A Discussion on New Media Arts and the Digital Humanities

Where: 

The Digital Humanities Lab, Herter Hall 19G

Over the past three decades, digital technology has become an important tool for artistic creativity in the different art forms: literature, visual arts, cinema, and music, and it has enabled the creation of new hybrid (and often conceptual) art forms. These three presentations the field of New Media Arts and examine a few of the ways that digital technology is changing how people both create and relate to the arts. 

New Media Arts and the Digital Humanities
Laszlo Dienes, Professor of Comparative Literature, UMass
This presentation will briefly survey the field of New Media Arts, show examples, and argue that we may be witnessing a true revolution in the arts. 

The Eyes of Real Labor and the Illusions of Virtual Reality
Matt Goodwin, PhD student in the Department of Comparative Literature, UMass
This presentation will discuss Latin American writers and artists who have dealt with virtual reality technology, and argue that these writers and artists have shown that virtual reality, rather than creating a utopia or an adventure space, reproduces colonialism?s dystopian construction of race and exploitation of labor. 

The Cyborg Self: Identity in the Digital Age
Una Tanovic, PhD student in the Department of Comparative Literature, UMass
This presentation will discuss how national, gender and racial identities are changing in our digital world. Tanovic's will argue that the shift from analog to digital technology has brought with it an all-pervasive "identity crisis," but also equipped us with tools (such as new media art and e-literature) to counter that crisis. In particular, she will consider emerging forms of identity - especially cyborg identity - made possible by digital culture.

If you would like to attend this event, please RSVP to digitalhumanities@hfa.umass.edu by the end of the day on Friday, December 2.