YProductions

First Beijing International New Media Arts

Posted by Steve Dietz on July 28, 2004 2:47 PM

Zhang Ga's report on the First Beijing International New Media Arts Exhibition and Symposium posted to Thingist.

[See also, Deep Time of the Media and flicker.]

On 7/8/04 2:08 PM, "z" wrote:

Under the auspices of "Millennium Dialogue," the First Beijing International New Media Arts Exhibition and Symposium opened its first phase Leading the edge, on May 28th 2004 at the China Millennium Museum Digital Gallery in Beijing.

Enlisting a number of key players in the realm of media art throughout the world as partners, Millennium Dialogue aims at establishing a global, high profile platform for dialogue and exchange with the most current discourse in new media arts production and theorization to advance and promote digital arts and education in China. At the helm of the project are three prominent institutions, with Tsinghua University as host, the so called MIT plus Harvard of China, joined by ZKM | Center for Art and Media of Karlsruhe, Germany, the Worlds largest media arts center, and V2_the Unstable Institute of Rotterdam, the Dutch Electronic Arts Festival maker.

Nearly 15 month in the making, the opening on May 28th marked a significant moment for Chinese digital art and education, over 50 major Chinese universities attended the symposium, state media including China Central TV, Peoples Daily and Beijing Daily, among others, have covered the event extensively, as well as numerous privately owned media networks.

The Millennium Dialogue's phase one exhibition "Leading the Edge" is comprised of selected faculty and student works from leading academic and research institutions in China and abroad, among them are Harvard University, MIT Media Lab, Cologne Academy of Media Arts, Parsons School of Design, Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University, to name just a few. ZKM and V2_ and Banff Center brought to Beijing this year samples of their collection that allowed the Chinese audience a glimpse into both institutions active programming and extensive reach in the media arts,. Ars Electronica also made a comprehensive presentation of their 25 years of history.

Works in the exhibition include interactive installations, responsive performances, sound environments, net art and other digital forms. These works not only showcase the creative energy and innovative spirit of these institutions, they also set out to challenge traditional norms of art making, investigate new cultural and aesthetic possibilities, and to question the roles of artists in the fast changing social and economical topology of the global society.

Along with their western colleagues, Chinese art and design academic community presented an array of impressive interactive installations in a scope unseen before. Manifesting its strength in synergizing technology and creativity, the Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University, undoubtedly set its role as leader in the field.

With focus on academic exchange, the two day long symposium inspired many enthusiastic Chinese students and educators. Claudia Giannetti, director of Media Center of Art and Design in Barcelona opened the forum with a keynote speech titled Aesthetic and New Media: Syntopy of Art, Technology and Science; Chris Csikszentmihályis passionate introduction of his Computing Culture Group at MIT Media Lab left profound impression on the audience as reporters crowded media theorist Siegfried Zielinski after his eloquent keynote speech Deep Time of the Media on day two.

While the exhibition is still on view at the time of writing, the repercussion of the whole event can already be felt cross the spectrum of the Chinese new media art education. With each university and art collage rush to create a department of digital art and design, the advent of the First Beijing International New Media Arts Exhibition and Symposium apparently signaled an initial attempt towards a global reach in the era of computerized culture, of which China is for sure one major player.

The project was conceived by Zhnag Ga, New York based artist, curator, professor of MFA Design and Technology Program at Parsons School of Design, and. Lu Xiaobo, vice dean of Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University, both artistic directors of the two year long project. The two tier project will mount its even more ambitious second part, an exhibition with working title In The Line of Flight , which will be curated by a number of internationally renowned curators in the year of 2005.

http://newmediabeijing.org

* this article appears in the july issue of "art.es"

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