ns

s; entangled links; on-off links.


In conjunction with this event, Virose and V_2 Organisation have put together a contest consisting of the development of web.art projects. The contest is intended to promote projects of an experimental nature, as should any kind of initiative of this sort. As such, multiple and varied responses are expected, but these should not drift away from the proposed Links themes. However, there shall not be any limitations to the creative conception of Links, which should be developed in a conceptually expansive form or manner.

This project is supported by Caleida and the portuguese search engine www.aeiou.pt

Abstract:
Contemporary experience is increasingly requested by technology, undermining the modern delimitations and frontiers, «links» and linking emerge as one crucial question, merging the biological and the mechanical, the flesh and the image, the real and the potential, and so on. The so called «hybrid culture» is more a symptom than a conceptualization of this situation.

The problem of «linking» with our ancient culture, namely Plato in the "Symposium", thought under the theme of «erotics», is abandoning its historical modern invisibility, or its excessive evidence as mere contractualized relationships between «individuals», or as the domination of unveiled and obscure «laws of attraction».

One could also say that the reduction of the "erotics" to sexuality caused the "occultation" of what was primordial: the more or less invisible articulations between the material and the immaterial, the corporeal and the incorporeal, and also the forced or free relationships between men, objects, properties, images, etc. ; They constitute a matrix of relationships and links repressed by the occidental identity of the main trend.

This matrix has been increscently formalized and appropriated by the technological networks. Through contemporary technology, links are acquiring a new visibility and consistency.

Present times and experiences are currently described through terms like «on-line», «connectivity», «linking» and «interactivity». The euphoria of multiplicity, complexity and rhizomatic seems to leave no other option than being on or off, but even this option is determined by an overall «compulsion to be connected».

Therefore «linking» seems to constitute the main battleground of contemporary culture and politics. Much depends on the possibility of criticizing this kind of «generalized erotics», the contemporary technological Eros.



PORTO 2001
Das Ligações
31 de Outubro a 4 de Novembro de 2001

[more info at: http://www.porto2001.pt/ligacoes]

Auditório do Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralaves
(das 17h00 às 20h00)