May 19, 2015

Lyman Hall, Room 007

Steve Kurtz, Founder of the Critical Art Ensemble spoke on visual art, performance, “tactical” media and technology.

(CAE) is a collective of five tactical media practitioners of various specializations including computer graphics and web design, film/video, photography, text art, book art, and performance. Their long experience in the practice of tactical media uses many diverse fields of action such as the design of counter-information tools, performance technology, scientific installations and the modification of popular technology. Among their numerous publications, some translated into more than 18 languages around the world, is the  pioneering “Electronic Civil Disobedience” (1984).

Formed in 1987, CAE’s focus has been on the exploration of the intersections between art, critical theory, technology, and political activism. The group has exhibited and performed at diverse venues internationally, ranging from the street, to the museum, to the internet. Museum exhibitions include the Whitney Museum and the New Museum in NYC; the Corcoran Museum in Washington D.C.; the ICA, London; the MCA, Chicago; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; and the London Museum of Natural History.

The collective has written 7 books, and its writings have been translated into 18 languages. Its book projects include: The Electronic Disturbance (1994), Electronic Civil Disobedience & Other Unpopular Ideas (1996), Flesh Machine: Cyborgs, Designer Babies, & New Eugenic Consciousness (1998), Digital Resistance: Explorations in Tactical Media (2001), Molecular Invasion (2002), Marching Plague (2006), and Disturbances, 2012.