Open Lecture: ORIT GAT – If it looks like zeitgeist, it might be anxiety

Estonian Academy of Arts Art History department and CCA, Estonia invite:
On Wednesday, February 17th at 6 PM prolific art writer and contributing editor of a variety of publications Orit Gat will give a public lecture ‘If it looks like zeitgeist, it might be anxiety’ at Estonian Academy of Sciences (Kohtu 6). Orit Gat will also be holding a seminar at the Institute of Art History on Friday, February 19th.
Lecture ‘If it looks like zeitgeist, it might be anxiety’
In a piece for the Guardian, Charlie Brooker, the creator of the popular Channel 4 television series about technology Black Mirror, defines the show’s setting as “the area between delight and discomfort.” Our relationship to technology is defined by a curious mix of fascination, reliance, fear, and admiration. What happens to art in this context? This talk explores the current place of art in connection to networked technology, looking into platforms for the presentation and dissemination of art online and the discourse they may or may not have created; the many recent exhibitions dedicated to art that deals with data, the internet, and technology; and what fuels these trends: the anxiety of being left behind.
Seminar ‘Being bad: on negative criticism’
Much art criticism is inherently polite. Reading a number of reviews including film, food, and art criticism, this workshop will include discussions of the role of negative critique and the position of the critic in relation to it. We’ll discuss how criticism is affected by the market and geography, and speculate on how art reviews are still useful, how they can be beneficial while still negative, and how the internet has changed the landscape of criticism. Seminar will take place at the Institute of Art History on February 19th, 10 AM, room 104. For participation please email karin.nugis@artun.ee Compulsory reading is at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rdza2ud2631xcjh/AACxy5Zre_-3aH2Wdol9qyFUa?dl=0
Orit Gat is a writer based in New York and London. Her writing on contemporary art, publishing, internet culture, and the different meeting points between these has been published in a variety of magazines, including frieze, ArtReview, Art Agenda, Flash Art, and The Art Newspaper. Gat is the features editor of Rhizome, managing editor of WdW Review, and contributing editor at The White Review and Momus. In 2015, she won the Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant in the short-form writing category.
The public lecture will be preceded by a reading group of Orit Gat’s texts, to be taking place on Tuesday, February 9th at 4PM at the Centre for Contemporary Art Estonia. Texts for the reading group are below. Orit Gat will also be holding a
Orit Gat’s lecture in Tallinn is part of an open lecture series organized by Estonian Academy of Arts Art History department in collaboration with CCA, Estonia. In 2016 the guests are Joanna Figiel, Orit Gat, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Dorothea von Hantelmann and Jörg Heiser. Lecture series if supported by Estonian Cultural Endowment and Estonian Ministry of Culture.
Readings for the February 9th reading group:
Orit Gat talk at SuperScript 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMwi8_dSaug
Orit Gat, “What is an Art Critic Doing at an Art Fair?,” MOMUS. http://momus.ca/what-is-an-art-critic-doing-at-an-art-fair/
Orit Gat, The Thumbnail, FlashArt. http://www.flashartonline.com/article/the-thumbnail/
Orit Gat, The Future, WdW Review. http://wdwreview.org/sediments/future/