PHANTASMAGORIC MEDIA ART

Manggha -- Centre of Japanese Art and Technology in Cracow and Katarzyna WOZNIAK (curator) are happy to invite you to a lecture of OLIVER GRAU entitled "PHANTASMAGORIC MEDIA ART: Virtual Art of the 19th century and its utopic future" :: Thursday, January 18th 2007 6 p.m. :: 26 Konopnicka Street, Krakow

What is really new in Media Art? Also our latest Media Art has its forerunners. The Phantasmagoria, developed from the Laterna Magica and part of the history of immersion, opened up the virtual depth of the image space for the first time as a sphere of dynamic changes. In the Phantasmagoria, phenomena come together that we are again experiencing in contemporary art and visual representation - the talk will discuss a number of contemporary media artists. In contrast to the Panorama, the Phantasmagoria suggests that contact can be established to the psyche, the dead or artificial life forms. It is a model for the functioning of illusionism, a material image machine as basis of an art work that appears immaterial.

Oliver GRAU is an international known mediaart expert, he lectured in numerous parts of the world, received various awards and is widely published. Grau art historian and profesor for Image Science at Danube University Krems. He is head of the German Science Foundation project Immersive Art. Since 2000 he is developing with his team the first international Database of Virtual Art. His research focuses on the history of immersion and emotions the history, idea and culture of telepresence, genetic art, and artificial intelligence. Grau is an elected member of the Young Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences. Recently he was director of Refresh! First International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology, Banff 2005. Recent publication: Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion, MIT-Press2003. (4th print) and Mediale Emotionen, Frankfurt 2005; forthcoming: Oliver Grau (Ed.): MediaArtHistories, MIT Press 2007.