CHRISTIANE PAUL

Christiane Paul is the Director of the Media Studies Graduate Programs at The New School, NY, and Adjunct Curator of New Media Arts at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Her recent books are Digital Art (2003/2008), New Media in the White Cube and Beyond (2008) and Context Providers – Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts (2011), co-edited with Margot Lovejoy and Victoria Vesna. Upcoming and recent curatorial work includes “Cory Arcangel: Pro Tools” (Whitney Museum, May 2011); “Eduardo Kac: Biotopes, Lagoglyphs and Transgenic Works” (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2010) and Biennale Quadrilaterale (Rijeka, Croatia, 2010).

Lynn Hershman Leeson, Alexandra Chowaniec, and Spain Rodríguez. ! W.A.R. ! Women Art Revolution.  A Hotwire Production, 2010. http://www.womenartrevolution.com/store.php

! W.A.R.! is a graphic novel and curriculum guide accompanying Lynn Hershman Leeson’s documentary film of the same name, which tells the fragmented history of the feminist art movement over several decades through interviews, archival footage, and the art itself. Underground cartoonist Spain Rodríguez’ distinctively brilliant style proves to be the perfect vehicle for sketching moments of the history of feminist art as it intersects with the women’s rights, black power, and anti-war movements of the ’60s. The 20-page cartoon depicts moments in the history of feminist art—among them the founding of the first feminist art program by Miriam Shapiro and Judy Chicago at Cal Arts, as well as the birth of the Guerrilla Girls—highlighting the almost comical absurdities that women in the arts faced over time. Featuring the graphic novel and almost 60 pages of a curriculum guide with timelines and readings, the booklet is an engaging story of art.

Owning Online Art. Selling and Collecting Netbased Artwork. Edited by Markus Schwander. Reinhard Storz, Isabel Zürcher. Basel: FHNW, 2010. http://www.ooart.ch/publikation/02.php?&lang=e

This Swiss anthology—available as web publication, PDF, eBook and Print-On-Demand book—explores the complex relationships between Internet art and the traditional art market. Contributions by art historians, artists, and media practitioners discuss issues such as the tensions between the economy of the art market and the economy of free immaterial products, strategies for selling and collecting net art, and the implications of commercializing online art. Also included are sections on the conservation of net-based art; developments of collection models in the U.S. and Europe; as well as a few case studies addressing the art of the screensaver, digital displays at art fairs and art exhibitions, and interfaces for online art exhibitions. The publication is a well-researched survey of the field and a “must read” for everyone interested in the collection of net-based and new media art—from collectors, curators, gallerists, and artists to art historians.

Or Ettlinger. The Architecture of Virtual Space. University of Ljubljana. Faculty of Architecture, 2008.

Featuring more than 250 illustrations, this beautiful book makes a rare contribution to art history by examining the underlying structure and proposing a consistent theory of virtual space. The book connects art, illusion, and architecture, surveys devices of illusion from the ancient world through the 20th century, and develops a “contextography” of virtual space. Ettlinger treats the concept of “virtual space” as independent from digital technologies and reinterprets visual media in a way that makes computer technologies a natural evolution of previous image spaces. His research is built on the realization that the study of the history and theory of art and architecture and the study of computers and theories of the virtual mutually inform each other. The book’s exploration of visual space across media—from medieval painting to Metropolis, Blade Runner, and the Matrix—creates a compelling narrative of the virtual.