[ISEA2012] Introduction: ANDREA POLLI – ISEA2012 Catalog

Introductory Statement

Intro
THE EIGHTEENTH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ELECTRONIC ART, |SEA201 2 ALBUQUEROUE: Machine Wilderness, marks the first major international gathering to deeply examine the complex relationships between existing and emerging technologies and wilderness through the intersection of contemporary art, science, culture, and society. As the home of not only many of the most “wild” places in the country, but also some of the most advanced technologies and scientific discoveries, New Mexico and the Southwest region offer the world a site for reflection and inspiration. Cultural scholar Leo Marx traced the idea of wilderness and its subsequent transformation under the impact of industrialization as a distinctly American phenomenon. For Marx, the symbol of this transformation was the locomotive and how this machine moved American cultural consciousness away from the sentimental pastoralism of an idyllic garden to a pastoralism of the mind in the transcendental place between the city and raw nature. Because rural happiness was seen in contradiction to productivity, wealth, and power, the old bucolic images of the New World were by necessity replaced with visions of industrial domination.

  • ANDREA POLLI, ISEA2012 Artistic Director, Mesa Del Sol Chair of Digital Media and Associate Professor, Art & Art History and School of Engineering, The University of New Mexico

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