[artinfo] Art-oriented programming

[Karen O'Rourke]

ART-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING 2
International Symposium

PARIS, SORBONNE, 19 and 20 October 2007
at the Université Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne
Amphithéâtre (Lecture hall) Richelieu
17 rue de la Sorbonne - 75005 Paris
Free Entrance

Symposium organized by Laboratoire des Arts et Médias [LAM-LETA]
person in charge : David-Olivier Lartigaud

http://lam.univ-paris1.fr

Exhibiting and preserving programmed works is a problem that requires
many adjustments with the artist. Does an old work presented on a new
machine lose part of its essence? How can we deal with the obsolescence
of media? How can we give a future to works so heavily dependent on
constantly changing technologies and software? As for the art market,
will it be able to adapt?

The creations of the « computer art » « pioneers » of the sixties and
seventies have found a new vitality: celebrated anew, appreciated for
their formal and conceptual clarity, these works seem all the more
readable in our contemporary context.
But isn't « programmed art » too young to be contemplating its past?
Could this be a sign of withdrawl, a need to find its place in a
genealogy and thereby prove its worth? Or, on the contrary, does this
return to the sources offer a change of viewpoint necessary for a
renewal of the topic?

Code and programming seem to adopt the very shape of questions relating
to urban life. Dynamic maps and 3-D cartography reflect a new approach
to the city seen as a database, a potential in which the artist finds
not only inspiration but also the material of her creation. More than
just a screen, isn't the city the new place for software art?

Modification of Nintendo cartridges, website hacking, experimental
software or poetry written in Perl... What has programming in the field
of art been doing for the past ten years? By assembling texts, either
original or unpublished in French, this book proposes to analyze and
understand the impact of code, programming and digitalization of data on
art practise. In their different contributions, theoreticians, critics
and artists reveal the new aesthetic, technical and cultural stakes
linked to what is known today as « the digital revolution ».