[ISEA2015] Paper: Tomas Laurenzo – Geopolitical Subjectivity

Abstract (Long paper)

Keywords: New media, new media art, aesthetics, geopolitics, politics.

Rhetorics conceived in geopolitically powerful contexts fail in allowing for the different relationships between art and politics that appear in the periphery. This paper analyzes this from a framework of cognitive capitalism. We identify a need for a sociopolitical vocabulary in new media art rhetoric that takes into account the geopolitical context. By reproducing the center–periphery model, peripheral art is reduced to a dichotomy proper of the modernizing discourse and to the arduous task of developing a replacement of the stories that constitute “the other”. Nevertheless, we argue that it is possible to assert the existence of both a distinct reality and the parallel construction of a language that transcends the re-reading of international tendencies from a local or “localist” perspective.

  • Dr. Tomas Laurenzo, Assistant Professor, School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. Tomás is an artist and academic who works with both physical and digital media exploring the artistic construction of meaning and its relation with power and politics.With a background in both computer science and art, Laurenzo’s work spans across different practices and interests. His artistic production includes installations, interactive art, music, live cinema, and digital lutherie. His artworks and performances have been shown in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.Since 2014, he is Assistant Professor at the School of Creative Media of the City University of Hong Kong. Laurenzo has also performed artistic and academic activities in several institutions including UDELAR, Microsoft Research, Carnegie Mellon University, Brunel University, and INRIA, among others.  laurenzo.net

Full Text (PDF)  p. 254-260