Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art

Description

Affected by technology and globalization, the Nordic region is experiencing large shifts in its socio-political conditions and international outlook today.  As digital dynamics affect life worlds, contemporary artists are making new inquiries in response to the changing Nordic context. As a result of these ever-evolving circumstances, conditions and motivations for making art change as well. As technology and digital culture become more deeply embedded in the contemporary art scene, there is a renewed need to examine the role of art in society and everyday life, and to consider how the digital inspires artists to evolve and tackle socio-political realities, locally and in the wider world.

The first section of Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art features a collection of testimonials from 78 artists connected to Nordic art who employ concepts and tools relating to the digital in their practice. These testimonials form the basis of essays in the book’s second section, penned by leading scholars and curators of Nordic art. They investigate the digital influences on contemporary art, with particular attention paid to the national and international Nordic socio-political context.

Foreword 

Introduction

Part 1

Directory 

Artist Testimonials

On Being an Artist with the Digital

On Digital Tools, Methods and Research Processes

On Materiality and Behaviour in Digital Art

On Art Between Forms and Fields

On Perception and Art’s Experience

On Nordic Aesthetic Conditions and Identification

On Participatory Practices and Collaboration

On Art and Society 

On (Alternative, Urban and Public) Spaces for Digital Art

On Art and Representation

On Art, Nature and Environment

Part 2

Dynamic Seclusion: Nordic Noir and Digital Culture

Jonatan Habib Engqvist

Concretism and Danish Digital Art: New Political Dialogues from an Avant-Garde Perspective

Jens Tang Kristensen

The Art of Instituting 

Jamie Allen and Bernhard Garnicnig

Representation, Complexity and Control: Three Aspects of Technology-Based Sonic Art

Jøran Rudi

Uneasy Listening: Perspectives on (Nordic) Sound Art after the Digital 

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay

Reformulations of the ‘Natural’ World: Jana Winderen’s Sound Installation The Wanderer

Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen

The Intertwining of the Digital and the Biological in Artistic Practice 

Laura Beloff

In Between Worlds 

Björn Norberg

Virtual Worldmaking: Cultivating Digital Art Practice 

Elizabeth Jochum and Mads Deibjerg Lind

Computational Diffusion and Art’s Radical Rematerialization 

Tanya Toft Ag

Critical Thoroughness: The Dynamics of the Artist as User and Producer of Digital Elements

Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen

Interactivity Dynamics 

Lorella Scacco

Where the Inaction Is: The Politics of Digital Things and the Significance of the Lab… In the Practices of Laura Beloff, Kollision and Mogens Jacobsen

Morten Søndergaard

Visions and Divides in Icelandic Contemporary Art 

Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir

Digital Dragons of the North: On Digital Dynamics and New Nature in Nordic Aesthetics

Stahl Stenslie

Conclusion: Horizons for Nordic Contemporary (Digital) Art 

Tanya Toft Ag

Sujets

• Arts visuels
• Arts visuels
• Histoire des Arts
• Histoire des Arts
• Photographie
• Techniques photographiques
• Photographie
• Photographie Créative
• ART
• Technique
• Digital
• History
• Cultural Studies
• General
• Design
• Photography
• General officer
• History of art
• Techniques
• Histoire des arts visuels
• Technique photographique

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 31 mars 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783209491
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 10 Mo

Extrait

First published in the UK in 2019 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2019 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2019 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
Copy-editors: MPS and Michael Eckhardt
Cover designer: Aleksandra Szumlas and Kirstine Edith Toft
Cover art: Jana Winderen, Jana Winderen (2014), Krísuvik, Iceland.
Index: Max Alvares and Tanya Toft Ag
Photo by Finnbogi Pétursson. Courtesy of the artist
Production managers: Katie Evans and Jelena Stanovnik
Typesetting: Contentra Technologies
Print ISBN: 978-1-78320-948-4
ePDF ISBN: 978-1-78320-950-7
ePub ISBN: 978-1-78320-949-1
Printed and bound by Hobbs, UK.
Supported by

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) Licence. To view a copy of the licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Contents

Foreword
Tanya Toft Ag
Introduction
Tanya Toft Ag
Part 1
Directory
Artist Testimonials
On Being an Artist with the Digital
On Digital Tools, Methods and Research Processes
On Materiality and Behaviour in Digital Art
On Art Between Forms and Fields
On Perception and Art’s Experience
On Nordic Aesthetic Conditions and Identification
On Participatory Practices and Collaboration
On Art and Society
On (Alternative, Urban and Public) Spaces for Digital Art
On Art and Representation
On Art, Nature and Environment
Part 2
Dynamic Seclusion: Nordic Noir and Digital Culture
Jonatan Habib Engqvist
Concretism and Danish Digital Art: New Political Dialogues from an Avant-Garde Perspective
Jens Tang Kristensen
The Art of Instituting
Jamie Allen and Bernhard Garnicnig
Representation, Complexity and Control: Three Aspects of Technology-Based Sonic Art
Jøran Rudi
Uneasy Listening: Perspectives on (Nordic) Sound Art after the Digital
Budhaditya Chattopadhyay
Reformulations of the ‘Natural’ World: Jana Winderen’s Sound Installation The Wanderer
Ulla Angkjær Jørgensen
The Intertwining of the Digital and the Biological in Artistic Practice
Laura Beloff
In Between Worlds
Björn Norberg
Virtual Worldmaking: Cultivating Digital Art Practice
Elizabeth Jochum and Mads Deibjerg Lind
Computational Diffusion and Art’s Radical Rematerialization
Tanya Toft Ag
Critical Thoroughness: The Dynamics of the Artist as User and Producer of Digital Elements
Mette-Marie Zacher Sørensen
Interactivity Dynamics
Lorella Scacco
Where the Inaction Is: The Politics of Digital Things and the Significance of the Lab… In the Practices of Laura Beloff, Kollision and Mogens Jacobsen
Morten Søndergaard
Visions and Divides in Icelandic Contemporary Art
Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir
Digital Dragons of the North: On Digital Dynamics and New Nature in Nordic Aesthetics
Stahl Stenslie
Conclusion: Horizons for Nordic Contemporary (Digital) Art
Tanya Toft Ag
Notes on Authors
Index
Foreword

This book is initiated with intentions of contributing insight and reflection on how contemporary art is changing in the era of the digital. It embraces an expanded field of contemporary art, one that evolves not only within the confines of the domain of fine art, but also in synergies with other domains that, with the digital, are brought into closer proximity to art, and which might bring the art into closer encounters with society and its evolution. As we are still in an early phase of cultural and societal change with the digital, we are equally at a very early – though critical – stage of seeking out how the digital announces new roads for art’s enquiry and role in society, which is the main objective of the book’s investigation. I would like to first of all thank all the close to 100 participants of this book project – artists, curators, authors and assistants – for sharing your thinking and time to make the book happen.
This book did not come about swiftly. It has evolved through a slow but thorough process of ongoing conceptualization, research, writing and feedback. As initiator of the book, my curiosity on what we see happening in art and artistic discourse today, influenced by the digital dynamics that restructure society, has grown from almost a decade’s research in this domain. The examination of this condition, particularly in a Nordic contextual perspective, is furthermore a result of curatorial practice and research within and beyond this context, which has allowed for encounters and exchanges with artists, curators, architects, innovation designers, cultural producers and scholars, whose inspiration and ideas have contributed to fine-tuning the book’s conception and approach.
During this time, I have been mostly geographically located outside of the Nordic region. Sometimes, you realise how distinct and specific things are when you are distanced from them. While closely collaborating with curator Nina Colosi in the framework of her exhibition initiative Streaming Museum in New York City, I had the opportunity to research art, discourses and trajectories in the domain of digital, video and other media art in the Nordic context especially during our development of the curatorial project titled Nordic Outbreak . Unfolding throughout 2013 and 2014, this initiative presented video art by 32 Nordic artists in public spaces across New York City and on tour throughout the Nordic region. I want to thank you deeply, Nina, for developing and carrying out this project with me, which made an essential foundation for the becoming of this book. With Nordic Outbreak , a basic premise of the book was established of examining expanded formats, cross-genre and site-contextual significances of contemporary digital art in relation to various urban contexts – and as such, seek to grasp the reality of contemporary art of today as evolving and contingent phenomena.
On tour through the Nordic region, Nordic Outbreak visited Helsinki, Copenhagen, Reykjavik, Stavanger, Nuuk and Umeaa, in collaboration with KIASMA Museum for Contemporary Art and Media Facades Festival in Helsinki, Danish Architecture Centre, Screen City Festival in Stavanger, Reykjavik Art Museum, Katuaq the Cultural Centre of Greenland, as well as Umeaa in Sweden on the occasion of the city named European Capital of Culture in 2014. Throughout the Nordic Outbreak project, I had the pleasure of collaborating with and learning from Daniela Arriado, Birta Gudjonsdottir, Kati Kivinen, and Jacob Lillemose, who were invited as guest curators. Also, with curators with whom I collaborated in the various Nordic contexts, Signe Cecilie Jochumsen and Dan Lestander, as well as scholars and curators Erkki Huhtamo, Margrét Elísabet Ólafsdóttir, Björn Norberg, Minna Tarkka, and Jonatan Habib Engqvist, all to whom I am deeply thankful for furthering my understanding of art in the expanded digital domain and its specific conditions and artistic implications in the various local Nordic art contexts.
An early conception of the book especially developed on the basis of a symposium held at Scandinavia House in New York City within the framework of the Nordic Outbreak programme, which continued in the form of talks and panels on the Nordic tour. On these occasions some of the book’s contributors were brought together and shared perspectives and ideas that have since amounted into chapters for the book.
My deep thanks also goes to my former research assistant Laura Goldschmidt at Copenhagen University. Laura and I developed the methodology of interviewing artists in the Nordic art context together, and she has been an invaluable and persistent companion in the process of identifying the artists, inviting for and collecting their testimonials. Her insightful master’s thesis examining a ‘digital avant-garde’ in the Nordic context – also based on some of the artist testimonials in the book – is a noteworthy side outcome of these research efforts (Laura Goldschmidt, ‘Digital avant-garde: The mobilization of an acute avant garde through digital art in the Nordic countries’, 2016). Later in the process, I gratefully received help with data handling and distribution of the book from the wonderful Chananthorn Vinitwatanakhun (Lilly), and skillful design assistance for the book’s cover by Kirstine Edith Toft (my sister).
I would like to thank the artists and curators who have helped me with nuancing my understanding of the Nordic art context, whom I have met during the processes of curating the Voyage to the Virtual exhibition at Scandinavia House (2015) – with special thanks to Ariana Tiziani and Kyle Reinhart, some of whom have contributed their artist testimonial to this volume, the Here All Alone (2015) in Copenhagen, allowing for inspiring conversations with Swedish artist Anders Weberg, and during my involvement with the Screen City Biennial in Stavanger, Norway (since 2016), which has provided a curatorial and research framework for examining digital dimensions and implications of contemporary art in the urban context of Stavanger. Thank you, Daniela (Arriado), for inviting me in to develop the biennial and discourse around the ‘expanded’ moving image in this context with you.
I would also like to thank specific curators from the Nordic context who particularly inspired the thinking grounds of the book through in-depth interviews conducted in 2013, and who were important initiators within this realm of contemporary art in the Nordic context: Daniela Arriado – initiator of Screen City Biennial (was Screen City Festival in 2013 and 2015), Magdalena Malm – initiator of Mobile Art Production (2008–12) and T