The book Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art recasts the Nordic art context in an expanding digital condition and reveals horizontal ways to write its histories.
Saturday 23 February 2019
Scandinavia House, 2nd floor, 58 Park Ave, New York City
1.30 pm welcome and artist introduction
2.00 pm participatory performance (please read instructions below)
3.00 pm book lecture by Tanya Toft Ag
Reception
Offering an in-depth exploration of art’s contingent evolution with technology and digital culture, this book goes far beyond familiar depictions of ‘Nordic aesthetics’ in art.
Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art (Intellect, 2019) examines how digital technology and culture profoundly changes contemporary art because it changes the life worlds, imaginations and tools of artists, the conditions for art’s production and distribution, and artists’ sense of agency and capacity to affect the world and tackle current urgencies. The book explores art’s role and inquiries especially in response to changing conditions of the welfare state – affected by technology, globalization, and current shifts in international outlook. First-hand perspectives of pioneering and pivotal artists form the basis of chapters penned by leading scholars and curators of Nordic art. The book offers an embracive, multi-perspective tour through and beyond artistic experiments, conceptual reconfigurations, and new modes of artistic agency in the Nordic context(s), and in the wider world.
The book launch will begin with a participatory performance by Swedish artists Lundahl & Seitl (see below), followed by a book lecture by Tanya Toft Ag.
Tanya Toft Ag (editor) is a curator and scholar specializing in media and digital art and its urban implications.
Read interview with Tanya Toft Ag about the book.
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The book launch, performance, and continuing dissemination and exhibition program in New York City, Digital Dynamics: Art’s New Natures, is presented in collaboration with
Participatory performance
Unknown Cloud On Its Way To…
by Lundahl & Seitl
A nomadic, immersive, and connective audio experience.
Programmed to exist globally until 2057, the Cloud travels across national borders, large cities, remote villages, islands, mountains, and across the sea. Immersed in a connective experience in the cloud, audiences will explore participation, trust andcompassion – the cornerstones of an engaged and humane society.
Unknown Cloud On Its Way To… is a participatory performance. Central to the work is the audience-participants’ own being in time and their ability to create relations with the lifeworlds of others. Synchronized via Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and a downloadable APP to participants’ own smartphones, the Unknown Cloud creates an unusual situation of a global ritual that connects us to our own and other bodies, far and near.
The work is featured in the book Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art (Intellect, 2019).
To participate, download the free app: Unknown Cloud Caretaker
This uses a tool called Nagoon consisting of a three-dimensional soundscape. It is connected to existing environments on location and follows the movements of the planets in real-time. At simultaneous events, the immersive experience will be shared between audience-participants in New York City and in various locations in the Nordic region.
Time and place in New York City:
23 February 2019 – book launch of Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art
Scandinavia House, 2nd floor, 58 Park Ave, New York City1.30 pm welcome and artist introduction
2.00 pm participatory performance
3.00 pm book lecture by Tanya Toft Ag
Reception
PLEASE NOTE: Audiences are advised to download the Unknown Cloud Caretaker app in advance and bring their own smartphone and (non-Bluetooth) headphones in order to participate. A few devices can be lent at Scandinavia House upon pre-registration.
This event is free, but kindly RSVP.
Unknown Cloud On Its Way To… (2015-2019) is developed by the Swedish artist duo Lundahl & Seitl in collaboration with: Liquid Media Application, iOS and Android developed by Nagoon.
The book launch is generously supported by the Consulate General of Sweden.
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Cover image: Jana Winderen, Jana Winderen (2014). Krísuvik, Iceland. Photo by Finnbogi Pétursson. Courtesy of the artist.
The book launch, performance, and continuing dissemination and exhibition program in New York City, Digital Dynamics: Art’s New Natures, is presented in collaboration with
Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art (Intellect, 2019) is generously supported by
