Keynote Presentation: The 21st Century Aura

Scheduled:

Abstract:

The broad principles of the "aura" around the work of art were first articulated around 75 years ago, in the wake from the waves of mechanical reproduction and distribution. These days, we're swimming in something else: ambient informatics around every object in every museum around the world. 

This electromagnetic aura doesn't reproduce the work, so much as it surrounds it, placing it in the read/write context of the rest of the world. This will be a landscape view on the systems by which this new aura is produced and understood, and what is at stake, what might be gained, what might be lost.

Session Description:

The broad principles of the "aura" around the work of art were first articulated around 75 years ago, in the wake from the waves of mechanical reproduction and distribution. These days, we're swimming in something else: ambient informatics around every object in every museum around the world.

This electromagnetic aura doesn't reproduce the work, so much as it surrounds it, placing it in the read/write context of the rest of the world. This will be a landscape view on the systems by which this new aura is produced and understood, and what is at stake, what might be gained, what might be lost.