[ISEA2011] Panel: Defne Ayas – Asym­me­tries in the Con­trol of In­for­ma­tion and Ideas

Panel Statement

Panel:  @China, Virtually Speaking: A Virtual Roundtable Discussion on Emergent Practices in China

The 2008 Bei­jing Olympics was the chance for China to open its in­for­ma­tion high­way to the West. Yet three years later media cen­sor­ship pre­vails with an even tighter strong­hold than be­fore due to the re­cent up­ris­ings in the Mid­dle East. As China con­tin­ues to play host to in­ter­na­tional cul­tural events, what are the asym­me­tries in the ap­pli­ca­tion of cen­sor­ship? What is ac­cepted? What is re­jected? Based on her ex­pe­ri­ences as a cu­ra­tor for both the 2009 Shang­hai eArts Fes­ti­val, an elec­tronic arts fes­ti­val fea­tur­ing per­for­mance, work­shops and ex­hi­bi­tions and the 2010 Shang­hai World Expo, Ayas will dis­cuss the cur­rent state of con­trol in China’s cre­ative in­dus­tries and art cen­ters. Ex­cerpts from a doc­u­men­tary cre­ated by her stu­dents at New York Uni­ver­sity Shang­hai cam­pus will be screened.

  • Defne Ayas is a cu­ra­tor and pro­ducer. Based mostly in Shang­hai and some­times in New York and Is­tan­bul, Ayas works as a di­rec­tor of pro­grams to Arthub Asia, a multi-dis­ci­pli­nary or­ga­ni­za­tion de­voted to con­tem­po­rary art cre­ation in China and rest of Asia, and as an art his­tory in­struc­tor at New York Uni­ver­sity in Shang­hai. Ayas has also been a cu­ra­tor of PER­FORMA since 2004, the bi­en­nial of vi­sual art per­for­mance of New York City, where she has pre­sented more than fifty live per­for­mances and per­for­mance-re­lated pro­grams with an in­ter­na­tional ros­ter of artists, cu­ra­tors, and crit­i­cal thinkers.  Prior to join­ing PER­FORMA, Ayas co­or­di­nated New Mu­seum of Con­tem­po­rary Art’s pub­lic- and new me­dia-pro­gram­ming.