Led by Workspace residents Rachael Rakes and Leo Goldsmith, this lecture, processual seminar considers the post-1990s "documentary turn" within contemporary art, taking on coextensive pivots in non-fiction cinema towards a language of video art and installation, from a variety of historical, curatorial, and critical perspectives. In addition to looking at examples in moving-image media, the seminar touches upon artists working with still images, objects, performance, sound, interactivity, and activism as documentary practice. Rakes and Goldsmith will discuss the relative discourses of documentary media and the art world, consider the relationship between the traditions of art, documentary, archival research, and journalism, and raise issues of presentation, contextualization, and preservation for curators and artists alike in the current regime of contemporary art and neoliberal politics. The seminar will touch upon issues of production and exhibition of all forms of documentary art practice, and also consider the politics and ethics of art-making in the social realm. This event should be of of interest to artists, filmmakers, curators, activists, writers, and anyone interested in media and social practice.

[source: Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center website, 2017-Aug-7]