Discussion with Inke Arns (de), Wolfgang Ernst (de), Jussi Parikka (fi/uk) and Siegfried Zielinski (de)

Conceived and moderated by Timothy Druckrey (us)

With such an array of histories whirling through the media sphere over the past decades, it seems important to tackle some questions about how these methodologies have and are inflecting an equally wide range of artistic practices that incorporate, re-evaluate, rethink, spoof, or re-invent technologies under rubrics ranging from “archaeology” to “variantology”. This “Open Conversation” brings together a range of participants whose work traverses historiographic and contemporary curatorial practices that resonate with assessments and contributions to this debate. In a sphere with such varied approaches to artistic production – geneaologies, archaeologies, and other approaches to revive, extend, reconsider, etc., previous techniques or media – this “conversation” will attempt to bridge differences, clarify methodologies, and, most importantly, ask what is the relevance of all this historiography in the working spheres where art is being made.