RICHARDSON, Texas (Feb. 18, 2005) —Subrealities, which will run from March 18 to April 16 in the Visual Arts Main Gallery at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), is the first event in North Texas ever to bring together leading Internet artists with a student exhibition, Distributed.Nerves, which will be shown concurrently. Subrealities showcases digital art that transcends the boundaries of traditional gallery space and challenges conventional notions of the Internet as a medium. The shows are co-curated by digital media artists and UTD faculty members Dean Terry and Marilyn Waligore.
An opening reception will be held Friday, March 18, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Visual Arts Building. A discussion of art will take place during the reception, at 7:30 p.m.
In addition, two figures central to the field of new media will lecture at UTD in conjunction with the exhibition. The first will be Lev Manovich, one of today’s most influential thinkers in the fields of media arts and digital culture, who will speak at 7 p.m. on April 6 in the Jonsson Performance Hall. Reviewers have described Manovich’s his book, The Language of New Media, as “the most suggestive and broad-ranging media history since Marshall McLuhan” and as “the first rigorous and far-reaching theorization of new media.”
The second lecture, which will be held at 7 p.m. on April 13, also in the Jonsson Performance Hall, will feature Natalie Bookchin, a leading Internet artist, Rockefeller Foundation Fellow and creator of online games such as Metapet and agoraXchange. Reviewers place Bookchin’s work in the larger context of social engagement. As one put it: “For Bookchin, art is literally action — making things happen, one way or the other.”
Both lectures are free, open to the public and will be followed by a reception in the Visual Arts Building.
Subrealities will be presented on the Web at subrealities.utdinteractive.net and will be accessible to everyone with Internet access. Two computers will be set up in the gallery for visitors to access the exhibition. The exhibition explores virtual spaces that present alternatives to existing museum/gallery structures as well as a counterpoint to the dominant commercial voices of corporate media. It brings together artists David Crawford, Sharon Daniel, John Freyer, Peter Horvath and Annette Weintraub to examine new methods of generating and distributing narrative through the use of digital media.
According to Terry and Waligore, these individuals embrace the potential of net art and explore innovative approaches to narrative through the combination of video, photography, animation and text in interactive online environments; and the event itself, they say, represents the future of interactive art: current, contingent and accessible. This show can be seen by the world via computer and will remain online for several years.
Distributed.Nerves presents the next generation of digital art from students in the popular Art and Technology Program at UTD. While relying on computer processes or the digital alteration of imagery, these young artists also engage in a dialogue with familiar forms such as photography, video, painting and installation. The students participating in the exhibition are Kelly Brown, Will Dooley, Monica Evans, Megan Foreman, Beverly Grose, Don Huff, Sarah Ishii, Cynthia Parry, Jeff Senita and Amber Wigant.
For information about the many musical, arts, theatre, dance and other performances and exhibitions held throughout the year at UTD, please call 972-UTD-ARTS (972-883-2787), e-mail utdarts@utdallas.edu, or visit the School of Arts and Humanities’ Web site at http://ah.utdallas.edu/. Persons with disabilities needing special accommodations may call 972-883-2982, Texas Relay Operator: 1-800-RELAYVV.
About the Art & Technology Program at UTD
UTD’s Institute for Interactive Arts and Engineering was established to provide students with an opportunity to learn about interactive advancements in the fields of communication, entertainment, digital arts, education and training, as well as in scientific and medical applications. As part of their studies, students, along with faculty, are charged with inventing new pathways for the converging disciplines and fields.
The institute is a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort by two of UTD’s seven schools — the School of Arts and Humanities and the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.
About UTD
The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor, enrolls more than 14,000 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s web site at www.utdallas.edu.