On November 8, 2014, the 3rd International Forum of New Media Art “Chronology of New Media Art” was held at the Department of New Media Art, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, it was presided over by independent curator Li Zhenhua who focuses on new media art, invited were more than 10 new media artists, curators, scholars at home and abroad to be involved in a dialogue and discussion around the topic of “Chronology of New Media Art”. The forum had been organized for 6 months and unfolded in 9 directions: The Relationship between a Globalized Market and Digitalized Information, The Relationship between the Experimental Field of New Media Art and the Knowledge Production, The Relationship between New Media and the “Object”, Research and an Investigation into the Production Mechanisms of Independent Films, New Media Art Education and Its Application in Contemporary Art, New Media Art’s Intervention in Contemporary Social Practices, A Chronology of New Media, The Establishment of a Future New Media Art Lab,New Media Art in Future Knowledge, Chivalry and Social Practice.

Zhang Jie, Vice President of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute addressed the opening ceremony, stating that he hoped the holding of an international new media exhibition can introduce Sichuan Fine Arts Institute international innovative artistic concepts, and further promote the development of the new media education of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. Zhang Xiaotao, Director of the Department of New Media Art, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute is the major organizer of the forum, and hoped to build the forum to be an “international airport” for exchange and communication, sharing globalized experiences.

Italian sound designer Chiara Luzzana gave a wonderful speech themed on “Listen to the Images – The Importance of Sound in the Media” to start the forum. Chiara Luzzana has learnt all kinds of musical instruments when she was a child, and sound became the main artistic language in her creation. In her eyes, sound covered everything, video, movie, branding, etc., where shapes of sound, sound directly connectedwith the emotion and aroused the inner memories, but now it is the times of “reading image”, we should further strengthen the understanding of sound. Chiara Luzzana emphasized that sound creation was different from scoring a musical composition, and false sound would lead to emotional and sensual distortion. Cao Kai is the originator of Nanjing Independent Film Festival,with a wealth of experience in visual images, in the speech entitled “Rebuild the Terminal Mode of Video”, he introduced three observation modes to get visual images by the artists. Firstly, it was the “Public Monitor”, represented by Li Juchuan, who uses a camera to observe the world; Secondly, “Screen Live Telecast”, a group of artists represented by Cong Feng directly shooting the screens and then recording to recreate, to form a kind of “interesting” way of aesthetics; Thirdly it was a collection of ready-made images, such as Lei Lei’s work“Photo Recovery”.

Chen Chu-Yin graduated from école nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts de Paris, and turned to the field of new media technology, in the speech themed “From An Enactive Art Approach to Reflections on PostMedia Art”, she drew the outline ofthe developing context of new media art in the last 50 years from 1960 to 2010, and shared her creation innew media with that related to science and technology. In the speech “New Media Art and Knowledge Production– Study on Lawrence Abu Hamdas”, Dutch photographic artist Tubor Bratu initially reviewed the pioneering exploration by the artists such as Duchamp, etc., in the process of conversation between contemporary art and modern art, meanwhile he said that we were discussing the future of new media, which involved “the history and the present”, paradox of “the old and the new”, and said that we weren’t engaged in the new media artin order to simply pursue the “new”.

Li Zhenhua gave a speech on the basis of the thinking of the previous projects, “Say goodbye to new media doesn’t refer to a farewell, but tries to have a better understanding and clarification of the reality of changing concepts and practice of the new media, which involves many fields, such as artistic phenomena along with the appearance of new technology, artists are involved in scientific experiments, artists promote the thinking of the internet, geography, and morality.”

Zhang Xiaotao gave a speech of “From Painting to Animation – Thoughts on Narrative, Language, Image and Space in Independent Animation”, starting from his own experience of creative transformation to expounding the relationship between independent animation and other cultural fields. Zhang Xiaotao believes that, independent animation is diverted from two systems –system of independent filmand genealogy of contemporary art, since 2000, internet games, ink animations, interactive media installations that have changed a lot, which also extended the medium of independent animation. In regard to “The Source of the Image Method”, Zhang Xiaotao was inspired by Wu Hung’s research method of art history, inspired by Zhou Wenju’s “Playing Weiqi under Double Screens”, “Han Xizai Evening Banquet”, etc., he rediscovered and discussed the multi relationships of image, space and narration of ancient paintings, which were new dimensions for the research methods of new media. Zhang Xiaotao also cited art practices of new media in Japan, Iran, Poland, Taiwan, the South Africa, etc., and explored the relationship between new media and regional tradition. Italian artist Freschini Cecilia gave a lecture entitled “Post Internet Art in Italia”, as a generation of www, artistic creation was closely associated with internet, “post” generally referred to the time that had passed in the field of culture, but internet wasn’t dead, except for the internet which was quietly used to people. For art, internet had influenced its production form, and had consciously become a cultural form. Freschini Cecilia gave priority to the creative practices of internet art by five artists including Roberto Fassone, Elisa Giardina Papa, Eva & Franco Mattes, IO COSE, Gazira Babeli.

Lan Qingwei gave a speech entitled “Discussion on Media is like Discussing on Life” he blended his thinking of the brand construction of a contemporary art museum. Kim Kyujung came from Soonsil University, Korea, and gave a lecture entitled “Reconsidering Arts in Media Convergence Environment”, Professor Kim said that people had a new concept of “beauty” in the context of electrical medium, the progress of technology had changed our thinking about beauty, which was the premise that we need to rethink art. Xu Wenkai is a pioneering media artist in China, and in the speech of “The Possibility of An Individual” he shared a variety of artistic creations of multimedia in recent years, including installation, jewelry, video, network cloud art, etc. In the speech on “The Urban Workshop of the 10th Shanghai Biennial”, Zhu Ye shared the curatorial thought of the Shanghai Biennale of the year, which was themed “Social Factory”, while Zhu Ye’s team proposed the concept of “Urban Workshop” to echo the theme, the space represented by “city” as the major object of contemporary Chinese social production, meanwhile this was the structural section and organic part of “social factory”, when considering how to make the content of “city space” bond with brand appeal, Zhu Ye proposed the concrete curatorial thinking of “Fiction Line”.

“Chronology of New Media Art” forum lasted for one day. After the end of the forum, a part of the activity “Chronology of New Media Art” exhibition opened at New Media Art Center, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, to echo the “International Forum of New Media Art” from theory research to creative practice, comprehensively displayinga variety of possibilities of new media art in the present art environment.

Text and photo by Zhang Wenzhi/CAFA ART INFO

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO