29.9 to 2 October 2020 virtually via Zoom
Organised by the Institute for Media Studies at the Ruhr University Bochum
Panel (co-)organised by members of the chair:
Acoustic experiments. Experimental set-ups on the way from networking to telematics
PANEL 1.1 | IMPROVISE!
Tuesday, 29 September 2020 -- 16:00-17:15
Chair(s): (external link, opens in a new window) Dr Laura Niebling, Dr Solveig Ottmann
Lecturer(s): (external link, opens in a new window)Dr Silke Roesler-Keilholz, Dr Solveig Ottmann, Dr Laura Niebling
https://gfm2020.blogs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/programm/ (external link, opens in a new window)
https:// (external link, opens in a new window) gfmedienwissenschaft.de/jahrestagung-2020-experimentieren
Description
The electronic networking of communication, known as telematics, is an essential component of today's information society. It began in the 1970s, characterised by the findings that had already emerged from the history of telephony. While its implementation coincides with the automation of processes, the computerisation of everyday life and industry and the digital transfer of knowledge, the origins of many telematic networks lie in countless individual experiments and smaller research projects. From the 1970s onwards, for example, these were concerned with the transmission of speech and acoustic signals - and attempted to transfer these from singular experiments into protocols, processes and action patterns. But what do these transitions from experiment to implementation look like in terms of media history?
With short keynote speeches followed by an open discussion, the panel will look at three facets of network history, with a particular focus on early pilot projects for the transmission of acoustic signals. The perspectives include the development from analogue to digital telephones, the first acoustic tests in the ARPAnet and the first teleconsultation system in a German hospital infrastructure. Questions that will be addressed include
At what moment does the bidirectional telephone call become a network? When does telemedia begin to compute, what transcription does this digital shift entail? What does the coupling of telecommunications and computer scientists lead to in relation to people and their voices? Will they remain a constitutive element of the communication process? Or will it become obsolete?
What epistemological relevance for networks as acoustic spaces does the testing and enabling of digital voice transmission in the ARPA-funded research project "Network Secure Communications" (NSC) have, from which both the "Network Voice Protocol" (NVP) and the voice-compressing algorithm "Linear Predictive Coding" (LPC) emerged?
What is the complex role of technical visionaries in the history of telemedicine who, in the earliest telematic research project Medkom between 1986 and 1994, set themselves the goal of enabling teleconsultations in the early broadband network VBN (Vermittelndes Breitbandnetz)?
The aim is an initial basic discussion and networking to initiate a larger telematics conference in the coming year.
Aesthetics of commitment?
PANEL 5.2 | OBSERVE!
Wednesday, 30.9.2020 -- 10:00-11:15 am
Chair(s): (external link, opens in a new window) Christiane Heibach, Irene Schütze (Mainz University of Art and Design)
Lecturer(s): (external link, opens in a new window) Christiane Heibach, Irene Schütze (Mainz University of Fine Arts and Design)
https:// (external link, opens in a new window) gfm2020.blogs.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/programm/
https:// (external link, opens in a new window) gfmedienwissenschaft.de/jahrestagung-2020-experimentieren
Description
Projects of so-called "socially engaged art" that pursue political and/or activist goals defy aesthetic judgement. They are social experiments. Their moment of aísthēsis lies in the immediate experience, often only tangible in the direct participation in the respective project. Social engagement is at the forefront and with this, ethical parameters of judgement are applied to art. This was the starting point for Claire Bishop's criticism more than a decade ago, who missed the prioritisation of the immediate experience of activist art in favour of a lasting experience that could also be judged aesthetically in retrospect. Bishop also turned against the esthétique relationnelle propagated by Nicolas Bourriaud at the end of the 1990s, which he had developed as a curator of participatory art. The esthétique relationnelle characterises the social processes in the field of art as aesthetic, but without declining them. Bishop also criticised the redefinition of exhibition spaces into experimental "laboratories" by curators such as Hans Ulrich Obrist, as this would degrade the artists to performers.
Despite this, "socially engaged art" has now become a highly sought-after projection surface that is also shaping canonised large-scale art events in light of current crisis scenarios such as the climate catastrophe, increased migration movements and global social inequalities. For example, the current title of the 2020 Sydney Biennale is "Nirin" (a Wiradjuri expression in New South Wales meaning "breaking edge"), while the 2018 Biennale was held under the motto "SUPERPOSITION: Equilibrium & Engagement" and thus already had engagement in its title.
However, this boom cannot hide the fact that - in view of the still equally powerful understanding of art as an autonomous space in which intentionally designed objects are exhibited - such 'formless', eventful and committed art experiments must raise the question of aesthetic design and evaluation criteria anew and reflect on the pitfalls of engagement - e.g. clear statements and positioning that may contradict the complexity and ambiguity of artistic work.
The panel will discuss artistic projects of social engagement and related theories and texts with regard to the question of the areas of tension between aesthetic and ethical frames of reference of "socially engaged art". The participants will be selected by means of a CfP and will make their materials available in advance. These will be presented in the panel in short statements. This will be followed by a comprehensive plenary discussion. Participation is by registration so that interested parties can access the materials in advance (spontaneous participation is of course welcome and possible).