[artinfo] Critics Floating in the Virtual Sphere

[Eric Kluitenberg]

Critics Floating in the Virtual Sphere

Will Art Criticism Survive the Digital Age?

International Seminar
De Balie, Amsterdam
www.debalie.nl

Wednesday December 9, 2009, 14.00 - 17.00 hrs (CET)
Doors open: 13.30

Live webcast:
wwwdebalie.nl/live

The digital revolution has profound effects on 
the status of art criticism. With newspapers and 
other printed media in decline, the traditional 
platform for critical reflection on art has 
shrunk or shifted towards electronic (web-based) 
media. At the same time the presence of art 
criticism on the internet is mostly limited to 
the "blog" - a format that celebrates an 
impressionistic, subjective and often populistic 
point of view. More substantial forms of 
web-based criticism are still rare to be found.

Broader changes in the culture could be 
responsible for this. In the current climate the 
voice of "classical" criticism is associated with 
an authoritative, paternalistic tradition. In the 
universe of web 2.0, consumers no longer tend to 
accept that authority.

Another effect of the internet revolution is that 
information about artists, artworks and 
exhibitions is now abundantly available online. 
Critics facing the challenge of covering the 
ever-growing number of biennials and other 
large-scale exhibitions all over the world, may 
feel tempted to stay at home and write their 
"reviews" without actually visiting the 
exhibition they write about. According to some 
reports, this critical practice is become more 
and more common.

Is there a future for serious, in-depth criticism 
in an internet-dominated society?
Has the need for art criticism completely 
disappeared, or has it merely changed? Does the 
internet offer possibilities for serious 
criticism beyond the limitations of the blog? Do 
new media arts and net.art show us the way? Is 
the interactive, social networking capacity of 
the internet at all used in this context, or even 
understood? Is the web really replacing print or 
is this a false contradiction?
How do art critics respond to these changes and challenges?

Speakers:

Georg Schöllhammer, editor in chief of Springerin 
and curator of the Documenta 12 Magazines project.
http://magazines.documenta12.de/frontend/

Regine Debatty, writer and editor of we-make-money-not-art.com.
www.we-make-money-not-art.com/

Arjen Mulder, writer and media theorist.

Jennifer Allen, art critic.

Moderator:

Maria Hlavajova (Basis voor Aktuele Kunst Utrecht)

-----

Wednesday December 9, 2009, 14.00 - 17.00 hrs
Doors open: 13.30

Admission free | Reservation recommended

Live webcast:
www.debalie.nl/live

----

Organisation:

AICA Netherlands - Association Internationale des Criticques d'Arts
www.aicanederland.org

De Balie - Centre for Culture and Politics
www.debalie.nl/media