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In his book/tv show “Ways of Seeing”, British art historian John Berger famously postulated that the way we see things is influenced by the context and the conditions of the act of viewing.
This insight has new significance in the age of the internet, where (moving) images only exist as reproduction and in circulation. The various channels in which images are distributed affect the way we perceive them. Nobody expects to swipe his way to great art on TikTok, just as nobody expects to see the latest and hottest dance moves of teens around the globe in a museum of contemporary art.
But – what if?
This online exhibition brings together canonical works of video art with clips from Social Media and web material that have more in common that they should have. Not just contemporary fads as the selfie stick have been anticipated by avant-garde artists decades ago. On the net, works by internationally celebrated artists can share an aesthetic sensibility with a random video clip by some guy.
The goal of the show is neither to ridicule contemporary media art nor to elevate Internet oddities to the status of high culture. Rather, the juxtaposition of these pieces aims to confuse and challenge the expectations that are associated with different socio-cultural realms that in the end are only different distribution channels. What this show proposes are “ways of seeing” that value good ideas and creativity over accepted status and inherited privilege.
Tilman Baumgärtel
Tilman Baumgärtel is a German author, media theorist and journalist. He has published books on media culture, Internet art, computer games, and Independent cinema in Southeast Asia. From 2005 to 2009 he taught at the University of the Philippines in Manila media and film studies. From 2009 to 2012, he taught at the Royal University of Phnom Penh in Cambodia at the Department of Media and Communication. Currently he is professor for media theory at the Hochschule Mainz.
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