Art, Technology, & Politics: Art and Expression in a Techno-Capitalist Age

Hi everyone, Politics, Philosophy, and Big Ideas is very happy to have digital artist, computer scientist, and scholar Tomás Laurenzo as our guest host for the month of August!

The intersection and mutual influence between art, politics, and economics/capitalism, has been part of human civilisation for millennia. From ancient artworks designed to showcase the power and influence of mighty Rome, to modern Hollywood blockbusters designed to sell you patriotism and Diet Coke, art is often inseparable to political and capitalistic ends.

With the advent of digital media and technology, new art forms have evolved offering new possibilities of expression. But the forces that influence art and our perception remains. So what is their modern day relationship? Tomás will take us through his thoughts using his art as examples.

In this talk he will present some of his artworks, using them to discuss the relationship between art and politics. The focus will be on new media art (art created with technology), framing, drawing parallels between new media art and cognitive capitalism (centered around the accumulation of immaterial assets, eg: information products which are protected by Intellectual Property Rights).

Here's a little more on Tomás (more about him can be found here - https://laurenzo.net)

“Tomás Laurenzo works with both physical and digital media to explore the artistic construction of meaning and its relationship with representation, power, and politics.

With a background in both computer science and art, his work spans across different practices and interests, including Human-Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality.

His artistic production is also diverse and includes installations, interactive art, music, live cinema, and digital lutherie. His artworks and performances have been shown in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.

Since 2014, he is Assistant Professor at the School of Creative Media of the City University of Hong Kong.

Laurenzo has also performed artistic and academic activities in several institutions including Microsoft Research, Carnegie Mellon University, Brunel University, and INRIA, among others.

He has several publications, mainly in the areas of New Media Art, and HCI.

He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science (advised by Dr. Alvaro Cassinelli, University of Tokyo). His Ph.D. thesis is available online.”

Hope to see you all there!