Back during my grad school days at Savannah College of Art and Design, I attended a lecture about new media ranging from Richard Serra to Second Life.  This write-up came from the notes I took while attending it.  A professor of mine was giving one half of the lectures.  On Richard Serra, I just want to say that every time I learn about him, I love him.  For me, this man has a spine made of titanium.  I admire his willingness to do different things.

Kleutsch talked about “The New Realists” who “understand reality in a way.”  One example came from Process art and Richard Serra.  He showed a video from the seventies of one of Serra’s work entitled “Boomerang.”  It was about the “Art of speech in technology.”  He also referenced Baldessari and Paul de Marinis.  Kleutsch then explained that Serra took inspiration from the pith bull electroscope and the Leyden Jar.  Plus, he talked about the Campillo Telegraph.  This whole lecture revolved around the use of visual mediums.  Regarding signs and semiotics and its evolution, he talked about Joseph Kosuth, Rene Magritte, Tansey, and Douglas Gordon.

“Transformation from one media to another, but what was in between?”  The answer: “The fold of knowledge” This fold was the “zone of subjectivism.”  He also references Deleuze and that “Art reveals.”He talked about the art in selling products and its signs which tied together with the idea of representation and visual media.  In other words, “Art Transforms”

The lecture then went to another professor whose lecture was about “Personal identity & multiple universes.”  “Image, structure, or behavioral context,”  “We inherit (reincarnate) identity”  To Varillo, the Avatar identity can lead to stereotypes.  Looking back on it now, I wonder how they felt about the Avatar movie.  He references Debord and his belief that Ideology shapes identity.  Again, this centered all around Liberation aesthetics.  He talked about the “authentic human experience.”  The “ideology killer.”  The Philosophy of the senses.  Paul Virilio.   “There will be no miracles”.  The ideas of Stelarc and the “Linden Dream” also came up.  The lecture also talked about preconceived ideas and the erotic ontology of cyberspace combined with Plato’s cave allegory and shadows.  On social media and avatars, the lecturer reacted to it negatively saying “coercive media only gives people reaction” and “reaction to the construction” which turns us into “sublimated slaves”.  The “One Dimensional Man” falls into “The Spell of the Sensuous”.

One funny aspect came from the Q and A part after the lecture.  Since the professor criticized social media and the addiction to it, a lot of students asked a lot of angry questions about it.  I talked to a friend about it, saying the ironic part comes from the fact that a lot of these people are going to go back to their avatars and complain about it.