#s2b

Richard Rinehart (Bucknell University, Samek Art Museum)

Queer communities are heralding a cultural turning point. From recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, to “bathroom bills”, to the massacre in Orlando, queerness is central to current social and political debate. Current events can mire us in an unrelenting present that makes it hard to imagine a path beyond. However, a new generation of artists are asking; Where do we go from here? How are queer communities imagining and working toward a better world? How does digital art embody queer futurity? This talk looks at several art projects that take up digital modalities, queer coding, and the aesthetics of utopia.

Richard Rinehart is Director and Chief Curator of the Samek Art Gallery & Downtown Art Gallery at Bucknell University. He has served as Digital Media Director & Adjunct Curator at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and as curator at New Langton Arts and for the San Jose Arts Commission. He juried for the Rockefeller Foundation, Rhizome.org, and others. Richard has taught courses on art and new media at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, the San Francisco Art Institute and elsewhere. He has lead NEA and NEH-funded national research projects on new media, art, preservation, and museums and he is currently working on a book for MIT Press on preserving digital culture. He served on the boards of the Berkeley Center for New Media, New Langton Arts, and the Museum Computer Network.

Simon Tarr (University of South Carolina)

Art is often hailed as a way that people make sense of the complicated world around us. This process of “making sense” is also described in theoretical models that come from communications, information science, human computer interaction, and other disciplines. However, when it comes to figuring out new and complex processes, existing models do not adequately or specifically account for effects of culture or privilege on those processes or behaviors.

In this session, Professor Tarr examines the process of teaching the technically complex process of filmmaking–itself an industry of problematic representations and ongoing lack of visibility and recognition for less-privileged groups.

Simon Tarr is an artist, information scientist, and educator. He creates films, live shows and immersive environments that he has performed at Carnegie Hall, LaMaMa and around the world from Tokyo to Cairo. Tarr is the coordinator of the Media Arts program at the University of South Carolina. He is a recipient of the University Film and Video Association Teaching Award for achievements in pedagogy that contribute to the field of film and video education.