Pat Badani
Editor-in-Chief
Each year, the New Media Caucus – an affiliate of the College Art Association – organizes panel presentations, events and exhibitions during the CAA annual convention, and Media-N Journal dedicates its summer edition to showcasing NMC conference proceedings and concurrent offsite events.
I am pleased to publish the current CAA Conference Edition 2014 held in Chicago and would like to thank Tiffany Funk for her significant role as Managing Editor of this conference edition. Tiffany Funk assembled and edited the material facilitated by the New Media Caucus’ Events and Exhibitions Committee who organized the presentations by NMC artists and scholars in panel sessions, and related events and exhibitions at CAA.
This year, three panels discussed special topics in connection to New Media theory and practice. Jon C. Cates and Shane Mecklenburger co-chaired “Approaching Systems” to explore the diverse array of new media art practices and histories that have come to exemplify the way artists and curators approach systems, and in turn respond to the approach of systems. Further, using the term “Exaptation,” Zara Dinnen, Rob Gallagher, Alex Myers, and Daniel Rourke co-organized the panel “Exaptation and the Digital Now” in order to analyze the mechanics and evolution of digital media, and to suggest a kind of lateral pollination of traits occurring in media histories. The third panel – presented off-site at Columbia College Chicago and co-organized by Rachel Clarke and Tom Burtonwood –brought together an exciting team of ten practitioners for a “3D Printing Panel and Roundtable Discussion.” Presenters used their own work as case studies to discuss how 3D printing might reconfigure the way artists share objects, acquire tools, learn about artifacts, invent new products, and create new works of art and design.
Additionally, this year at CAA Chicago, several off-site events and exhibitions extended the New Media Caucus’s presence beyond the conference, and I am pleased to publish essays by presenters during the “Lightening Talks” at Bar Louie, Chicago: Carolyn L. Kane, Elia Vargas, Media Art Group, Daniel Temkin, Zabet Patterson, and Robert Spahr. I am also delighted to publish a comprehensive report written by Tiffany Funk on the NMC’s exciting “Fifth Annual New Media Caucus Showcase & Reception.” The showcase brought together 14 new media artists at various stages of their career – from graduate students to seasoned practitioners – for a stimulating evening at Columbia College Chicago, Conaway Center. They are //benitez_vogl, Sid Branca, Peter Chanthanakone, Coalfather Industries, Philip Galanter, Ben Grosser, Peter Kusek, Joyce Yu-Jean Lee, Kerry Loewen and Cheri Ibes, Paul McCormick, Mark S. C. Nelson, Niki Nolin, Nicholas Sagan, and Robert Woodley and Adelheid Mers.
Pat Badani, Editor-in-Chief
V.10 N.02 Web issue acknowledgements
– Publication coordinator and Editor-in-Chief: Pat Badani
– Managing Editor for the current edition: Tiffany Funk, PhD (ABD)
– Web layout design manager: Stacey Stormes
– Copy editors and proofreaders for the current edition: Tiffany Funk, PhD (ABD), and Georgina Ruff, PhD (ABD)