Art Economies beyond Pattern Recognition
Public Programme Two:
Contemporary art media platforms – Archive initiatives
Friday, 3 July 2009, 4:00pm

The second of a series of public programmes, this series of talks aim to introduce recent initiatives in media platforms for archiving of contemporary art and their different approaches. The dialogues attempt to provide an opportunity for the exchange of ideas in how media platforms can be used in the archival of contemporary art and their different support systems.

The publishing and archival of contemporary art writings has, in recent years, migrated from printed media to online media. The latter increased the capacity for managing an increasing flow of information and at the same time, opened up possibilities for different methods for publication and archival. In the last five years, traditional printed media in China underwent huge transformation, from having almost no specialised publications during the dawn of contemporary Chinese art, to now being an indispensable part of the contemporary art world. At the same time, online platforms became the most effective tool for the dissemination and management of information. Despite gaining increased attention, online media platforms, in terms of circulation of information and retaining a stable readership, is still unable to replace traditional printed media. However, faced with the threat of being rendered obsolete, there is a need for printed media to re-evaluate its role and re-position themselves.

The archival of contemporary art writings has become an important issue in contemporary art media. Significant academic writings and research has so far largely remained poorly preserved, managed and organised and this will have adverse effect on future developments in art research.

For this series of talks, speakers are invited to introduce their own approach in building an archive and its development, as well as present the mechanism, future archival projects and long term objectives. Speakers include Gong Yan of Art World magazine, He Bin of ionly.com.cn, Wang Baoju, Executive Editor of Art Today, Zheng Weimin of artlinkart.com, and Zhuo Qin of Art and Investment. Biljana Ciric will also be providing an overview of Art-ba-ba.

'Contemporary art media platforms - Archive initiatives' is organised by Osage Shanghai, in conjunction with the exhibition Art Economies beyond Pattern Recognition. Conceptualised by Biljana Ciric, this series of public programmes will centre on discussions of current economics in the field of culture and visual arts and brings together writers, performers, artists, as well as different individuals from the creative field in the discussion of these issues. Through a combination of public forums, lectures, screenings, talks, and interactive performances, issues and concepts of alternative economies will be extensively discussed.