Posts Tagged ‘Culture’

Book review – Web Aesthetics: How Digital Media Affect Culture and Society

Posted on January 22nd, 2011 • Filed under Look • No Comments

Web Aesthetics: How Digital Media Affect Culture and Society, by Vito Campanelli (available on Amazon USA and UK)

Institute of Network Culturea and NAI Publishers say: We live in a world of rapidly evolving digital networks, but within the domain of media theory, which studies the influence of these cultural forms, the implications of aesthetical philosophy have been sorely neglected. Vito Campanelli explores network forms through the prism of aesthetics and thus presents an open invitation to transcend the inherent limitations of the current debate about digital culture.

The web is the medium that stands between the new media and society and, more than any other, is stimulating the worldwide dissemination of ideas and behaviour, framing aesthetic forms and moulding contemporary culture and society.

Campanelli observes a few important phenomena of today, such as social networks, peer-to-peer networks and ‘remix culture’, and reduces them to their historical premises, thus laying the foundations for an organic aesthetic theory of digital media.

Marco Manray Cadioli, Red Book, from In China

Vito Campanelli lectures on the theory and technology of mass communication at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”. He is a freelance curator of digital culture events and co-founder of MAO – Media & Arts Office. His essays on media art are regularly published in international journals. And so far i had followed his writing on Neural online and paper mag. I opened his book with curiosity. And closed it with the feeling that it was probably the most intelligent publication i had read on media art culture for a long long time.

Web Aesthetics navigates with verve through the idiosyncrasies, rituals, dynamics and paradoxes of web culture. Some of the issues Campanelli brings attention to are well-known, other would gain from getting more attention: spam, the inability of present legislation to adapt to the age of digital media, blogs as stages of self-referentiality, the domesticated forms of dissent offered by facebook groups, the acceptance of a ‘disturbed aesthetic experience’ when downloading movies, remix practices as new cultural default, the difficulty experienced by new media culture to steer out of its ‘underground’ stigma, the erosion of the boundary between art and design, interactivity, the codification of website usability, etc.

Some of the points Campanelli makes echo my own preoccupations. Such as when he writes loud and clear what media art festival goers have been whispering for as long as i’ve been one of them: the disinclination of the community to practice or welcome any form of dissent and external critique. Or when he raises the problem of monolingualism. Most of the conversations in conferences, blogs or on mailing lists are indeed taking place in english with all the limitations this entails. While Campanelli’s book is written in english, he refreshingly brings much of his Italian culture on the table with many references to Italian thinkers and artists.

Natalie Bookchin, Mass Ornament, 2009

Yes, the book is theory. It is dry. Unlike most of the books i review on wmmna, it contains no picture whatsoever but the writing is lively, the style is sharp and witty, and not matter how complex the issues he raises are, Campanelli dissects them with clarity and ease.

Expect serious reflections along with a subtle sense of humour and a couple of data dandies.

Don’t miss Geert Lovink’s Web Aesthetics Interview with Vito Campanelli.

Image on the homepage: Marco Manray Cadioli.

Read the original post on we make money not art

 

Evan Michelson of Obscura Antiques and Oddities, “The Culture of Curiosity,” Lecture, Coney Island Museum, Sunday August 15, 4:30

Posted on August 8th, 2010 • Filed under Uncategorized • No Comments

Next Sunday at 4:30 PM as part of the Coney Island Museum’s “Ask the Experts” Series, Evan Michelson–co-proprietor of Obscura Antiques and Oddities and Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence–will be giving a reprise of her popular “Culture of Curiosity” lecture, which some of you might have seen at Observatory last November.

If you missed it the first time, or were made curious enough [sic] about the topic to want to know more, do yourself the favor of heading down to Coney to hear Evan wax poetic [sic] in a new and expanded discussion of “the continuing appeal of curated chaos in the home.”

Full details follow; very much hope to see you there!

“The Culture of Curiosity”
An illustrated lecture by Evan Michelson of Obscura Antiques and Oddities
Date: Sunday, August 15
Time: 4:30 PM
Admission: $5
Location: The Coney Island Museum

From humble parlor to Princely treasury, the Culture of Curiosity has endured for hundreds of years. In equal parts uncanny obsession, camp statement, melancholy musing, frivolous commentary and timeless truth, ultimately it’s all about mystery.

Come and join Evan Michelson (Morbid Anatomy Scholar in Residence) in an exploration of the continuing appeal of curated chaos in the home.

Evan Michelson is an inveterate collector and museum aficionado. She has spent a lifetime obsessing over specimens, lurking in crypts, touring necropoli and gathering information on all things fading from the collective memory.

For about two decades Evan was in and out of various aggressively confrontational/decadent bands. She is currently co-owner of Obscura Antiques and Oddities, and Scholar-in-Residence at the Morbid Anatomy Library. She lives in Victorian excess with her husband, a few pets, and many esoteric and uncanny objects.

You can find out more about the event by clicking here. Hope to see you there!

The above photo is a Wax Department Store Mannequin from the Early 20th Century from Evan Michelson’s incredible home collection, as seen in my recent exhibition The Secret Museum. You can find more images of her collection here.

Read the original post on Morbid Anatomy

 

Marina Abramovic’s frequent companion

Posted on May 11th, 2010 • Filed under Uncategorized • 1 Comment

Maybe it’s just an image that pops while I’m connected with Marina. Let’s say it’s an image of someone I love deeply, and then this creates the emotion, the tears just come out. Most of the time it’s tears of joy. You’re just being and thinking about somebody or something that’s important in your life. And then just acknowledging this person or situation and moving on into being present because yeah, the tears come, but I don’t want to cry for the entire sitting. I want to move on and continue to be with Marina, to be present.

via Marina Abramovic’s frequent companion.

 

The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Live and Buy as They Do

Posted on May 8th, 2010 • Filed under Uncategorized • 5 Comments

• ISBN13: 9780767920575
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

Product Description
Why are people around the world so very different? What makes us live, buy, even love as we do? The answers are in the codes.

In The Culture Code, internationally revered cultural anthropologist and marketing expert Clotaire Rapaille reveals for the first time the techniques he has used to improve profitability and practices for dozens of Fortune 100 companies. His groundbreaking revelations shed light not just on business but on the way every human being act… More >>

The Culture Code: An Ingenious Way to Understand Why People Around the World Live and Buy as They Do