Panel Statement

Panel: Electronic Art and Audience

Until recently, the Electronic Art world mostly talked to itself, and discussions were primarily among the inner circle of initated artists and small group of loyal observers. But as Electronic Art matures as a discipline, it is now increasingly subject to the critical consideration by the art world at large. This is an open discussion by prominent curators and critics who are actively engaged in promoting and viewing Electronic Art.

Round Table with Curators, Critics, and Observers

• Derrick de Kerckhove (Belgium), Director of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology, at the University of Toronto, Canada, he is promoting a new field of artistic endeavours, which bring together, art, engineering and emerging communication technologies. His most recent publication, The Skin of Culture, Investigating the New Electronic Reality (1995, Somerville Press, Toronto) addresses the differences between the effects of television, computers and hypermedia on corporate culture, business practices and the market. In 1989, he curated Transinteractivity, the world’s first video-conference for the arts, between Paris and Toronto. Other works include Brainframes, Technology, Mind and Business (Utrecht: Bosch and Keuning, 1991), The Alphabet and the Brain (Springer Verlag, 1988), Understanding 1984 (UNESCO, 1984) and McLuhan e la metamorfosi dell’uomo (Bulzoni, 1984).