Debate
Monthly meeting series LUCAS Modern & Contemporary cluster: 'Surface vs Interface: Interfaciality in Media Art and Photography'
- Date
- Tuesday 5 October 2021
- Time
- Location
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 307

On Tuesday, 5 October 2021 (16:30-18:00), the Modern and Contemporary research cluster of the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society will resume its monthly meeting series. The first meeting of the academic year 2021-2022 is:
Surface vs Interface: Interfaciality in Media Art and Photography
Programme
- Introduction of the meeting by convenor Helen Westgeest
- Presentation by Ksenia Fedorova, followed by Q&A
- Presentation by Helen Westgeest (together with Caroline von Courten)
- Q&A and discussion
Interfacial Condition and Reconfiguration of the Self in Media Art
by Ksenia Fedorova (Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History / LUCAS):
Using examples of contemporary technological art, Ksenia will address the concept of the interface as a condition of relationality: a dynamic framework of relations organized into a certain procedural structure. She will argue that the logical organization of computer-mediated communication opens up room for new experiences and conceptions of the self.
Tactics of Interfacing: Encoding Affect in Art and Technology (MIT Press, 2020)
‘Interface’ as Concept in Photography Theory
by Helen Westgeest (Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History / LUCAS)
[and Caroline von Courten (PhD-candidate LUCAS)]:
This paper revolves around the question which qualities of the photographic medium act as a kind of ‘interface’. We focus on how ‘disruption’ draws attention to ‘interfaciality’, and how the photographic surface in hybrid photoworks acts as interface between substances, their surrounding space and the spectator.
Preparation
We propose to read the ‘Introduction’ of Tactics of Interfacing: Encoding Affect in Art and Technology, available in Google Books, in which Ksenia discusses the concept of ‘interface’.
When: October 5, 2021, 16:30 – 18:00
Where: Lipsius 228 and Online (Microsoft Teams) – link to follow
Organized by: Helen Westgeest (theme: ‘Intermediality and Media Literacy’)
With support from: Sara Polak & Maria Boletsi (LUCAS Mod. & Contemp. cluster coordinators)
#IntermedialityMediaPractices #Politics&Aesthetics #DigitalMedia
Registration:
The event is open to members of the Modern and Contemporary research cluster at LUCAS, other scholars affiliated with LUCAS, as well as MA and ResMa students at LUCAS, and anyone else who you would like to invite. Please register for either the on-campus or the online event by sending an email to this address: mc-lucas@hum.leidenuniv.nl