Algorithms, Infrastructures, Art, Curation (AIAC)

AIAC is a research project hosted by the MA Aesthetics and Politics program in the School of Critical Studies at the California Institute of the Arts. The project explores aesthetic and political issues related to algorithms and infrastructures in art and curation, ranging from finance to climate change, from human exclusion zones to bitcoin and blockchain, from search algorithms to theories of natural selection, and more. Organized by MA program director Arne De Boever and MA program alum Dany Naierman, the project includes a public day-long series of presentations by and conversations with local, US, and international scholars, artists, activists, and curators on Saturday, January 26th 2019. N. Katherine Hayles will give the day’s closing presentation. Speakers include: Michael Bryant, Andrew Culp, Ken Ehrlich, Laura Finch, Brian Holmes, Aude Launay, Jonas Lund, Nicolas Maigret, Sara Mameni, Maria Roszkowska, Wesley Simon, and Stephen Wright.

Program

10am:
Arne De Boever and Dany Naierman, Introductions

10:30–11:30am:
Brian Holmes, After Chimerica: Cultural Critique for the City of Ashes
Respondent: Stephen Wright

11:30am–12:30am:
Laura Finch, Economics at the Nanoscale: Race and Embodied Finance in Contemporary South African Literature
Ken Ehrlich, Networks, Infrastructures, Logistics: Totalizing and incomplete word and picture systems

2–3pm:
Michael Bryant, Search Algorithms and Evolutionary Biology
Andrew Culp, The Database and the Archive: Bodies and Power

3:15–4:15pm:
Nicolas Maigret and Maria Roszkowska, Disobedient Innovation
Moderator: Sara Mameni

4:30–5:30pm:
Aude Launay, Jonas Lund, and Wesley Simon, “Algocurating”

6pm:
Andrew Culp, Introduction
N. Katherine Hayles, Media and/as the Environment

Conference sponsors: 
The MA Aesthetics and Politics program, CalArts / City of West Hollywood / The Port of Los Angeles

With special thanks to: 
Claudia Grigg Edo, Visiting Artist Coordinator, School of Critical Studies, CalArts
Barton Aikman, Visiting Artist Coordinator Assistant, School of Critical Studies, CalArts

Free and open to the public.
Parking validated for the adjacent West Hollywood park structure.

About the MA Aesthetics and Politics Program
The MA Aesthetics and Politics Program offers a unique degree experience that encourages interrogations of the arts and politics in an expanded field. Students specialize in Critical Theory, Global Studies, or Media and Urban Studies.

For more information on the MA Aesthetics and Politics Program, including how to apply for fall 2019 admission to its new 2-year model, go to aestheticsandpolitics.calarts.edu, or contact Seth Blake at sblake [​at​] calarts.edu.