In the course of 2014, four events will take place, each of which is dedicated to a specific topic. International artists, scholars, designers, curators and intellectuals are invited to give short presentations before engaging in a panel discussion moderated by Marcel Feil, Foam’s Deputy Director Artistic Affairs, and Melanie Bühler, curator of Lunch Bytes.
Programme 15 June
Whenever we access information online, we tap into databases. However, due to their lack of visibility, databases have not yet become major issues of public discourse. Cloud is a term that has entered common parlance when we refer to online data repositories, but do we really understand this abstract entity that somehow contains our data? One thing is clear: databases form the fundamental architecture of our online activities. Whenever a status update appears on Facebook, when a book is recommended on Amazon, or when Google delivers search results, new connections between databases are forged. As the internet continues to expand, these databases grow into immense mutable assemblages that stretch traditional notions of the archive. At the same time, the increasing importance of databases enhances the archival impulse within contemporary art practice: More and more artists retrieve and reinterpret archived items, thereby addressing strategies of classification and historical representation.
This Lunch Bytes event explores the nature of the database: How is digital information ‘archived’, processed and ordered? How do artists structure and re-appropriate sets of data to create new works?
The European edition of Lunch Bytes is a joint initiative of various Goethe-Institutes and local partners in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Dublin, Glasgow, Helsinki, London and Stockholm. The series in Amsterdam is a collaboration between the Goethe-Institut Amsterdam and Foam.
Artists and expert panellists:
- Robin Boast, Professor of Cultural Information Science, University of Amsterdam.
- Harm van den Dorpel, artist, Amsterdam/Berlin.
- Jörg Sasse, artist, Brandenburg.
- Hans-Jürgen Hafner, director Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Werstfalen, curator “Les Immatériaux”.
- Melanie Bühler, Curator Lunch Bytes.
- Marcel Feil, DEP Director Artistic Affairs Foam.
Make a reservation online
Additional Lunch Bytes events will take place on 21 September, 30 November on the following topics: Structures and Textures: Database/Archive, Society: Image Excess en Life: Representation, Visibility Online and the Self and speakers such as Jörg Heiser (writer, art critic, Berlin), Geert Lovink (media theorist and founder of the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam), Willem Popelier (artist, Utrecht), Katja Novitskova (artist, Amsterdam), Jörg Sasse (artist, Brandenburg) and Hito Steyerl (artist, writer, Berlin).
