WATER VS. OBJECTS
New media and technology has had a significant impact on contemporary art practice, and arguably, an even greater impact in the field of music. In his public lecture at UBC, cultural critic Diedrich Diederichsen will discuss the contemporary situation of music and sound within the culture industry, and draw connections between Walter Benjamin’s seminal essay on artwork in the age of mechanical reproduction, and Paul Valéry’s “La conquete de la ubiquité”, in which he sketches a world culture psychologically structured by omnipresent music.
Diedrich Diederichsen is one of Germany’s most renowned cultural critics, whose work is seen regularly in art and culture publications, such as the magazines Texte zur Kunst, Theater heute, Jungle World, Art Forum, Die Zeit and in newspapers such as Tagesspiegel and Tageszeitung. He has also contributed to numerous critically acclaimed book publications including: ‘Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967’; ‘Summer of Love: Art of the Psychedelic Era’; ‘Golden Years: Dokumente und Materialien zur queeren Subkultur 1959-1974’ (Co-Editor). His own books include: ‘Argument Son – Critique electroacoustique de la societe’, ‘Personas en loop’, ‘Musikzimmer’, ‘Sexbeat’; ‘2000 Schallplatten’; ‘Der lange Weg nach Mitte – Der Sound und die Stadt’; ‘Loving the Alien’ (Editor); ‘Politische Korrekturen’;’Yo! Hermeneutics-Schwarze Kulturkritik: Pop, Medien, Feminismus’ (Editor), and ‘Freiheit macht arm’. He is currently professor of Theory, Practice and Communication of Contemporary Art at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts) in Vienna.
Presented by the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery in conjunction with Catriona Jeffries Gallery.
