Re: ~e; an electromagnetic art context

[rl@radlab.com (Richard Lowenberg)]

A brief self-referencing follow-up to the recent posting:
        I was invited to present a work at the 1986 Venice Biennale, for
the special exhibition theme that year: "Informatique".  The work I
presented was titled "IR", short for Infrared, and for Information
Revolutions, subtitles for works I had been doing, which explored our
electromagnetic and social information environments.  My large dark room
installation was to include a military FLIR system surveilling on Biennale
visitors; an audio composition/play for three talking computers
(discussing the electromagnetic information environment and information
warfare); and a large (10' x 20') painting on canvas, that described the
communications infrastructure that supports nuclear military facilities
(US/IT/NATO) in Italy.  Though I and my work were formally invited,
problems arose right away.  Since the FLIR systems I used on loan from
defense contractors in the US, are 'export restricted', I arranged for
loan of a system from Phillips Corp., in Holland, who develop such tech.
for NATO.  They shipped a system to Italy, where customs returned it,
saying that no artist would use technology in Italy that the Italian
military did not yet have.  The large painting and the computer speech
composition also caused a stir.   Once installed, I departed Venice after
the Opening social events, which were presided over by the Admiral of the
U.S. (Mediterranean) 6th Fleet.  I found out later that Summer, from
friends in Italy, that my room/installation was shut down and removed
shortly after I left, without word from the Biennale organizers.  I
believe that I am the only artist ever censored at the Venice Biennale.

See: www.radlab.com/information/venice.html
rl


>>as always there is a huge project in waiting, about which the
article below offers a way to share a basic, beginning idea
about 'the context' in which artworks and artifacts are being
presented in buildings/galleries/museums, pre- and post-
digital. not an artist, the thing about art that is intriguing to
me is the ideas that are shared and the questions that are
readily and openly discussed by artists about conditions in
which their work is presented. some of these conversations
have been online, lurked and listened to, combined with a
question about architecture and electromagnetism that has
been explored for the most part in silence, for many years.

American Art Is Adrift for Biennale in Venice, by Carol Vogel.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/03/arts/design/03STAT.html<<


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director l       RADLab       www.radlab.com
Davis Community Network (DCN)         l
1623 5th St., Davis, CA 95616         l If it is not matter, it is energy.
Ph. 530-750-1170  or  * 530-668-1100  l If it matters,  it is information.
rl@dcn.org               www.dcn.org  l If it doesn't matter, it is noise.
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