Incandescent: Symposium
In association with the University of Hull, Philosophy, Department of Humanities and Hull Screen.
Incandescent was inspired by the philospher Paul Virilio's books Polar Inertia & Lost Dimensions. The symposium drew together the various strands and issues that Incandescent sough to raise.
The symposium included:
The Assassination of Time by Professor Johnny Golding - a tour de force of media arts philosophy and the violence of time/light/speed in the (so-called) digital age. This will be performed completely in the dark.
James Swinson presented Bright Lights Big City which explores the relationship between the Enlightenment and the City of Light - a trajectory of modernity calibrated by speed, light and the assemblage of the vision machine.
The artist Matthew Tickle discussed his installation Punctum and Nebula.
Additionally, Rob Gawthrop of Hull Art Lab talked about Incandescent with particular reference to its curation, aesthetics and art & science.
Professor Johnny Golding:
Professor Johnny Golding holds the Chair in Philosophy of Visual Arts and Communication Technologies at the University of Greenwich, where she is the Programme Director of their MA-PHD Programme Media Arts Philosophy & Practice (MAPP). She is the author of several books, the latest, Dirty Theory (Routledge) and video works including: 'Forbidden Bodies (God is a Lobster)'; Once Upon a Wormhole' and 'I spy with my little eye'...
James Swinson:
Born in London. Studied at Univ. of London, Camberwell and Central St. Martins. His recent work has focused on audio-visual installation alongside the production of video documentaries. Current writing and artwork centres on the city: streets, architecture, space, place and identity. Research also includes the application of digital technologies to teaching, learning and art and design practice. Teaches at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design and is a researcher at the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute Graduate School, University of East London.
Bright Lights Big City abstract:
The relationship between the Enlightenment and the City of Light established a trajectory of modernity calibrated by speed, light and the assemblage of the vision machine. Artistic avant-garde formations in the emergent industrial metropolis responded to the fresh challenges of urban existence. Machine age aesthetics first inspired by the spatial mechanics of engineering and architecture, were consolidated by the invisible power of electricity distributed in circuits instantly transformed by resistance into heat and light, and by electro-magnetism into movement. The generation of power was no longer immediately tied temporally and spatially to the site of combustion. Photography and cinematography combining optics and photochemistry emerged as creative technologies capable of articulating the intimate relationship between light and time through the instantaneous event, the moving image and montage. The dark and shade of the illuminated street stitched the citizen into increasingly temporal regimes, space dissolved by electromagnetic energy flowing, instant, transformable and adaptable.
Matthew Tickle:
Lives and works in London Studied Slade School of Fine Art, West Surrey College of Art and Design and Hull School of Art. Matthew has exhibited widely and has received many awards. He teaches Art & Architecture at the University of East London and is ia visiting tutor in Sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art.
Matthew TickleÕs new installation for Hull Art Lab explores how small-scale discrete objects and events (punctum) combine to form large-scale structures (nebula) . Interpretation hinges upon the scale at which objects are viewed.
Rob Gawthrop:
Co-founder and director of Hull Art Lab (with Bob Levene & Espen Jensen) is an artist, writer and musician and former head of art at the Hull School of Art. Noise Film & Aesthetics was published in Experimental Film and Video: An Anthology Edited by Jackie Hatfield (August 2006).