What follows is a short introduction I wrote for the booklet of the exhibition A View from Above (curated by Domenico Quaranta, Salvatore Vitale and Samuele Piazza at OGR Torino for EXPOSED. Torino Foto Festival). The show can be visited from May 2 to June 2, 2024. Italian version below More info
In an order issued on October 25, 2023 in the District Court of Central California, judge John Walter condemned artists Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen to pay Yuga Labs, the company behind the NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), about 1.6 million dollars, including statutory damages, fees and other costs. The decision followed a summary judgement issued on April 21, 2023, saying: “The court granted summary judgment in Yuga’s favor on its false designation of origin and cybersquatting claims, and against defendants’ First Amendment, nominative fair use and unclean hands affirmative defenses, as well as defendants’ counterclaim for knowing misrepresentation of infringing activity.”
I wrote this essay for a workshop held at the University of London in September 2022, and first sent it to the editors in March 2023. It has been released recently as part of the book NFTs, Creativity and the Law: Within and Beyond Copyright, edited by Enrico Bonadio and Caterina Sganga, and published by Routledge. In it, I contextualize Ripps’ practice as conceptual appropriation art. Judge John Walter, I strongly disagree with you.
Domenico Quaranta, “‘If You Don’t Want Something Stolen, Don’t Put it on the Net’. Appropriation Art from Early Net Art to NFTs”, in Enrico Bonadio, Caterina Sganga (eds.), NFTs, Creativity and the Law: Within and Beyond Copyright, Routledge, London 2024, pp. 201-217.
Curated by: Domenico Quaranta, Salvatore Vitale, Samuele Piazza
For: EXPOSED Torino Photo Festival
At: OGR Torino, Binario 2
May 2 – June 2, 2024
Featured artists: James Bridle; Laura Cinti; Mario Giacomelli; Mishka Henner; Hiwa K; Tabita Rezaire; Evan Roth; Susan Schuppli; Tomas Van Houtryve
I’m in this big expensive book with a short text about an artist I love and I’m happy to share it with you! “Encompassing the entire NFTs ecosystem — from algorithmic art to avatars — the first major art history survey of this field includes 10 academic essays and richly illustrated profiles of 101 key artists. Connecting the disruptive contemporary medium to its art historical context, this volume offers a deep dive into the sphere of non-fungible tokens and is also available for purchase in crypto.”
“Domenico Quaranta On Casey Reas”, in Robert Alice (Ed.), On NFTs. Collector’s Edition, Taschen, Koln 2024, pp. 144-145
Alberto Fiz mi ha fatto un paio di domande per un articolo poi pubblicato sul Giornale dell’Arte, sull’arte digitale nel mercato dell’arte e sugli effetti della bolla speculativa degli NFT. A seguire il Q&A integrale.
AF. Sto facendo un’inchiesta sul Giornale dell’Arte sulle ragioni secondo cui il mercato dell’arte snobba l’arte digitale nonostante abbia un ruolo sempre più significativo. Tu stesso ne parli nel tuo libro Media, New Media, Postmedia scrivendo: “Il mondo della New Media Art si regge su un’economia che non prevede nel suo sistema di distribuzione un mercato dell’arte.” In che senso? Pensi che ci possa essere un sistema di mercato alternativo?
So, I have this screen on my wall. It’s called the Philips Tableaux, and it’s a kind gift from Philips, a thank you for my participation to the Jury of the first MUSE Digital Art Award, which invited artists to submit images adapted to the device’s specifications, and engaging the topic of The Energy for Tomorrow. Here, you can see it in my home place, showing a screenshot from a software artwork by Kamilia Kard, A Rose by Any Other Name (2021, original here), and below with some of the works exhibited in the Award’s exhibition in Milan, curated by Julia Rajacic.
“l’IA non è uno strumento artistico.
È un fenomeno evolutivo interno al processo di automazione dei mezzi di produzione del tardo capitalismo. Il suo fine primario non è l’arte, è l’estetizzazione delle merci.
L’arte la può usare, come usa e ha usato altri strumenti nati allo stesso scopo: ma quando lo fa, il suo è sempre un atto di appropriazione, un uso deviato e illegittimo.
Se polarizzazione ci sarà, non sarà tra arti tradizionali e arti digitali, ma tra artisti che usano l’IA in questo modo e industrie creative che producono merci estetizzate.”
Paolo Casicci, “Domenico Quaranta: come cambia il ruolo dell’autore con l’IA”, in Interni Magazine, 16 novembre 2023
All These Fleeting Perfections is the group exhibition curated by Domenico Quaranta in the renovated spaces of the Biblioteca Geisser in Turin for EXPOSED. Torino Foto Festival, the new International Festival of Photography which will take place in Turin from 2 May to 5 June 2024 under the artistic direction of Menno Liauw and Salvatore Vitale.
The show is part of EXPOSED PRELUDE – a series of teaser events staged in collaboration with some of the main cultural institutions around the city of Turin on the occasion of the Turin Art Week; produced in collaboration with Artissima and with the active participation of a number of exhibitors, it can be visited from 27 October to 5 November 2023.
The event presentation is scheduled for the morning of Friday 3 November, from 10 am to 1 pm, although the exhibition will also be accessible over the days leading up to the event.
On the occasion of Art Verona 2023, Spazio Vitale opens to the public for the first time with Theo Triantafyllidis: Sisyphean Cycles (curated by Domenico Quaranta). The exhibition brings together, for the first time in a single set-up, four simulations by the Greek artist, guiding the viewer through an articulated and compelling narrative journey, and into as many ecosystems-worlds, programmed by the artist in such a way as to modify themselves according to autonomous behavior.
Spazio Vitale
Via San Vitale 5 – Verona
October 13 – November 11, 2023
Monday through Friday, 2 p.m. – 7 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Opening: October 13, 7 p.m.
“Ora che le abbiamo dato un nuovo nome, sosterremo ancora l’idea che SALAMI svilupperà una qualche forma di coscienza?” SALAMI è l’arguto acronimo di “Systematic Approaches to Learning Algorithms and Machine Inferences” [Approcci sistematici agli algoritmi di apprendimento e alle inferenze automatiche], una definizione proposta dall’informatico e politico italiano Stefano Quintarelli nel 2019 come un modo più obiettivo e onesto di riferirci a tutto ciò che attualmente chiamiamo Intelligenza Artificiale (IA). Quintarelli è convinto che il primo bias dell’IA sia il suo nome, che implicitamente suggerisce la possibilità che le macchine sviluppino una qualche forma di coscienza, emozioni e personalità, arrivando a superare i limiti dell’umano. Rinunciare al nome che gli diede nel 1956 il matematico americano Marvin Minsky sarebbe dunque il primo passo verso una necessaria demistificazione dell’Intelligenza Artificiale.
Go on reading on Flash Art Italia: Domenico Quaranta, ”Demistificare l’Intelligenza Artificiale”, in Flash Art, Issue 361, Estate 2023, pp. 87-96 and online.