Proposal Title
Somatic Ghosting
Streaming Media
Submission Type
Conference Talk - Individual
Abstract
The talk is improvised, recorded in Snagit, assembled in Adobe
Premiere. It includes materials from a number of videos and
stills. It's a summary of the work I've been doing for the
past decade and a half, the unproduction of the body or bodies
in a variety of technological and haptic circumstances. There's
some theory and some history and referencing in the video and
of course as is my wont; I apologize ahead of time for any
errors. The piece was recorded in 13 sections, one after the
other, which were then assembled in the order of recording.
This is a theme which pervades all of my work, the problematic
of the body in relation to the digital and technologies in
general, including analog. It's an attempt to collapse the
production of the digital body back into the analog, and to
emphasize the body in relation to biomes and microbiomes;
disease and death; refugee, racist and contested environments;
ecstasy, sexuality, and abjections; bacterial, viral, and
other forms of disease; and depression, anxiety, defocusing,
meditation, and turmoil as well.
Somatic Ghosting
The talk is improvised, recorded in Snagit, assembled in Adobe
Premiere. It includes materials from a number of videos and
stills. It's a summary of the work I've been doing for the
past decade and a half, the unproduction of the body or bodies
in a variety of technological and haptic circumstances. There's
some theory and some history and referencing in the video and
of course as is my wont; I apologize ahead of time for any
errors. The piece was recorded in 13 sections, one after the
other, which were then assembled in the order of recording.
This is a theme which pervades all of my work, the problematic
of the body in relation to the digital and technologies in
general, including analog. It's an attempt to collapse the
production of the digital body back into the analog, and to
emphasize the body in relation to biomes and microbiomes;
disease and death; refugee, racist and contested environments;
ecstasy, sexuality, and abjections; bacterial, viral, and
other forms of disease; and depression, anxiety, defocusing,
meditation, and turmoil as well.
Bio
Alan Sondheim's books include the anthology Being on Line: Net Subjectivity (1997), Disorders of the Real (1988), .echo (2001), Vel (Blazevox, 2004-5), Sophia (Writers Forum, 2004), The Wayward (2004),[4] and "Writing Under" (2012),[5] as well as numerous other chapbooks, ebooks, and articles. Sondheim has long been associated with the Trace online writing community, and was their second virtual-writer-in-residence. His video and filmwork have been internationally shown. Sondheim was an Eyebeam resident. He co-moderates several email lists, including Cybermind and Wryting. Since 1994, he has been working on the "Internet Text," a continuous meditation on philosophy, psychology, language, body, and virtuality. His artwork can also be found within Second Life. In 1996 he was keynote speaker for the Cybermind96 Conference in Perth Western Australia - one of the world's first conferences specifically organised around an email discussion list. In 2012 he was a presenter and active participant at the CyPosium, a one-day online symposium on cyberformance. Sondheim is the developer of the concept of codework wherein computer code itself becomes a medium for artistic expression. His poetico-philosophical writings deal with the notion of embodiment and presence in cyberspace, loosely based on the work of postmodern philosophers Jacques Lacan and Jacques Derrida. He explores the machinic using the language of computer code to articulate novel forms of identity in cyberspace. His work crosses over between philosophical explorations and electronic literature; he explores the language of music using the tonalities of a wide range of ethnic instruments. His poetry has spanned several decades ranging from avant guard beat poetry and stream-of-consciousness of the late 60's and 70's and soundscape poetry, maturing into a complex melding of multiple representational forms. Recently, he had residencies at New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. In November he spoke at Brunel University (London), London ICA, and NeMe in Limassol, Cyprus, where he also participated in the Children of Prometheus exhibition. His music and theoretical sound works are available on Public Eyesore and ESP cds. His work can be found at http://www.alansondheim.org and YouTube.