98th Annual College Art Association Conference, Chicago

It was a real treat to have a week of good old winter up in Chicago.  Over the years, the conference seems more accessible as my interests have become further defined, and my alliance with the New Media Caucus increasingly rewarding as my relationships strengthen therein.

The New Media Caucus, an official affiliate of the College Art Association, was formed in 2003 as a means for people teaching "new media" at the university-level to form connection.  I found the caucus at the 2006 CAA conference, just after my arrival at UTSA where I had landed to begin a New Media Program in the Department of Art & Art History.  At that time I was trying to name the program... "digital?"  "intermedia?"  "new genre?"  "transmedia?"  ... so I was grateful to have that choice practically made for me by deciding to join forces with the caucus.

This year brought a distinct sense that the New Media Caucus is gaining momentum.  Our president Paul Cantanese teaches at Columbia College Chicago, has a lot of energy and vision, and was on the ground in the conference city, which simplified the planning and execution of all our events.  In addition to the 1-2 panels we have in the official conference every year, we plan a few at an off-site location as well as an exhibition of some kind.

I really went to town this time around in executing my duties as the chair of the NMC exhibition committee with my brainchild:  the Live Cinema Summit.  This one night only event featured nine back-to-back realtime demos of A/V performance, with lots of discussion and q/a.  The lineup featured Barbara Lattanzi, Sabine Gruffat and Bill Brown, Robert Martin, Potter-Belmar Labs, jonCates, DataIRJ, Jon Satrom, Alessandro Imperato, and Noisefold.

Link to Alessandro Imperato's review in Media-N.

A link to Nicholas Sagan's blog posting on the official CAA conference blog.

Other events that I presented during are the NMC Colloquium Meet and Greet, and the New Media Curriculum Development roundtable discussion, chaired by Mike Salamond.

highlights from LA: new media caucus (late Feb)

a still from the live mix

"It's going to be hard, but it'll be worth it!" This is the new mantra given to me by my new boss (chair of the UTSA Art & Art History Department) Greg Elliott, at the start of this year. (He says: "I'm not your boss! I'm just the guy you ask for money!") During my time at the conference, I worked my ass off as the New Media Caucus exhibition committee chair! We mounted the exhibition "@" at SCI-Arc, and it was an amalgamation of Second Life and Real World situations/objects.  So it was hard, but it was definitely worth it.

The New Media Caucus is a College Art Association affiliated group that formed in order to focus the potential of the academic new media art contingent in one arena. Many of us are the lone voice in our respective departments, are forging the way with new ideas and media into unrecognizable terrain, and benefit from the backing of an organization sanctioned by the larger academic community.

One of the important things that the NMC has done during its short existence (6 years) was to write the guidelines for review of faculty teaching in new media arts-- something that maybe only those of us in academia can appreciate... but it was a relief to me that this CAA-validated document existed, providing some concrete guidelines for my perplexed colleagues when they review my record.

Anyhow, enough of that... Here's a shot of Johnny Dekam, and Jason. Potter-Belmar Labs got to jam with Be Johnny for the NMC reception of the show "@," and it was a blast-- really great to plug my video signal into Johnny's rig & have a buffer between me and the screen for a change. On account of finally making it to Second Life (to attend meetings with my colleagues for the organization of the exhibition, believe it or not), I ended up sampling a bunch of imagery from that virtual world to use in the mix.  

better late than never - CAA Dallas

Here's Yoko doing the Onochord at the College Art Association conference back in February.

It's standing room only, and I'm standing all the way in the back of one of the larger rooms of the Dallas Convention Center. There must be over 500 academics there for art/rock star Yoko's talk, but the power of her charisma reaches every corner of the room. She showed pictures of herself as a very young girl, and talked autobiography into her early days in NYC. It seemed fitting that she reinforce her public persona of childlike innocence through these images. An uncomplicated purity is the best ground for her message of peace. Overall, I think: keep it simple and accept Yoko straight-up as an icon of peace-- its been the focus of her art since early on. The strength of her presence is enough to assuage the small part of me that sees her as a privileged rebel, defying the strict social traditions of her upper-class Japanese milieu.

Yoko's presence was solid, but the receiving environment seemed incongruous. There was something strange about her flashing the I--LOVE--YOU Onochord message from her flashlight on stage to a room-full of academics, as they flashed back. I wasn't able to break through the setting to feel her message-- but that might say more about me than academia or Yoko.



And here is Artlies editor (now acting director) Anjali Gupta on a panel of art critics.

She's answering a question from the audience, saying that the grads from a particular (here unnamed) masters program in art theory/criticism have "had so much smoke blown up their ass" during their time in the program that she requests that they wait at least a year after getting out before asking to write for her publication. Smart, feisty, and not afraid to tell it like it is-- I like that lady!

check out the paper she presented, 'Is Blogging Criticism?' here on Glasstire



And finally, here's Justin Boyd (in shadow on the left) DJing and me VJing (silhouetted on the right), representing for the UTSA New Media Program at the reception for the New Media Caucus at The Dallas Contemporary. For my video mix, I've borrowed all of the cellphone videos from the computers in the current exhibition there. These videos, which have been uploaded on a daily basis by seven different artists and projected into the space, make up the Real Time show. CAA attendees have also been invited to contribute video images for my mix.

My friend Patricia Olynyk showed up and asked if I had received the animated gif she'd emailed. It was easy to retrieve via the wireless internet access, plug it into my VJ software, and throw it up on the screen in no time. This was a terrific moment, opening up a world of possibility for future a performance.