Dr. Baruch Gottlieb
Digital Materiality
Seminar/Workshop, English/Deutsch, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Thursday, 2-4 pm, weekly, starting 21.4.2016, Hardenbergstr. 33, Raum 110

By now we know, digital things are material things. There is no software without the hardware to run it. And concepts are also material, as they can only exist in living bodies. Increasingly artists, theorists, political actors are turning their attention to persistent materiality which underlies the electronic digital world.

This is a course where we bring theory into practice and practice into theory. We start with an analysis of digital and electronic products, media, images, sounds, and investigate their material basis from various approaches including phenomenology, history, philosophy and artistic practice. Digital materials are not homogenous; rather they are made up of myriad infinitesimal variations which help us understand what they are.

There will be discussions and presentations, making and manifesting, as we try to position ourselves with regard to the electronic core of the digital things which transcend us and engulf us. And we will make many attempts to describe and demonstrate what is at stake for us culturally, socially and politically. We can convene in English and German as need be.    

Leistungsanforderungen für den unbenoteten Studium-Generale-Schein: engagierte und regelmässige Teilnahme.

Dr. Baruch Gottlieb, trained as a filmmaker at Concordia University, has been working in digital art with specialization in public art since 1999. He has exhibited and produced permanent works globally including: Prince Takamatsu Gallery Tokyo (2005), ZKM Museum for Art and Media Karlsruhe (2011) Dakar Biennale (2002, 2004, 2006) transmediale, Berlin (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). Gwangju Biennale (2004), Yeosu World Expo (2012), ISEA Istanbul (2011), LABORAL (2011), Canadian Embassy Berlin (2011) etc. From 2005-2008 he was assistant professor of Media Art at Yonsei University Graduate School for Communication and Arts in Seoul, Korea. He is currently Artist-researcher in Residence at the Institute for Time-based Media and lecturer in philosophy of digital art at the University of Arts Berlin and honorary fellow of the Vilém Flusser Archiv. He is also artistic director of the exhibition series “Flusser & the Arts”. He writes extensively on digital media, on digital archiving, generative and interactive processes, digital media for public space and on social aspects of networked media. More information on www.g4t.info.