‘Crashing is the price to pay for booting straight from the earth.’ Martin Howse
Media (computers, iphones, tablets, Arduinos, Raspberry Pis) are collectively imagined to be pristine and spotlessly clean. The term media is itself partly responsible for a lack of awareness of the object, Jennifer Gabrys describes electronics that, “often appear only as “media” or as interfaces, apparently lacking in material substance.” In opposition to our normal reaction, Jussi Parikka proclaims, “information technology is material”. What does he mean by this? While we may imagine that the unblemished surfaces of our shiny devices are free from the grime of the everyday – flawless and pure – we do not have to dig far below the surface to find that these technologies are anything but untainted and dirt-free.
This talk will fracture the narrative of the contemporary digital studio, a space imagined to be free from noise and contained. Re-reading media histories I will look at practices that are cracked, broken and at times actually dirty. Artists such as Milan Knížák, Nam June Paik and Yasunao Tone will be discussed alongside contemporary practitioners Joyce Hinterding and Martin Howse.
Caleb Kelly is an academic, event director and curator working in the area of the sound arts. He leads the research group Sound and Materials and is a researcher within the National Institute of Experimental Arts in UNSW Art & Design. In the summer of 2015 he is the Edgard Varèse Guest Professor at the TU Berlin.