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“gateways. Art and Networked Culture” brings the newest trends in media art to Kumu

Aram Bartholl. Map.

On May 13, Kumu Art Museum opens a large-scale international media art exhibition, “gateways. Art and Networked Culture”, which is organized by Kumu in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut and is part of the European Capital of Culture Tallinn 2011 programme.

One of the main characteristic features of today’s society is the constant state of being connected and online and the continuous streams of information. The world is no longer mostly physical – a digital level is increasingly being added to it.

boredomresearch. The Real Snail Mail.

In everyday life, the physical and digital world are so intertwined that they are seldom thought of as two different levels. However, the ever-increasing digitalization that goes on around us should not be taken as self-evident or in an uncritical fashion. In a world speeding about ever more frantically, we should slow down for a bit and take a look around ourselves.

gateways tries to provide different ways, as conceived by artists, to conceptualize our networked world and approach it from a slightly different angle.

Some works bring virtual symbols over to the physical world, such as Aram Bartholl’s gigantic Google Maps marker in Tallinn urban space. Some humorously combine the old and the new, for example boredomresearch’s “Real Snail Mail” with actual snails.

Christina Kubisch. Electrical Walk Tallinn.

Timo Toots’ Memopol II – a machine that measures a person’s information field – provides a visual warning of how much information is actually available on us in the Internet; Christina Kubisch’s earphones that make electromagnetic waves audible provide the opportunity to sense the world that the human ear cannot hear but that exists around us every day; You Must Relax’s gigantic mobile phone Astrid makes a private phone call audible to all those around.

Quite a few works are displayed in the urban space instead of a traditional exhibition hall, and most art projects actively involve the audience in order to provide a new experience.

Timo Toots. Memopol II.

Ragne Nukk
gateways co-curator

The main curator of the exhibition is Sabine Himmelsbach from Germany

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