"CHANNELS: Media, Culture and Representation"
2015 Articulture Biennial Arts Festival
March 25 - April 24, 2015
Delaware County Community College (Media, PA)
Participating Artists: Atif Akin, Everyday Africa, Ben Thorp Brown, Foundland Collective, Timothy Furstnau, Dinh Q. Lê, Grace Ndiritu, Joan Oh, Thaís Mennsitieri, Mariangeles Soto-Díaz
CHANNELS: Media, Culture and Representation explores the ways in which images of, and information about, diverse communities, events, or conflicts are circulated and contextualized via contemporary media networks. The exhibition features work by emerging and established artists who consider these relationships in visual culture, from photojournalism and propaganda to online posts on Instagram and Tumblr.
Digital and news media play a major role in determining and refracting our views on global culture. The mainstream media, however, often fails to provide holistic coverage of current events, leading many to form judgments of other cultures and communities based on these accounts. Yet, in the digital age, as media scholar Leah Lievrouw has explained, “media audiences and consumers are now also media users and participants”. This is evidenced by the importance of social media in sustaining the Arab Spring, or the recent #IfTheyGunnedMeDown movement which challenged the perpetuation of negative racial stereotypes by mainstream media.
Throughout CHANNELS, artists reflect on both sides of this equation. Some works pose questions related to mainstream media, by interrogating censorship and network biases, or by problematizing the Western humanitarian or touristic gaze to the Third World. Others engage with globalized social media, addressing its democratization, its role in coordinating social movements and revolutions, and its occasional abuse by anonymous users. As such, CHANNELS hopes to encourage viewers to become critical consumers of visual media and to engage with new technologies to generate positive intercultural knowledge and exchange.
More info on Delaware County Community College and the Articulture Festival
2015 Articulture Biennial Arts Festival
March 25 - April 24, 2015
Delaware County Community College (Media, PA)
Participating Artists: Atif Akin, Everyday Africa, Ben Thorp Brown, Foundland Collective, Timothy Furstnau, Dinh Q. Lê, Grace Ndiritu, Joan Oh, Thaís Mennsitieri, Mariangeles Soto-Díaz
CHANNELS: Media, Culture and Representation explores the ways in which images of, and information about, diverse communities, events, or conflicts are circulated and contextualized via contemporary media networks. The exhibition features work by emerging and established artists who consider these relationships in visual culture, from photojournalism and propaganda to online posts on Instagram and Tumblr.
Digital and news media play a major role in determining and refracting our views on global culture. The mainstream media, however, often fails to provide holistic coverage of current events, leading many to form judgments of other cultures and communities based on these accounts. Yet, in the digital age, as media scholar Leah Lievrouw has explained, “media audiences and consumers are now also media users and participants”. This is evidenced by the importance of social media in sustaining the Arab Spring, or the recent #IfTheyGunnedMeDown movement which challenged the perpetuation of negative racial stereotypes by mainstream media.
Throughout CHANNELS, artists reflect on both sides of this equation. Some works pose questions related to mainstream media, by interrogating censorship and network biases, or by problematizing the Western humanitarian or touristic gaze to the Third World. Others engage with globalized social media, addressing its democratization, its role in coordinating social movements and revolutions, and its occasional abuse by anonymous users. As such, CHANNELS hopes to encourage viewers to become critical consumers of visual media and to engage with new technologies to generate positive intercultural knowledge and exchange.
More info on Delaware County Community College and the Articulture Festival
Image 1: Foundland Collective, "Simba, the Last Price of the Ba'ath Country" (2014)
Image 2: Dinh Q. Lê, Ezekiel's Whisper, 2014