[iDC] interesting article on new media scene in LA

[Eduardo Navas]

I agree with Casey.

I live in Los Angeles and San Diego.  Please be more critical and don't
sweep over community[ies] from a place that is known for its heterogeneity.

Best,

Eduardo Navas


On 10/30/05 12:01 AM, "c.e.b. reas / reas.com" <ceb at reas.com> wrote:

> I think it's unfair to critique Los Angeles media artists,
> galleries, and university programs on the basis of this
> article. It expresses only one point of view, that of the
> journalist. Yes, please critique the article, but don't pass
> judgment on the artists and institutions based in Los Angeles
> with this text as your principle source of information.
> 
> Regards
> Casey
> 
> 
> 
> John Hopkins wrote:
>>> On Oct 29, 2005, at 9:47 AM, Judith Rodenbeck wrote:
>>> 
>>>> I find the current unproblematized adoption and valorization of the
>>>> business-model model very disturbing--and it's present not only in
>>>> new media
>>>> circles but also in the theorizing of "relational aesthetics" as in MFA
>>>> programs. This business-model discourse has a history too--see Allan
>>>> Kaprow's "Should the Artist be a Man of the World" as well as his
>>>> "Education
>>>> of the Un-Artist"--and I worry that with the piecemeal dismissal of
>>>> history
>>>> the nuances--historical, ethical, "aesthetic"--of its implications
>>>> may get
>>>> lost. Certainly that's what's happened in Bourriaud. But then again
>>>> maybe
>>>> critical vanguardism is hopelessly retardataire.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> The military/education/entertainment complex that exists in So Cal is
>>> where the money is because of the economic trajectory of the Pacific
>>> Rim. I'm not sure how much any of this has to do with art but I do
>>> find it interesting that they've lured so many "new media artists"
>>> from New York, just as Cal Arts did with conceptual artists in the
>>> 'eighties. I like to think we sent them the riff-raff.
>> 
>> 
>> I agree with Robbin -- this article is, for me, one of those "look what
>> we (socal media) invented -- another reason to posit our physical
>> location as the center of all things new."
>> 
>> I felt immediately that the article was about a decade past the curve.
>> And indeed illustrates the social process of academic/institutional
>> adsorbtion of the elite that floated frothily to the top of "new media"
>> by authoring hard-copy texts.  Back to the Literate Hegemony of
>> universities that was previously discussed.
>> 
>> The process could be compared to Finland's prominence (to a greater
>> degree than its size) in New Media in the last decade -- where there was
>> a convergence of Gov't funding policy and new media 'research'
>> (prominently powered by a collusion of Nokia and government policy
>> wonks).  That situation generated a substantial "Cultural Industry
>> Sector" which helped to drive European discourses and practices around
>> new media.  EU funding policies also were part of this.  And Geroge
>> Soros would figure prominently in any discussion as well.  It would be
>> interesting, in retrospect, to see exactly where funds came from for all
>> the many new media festivals, meetings, colloquia, and such over the
>> last 10-12 years in Europe..
>> 
>> I would suggest that while there is always something new happening,
>> thinking of SoCal as a center for innovation is a bit much unless you
>> have a complete amnesia as to what was happening in Europe since the
>> early 90's.
>> 
>> And I do vividly recall lively and heated discussions on the
>> newly-birthed nettime about the 'California Ideology" (of new media).
>> Perhaps we are seeing the pendulum swinging the other way.  I'll forward
>> the article to nettime to see what happens ;-}
>> 
>> 2 cents
>> 
>> John
>> 
>> 
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