Hybrid Discourse
series of symposia, talks and events
January - May 2002, University of Plymouth, UK
Hybrid Discourse is a series of talks and events investigating the relationship between culture and economy in the context of new technologies.
The interaction between culture and economy was famously explored by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer by the term
'Kulturindustrie' (The Culture Industry) to describe the production of mass culture and power relations between capitalist producers and mass consumers. Their account is a bleak one, but one that appears to hold continuing relevance, despite being written in 1944. Today, the pervasiveness of network technologies has contributed to the further erosion of the rigid boundaries between high art, mass culture and the economy, resulting in new kinds of cultural production charged with contradictions. On the one hand, the culture industry appears to allow for resistant strategies using digital technologies, but on the other it operates in the service of capital in ever more complex ways.
This series uses the concept of the culture industry as a point of departure, and tests its currency under new conditions. In response to this, invited speakers explore number of areas of cultural practice including cultural criticism, artistic, curatorial and entrepreneural practice.
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Programme of Events
Cultural Criticism, part 1 (January 02)
Sally Jane Norman (New Zealand/France)
Jeremy Valentine (Queen Margaret's University College, Edinburgh)
Chair:
Chris Speed (University of Plymouth)
Creative Practices (February 02)
Kate Rich (
Bureau of Inverse Technology, Australia)
Neil Cummings and Marysia Lewandowska (
chanceprojects, UK)
Chair:
Geoff Cox (University of Plymouth)
Hybrid Practices: Art for Commerce / Commerce for Art (March 02)
Rtmark(Global)
Soda (UK)
Paul D. Miller / Dj Spooky that Subliminal Kid (US)
Chair:
Mike Phillips (University of Plymouth)
Curatorial Practices & Institutions (April 02)
Session 1
Violetta Kutlubasis-Krajewska and Piotr Krajewski (
WRO Art Center Foundation, Poland)
Sarah Cook (
CRUMB)
Michele Thursz (US)
Chair:
Lina Dzuverovic-Russell (MUTE) and
Joasia Krysa (University of Plymouth)
Session 2
Luca Dal Pozzolo (
Fondazione Fitzcarraldo, Italy)
Clive Gillman (FACT, UK)
Anne Nigten (
V2, The Netherlands)
Chair:
Bronac Ferran (
Arts Council England, UK)
Session 3
Jordan Crandall (US)
Marina Grzinic Mauhler (Slovenia)
Simon Ford (UK)
Chair:
Violetta Kutlubasis-Krajewska and Piotr Krajewski (
WRO Art Center Foundation, Poland)
Cultural Criticism, part 2 (May 02)
Josephine Bosma (The Netherlands)
Volker Grassmuck (Germany)
Chair:
Anya Lewin (Dartington College of Arts, UK)
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Project Archive & Webcast
Hybrid Discourse is organised by
Anya Lewin and
Joasia Krysa.
Curatorial Practices sessions are organised in collaboration with Geoff Cox, Lina Dzuverovic-Russell and Tina Sotiriadi as a part of Instituting Data Exposition hosted by
The Institute of Digital Art and Technology, at the University of Plymouth, UK.
With support from University of Plymouth, Dartington College of Arts,
Mute, and the European Social Fund.
Streaming and project
website design Guy Nesfield.
Some of the contributions to the conference have been published in
Economising Culture and
Engineering Culture (Autonomedia, New York, 2004 and 2005).
