Preliminary Research

Along the way to defining my current research interest, I spent my first year in the School of International Service investigating America’s standing in the world and how a greater reliance on artistic and cultural endeavors might improve it. The passage below elucidates my thinking before I began to shift my focus away from the notion of government agency and towards the idea of the cultural producer as a more realistic mediator for social transformation.

Cultural diplomacy, “the exchange of ideas, information, art, and other aspects of culture among nations and their peoples to foster mutual understanding” (Milton Cummings), represents a subset in the larger field of public diplomacy, “the task of communicating with overseas publics” (Mark Leonard). Despite its practical and theoretical value, the American government has yet to institutionalize a substantial arts and cultural program into its foreign policy. As a result, Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and interventionist government actions dominate America’s dialogue with the world, which merely perpetuates the negative stereotype of American society that is revealed in global public opinion polls.

As an American citizen, this deeply troubles me, not only because I personally feel misrepresented, but also because it fails to capture the true essence of what makes the United States so appealing to the international community. Fundamental American values, like equality and individual freedom, spurred the desire, innovation, and openness that led to its prosperity throughout the 20th and into the 21st century. These ideals must be consciously communicated to a global audience as a way to offset the divisive nature of images such as President Bush, Wal Mart, and Brittney Spears. The point of cultural diplomacy is not to replace or criticize these inherent characteristics of contemporary American society, but rather place them in a larger context that illustrates that there is more to the U.S. and its pubic.

The U.S. government must acknowledge the innate and powerful value of art and culture as a means, sought and enjoyed by humans since the beginning of time, by which we acquire a deeper understanding of others.

EDDO STERN

Eddo Stern (pronounced "ay-do") is an Israeli-born, socially-conscious multimedia artist, who also happens to be a video game addict. He now lives in Los Angeles and his art explores contemporary video gaming subculture as a way to challenge society’s current state of consciousness concerning media, technology, and leisure activity in our post-9/11 climate. Eddo was featured at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival as one of their New Frontier Artists.

Some of his works include...

DARKGAME (2007)
Darkgame (prototype) is a videogame installation in which two participants, playing against each other, maneuver avatars around a two-dimensional plane, their movements projected against the gallery wall. What's unusual about this scenario is that the experience for both parties involves elements of sensory deprivation. One person is completely "blind," unable to view the main interface and responding only to nonvisual cues: the vibrations of a headset Stern designed to correspond with the location of the opposing player, and related audio signals. And while the other character is able to see the action play out in real time, the field of play becomes obscured when he or she is hit and small patches of gray begin to expand.
(see Rhizome's interview with Stern)

BEST FLAME WAR EVER (2007)
Best… Flame War… Ever… (King of Bards vs. Squire Rex, June 2004) is based on a conflict between two testosterone-fuelled gamers regarding the other’s degree of expertise in the game EverQuest.
(see Chris Bors's review in Art Review)

DEATHSTAR (2004) (Digital Video, TRT 10:00 min)
Deathstar is a video in which violence-against a single body, Osama Bin Laden's- is so close to seem abstract. The work edits a series of sequences shot in different games devoted to the assassination of the public enemy number one, together with Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ soundtrack, as if trying to compare two different versions-and yet individually similar- of the media representation of death.
(see Domenico Quaranta’s text from DIGIMAG)

VIETNAM ROMANCE (2003) (Digital Video, TRT 00:22:45)
Stern continued to tackle the erosion of memory and history in his incredible smooth video ride: Vietnam Romance. A genre in itself, Nam games now abound in stores giving us different experiences of the rock disillusion of the Vietnam War. Stern cleverly juxtaposes game imagery with MIDI extracts of '60s rock tracks and recreates classic scenes from Hollywood movies to make his point.

A chopper slides over the landscape, for example, as we hear the opening track sequence of the TV series MASH, or get a glimpse of Charlie Sheen as he dies over and over again in the classic sacrificial scene from Platoon. There are more references and visual puns that ultimately seduce you into a state of abandonment or rather... forgetfulness, because the video, with killings and all, is actually a pretty cool, smooth ride, just like Apocalypse Now was; or the rock - hallucinatory - opera of the era.
(see Juan Devis' text from KCET)

TEKKEN TORTURE TOURNAMENT (2001) (game performance/custom hardware)
Tekken Torture Tournament is a one-night event combining the latest video game technology, untapped public aggression and painful electric shock. Willing participants are wired into a custom fighting system - a modified Playstation (running Tekken 3) which converts virtual on screen damage into bracing, non-lethal, electric shocks.
(for Tekken Torture Tournament video)


After viewing/considering the above works...

• Do you think Eddo Stern sees the state of consciousness in contemporary society as an active or passive one?
• What, if any, are the limitations of relying on subculture that is for the most part unknown, misunderstood, and/or ignored by the general public as an arena for social commentary?
  

Research & Approach

Using the recent Botero: Abu Ghraib exhibition at the American University Museum Katzen Arts Center as my case study, I am exploring the extent to which the artist mediates a historical narrative in contemporary society; Does and if so, how does viewing this collection affect one’s understanding of the Abu Ghraib incident, U.S. foreign policy, torture, or human rights issues?

Resisting the temptation to hold the artist, as the author, in a privileged position, I move away from the romantic notions of the artist as the sole creative genius and embrace the idea that cultural production is a public process where meaning and value is co-produced based on a set of social relationships.

His [Bourdieu’s] concept of the “field of cultural production” emphasizes the intersection of aesthetics, history, practice, and power, underscoring both the material production of these forms by the artists and the symbolic production of the meaning and value of the work by critics, publishers, gallery directors, and the whole set of agents whose combined efforts produce consumers capable of knowing and recognizing the work of art as such. (Mahon, p. 478)

With this in mind, I have identified several roles (the artist, the critic, the curator, and the public) that when examined within specific historical and sociological locations (local and global context, the relations to power, and the institutional and discursive framework within which cultural producers operate) will enable me to provide a richer account of the effect of this work of art.

Cultural production should be viewed as both cultural product and social process that contribute to the shape and character of social relations. (Mahon, p. 469)

My objective is to contribute to the ongoing conversation regarding artistic and cultural production and address larger questions about the artist’s ability to intervene as a cultural mediator. What is the artist's value in different sectors of society? Should universities set aside additional funds for artistic explorations and research? Should businesses employ the arts to increase their social standing or improve their image within a community? Should national governments amplify their cultural diplomacy initiatives to enhance their relationships with other nations and peoples? In the end, I hope to produce a stimulating account of the multi-voiced process of cultural production.


The Visible Evidence of Cultural Producers
M Mahon
Annual Review of Anthropology; 2000; 29