Until recently, artists using computers and related technology were scarce, and rather marginalized. Their research seemed closer to technological experimentation than to traditional art making. This was in part due to the necessity for those artists to conceive and develop their own tools, which in turn led them too often to let technology take the leading role in their work. They were also compelled to work in university or corporate settings - an option far different that the traditional artist studio, as that was their only way to have access to technology and expertise.

 

In the course of the last decade, however, computers have become smaller, faster, more efficient and versatile. This has in turn fostered the development of sophisticated software solutions with user-friendly interfaces. Networked communication, the World Wide Web and email have simultaneously become part of our daily life, and created the need for mass-produced affordable yet always improved equipment. Today, computers are everywhere, from the post office to the artist’s studio, from the laboratory to the stage; their ubiquity has made them familiar objects. As a result technology can no longer be compelling as a subject matter. A new generation of artists, who grew up with computers, maintains a very different relationship with machines they tend to have fully integrated in their life as well as their art making practice.

 

In the Grande Halle de La Villette, « Zone of Confluences » consists of a constellation of programs that attempt to provide a non exhaustive snapshot of an artistic production that stems out of this new cultural landscape, both in terms of form and content. It takes its cue from a world wherein data of all kind is transmitted at an ever-increasing speed ; a world wherein it has become almost impossible to tell reality from fiction apart, as it mediation occurs in real time. It operates at the confluence of creative fields, whose boundaries are ever more blurry, given that computing has replaced tools that required specific skills, and hence, fostered a more fluid creative practice.

 

This multi-faceted program consists of installations, screenings, computer stations as well as monitors, and live arts. Combining those different forms fluidly fosters an approach to the current state of culture that attempts to reveal new ways of working, operating fluidly between various forms, such as moving images, sound, computer games, and software. Artists who borrow freely from one creative language to operate in another, and back pioneer these new forms : they create intricate multimedia collages that define new epics and new ways of thinking about art. As new creative field start to emerge, one can start integrating them within the historical continuum of culture, while attempting to reflect upon how they require new ways of showcasing them, at the confluence of a traditional exhibition and a festival, a cinematic projection and a performance. The next step will require a thorough reconsidering of the vocabulary used to describe, and hence, better comprehend those new hybrids. « Zones of Confluence » aspires to contribute to what is still a vast construction site.

 

 

Installations: Aziz+Cucher, Beeoff, Tom Betts, Angela Bulloch, Claude Closky,  Lynn Hershman Leeson, JoDI, Paul Johnson,  Craig Kalpakjian, Karen Lancel, Jennifer et Kevin McCoy, Greg Niemeyer/Chris Chafe, David Rokeby, Radical Software Group,  Ben Rubin/Mark Hansen, Charles Sandison, Marie Sester, Atau Tanaka, Téléférique,  Thomson & Craighead, Maciej Wisniewski.

 

The Medialounge – designed as the twenty-second work of the exhibition – presents a programme of artistic films on the cutting edge of cinema, video gaming, music and multimedia. Screenings of feature-length films will be complemented with an opportunity for the public to watch the DVD on individual screens. Equipped with printers, screens available to the public will also allow them to discover, through a selection of Internet sites, the various actors in the world of creation and the institutions that are talking part in the emergence of new artistic forms. Alternating between seeing works of art and spending time browsing the Medialounge will trigger a process of thought and reflection. The Medialounge is also the starting point of the mediation workshops for the exhibition (see section “Conferences”). 

Chris Cunningham, D-Fuse, Richard Fenwick (1), Johnny Hrdstaff, Ed Holsworth, Tim Hope, Jake Hughes, Jake Knight, Thomas Köner, Le Cabinet, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Nakao Hiroyuki / p.i.c.s, Pleix Collective, Funki Porcini, Power Graphixx, Alexander Rutterford, Eddo Stern (1) (2), Tomioka Satoshi, Unit9 (1)