DeBoer co-coordinates Singapore symposium on public screens
Associate professor Stephanie DeBoer wants to start a conversation about public screens and their uses.
In collaboration with Kristy H.A. Kang, Assistant Professor of the School of Art, Design, and Media at Nanyang Technological University and Anne Balsamo, Dean of the School of Arts, Technology & Emerging Communication at the University of Texas at Dallas, DeBoer has co-organized a three-day symposium in Singapore that will do just that.
Emergent Visions will bring together artists, curators and scholars from around the world at the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University, which is generously hosting and supporting the symposium. It will take place from March 30 to April 1.
“We’ll be able to compare and contrast our different experiences from the Indiana campus to the Singapore campus to experiences in Western Europe to East Asia,” DeBoer said.
From ads in Times Square to computers to cell phones, people see screens everywhere, she said. The symposium will focus on medium to large screens, such as the 24-foot-by-12-foot screen in The Media School’s commons; what screens are used for currently; and other purposes they might have in the future.
DeBoer’s first goal is to start a conversation, but from there, she said she hopes attendees’ shared projects and discussions will result in a publication and a second symposium.
Her biggest goal is to talk about how screens that occupy everyday lives can be used for more than just advertisements or public information.
“We can imagine how else they can be used, whether that’s public dialogue or public content or community on campus,” she said.
The distinguished keynote speaker of the symposium is Krzysztof Wodiczko from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Other speakers come from Europe, Australia and Asia.
IU, The Media School and the IU School of Art, Architecture and Design are among the cosponsors of the symposium, and funding for the program was provided by all three universities.
This isn’t the first time DeBoer has initiated projects through The Media School that are related to her research.
Last year during China Remixed, she showed a curation of Chinese media art on The Media School screen. Her current class, Uncovering the Media City: Public Screen Cultures and Urban China, traveled during spring break to Hong Kong and Shanghai, where students met with home advertisers and artists and toured a factory that produced LED screens for public display.
The class’s final project will be to propose a new use of a screen on campus.