Telematic LASER – presented by Third Space Network, – University of Brighton School of Art, & Leonardo/ISAST

ONLINE PUBLIC DIALOGUE

Saturday, Jan. 16th, 9am ET / 2pm UK / 3pm CET / 10pm Singapore

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Randall Packer (US) (moderator), Ghislaine Boddington (UK), Steve Dixon (SG) & Paul Sermon (Professor of Visual Communication at the University of Brighton, UK)

In the wake of Covid-19, we have witnessed a mass migration to the third space, that telematic region of shared networked space that lies between the local and the remote. We ask: what are the personal, social, and artistic implications of this migration in which our dependency on global communications to conduct the most essential human interactions has accelerated at an unprecedented rate? This acceleration into the third space has impacted, most notably, the performing arts, where alternative virtual platforms have challenged the ability to emotionally and intellectually engage with a live audience. As performance ensembles and theatre companies attempt to shift, en masse and yet apprehensively, to the virtual stage – a place of impermanence and flux – they often find themselves confined to miniature boxes and a fixed frontal gaze where movement, speaking, play, and all the other critical elements of performance are compromised. For the inaugural Telematic LASER, in the face of this dilemma, our panel will discuss concepts, techniques and approaches garnered from the new media arts, those intrepid experimentalists who have been at the vanguard of telecommunication arts for decades. We will address and explore critical questions that now lie before us as we find ourselves at the crossroads between the physical and the virtual, contemplating our next steps.

Telematic LASER is co-hosted quarterly by Randall Packer of the Third Space Network & Paul Sermon of the University of Brighton: program of the Leonard/International Society of the Arts, Sciences, and Technology. The series is comprised of online public dialogues and performances that feature discussion, presentation and experimentation among leading artists, researchers, scientists and performers in the area of telematics.

Leonardo / ISAST

The LASERs are a program of international gatherings that bring artists, scientists, humanists and technologists together for informal presentations, performances and conversations with the wider public. The mission of the LASERs is to encourage contribution to the cultural environment of a region by fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and opportunities for community building.