mankind after man, the contemporary city after public space, architecture after pleasure and the Umwelt of data. His projects focus on ambivalent situations between war and dance, sexual pleasure and nonplaces, the city and its potential, posthuman theories and the obsolescence of mankind. He has created films, video and sound installations, theoretical texts and places. Online installations he has produced are Googlehouse, What Are You? and the temporary massage structure Here is Where We Meet. He is a co-founder of the Nogo voyage projects and of the LOPH research lab, and is the author of the Propositions / spéculations blog. He co-founded the Terrorism Museum, the collective Nogo Voyages, and he wrote the essay Prisonniers volontaires du rêve américain (Voluntary Prisoners of the American Dream).
Gina Cortopassi is a doctoral student and lecturer in art history at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). She is interested in future imaginaries of Web art and in the temporal dimensions of (bio)power and artistic resistance. As part of Laboratoire NT2, the Canada Research Chair in Digital Arts and Literatures, and the research group Archiver le present—all three situated at UQAM—she has co-curated several exhibitions online.
Curating Net Art: An Overview
Positioning online curating in the broader context of art history, this talk presents a short overview of online exhibitions and then address the challenges encountered in the collaborative and contextual practice of this specific form of curatorial work.
Gina Cortopassi is a doctoral student and lecturer in art history at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). She is interested in future imaginaries of Web art and in the temporal dimensions of (bio)power and artistic resistance. As part of Laboratoire NT2, the Canada Research Chair in Digital Arts and Literatures, and the research group Archiver le present—all three situated at UQAM—she has co-curated several exhibitions online.
Anne-Marie Dubois is a doctoral candidate in art history with a concentration in feminist studies. Using a queer materialist and multidisciplinary approach to guide her, she currently is pursuing research on concepts of the object and subject in contemporary art and is interested in the current thought called new materialism. Her concerns focus on the rearticulation of bodies in today’s era of biotechnology. She works as publications coordinator for MOMENTA | Biennale de l'image, and is on the editorial board of the journal esse arts + opinions. Her viewpoint draws on the critical potential of feminist and queer theories to debunk the ontological claims of various truth discourses.
Challenging the Heteronormativity of Computational Technologies
Starting with a historical perspective, this presentation provides a brief critical overview of the latent and invasive heteronormativity of computational technologies, drawing on the work of trans, queer and non-binary artists.
Anne-Marie Dubois is a doctoral candidate in art history with a concentration in feminist studies. Using a queer materialist and multidisciplinary approach to guide her, she currently is pursuing research on concepts of the object and subject in contemporary art and is interested in the current thought called new materialism. Her concerns focus on the rearticulation of bodies in today’s era of biotechnology. She works as publications coordinator for MOMENTA | Biennale de l'image, and is on the editorial board of the journal esse arts + opinions. Her viewpoint draws on the critical potential of feminist and queer theories to debunk the ontological claims of various truth discourses.
