Symposium

PANORAMIC INTERCHANGE:
LANDSCAPE, SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL

International Symposium at
Moderna Museet, Cinema
Exercisplan 4,
Stockholm, Skeppsholmen

Friday, September 17th, from 10.00 – 18.00 hrs.

Historical panoramas used to offer a view of a city- or landscape - as seen from the point of view of an artist or photographer. Be it in painting, print or photography, the viewer received an often entertaining, informative and complete overview of a certain place at a certain time.

Digital media and networking have widened the scope of street, urban and landscape views to include 360” zoomable, interactive views, maps and directories - each in turn equipped with multiple options for further layers of information. Former blind spots might be rapidly disappearing in the ever more detailed complexity of available and accessible information. Furthermore the subject of individuality, the right to control, manipulate, protect and reveal personal information is challenged and hollowed out. The digital fingerprints left behind everywhere endanger our bank accounts and our privacy. In separate developments the decoding of the human gene is also leading to radical new perspectives regarding our rights to access information, questioning the individuality of humans and the way societies are organized.

Having arrived at this interchange, the artists, collectors, theoreticians and scientists participating in the symposium will present their material and ideas on the historical, current and emerging understanding of the observation, mapping and organization of different types of landscapes - beginning with historical viewing devices, the understanding and representation of landscapes (Werner Nekes) to the analysis of the genetic decoding of the individual and its social and cultural implications (Kári Stefánsson), further to an artists perspective of contemporary architecture, utopia and urban space (Marjolijn Dijkman) to the modelling, playing and interference with, as well as the questioning of, contemporary networked and mediatised societies (Michelle Teran).


WERNER NEKES
(b. 1944) lives in Mülheim an der Ruhr in Germany
Since 1965, filmmaker and media artist Werner Nekes has produced over 100 films and his work has been presented internationally at major museums and festivals.
Furthermore, Nekes has compiled one of the most important private collections of artifacts documenting 500 years of pre-cinematographic experiments as well as developments in the early history of film, focusing on spatial and temporal principles of representation.

MARJOLEIN DIJKMAN
(b. 1978) lives in Rotterdam in The Netherlands, Brussels in Belgium and Saint Mihiel in France.

Through her diverse work Dutch artist Marjolijn Dijkman often considers the foundations of how we perceive and experience our surroundings – the conventions and categories which underlie the comprehension, or not, of the world around us. Ranging from photographic archives and films, to landscape interventions and the organization of exhibitions and experimental residencies, Dijkman’s practice has concerned itself with futurology, public space, knowledge organization, cartography, utopian architecture or environmentalism, for example, with a particular emphasis on collaboration.



KÁRI STEFÁNSSON, M.D., DR. MED., Executive Chairman and President of Research
(b.1949) lives and works in Reykjavik in Iceland
Kári Stefánsson, M.D., Dr. Med. founded deCODE in August 1996. Dr. Stefánsson was previously a professor of Neurology, Neuropathology and Neuroscience at Harvard University and Director of Neuropathology at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. From 1983 to 1993, he held faculty positions in Neurology, Neuropathology and Neurosciences at the University of Chicago. Dr. Stefánsson received his M.D. and Dr. Med. from the University of Iceland and is board-certified in neurology and neuropathology in the United States. Dr. Stefansson is recognized as a leading figure in human genetics. He has shaped deCODE's scientific approach and been actively engaged in leading its gene discovery work, serving as senior author on most of the company's publications in major scientific journals.


MICHELLE TERAN
(b. 1966) lives and works in Berlin in Germany

Born in Canada, Michelle Teran explores the interaction between media and social networks in urban environments. She develops performances, with the audience often participating via the staging of urban interventions such as guided tours, walks and open-air projections, participatory installations and happenings.
One of her recent projects, Buscando al Sr. Goodbar (2009), is a threefold tour through the Spanish town Murcia simultaneously taking place by bus as well as on Google Earth and YouTube.

Michelle received the Transmediale Award 2010, the Prix Ars Electronica honorary mention (2005, 2010) as well as the Vida 8.0 Art & Artificial Life International Competition.



PROGRAM:

10.00 Welcome

10:00 - 11:30 Werner Nekes
“Panorama, The First Mass Medium,” lecture and presentation of historical panoramas from Werner Nekes’ collection.

11:45 - 13:00 Michelle Teran
“Dime Store Novels in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Media, Social Networks and Society”

13:00 - 14:00 Lunchbreak

14:00 - 15:15 Kári Stefánsson
“Where Do Artists Come From?”

15:30 - 16:45 Marjolijn Dijkman
“Theatrum Orbis Terrarum”

17:00 - 17:50 Film Screening, “MAKIMONO,” 1974 by Werner Nekes, sound by Anthony Moore
The unfolding of a continuously varying impression of the representation of a landscape. MAKIMONO reflects the horizontal and vertical legibility of film, the progression of filmic language.


This event is jointly organized by the art academies in Bergen, Vilnius, Reykjavik and the Royal Art Institute, Stockholm. It is funded through KUNO and Nordplus and hosted by Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

Mekonta - the ultimate Radial City

From the age of five,  I've wanted to dwell in Mekonta.  This is the exiled techno-paradise of Venerean splendours, where we levitate over the multi-coloured waters.  Note the unique radial transport systems, the distinctive architecture and marvel at the grandeur of  Treen civilisation!

A city abandoned in advance of itself

 Lawrence Russell sent me this link:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cal-city-20100814,0,7068691,full.storyhttp://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cal-city-20100814,0,7068691,full.story