The Future Of Art

In 1831 Honoré de Balzac wrote a short story, “The Unknown Masterpiece,” in which he invented the abstract painting. Almost 200 years later, writer Ingo Niermann tries to follow in his footsteps to imagine a new epoch-making artwork. Together with the artist Erik Niedling he starts searching for the future of art and, seeking advice, meets key figures of the art world. Includes the DVD The Future of Art by Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann (HD, 157 min.). Contributors Thomas Bayrle, Olaf Breuning, Genesis and Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge, Olafur Eliasson, Harald Falckenberg, Boris Groys, Damien Hirst, Gregor Jansen, Terence Koh, Gabriel von Loebell, Marcos Lutyens, Philomene Magers, Antje Majewski, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Thomas Olbricht, Friedrich Petzel, and Tobias Rehberger; and commentary by Chus Martínez

In The Future of Art in a Postdigital Age, artist and educator Mel Alexenberg offers a vision of a postdigital future that reveals a paradigm shift from the Hellenistic to the Hebraic roots of Western culture. He ventures beyond the digital to explore postdigital perspectives rising from creative encounters among art, science, technology and human consciousness. The interrelationships between these perspectives demonstrate the confluence between postdigital art and the dynamic, Jewish structure of consciousness. Alexenberg’s pioneering artwork – a fusion of spiritual and technological realms – exemplifies the theoretical thesis of this investigation into interactive and collaborative forms that imaginatively envisages the vast potential of art in a postdigital future.

A collective history of the 1980s anti-imperialist campaign In the early 1980s, a group of artists, writers and activists came together in New York City to form Artists Call Against US Intervention in Central America, a creative campaign that mobilized nationwide in an effort to bring attention to the US government's violent involvement in Latin American nations such as Nicaragua and El Salvador. Together the group staged over 200 exhibitions, concerts and other public events in a single year, raising awareness and funds for those disenfranchised by such political crises. Art for the Future illuminates the history of Artists Call with archival pieces and newly commissioned work in the spirit of the group's message. In Spanish and English, a wide selection of artists and organizers examine the group's history as well as the issues that were as urgent to Artists Call in 1984 as they are now: decolonization, Indigeneity, collectivity, human rights and self-determination. Artists include: Antena Aire, Benvenuto Chavajay, Leon Golub, Hans Haacke, Fredman Barahona & Christian Dietkus Lord, Sandra Monterroso, Carlos Motta, Claes Oldenburg, Gregory Sholette and Coosje van Bruggen, Maria Thereza Alves, Sabra Moore, Jerri Allyn, Dona Ann McAdams, Rudolf Baranik, Susan Meiselas, Alfredo Jaar, Martha Rosler, Jesús Romeo Galdámez and Jimmie Durham.

"This book offers a prophetic vision of art in a digital future. Expanding upon the emerging artistic prospects made possible by technology, it explores the new directions in art that have arisen between the planes of science, technological development and cultural expression. Focusing upon the epochal shift from pre- to post-modernism, the author examines the interrelations between digital age art and Jewish consciousness."--BOOK JACKET.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition "10/18/1973-02/29/2012" curated by Dr. Ulrike Bestgen at the Neues Museum Weimar, June 24- Aug. 5, 2012.

By analyzing the three loci of aesthetics—the subjective, the objective, and the absolute—the author concludes that only the sublime demonstrates that art is neither subjective nor objective. The one essential component of art is the new, the sole "instrument" that can guarantee art's vitality even when confronted by the nihilistic tendencies of modernity.

Curated by the Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Where and who do we want to be? How might we get there? What might happen if we stay on our current course? In The Future of Serious Art, Bidisha uses her personal journey through novels, TV and film to mirror the seismic changes that have occurred in culture and its industries in recent years. The digital revolution has brought all of TV, cinema and music into the palms of our hands. It’s easier than ever to bring stories to life, but what happens when artistic work is rebranded as 'content creation'? Where does this leave literary novelists and arthouse filmmakers? What about those auteur-directors who make mainstream but thoughtful films for the big screen? As a storyteller herself, and a woman of colour who isn't a millennial, Bidisha asks who is taken seriously as an artist, what is taken seriously as art now and how that might change over the next century. This brief but mighty book is one of five that comprise the first set of FUTURES essays. Each standalone book presents the author's original vision of a singular aspect of the future which inspires in them hope or reticence, optimism or fear. Read individually, these essays will inform, entertain and challenge. Together, they form a picture of what might lie ahead, and ask the reader to imagine how we might make the transition from here to there, from now to then.