DASH Archives - July 2017

"Teaching at Danube University Krems was a real treat for me. 
I had extreemly stimulating discussions with the students.."
                                      Lev MANOVICH, CityU, New York
 
"Many of the Students in the MediaArtHistories Master are already
established 
Curators, art historians and Scholars of the international Mediaszene."

                                    Christiane PAUL, Whitney Museum
 
"The scientific importance of the Department for Image Science (..)
for
the international community can't be estimated high enough."
                                    Peter WEIBEL, ZKM
 
 
 
=> MEDIA ART HISTORIES, MA (4/5 Semester)  *low residency* *world
renowned faculty* 
*international network* *world heritage Wachau*
> Start: May/Sept 2017  www.mediacultures.net/mah 
 
The MediaArtHistories MA at Danube University is the only
international
Master of Arts program focused on preparing art professionals and
researchers through a deep exploration of the diverse histories of
Media
Art, Science and Technology. An interdisciplinary field at the
intersection of digital technology and humanities disciplines,
MediaArtHistories examines the knowledge frontiers of new media,
digital, and electronic art. It addresses the scientific discovery and
technological innovation that emerge as part of these art practices
and
productions, as well as the genealogies of their historical
development
and context. At a time when digital technologies are fundamentally
revolutionizing the very ways in which we communicate, interact, and
perceive images, the MediaArtHistories program trains students from
diverse backgrounds to critically analyze the visual media cultures of
today.
 
==> BRAIN TRUST Faculty:
Lev MANOVICH, Christiane PAUL, Roger MALINA, Andreas BROECKMANN, Jens
HAUSER, Jeffrey SHAW, Jussi PARIKKA, Sean CUBITT, Paul SERMON, Oliver
GRAU, Christa SOMMERER, Edward SHANKEN, Frieder NAKE, Ana PERAICA, Nat
MULLER, Gunalan NADARAJAN, Monika FLEISCHMANN, Margit ROSEN, Martina
LEEKER, Christopher LINDINGER, Kathy Rae HUFFMAN, KNOWBOTIC RESEARCH,
Wolf LIESER, UBERMORGEN, Andreas LANGE, Christopher SALTER, Darko
FRITZ,
Morten SONDERGAARD, Irina ARISTARKHOVA, and others. 
　
　
The program is a two-year low-residency, either 90 or 120 ECTS Masters
degree offered in English. In addition to individual study and project
work at your home location, students gather 2-3 times a year for
intense
seminar modules with internationally renowned media artists and
scholars. These enriching sessions take place at Danube University or
another European location relevant to the community of media art, such
as Linz, Austria as well as Karlsruhe and Berlin, Germany.
 
 
Since its beginnings in 2006, Danube Universitys prestigious
MediaArtHistories MA has offered its students both a deeper critical
comprehension and a practical orientation regarding the most important
developments of this most contemporary art, by building on its faculty
network of renowned international theorists, artists, and curators.
These faculty come from across the globe to give seminars during the
modules held at Danube University, and from their home universities
maintain through online network and project collaboration
individualized
instruction with students throughout the program.
www.donau-uni.ac.at/mah 
 
 
==> CONTENT - Courses cover Media Art genres such as Net, Telematic
and
Genetic Art as well as the most recent reflections on Nano, Bio and
Transgenic Art, Video Games, Computer Graphics and Animation, Virtual
Reality, Augmented Reality, and Intelligent Environments, Hacktivism
and
Tactical Media, Performance, Glitch Art, hybrid art and Robotics.
MediaArtHistories offers a basis for understanding the evolutionary
history of media, from historic examples such as the Laterna Magica
and
Mechanical Automaton of the 17th century, to computer art at the
earliest stages of the Internet in the mid-Twentieth Century and the
algorithmic art of today. Explored in depth are key methods and theory
from Digital Humanities, Image Science, Media Archaeology, Sound
Studies, the Intellectual History of Science & Technology, and Digital
Gender Theory. Excursions, and on site faculty seminars, introduce
students to the main cultural heritage institutions in the field, such
as Ars Electronica and ZKM, archives such as the Archive of Digital
Art
(ADA www.digitalartarchive.at), festivals such as Transmediale, and
the
Media Art market. 
 
 
==> AUSTRIA - the low-residency modules allow working professionals to
maintain their usual employment, and students entering directly after
a
Bachelors degree will have opportunity to gain valuable career
experience while they study. Students are eligible for student visas
for
year-round residency, enabling parallel pursuit of a research project
with the Archive of Digital Art or digitized Graphic Art Collection of
nearby Göttweig Abbey, both developed by Danube University, or other
opportunities for internships within the MediaArtHistories network.
Portions of the Modules take place at the Center for Image Science
housed at the Göttweig Abbey. The Danube University is located in the
UNESCO World Cultural Hertiage "WACHAU" and offers a spectacular
backdrop for learning and living.
http://www.donau.com/en/wachau-nibelungengau-kremstal/ National
Geographic:
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/sustainable/pdf/destination-scorecard.pdf

 
==> STUDENTS - International students to our program have come from
locations including Austria, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Nigeria, China,
Egypt, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Italy, Ukraine,
and
USA... 
www.donau-uni.ac.at/mahstudents 
==> ALUMNI of the program are employed at renowned cultural
institutions like: Austrian National Library, Süddeutsche Zeitung,
Chicago Art Institute, Deutsche Kinemathek, ETH Zürich, Ars
Electronica,
ITAU Cultural Sao Paulo, Nicolaus Copernicus Universtiy, Auckland Art
Gallery, Pinchuk Art Centre, Hive Advertising, imai, Polytechnic
Museum
Moscow, and more. 
　
 
MODULES: Sept 15-25, 2017/ Nov 20-30, 2017 / May 2-6, 2018 / October
1-10, 2018
INTERNSHIP: (MAH-Advanced only) between May -Dec 2018 
MASTER THESIS: Nov 2018 April 2019
 
==> APPLICATION (digital) and FUNDING POSSIBILITIES - Acceptance into
the program requires either a Bachelors degree (or higher), or
equivalent relevant work experience. Requirements: application form,
letter of motivation, copies of previous degree(s) or employment
validation, copy of passport and Europass CV. An application interview
is required, which may be conducted in person or through internet
videoconferencing. Resources for funding possibilities and estimated
costs:
www.donau-uni.ac.at/mah 
www.donau-uni.ac.at/mah/funding 
www.mediacultures.net/mah 
MediaArtHistories on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/groups/377264145713664/ 
 
*******************************************************
Department for Image Science
Danube-University Krems
Dr.-Karl-Dorrek-Strasse 30
3500 Krems
AUSTRIA
Wendy Coones, M.Ed. 
wendy.coones@donau-uni.ac.at 
www.donau-uni.ac.at/dis
 

THE MEDIA ART RESEARCH THESAURUS IS ONLINE!
www.digitalartarchive.at (
file://org2/COMMON/TEAM/DBW/PR_Marketing/Mailinglisten/MailinglistenPostings/www.digitalartarchive.at
)
 
The ARCHIVE OF DIGITAL ART is pleased to announce the official
publication of the MEDIA ART RESEARCH THESAURUS, the innovational
achievement of a 3-year project supported by the Austrian Science Fund
(FWF)!
 
Just accepted by Leonardo (preprint)
https://www.academia.edu/33653398/Documenting_MediaArt_A_WEB_2.0-Archive_and_Bridging_Thesaurus_for_MediaArtHistories
 
 
DOING KEYWORD-BASED MEDIA ART HISTORIES
 
Based on a newly developed keyword index of terms selected by expert
critique, the MEDIA ART RESEARCH THESAURUS enables the comparative
analyses of contemporary Digital Art and its art historical
predecessors. The THESAURUS’ cross-database search function, for what is
called federated or meta-searching, makes visible the genealogical
conflictions and correspondences between Digital Art’s 1) AESTHETICS, 2)
SUBJECT, and 3) TECHNOLOGY.
 
With the robust semantic interoperability of the THESAURUS, user
queries link simultaneously across resources (including an expanded
documentation of digitized image, text, and video); domains (the ARCHIVE
OF DIGITAL ART, as well as the online graphic print collection of
GÖTTWEIG ABBEY–with further historical databases coming soon!); and
communities (of both artists and scholars). Innovated as an effective
tool for DIGITAL HUMANITIES, this keyword-‘bridging’ THESAURUS supports
researchers at the intersection of art, science, and technology in
creating original MEDIA ART HISTORIES.
 
 
USING THE THESAURUS
 
The MEDIA ART RESEARCH THESAURUS encompasses keywords both at the
cutting edge of Digital Art–a field also known as Media Art or ‘New’
Media Art–as well from ‘traditional’ art history. Organized into a
‘tree-like’ taxonomical structure, the broad comprehensive categories
of the THESAURUS divide into increasingly specific subcategories–as in
the manner of genus/species, whole/part, or class/instance. As
exemplified in the “Panorama” case study sketched below, a user’s search
path might trace “Aesthetics” > “Panoramic,” “Subject” > “Arts and
Visual Culture” > “Panorama,” or “Technology” > “Display” > “Electronic
Display” > “Projection Screen.” Users can depart from any individual
keyword location, discovering terms higher, lower, or related, as
defined by the hierarchical order of the controlled vocabulary, in scope
notes, and through case studies.
 
As metadata, the THESARUS’ keywords allow for content indexing (in) and
content retrieval (from) the ARCHIVE OF DIGITAL ART (ADA), as well as
the online graphic print collection of GÖTTWEIG ABBEY (GSSG). Each
keyword links image JPEG–, text PDF–, and video MP4– formatted
resources, and in ADA a ‘expanded concept of documentation’ spanning
from installation iterations, and production processes, to information
and schematics under the broad category of TECHNOLOGY with specific
subcategories for SOFTWARE, HARDWARE, INTERFACE, and DISPLAY.
 
Users of the THESAURUS, in performing cross-database keyword searches,
create and re-create database resources from the ARCHIVE OF DIGITAL ART
and GÖTTWEIG ABBEY. Keyword metadata together with these information
objects semantically represent MEDIA ART HISTORIES, such that the
initial critical analysis of the THESAURUS structure naturally entangles
image, text, and video documents with notions such as cause, subject,
and time. Thus, user queries navigate combinatorial narratives and new
MEDIA ART HISTORIES that can be saved on a visual pin-board or LIGHT BOX
feature, and published in an online exhibition for a wide variety of
applications from scientific or art-based research to educational or
public outreach.
 
 
DEVELOPING THE THESAURUS
 
As a hierarchically organized semantic classification schema, the
THESAURUS explicitly represents the relationship between diverse ranges
of cross-cultural, inter-disciplinary, and trans-historical terms. To
best describe its specific knowledge domain of Media Art, the THESAURUS
is limited in scope to 400 individual terms for a field
comprehensiveness that also promotes usability. The continuously fluxing
terminologies of Digital Art, such as “Interface” or “Panoramatic,” are
included along with relatively fixed lexicons of classical art history,
like “Body” or Landscape.” Thus, the THESAURUS serves a bridge-building
function between the art forms such as Bio, Net, and Virtual Art and
those like lithography, painting, and textile.
 
To develop the THESAURUS, our experts surveyed four primary resource
groups: 1) ‘Traditional’ art history vocabularies, such as Iconclass,
Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT), Warburg Subject Index
demonstrated, respectively, an alphanumeric classification scheme
designed for the iconography of art, a structured thesaurus used for
describing items of art, architecture, and material culture that
contains only generic terms, and an index of iconographical terms. 2)
Digital Art databases established since year 2000 then provided a
field-specific expansion of these art historical terms and concepts,
though The Dictionnaire des Arts Médiatiques, GAMA, Daniel Langlois
Foundation, and Netzspannung, have all either lost key researchers, had
funding expired, or were eventually terminated. 3) As forums and
catalysts for the contemporary discourses and innovative technologies
central to Digital Art, festivals such as Ars Electronica, Inter-Society
for the Electronic Arts (ISEA), and Transmediale, and their range of
materials from official publications to professional interviews, were
taken into account. And, lastly, 4) premier literature from the leading
publishers of Digital Art was evaluated on the basis of its indexes,
peer-reviewed keywords that ‘map’ some of the most valuated topics in
the field.
 
 
CASE STUDY: PANORAMA IN DIGITAL AND GRAPHIC ART
 
The THESAURUS semantically links artworks on the ARCHIVE OF DIGITAL ART
(ADA) as well as the online graphic print collection of GÖTTWEIG ABBEY
(GSSG), and serves as user interface. Given the GSSG’s curation and
content, a provenance of ideas for Digital Art can be singularly traced
through its graphic prints. These document resources are viewable not
only as artworks, but information-carrying visual media. In their day
central to the production of knowledge, the graphic prints of the GSSG
collection represent many of the inspirations, innovations, and
inventions in disciplines such as architecture, astronomy, biology,
botany, medicine, and psychology that preceded Digital Art.
 
Systematically archived in the early 18th century from across Europe by
Abbot Gottfried Bessel, conservationist, diplomat, and patron of the
arts, Renaissance and Baroque woodcuts, engravings, and lithographs
constitute the heart of the GÖTTWEIG ABBEY COLLECTION.  With over 30,000
prints, this preserves not only one of the most encompassing private
holdings in Austria, but realizes the Enlightenment ideal of
encyclopaedic knowledge.
 
To introduce you to the keyword search function on ADA and the MEDIA
ART RESEARCH THESAURUS, we present you with the keyword “Panorama” and
its Histories:
 
Virtual Reality, immersive spaces of knowledge, memory theatre, and
digital games – the idea of panoramic illusion is omnipresent in Digital
Art. Renowned digital artists from Jeffrey SHAW in his immersive ceiling
projections to Char DAVIES’ immersive virtual spaces, Maurice BENAYOUN
to KNOWBOTIC RESEARCH, all investigate the panorama in their work. And
now, through the MEDIA ART RESEARCH THESAURUS, researches are able to
investigate these Digital Artworks as documented on the ARCHIVE OF
DIGITAL ART in discourse with classic art historical objects.
 
In 1787, Irish painter Robert Barker patented the process that later
came to be known as the pan-orama (“all-view”). Based on a military
precise view, he developed a system of curves on the concave surface of
a picture so that the landscape, when viewed from a central platform at
a certain elevation, appeared accurate and undistorted. Yet, blurring
the boundary between real and illusionary space is a pictorial process
but a fascination, an idea seen throughout European art history from the
early Renaissance all the way to the Digital Art of today!
 
Research on ADA and the MEDIA ART RESEARCH THESAURUS
 
+ FIND art works from Graphic prints to Digital Art for the Keyword
‘panorama’ on MediaArt research Thesaurus!
+ BROWSE through ADA’s bibliography for literature on ‘panorama’!
+ SEARCH for artists, artworks and events related to ‘panorama’ on
ADA!
 
The ARCHIVE OF DIGITAL ART   www.digitalartarchive.at (
file://org2/COMMON/TEAM/DBW/PR_Marketing/Mailinglisten/MailinglistenPostings/www.digitalartarchive.at
)