Photo opportunity: Today at 11am - Peacock Visual Arts
Research into secret prisons in Afghanistan, a sci-fi movie entirely assembled from CCTV-footage and ball bearings used to represent deaths reported on the web are all part of a major debate on digital technology taking place in Aberdeen this week.
Recoded - Landscapes of Politics and New Media – a joint cultural venture between the University of Aberdeen and Peacock Visual Arts – centres around a prestigious academic conference at King's College Conference Centre on April 25-26.
World-leading academics in a broad range of disciplines – from computer and surveillance art to film and visual studies – will present papers over the two day event, which has been organised by the University's Centre of Modern Thought.
The Recoded conference will be complemented by a thought-provoking exhibition at Peacock Visual Arts, and will also feature film screenings and workshops. All four will draw attention to the way digital technologies have revolutionised everyday life.
Highlights from the series of events taking place across the city include:
- Blank Spots on a Map: State Secrecy and the Limits of the Visible – a virtual road trip into the world of hidden budgets, state secrets, covert military bases and disappeared people by Trevor Paglen, the world-renowned writer and artist from the University of California. Over the course of his talk – one of over a dozen taking place as part of the Recoded conference – Paglen will travel from 'non-existent' Air Force and CIA installations in the Nevada desert, to secret prisons in Afghanistan and 'black sites' much closer to home.
- Monument (if it Bleeds, it Leads) - an installation by Caleb Larsen. Part of a wider exhibition at Peacock, Larsen's work uses a computer programme to continuously scan the headlines of 4,500 English-language news sources around the world, looking for people reported killed. It then instructs a ceiling-mounted mechanism to drop one yellow ball bearing per person. The ever-growing pile will eventually form a sort of monument.
- Faceless – a sci-fi fairytale by Manu Luksch exploring the legal and political framework of surveillance technology. The film was entirely assembled using CCTV-footage and will be given a special screening at Peacock Visual Arts.
- Secrecy – the Recoded conference also includes the UK premiere of Peter Galison and Rob Moss's Secrecy (2007) on April 25 at 5pm. A 2007 Sundance Festival Selection, the film will be followed by a Q&A with the directors at Belmont Picture House.
Dr Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli, Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Aberdeen and co-organiser of Recoded, said: "The 'New Media' is perhaps the most discussed field in the arts and humanities today, reflecting the way in which digital technologies have revolutionised the practice of everyday life by becoming an integral part of how we work, communicate, and make art as well as war.
"The conference, exhibition and other events aim to promote a serious discussion on the place of the new media in modern thought, culture and academia. We are extremely proud to have attracted such an impressive group of thinkers and artists to Aberdeen."
The Recoded exhibition will run at Peacock Visual Arts from April 25 – May 31.
Monika Vykoukal, curator at Peacock Visual Arts said: "This collaboration with the Centre for Modern Thought at the University of Aberdeen brings together a fantastic and diverse range of international work, which has not previously been exhibited in the UK, providing a pertinent and exciting reflection on the impact of new media on contemporary society."
For more information on the Recoded conference, including a full programme, abstracts and bios visit www.abdn.ac.uk/moderthought/recoded/. Further details on the exhibition are available at www.peacockvisualarts.com