[ISEA2017] Panel: Priscila Arantes, Marcos Cuzziol, Malu Fragoso, Cleomar Rocha, Nara Santos, Tania Fraga & Reynaldo Thompson — Electronic Art in Brazil: exhibition spaces, museological strategies and digital archive

Panel Statement

Keywords: Brazilian Electronic Art, Expography, Museology, Pioneers, Archiving, Art Laboratories, Digital Art, Latin America.

This panel intends to discuss operational strategies for public and private exhibition spaces, proposed by artists, curators, professionals in expography and museology in the field of Brazilian Electronic & Digital Art, from early experiences to a contemporary perspective. It
also aims to analyze and discuss museological strategies for electronic art exhibitions as well as for interdisciplinary exhibitions involving art, science and technology. In this discussion we question not only the innovative functions of these spaces for electronic/digital art, but their necessary functions as promoters of processes for preservation and archiving. The panel comes from broader discussions among artists and researchers, many responsible for curatorial and exhibition projects, from the second and third generation of Brazilian Electronic Art in Latin America.

  • Cleomar Rocha is a doctor in Contemporary Communication and Culture (Federal University of Bahia, Brazil) with three post-doctoral courses: Poéticas Interdisciplinares (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro); Cultural Studies (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro); Intelligence Technology and Digital Design (Pontifical University of São Paulo). Rocha is a coordinator of Media Lab Brazil, artist and researcher. He is a professor of the Federal University of Goiás (Brazil), and visiting professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and the University of Caldas, in Colombia. Marcos Cuzziol is in charge of Itaú Cultural’s Department of Innovation. Responsible for the “Emoção Art.ficial” Art and Technology Biennale from 2002 to 2012. An engineer and 3D game developer, he holds a doctorate in Arts from the University of Sao Paulo.
  • Nara Cristina Santos is Post-Doctorate in Visual Arts at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) 2012-2013. PhD in Visual Arts at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul 2004, with an emphasis on History, Theory and Criticism of Art and PhD internship in Paris VIII, France 2001. Her doctoral thesis: Art (e) Technology in sensitive emergency with the digital environment: Brazilian projects. Currently professor at the Visual Arts Department 1993 – Federal University of Santa Maria, where she works in the Postgraduate Program in Visual Arts, PPGART. She coordinates the Laboratory of Research in Contemporary Art, Technology and Digital Media, LABART an leads the research group Art and Technology-CNPq. She was part of the Digital Art of the Ministry of Culture/MINC 2009-2011. A member of the Brazilian Committee of the History of Art/CBHA and the National Association of Plastic Arts Researchers/ANPAP, where she is president for the 2015-2016 biennium.
  • Priscila Arantes is a researcher, curator, professor and museum director. Currently she teaches Masters and PhD students in the design program at the School of Arts, Architecture, Design and Fashion of the Universidade Anhembi Morumbi, Brazil. She holds a PhD in Communication and Semiotics from PUC/SP and a postdoctoral degree in Art Criticism and History from the Penn State University (USA(). She is currently artistic director and curator of the Paço das Artes, a museum in São Paulo, since 2007. Her publications include Arte e Mídia: perspectivas da estética digital (Art and Media: perspectives of the digital aesthetic), Arte: história, crítica e curadoria (Art:history, criticism and curating) and Re/escrituras da arte contemporânea: história, arquivo e mídia (Re/writings of contemporary art: history, archive and media). She has curated a number of exhibitions. Recent curatorial projects include Arquivo Vivo, Projeto 5X5 and MaPA, held at the Paço das Artes.
  • Tania Fraga is a Brazilian architect and artist with a Ph.D. in Communication and Semiotics at the Catholic University of Sao Paulo. She is vice-president of the Sao Paulo Institute of Mathematics and Arts. In 2010-11 she developed a Senior Post Doctoral research project at the School of Communication and Arts, University of Sao Paulo, with a research grant from Sao Paulo Research Foundation, FAPESP. In 1999 she developed a Post Doctoral research project at the Centre for Advanced Inquiry in Interactive Arts and Science Technology and Art Research, UK, with a research grant from the Agency for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, CAPES. In 1991/1992/ 2010/2011 she was a Visiting Scholar at the Computer Science Department at The George Washington University, USA. In 1986 she received a grant from the Fulbright Commission. She has been showing and publishing her work in many national and international events.
  • Maria Luiza P. G. Fragoso multimedia artist with a PhD in Arts and Multimedia at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in São Paulo, Brazil (2003). She develops research on artistic experimentation in telematic environments focused on interdisciplinary aspects between art, science, technology and traditional cultures. Currently professor at the Visual Communication Design Department at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and thesis
    supervisor since 2005. Elected a member of the National Association of Researchers in Fine Arts’s board of directors for the period 2010-2012. Coordinator of the research group REDE- Art and Technology, transcultural networks in multimedia and telematics, and coordinator of NANO Lab – Nucleus of Art and New Organisms.
  • Reynaldo Thompson is a Mexican scholar, architect and artist who holds a PhD on Aesthetic Studies. His artwork has been shown internationally. A background in visual art and architecture helps him interact with space and time in almost unusual but repressedly delightful ways. He participated in artist residencies in the United States of America and has curated exhibitions in Mexico and the USA. At present he is associate professor at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico where he also chairs the Department of Art and Management in the Engineering Division. His main areas of interest are art and technology history and its analysis, focusing in recent years on the study of the origins of electronic art in Latin America. At present, he is planning to launch a database on the evolution of digital art in the continent together with a team of international experts in Latin America, USA, Canada and Europe..

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