New Media+Visual Culture Studio
New Media+Visual Culture Studio
Under the auspices of the Canadian Institute for Research in Computing and the Arts, and in conjunction with my colleague Maria Whiteman, on July 1, 2021 we launched the New Media+Visual Culture Studio (NM+VCS) at the University of Alberta.
NM+VCS supports research on the impact of new media technologies on the production, dissemination, and reception of contemporary forms of visual arts and culture. It understands new media to have an impact in and on the visual arts and visual culture in two distinct ways: first, through the role of new media in the production and display of visual art today; and second, in the social, political and cultural effects of new media technologies on the status of visual arts and the category of the visual more generally in contemporary social life.
NM+VCS brings together research by visual artists and cultural critics on the significance of new media for our experience and understanding of visual culture in order to generate new possibilities for research/creation in and on the visual in the twenty-first century. The Studio provides tools for researchers in art theory and history, cultural studies, and film and video studies to carry out analyses of the contemporary visual arts and visual culture in relation to new media. It also enables research by artists and cultural practitioners in the use of new media technologies in the creation/production of new visual forms, especially in relation to existing forms of art practice (e.g., drawing, printmaking, installation, etc.). By placing the work of practicing artists and critics in direct and on-going dialogue, NM+VCS will generate new forms of art production and practice and equally novel ways of engaging in and disseminating research on visual culture.
In addition to being a space for on-going research/creation on visual culture, the Studio will provide infrastructural support for individual scholars and teams as they prepare grant applications.
2012 CRC Fellow in Film and New Media: Dr. Justin Sully