(Presentation at Harvard University: MA. Srnic – New Media Genres ) The first-year students of The Faculty of Culturology in Osijek (Croatia, Europe) had to make experiments with glasses, light and liquid as a topic named “Creative Glasses” while attending “New Media Genres” board, lectured by M.A. Vesna Srnic, Art Historian and professor of Comparative Literature. Students have inventively made photographs of glasses as the abstractions, using only their cell phones! The aim of this project, realized at the seminary, was to encourage students to explore and reinvent the Reality with a new approach to seeing.
Dr Srnic is invited to be an official speaker at the World Education Summit 2023 in the United Kingdom, in March. You can find her speaker profile on the WES website here: https://www.worldedsummit.com/speakers/dr-vesna-srnic/, as well as announcement and session graphics. She will speak onher scientific and artistic works inModular Performative Education as Science presentation.
Writing lucidly, visualizing enigmatically, Kipke the artist lives a hermetic reality and existential sensibility, but has to avoid quick statements in that singular Image of the World.
Kipke shows the degrees of his belief, moving from a magic trick to an effort to prove authenticity, all through the hard work.
Dr Vesna Srnic, docent
More on the exhibition:
8th December 2022 to 29 January 2023, the National Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb
In front of the Art Pavilion in Zagreb, the artist Kata Mijatovic set up a small black house without doors and windows, slightly larger than a dog’s house. But the house hums, generating a mechanical threatening sound of some machine…
Without the ancient good, beautiful and true, without the human dominance over technology, only the power for dominance and fear of other people produces a black threat of dead Art…
New performance Glocal Art of Aging is a strong performative symbol and a unique field of knowledge – the image of the meeting of young and old is an INDICATION OF THE PROBLEM in Western culture that needs to be addressed on many levels: philosophical, social, cultural and artistic, religious…
Situationally and performatively through the “site-specific” artistic action (city square Ivana Brlić Mažuranić in Slavonski Brod / noon), we will multiply the simultaneous symbolic overlap of intense symbolic encounter of young and old: through the dance experience of three dancers, students (Elementary School I. G. Kovačić and Crafts -technical school) and 80 students on a multimedia assignment (Teacher Training, UNISB) will meet with 5 senior users of the Home for the Elderly and the Infirm. Along with minimalist, contemporary music, three dancers from Zagreb of different generations will perform dance meditation on the Square: retired choreographer and dancer Mirjana Preis, middle-aged dancer Tamara Curić and young student Gita Curić.
All students will be aware of the importance of their existential role “moving to meet the elderly”, university students will be mentors who will guide old people a few meters across the square to meet the young, and young people will give them flowers and cakes… During the meeting three interactive generations of dancers will encourage dancing as “the revolution of tenderness” (Papa, I wish you a smile). Writing about the importance of meeting and listening to “young prophets and old dreamers”, the Pope stressed the need for the reality of wise rooting with the synergy of young, playful enthusiasts with experienced elders who want to make their wealth available to the mutual benefit of growth.
A large number of students will actively participate in the performance by recording multimedia tasks as final works in the course Media Culture (UNISB). In a scientific review of this phenomenon of dialogic actualization of young and old, eminent scientists with glocal addresses will write: Dr Kruno Martinac from Melbourne, Australia, Professor Ph.D Lino Veljak and Assistant Professor Suzana Marjanić from Zagreb, then psychiatry specialist MA Jugoslav Gojković and Assitant Professor Ph.D Vesna Srnić from Slavonski Brod who is also the author of the project.
A second exhibition in “the Vlaho Bukovac in Europe exhibition series” in the Klovićevi dvori Gallery is opened from February 17th to May 22nd, 2022, in a year in which we commemorate the 100th anniversary of Bukovac’s death. The theme of this long-anticipated second exhibition is Bukovac’s life and the development of his Zagreb oeuvre, when he became the central figure of public cultural life, a great mentor to a young generation of artists, and when his seductive colorism influenced a whole generation of Zagreb painters, named the Zagreb School.
The first exhibition, Vlaho Bukovac in Paris, 1878 – 1892, held in 2018, dealt with his amateur work in North America, his schooling and professional maturation in Paris, short work stays in England, as well as fruitful breaks in Croatia, until his final return home.
On 27th March, 2022 because of the covid infection of moderator Srećko Horvat, Philosophy theater’s substitute Boris Buden was engaged to talk to the guest from Slovenia – Dr. Renata Salecl.
PhD.Renata Salecl (1962) is a Slovenian philosopher and sociologist. She holds a professorship at Birkbeck College, University of London and lectures at Cardozo School of Law (New York), on Psychoanalysis and Law. Her books have been translated into fifteen languages – Sexuation (2000), On anxiety (2004), Choice (2010), A passion for ignorance (2020), Čovjek je čovjeku virus (Man is a virus to man, 2021). In 2017, she was elected as a member of the Slovenian Academy of Science.
Extremely lucid moderator and interlocutor Dr. Boris Buden brought affectivity into the peaceful flow of Dr. Salecl’s thoughts.
She elaborated her critical theory on late capitalist politics, Lacanian psychoanalysis and civic activism. Dr. Salecl stated some well known changes that the coronavirus pandemic brings to our lives. Buden asked her about the type of theory in writing the columns she published in the book on viruses, but she sees it as a column craft, not popular „self-help“.
Moderator asked a very important question on having right to be lazy these days! Salecl negated it. Unfortunately, she did not elaborate on the importance of laziness for creation and art, but only for „doing nothing“ and idleness as such.
Towards the end of the conversation, Buden asked Salecl for her opinion on the current war, and she admitted that she was naive about Russia, that Putin was an enigma to her, adding that he quoted old philosophers like neo-Nazi Dugin and believed in cosmic energy in the Russian people.
An interesting question of the philosopher Buden addressed to Salecl was about the identity of Slovenian philosophy, since books are written in English. Dr. Salecl concluded that it is good they are written in both Slovenian and English, which is more widely read.
Conductor Ivan Josip Skender and Media-Via editor PhD. Vesna Srnić
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Ivana Brlić Mažuranić Concert and Theater Hall in Slavonski Brod, the Zagreb ensemble Cantus performed three contemporary compositions on 27th February, 2022 in its world-renowned style:
Berislav Šipuš – Četiri pjesme sjećanja / Four songs of remembrance Ivana Kiš – na na na na Krešimir Seletković – Suita iz baleta Air / Air Ballet Suite
Conductor: Ivan Josip Skender
Concentration and integrity were holistically woven in demanding sections of aleatory, atonal and asymmetrical music. In other parts mixed-media synaesthetically sounds like those in action or animated films… In moments when the World is buzzing with low frequencies, this music is a gift with its enthusiastic art both when it thunders and when the muses whisper.
The Philosophical Theater of the progressive activist Srećko Horvat on 17th January 2022 hosted the world philosopher Slavoj Žižek at the Zagreb Croatian National Theater (HNK) once again. Collaborators as good friends informally (with some swearing) discussed the world power lines.
Congratulating the distinguished French leftist Alain Badiou on his birthday, they found that the dynamics between the left and the right are disappearing on a global level. Žižek claimed that capitalism is turning into a kind of internationalization of organizations and that he sees a communism in that. Namely, the communism occurs at the level of cooperation of powerful organizations.
Furthermore, Žižek believes that it is desirable to reaffirm the state that gives room for maneuver, because people would like changes, but that it “costs them nothing”. As an opponent of the state’s fetishism, Horvat asked his interlocutor a key question about the status and perspective of the left regarding the fossil fuel economy and the green new deal, thus isn’t the left in contradiction in the search for a “way out”? On the example of Bolivia, Žižek argued that the left must face power/government and stop being too comfortable… no one needs poverty. Horvat encouraged the discussion by claiming that it was a “catch-up” and that in this way the left is doing the same as the right. Žižek noticed the difference: the left should be pragmatic and remove comfort. Horvat opposed the forcing of the state, explaining that the state = nation and affirm that he is an anarchist. Žižek commented on the view that the state is a nation by claiming that Marxism really needs to be corrected. Srećko Horvat insisted on a certain subversive and insider action within the state, since he, as one of the founders of DiEM25, has fought extremely pragmatically on several levels, for permaculture, digital currencies, gender equality, artistic and philosophical emancipation in general – for the common good!
The question from the audience was about contradictions in the left and how to move forward, and in response, both philosophers agreed that progress is possible only with “the pleasant antagonism”! In his humorous tone, Žižek concluded that “there is no freedom for the enemies of freedom” and that “politics is a perverse thing”.
Glory: Croatian artists greet Kiki Smith, presents New York’s authentic artist Kiki Smith (1954) with 19 conceptualized multidisciplinary works (sculpture, jacquard tapestry, installation, drawings and graphics) in comparison with the works of 13 Croatian artists who have created over 100 years – Slava Raškaj, Nasta Rojc, Milena Lah, Nives Kavurić Kurtović, Edita Schubert, Vlasta Delimar, etc. – questioning nature, femininity, physicality and mortality, through “a position of solidarity and sisterhood that transcends all current relations of power and planetary glory” as the NMMU director Branko Franceschi said.
Kiki Smith’s reduced, figurative forms are all the more impressive when they use bodily excretions (saliva, blood, urine) and the weaving principle of female intuition, thus creates in jacquard tapestries what Judith Butler calls “bodies that matter.”
Croatian artists also questioned the feminist preoccupation by tearing down the petty-bourgeois dress code, from Naste Rojc’s riding suit (Self-Portrait with a Horse, 1922) to exposing body of Vlasta Delimar (Untitled, 1991).
In a floor installation Soil, 1998-2018 with an impressive fifteen dead crows, Smith accentuated
impressively the existential boundary – mortality and make an introduction to another exhibition: Exploatation of Death. Dying of everything in nature, mortality, often through the process, is the theme of this exhibition. Diana Vlaisavljević’s foreword exhaustively analyzes the presented works through the paradox of death (Judith and Holofernes, 1892 – Bela Čikoš Sesija, The Battle of Grobnik, 1906 – Celestin Medović, Adventure is Adventure, 2004 – Lovro Artuković), “meat is murder” (Dead Sheep, 1935 – Vladimir Becić), eschatology and the end of the world (Flood, 1932 – Krsto Hegedušić, Atomic mushroom – Kamilo Tompa), death as a biological fact (From my garden, 1956 – Ljubo Babić, After all – Stjepan Gračan), final farewells (At the door of death, 1904 – Mirko Rački. Dead child, 1954 – Miljenko Stančić) and death is not the end (Christian hope based on the critique of human weaknesses at the Crucifix, 1989 – Branko Ružić, through depictions of skulls and the motif of dance macabre – Đuro Tiljak, Hrvoje Šercar, Vanja Radauš).
Unlike Kiki Smith’s sincerity and primacy in her approach to existential art, the title Exploatation of Death cannot escape the impression that this is, linguistically speaking, a parasitic position of civilization, and to a sincere artist this depravity through human fear or greed should not be the goal. To conclude in the end of narrative philosophy: “whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent“ (Wittgenstein).
Croatian multimedia exhibition MURTIĆ 100 celebrates the centenary of the birth of the internationally famous Croatian painter of high modernism gestural abstraction Edo Murtić.
To feel liveness in our depths we have to live in constant new, although life more or less delivers boring moments to people. We have to be aware of the contrast: organic spontaneity versus a routine as the brakes by non ritual repetition. The (ritual) routine can calm you down, but if you want to live your meditative center you choose (poetical) presence and the intensity of expression.
To paraphrase the agile curator Branko Franceschi‘s preface to the exhibition – multimedia exhibition MURTIĆ 100 celebrates the centenary of the birth of the internationally famous Croatian painter of high modernism gestural abstraction Edo Murtić, set in the vertical space Home HDLU in Zagreb on three levels: Bačva Gallery (iconic paintings), PM Gallery (the enduring challenges of reality as ati-war themes) and Prsten Gallery (division into abstract and figurative art, graphics and drawings, ceramics and enamel, multimedia installation by Ivan Marušić Klif on mosaics and murals in public spaces).
This exhibition perfectly combines technical multimedia with multimedial art as it stresses the synergy of gesamtkunstwerk.
But the most important is the great work of exhibition booth setup idea in the means of integration of art and intrinsic education: Art workshops A game of Murtić’s colors (for kids between 5 and 10 yrears), Go Big (for kids between 10 and 15 years), Abstraction of Nature (for the elderly), then lecture I Can Paint that too (for high school students and adults) and Reinterpretation of Edo Murtić through street art and finally International Symposium Gesture and Freedom.
To feel liveness in our depths we have to live in constant new. Life more or less delivers boring moments to people. We have to be aware of the contrast: organic spontaneity versus a routine as the brakes by non ritual repetition. The (ritual) routine can calm you down, but if you want to live your meditative center you choose (poetical) presence and the intensity of expression.
The routine as mechanical or machine thinking and using of Artificial intelligence if prevail can stop our freedom. Murtić’s impressive abstract gestural works also oscillate between more or less freedom. Although some works are stuck in authors freestyle routine, enormous vital energy of Edo Murtic stayed to beautify and free our lives.
PhD. Vesna Srnić, docent
MV (photos and video with permission of curator Branko Franceschi)
Professional video of the Zagreb artist Matija Kralj: the international performance Glocal Art: Counterpoint Harmony,held in Slavonski Brod on May 8, 2021. Project author was PhD. Vesna Srnic, composition created by prominent University professor Predrag Repanic in collaboration with Dr. Kruno Martinac, MA Mus. Aljaz Razdevsek, MA Arch. Siniša Tomic and Musician Tomislav Brezicevic. Performance contemporary dancer was Nastasja Stefanic and video art creator Matija Kralj from Zagreb.
By combining the artistic process into a harmony of free variation and contrast punctus contra punctum or point against point, we created a dynamic performative composition. We have woven the differentiation of the stylistic identities of the musicians into the stimulating, minimalist What Lies Hiddenat the Root of an Obscure Edifice matrix of a professional composer. Each of the musicians, mostly related by birth in the same city of Slavonski Brod, but now from different parts of the world, from Australia (Dr Kruno Martinac) through Europe (University Professor Predrag Repanic, MA Mus. Aljaz Razdevsek, Musician Tomislav Brezicevic) to Canada (MA Arch. Siniša Tomic), innovated from their environment a representative audio sample of authentic and complex integration into the cantus firmus matrix, with the subsequent fairly summarize procedure done by the Professor of composition.
The resulting intelligent quantum / holographic fractal (pars pro toto) of consecutive octaves with consecutive spacing error tolerance is going to be exposed intensively in a specific place (Town Square), at a specific time (12 AM) for 15 minutes and accompanied with contemporary dancer Nastasja Stefanic from Zagreb in front of the urban citizens and students on a multimedia assignment.
It will be another NGO ARTHEA’s glocal call to the City and the World to live aesthetic and ethical values.
PhD. Vesna Srnic, Associate Professor, UNISB
NGO Culture, media and education – ARTHEA president
Ministry of Culture and Media in Republic of Croatia informed on their official web pageabout our performance which will be held on May 8 (Saturday) in Slavonski Brod:
Final e-learning work of 2nd year students of the Teacher Education Department at the University of Slavonski Brod (UNISB), within the course Contemporary Media in Literature Teaching, under the mentorship of PhD Vesna Srnić, research associate.
Performance Glocal Rhythms of Emancipation organized by the civil association Culture, Media and Education – ARTHEA and in cooperation with the Elementary School Ivan Goran Kovačić, Crafts School and the Faculty of Education in Osijek, department in Slavonski Brod was performed on Saturday, May 23 on the main city square at 12 o’clock, in front of several hundred citizens.
A group of students attending classes on regular, individualized, adapted and gifted program Marija Cernecki, Luka Mrvelj and Kasijan Kristic presented an urban walk with “marching drums” and electronic music. Moderators were two students of the Faculty of Education in Osijek, department in Slavonski Brod – Marko Mrsic and Andrea Josipovic, and the other 80 students were creating multimedia tasks for the course Media Culture, which is taught by the author of the performance PhD. Vesna Srnic who is also the president of the civil association ARTHEA.
In the scientific part, the project is commented in the publication with scientific articles by 6 eminent scientists: PhD. Lino Veljak, Head of the Department of Ontology at the Faculty of humanities and social sciences, University of Zagreb, Dr Kruno Martinac Associate for Visual Communications from Australia, PhD. Suzana Marjanic, Performance studies theorist from the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore in Zagreb, Dr Divna Vuksanovic, professor at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts and president of the Young peas association from Belgrade, psychiatry specialist MA Jugoslav Gojkovic from the Josip Bencevic Hospital in Slavonski Brod and PhD. Vesna Srnic, research associate at FOOZOS.
All results of the vertical educational and artistic / scientific project are published in printed and digital publication at the social network http://glocal-art.ning.com/ and will be published at the portal of the association Media-Via.Net as well.
The sponsors of the urban performance are the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia and the City of Slavonski Brod.
Culturenet.hr – portal of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, published the announcement of the performance.
Co-authors Ph.D Emina Berbic Kolar and Ph.D Vesna Srnic have published scientific paper Glocal, Holistic and Performative Education which Dr Srnic virtually presented at the Oxford conference New Approaches in Education on 27 March 2020.
We look at innovative education through a global and local approach to the philosophy of existence, known as glocalization, and through the psychological Gestalt of experiencing a whole that is inevitably viewed within social science by a sociological holistic principle. Our glocal, holistic, aesthetic practice has been experienced and realized through intensive performative education that enhances the existential capacity in multi / media projects through the humanistic approach, affectively using digital framing.
On 27th March 2020 at the 2nd international icnaeducation online conference “New Approaches in Education” in Oxford, Ph.D. Vesna Srnić presented the scientific paper “Glocal, Holistic and Performative Education” co-authored with Assoc.Prof. PhD. Emina Berbić Kolar, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Education in Osijek. In the paper we have presented performative arts in education as a long-standing practice of the Faculty, which promotes and encourages curricular reform in the Republic of Croatia.
“We look at innovative education through a global and local approach to the philosophy of existence, known as glocalization, and through the psychological Gestalt of experiencing a whole that is inevitably viewed within social science by a sociological holistic principle. Our glocal, holistic, aesthetic practice has been experienced and realized through intensive performative education that enhances the existential capacity in multi / media projects through the humanistic approach, affectively using digital framing.”
Works of Croatian female artists from the late 19th to the 21st Century (February 6th – April, 14, 2020)
The Art Pavilion in Zagreb is starting its exhibition season with the show Zagreb, City of female Artists. The exhibition is being specially put on to mark the Croatian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and also in honor of Zagreb, capital of the Republic of Croatia, from which the Government of the Republic of Croatia will preside over the Council of the European Union.
The basic idea of the exhibition is to provide a historical and critical cross-section from the oeuvres of those women visual artists who worked and left a record of themselves in the cultural life of the city of Zagreb in a period stretching from the end of the 19th century to the present age.
Within this relatively wide span of time, the generations of women artists are presented in three large, historically logical units The first covers the generations that were at work up to World War II; the second, those generations who started their exhibition activity after World War II and produced the major part of their work in the following decades; the third unit comprises the generations who appeared on the scene in the early seventies and later, and are, most of them, still at work.
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The exhibition covers a hundred works: the paintings, sculptures, video performances, audio and video installations of the most significant women artists from the end of the 19th century, starting with Anka Bestall, Slava Raškaj, Lina Crnčić Virant, Nasta Rojc, Mila Wod, Sonja Kovačić-Tajčević, Anka Krizmanić, Vera Nikolić Podrinska and Zdenka Ostović Pexidr Srića; it go on with Nevenka Đorđević, Ksenija Kantoci, Marta Ehrlich, Mila Kumbatović, Melita Bošnjak, Miranda Morić, Milena Lah, Vera Josipović, Vesna Sokolić, Borka Avramova, Vera Fischer, Vera Dajht Kralj, Tonka Petrić, Biserka Baretić, Marija Ujević, Ljerka Šibenik, Goranka Vrus Murtić, Nives Kavurić Kurtović, Zdenka Pozaić, Edita Schubert, Marijana Muljević, Sanja Iveković, Jadranka Fatur, Nevenka Arbanas, Vesna Popržan, Breda Beban, Nina Ivančić, Zvjezdana Fio and Dubravka Rakoci, continuing with Vlasta Delimar, Vesna Pokas, Kata Mijatović, Amela Frankl, Ksenija Turčić, Mirjana Vodopija, Vlasta Žanić, Kristina Leko, Božena Končić Badurina, Magdalena Pederin, Nika Radić, Ivana Franke, Martina Mezak, Ana Hušman and Andreja Kulunčić with the women’s collective ISTE (EQUALS ).
On Saturday, 19th October 2019, The Croatian National Theatre (HNK) in Zagreb, Croatia inovativelly presented premiere of famous philosopher Slavoj Žižek’s Antigona, directed by the German/Croatian theatre director and activist Angela Richter, thus positioning itself at the top of European theatres.
In the first 20 minutes the play is frontal multimedia and then it becomes a total work of art, introducing the surprising performance art of the choir characters from the audience: randomly judging from the left, right and back balcony, as well as from the audience parterre. Choir characters were accompanied by a spotlight and a video camera with simultaneous projection.
The auditive, musical part of the play was impressively fitting into visual multimedia.
Firstly Žižek adhered to the classic content of the tragedy, but then technically and humorously by „flashback“ restrospection he examines three possible, elaborated solutions: in addition to the classic ending, Žižek recognizes a rigid or fundamentalist actuality, and finally he directly questions political thinking and leader’s responsibility. Appearing personally as a huge projection, Zizek harnessed the holistic and existentialist potential, like the great creator of proposed trinity (thesis-antithesis-synthesis).
Which of the three versions is the correct one?! The prophet Tiresias concludes that only in solitude by stopping the buzz of the world, we stop the chaos.
Still, the impression of over-controlling the play remains, it lacks the kind of „camp“ freedom, performative anarchy, although there were rhythmically impressive experimental audio-visual breaks in the play directed by Angela Richter! In my oppinion this could be achieved with a deeper and greater momentum towards the real audience, not filmed before the play, including all audio-visual risks.
Civil organization “Culture, Media and Education” – ARTHEA performing event “Hologram and the Real: Forest Television” was realized on 25 May, 2019 at the main town square of the Croatian city Slavonski Brod with the alluring enthusiasm of all of us: the Zagreb dancers of contemporary dance Nastasja Štefanić and Tamara Curić, musician from Opatija Vedran Ružić on double bass, Tomislav Brezicevic from Zagreb on hang drum, and 98 students of “Faculty of Education” in Osijek, department in Slavonski Brod who have created multimedia works for the “Media Culture” course. The author of the project Ph.D.Vesna Srnić, Arthea president is a lecturer as well, while the vice dean Ph.D. Emine Berbić-Kolar gave us a great overall support. Technical supervision for the hologram was done by Connect IT, thanks to Avishai Cohen his song“Remembering” was a background music, and sponsors were the “Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia”, the “City of Slavonski Brod” and the “Connect IT Association”.
The project “Hologram and the Real: Forest Television” is questioning the Social Intelligence through the interrelationship of virtual and real.
The project also includes several scientists: Professor Ph.D. Lino Veljak, Head of the Department of Ontology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb, Professor Dr Divna Vuksanović, Faculty of Drama Arts in Belgrade, President of the Association of Citizens’ Young Pea, Docent Ph.D. Suzana Marjanić, Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research in Zagreb, PhD. Vesna Srnić, Research Fellow at the Faculty of Education in Osijek, department in Slav. Brod, Dr Kruno Martinac, Intercultural Communication, Melbourne, Australia and MA. Jugoslav Gojković, specialist of the psychiatric hospital ‘Josip Benčević’ in Slavonski Brod.
Credits :
Title : ‘ Remembering ‘
Music composed and performed by Avishai Cohen. Gad Music / Sony ATV
From the album: ‘ At Home’ 2005 – Avishai Cohen Trio and Ensemble – Razdaz Recordz LLC
by kind permission : Avishai Cohen, Razdaz Recordz LLC
Baroque in Glocal Postmodern Approach is a project and a Learning Scenario made for “The European Schoolnet Academy” in Brussels, Belgium, specifically for the Europeana in your classroom: building 21st-century competences with digital cultural heritage course, through 5 Modules of MOOC (Massive Open Online Course).
PhD. Vesna Srnic, Research fellow/Media-Via editor/NGO ARTHEA’s president
On Sunday evening (13th January, 2019) the moderator Srecko Horvat introduced at the Philosophical theater of the HNK (Croatian National Theater) in Zagreb, a famous Slovenian philosopher Dr Alenka Zupancic. Dr. Zupancic is close associate of worldly known Dr Slavoj Zizek and a writer of interesting book – What is Sex? published by the MIT Press.
One of the main ideas of the book What is Sex? is that sexuality is a short circuit between ontology and epistemology (being and knowledge).
Other important ideas:
“(..) but in a stronger sense of the gap in knowledge coinciding with the gap in being. We do not know, because there is nothing to know. Yet this “nothing” is inherent to being, and constitutes its irreducible crack; it registers as a peculiar (“negative”) epistemological score, it registers as a peculiar form of knowledge: the unconscious.” (p. 143)
„Whenever it comes to social, cultural, or religious covering up of sexuality, we can be sure that it never covers up simply what is there (for example, the sexual organs), but also (and perhaps primarily) something which is not there; it also covers up some fundamental ambiguity which is, from the outset, of a metaphysical order. In other words: the more we try to think the sexual as sexual (that is, the more we try to think it only for “what it is,” without censorship and embellishments), the quicker we find ourselves in the element of pure and profound metaphysics. This is why there is no “neutral” way to speak about sex—even if we pretend not to hide anything, and speak only of facts, something else seems to get added, or to disappear.“ … (p. 141)
To paraphrase, Lacan thinks that in a „Gap“ of actuality, between conscious and unconscious, reality is triggered to become politics … Badiou says that in the situational “Gap” cracking Event should happen or perhaps revolution, so discourse begins to evaluate and becomes Real being as a “wandering surplus” or “surplus jouissance”. Lacan disagrees – it is not a real being but a “symptom”…
“Materialism would thus mean, in this account: the reality minus the illusion which accompanies it and keeps transforming it into something quite different.” (p. 120)
“The (Lacanian) subject is not simply the one who thinks, it is also and above all what makes certain contradictions accessible to thought; it is the way in which these contradictions appear as a “matter of thought.” (p. 122)
“To think a paradox or contradiction does not mean to stare at it with fascination, as in a kind of mystical revelation of the Absolute; it means precisely what it says—to think it.” (p. 123)
So perhaps this would be a good formulation of materialism: materialism is thinking which advances as thinking of contradictions.
Due to the timing problems, the president of the NGO Arthea association dr. Srnic did not ask this question, but she kindly puts it now:
You discussed about „animal“ and „human“ in your book … But can you explain or define the position of sexuality between a man/woman and a Hologram? Recently, a marriage between a young man and a Hologram occurred in Japan … So, what about the enjoyment or jouissance here?
You mentioned dreaming and „piloting the Animal“, but can we pilot the Hologram which is the most of virtual reality we can produce so far?! Is this relation „Real“ or just a „Dream“?! You said: “(…) every drive is virtually a death drive”, so is this correlation between Real and Virtual actually a correlation between Life and Death or a sort of anthropological „Television of the Forest“ (Narby)…
PHD. ALENKA ZUPANCIC ANSWERED TO THE MEDIA-VIA.NET PORTAL:
Thank you very much for your questions. They are related, they both involve the hologram as the other in a relationship. So I will take them together. The issue is big, and involves many different facets which I cannot possible deal with here, so let me just propose a few thoughts.
There is something about this story of “man marries a hologram” that is very old. We can take an example that is exactly 100 years old: Ernest’s Lubitsch’s film Die Puppe (The Doll) tells a story of a man who has to marry because otherwise he would lose his inheritance, but doesn’t want all the relationship-things that marriage implies. So he orders a mechanical doll which is a perfect replica of the doll-maker’s daughter. Things get complicated because the doll breaks down and the real daughter steps in pretending to be a doll… But anyway, the basic idea is something like this: by replacing a real partner with an artificial one we can get a perfect partner, attending to all our needs, but without the fuss that comes with a real relationship. The idea is not new, but became particularly present with rapid technological development and new possibilities it seems to offer. But according to Lacan this is precisely how most of the ordinary relationships function, particularly so far as men are concerned, and on an even more fundamental level. It’s not simply the question of eliminating the fuss, but more fundamentally the question of relating: do we really relate to the other as other when we are in a relationship, or is the other rather the screen or object via which we relate to ourselves, and that we need to be able to enjoy? Or, to use even more vivid language proposed by Slavoj Žižek: if masturbation is defined as “having sex with an imaginary partner”, then perhaps sexual intercourse could be defined in many cases as “masturbating with a real partner”. Or, as Woody Allen put it in anther turn of this same screw: “Masturbating is having sex with somebody you really love”. In other words, perhaps we don’t realize to what extent we already are functioning in relationships as holograms of our partners. Imperfect ones, and here technology can indeed step in and eliminate us altogether. Of course things change when this actually happens, and we can effectively, empirically eliminate the other as Other. But still, the structure at the bottom of this particular example is an old and absolutely pre-technological story of human sexuality and relationships. Then there is also the question – which many SF stories play with – of what happens if this technological gadgets actually do become our Other, in an most emphatic sense: if they gain autonomy (from our mastery), if they impose a rule of their own, if they enslave us to whatever “new order” they represent…
PhD. Vesna Srnic, Research Fellow (text, photographs, video)
Exhibition on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the HDLU (Croatian Association of Artists) and 80 years since the construction of the Home of HDLU (October 26, 2018 – December 2, 2018)
“(…)The presented works of art sublimate the time and context of their origin, so they anchored themselves in the collective or at least the subjective curator’s memory as the ideal image of the period of their emergence. These works have proved as an intriguing and inspiring reflection or a comment about the reference social reality, i.e., through their form or content they represented a deviation in relation to the promoted aesthetic and social values, and through superior examples constituted a foretoken of times yet to come.
Their existence testifies about the pioneering role of artists in creating an image of their own time and articulating guidelines for the future. Starting with putting up “The History of Croats“ by Ivan Meštrović (1932) at the pavilion centre, i.e. the present Bačva Gallery, in remembrance of the first exhibition of the members of the Association at the Home of the Croatian Association of Artists, along with an inherent symbolism of exhibiting the sculpture, the other selected works follow the circular architecture of the space and ultimately fill it out in a kind of a visual paraphrase of a musical score.”
The Art Pavilion in Zagreb presents Croatian painter Vlaho Bukovac who was its founder 120 years ago, in a context in which his work has never before been exhibited. In this show, along with Bukovac’s works, those of his Parisian professor, Alexandre Cabanel, are also shown. Bukovac knew the spirit of academism and, on the other hand, he felt the spirit of Impressionistic freedom. Having accepted modern principles, Bukovac painted casual pictures, using liberated strokes of the brush, in the pointillist technique.
The exhibition can be seen till January 6, 2019.
Bukovac began his career in France. He painted in a “poetic” realistic style, his fashionable paintings achieved great success at the Paris Salon. During his sojourn in France, he traveled to England and the Dalmatian coast, where he was born. His travels also included voyages to the Black Sea, South (Chile and Peru), and North America.
Vlaho’s painting “Une fleur” was sold at Bonhams in London on 14 June 2006 for £100,800.00, including the auction premium. The auction house identified the painting as Reclining Nude.
PhD. Vesna Srnic has just published an original paper on Memory in co-authorship with Vice-Dean of Faculty of Teacher Education in Osijek, department in Slavonski BrodPhD. Emina Berbić-Kolar and student Igor Ilić, in the American journal “Communication, Society and Media” (ISSN 2576-5388 (Print) ISSN 2576-5396 (Online), Vol. 1, No. 2, 2018 http://www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm )
Abstract
In addition to the well-known classification of long-term and short-term memory, we are also interested in distinguishing episodic, semantic and procedural memory in the areas of linguistic narrative and multimedial semantic deconstruction in postmodernism. We compare the liveliness of memorization in literary tradition and literature art with postmodernist divisions and reverberations of traditional memorizations through human multitasking and performative multimedia art, as well as formulate the existence of creative, intuitive and superhuman paradigms.
Since the memory can be physical, psychological or spiritual, according to neurobiologist Dr. J. Bauer (Das Gedächtnis des Körpers, 2004), the greatest importance for memorizing has the social role of collaboration, and consequently the personal transformation and remodelling of genomic architecture, yet the media theorist Mark Hansen thinks technology brings different solutions of framing function (Hansen, 2000). We believe that postmodern deconstruction does not necessarily damage memory, especially in the field of human multitasking that utilizes multimedia performative art by means of anthropologization of technology, thereby enhancing artistic and affective pre&post-linguistic experience while unifying technology and humans through intuitive empathy in society.
Vedran Ruzic jazz quartet played multimedially joined with a huge screened film „Spiritual Market“ on 28th June, 2018 in The Ivana Brlic Mazuranic Concert Hall in Slavonski Brod, Croatia. „Spiritual Market“ combines the original jazz album of Vedran Ružić – inspired by the journeys of Marco Polo with the music accompanying art film, made by John Kardum and Ira Tomić.
Highly coordinated quartet sounded not only as a perfect western jazz, but also as a singular and highly spirited shaman in his endevaor! The sound was extremely and crystally penetrating thanks to the new, expensive equipment of the concert hall. Especially the Vedran’s dubble bass was impressive. The film pretended to be abstract but was illustrating facts occasionally. “Spiritual Market” was awarded with Porin for The Best Jazz Album in 2016.
Spiritual Market teaser
The jazz album was created in combination with overtones from Istria and the Far East, it follows Polo’s journey from Venice to China. The album unites 5 original pieces of Ružić, a late medieval motet and a traditional Mongolian piece with new arrangements. With Ružić on the double bass, the quartet is completed with his colleagues from the conservatorium in Klagenfurt – Adriano Bernobić on the drums, Pavle Miljenović on the guitar and Mario Biočić joining them with the saxophone on three pieces on the album. In addition to the music and paintings, Ira Tomić and John Kardum joined with photography and an art movie – as a result, the project “Spiritual Market” evolved, inspired by the journeys of Marco Polo to the Far East.
Vedran Ružić is an academic painter (on his last year at the academy of fine arts in Rijeka/Croatia) and a professional double bass jazz-musician. In 2017 he won the Croatia’s highest prize in music for the best jazz album of the year (Spiritual Market). He has his own atelier in Volosko/Opatija, where he works on his paintings and music. http://vedranruzic.com/en/
Vedran Ruzic Trio – Night speaking (Official video)
In the latest program of the “Philosophical Theater” in the Croatian National Theater HNK on 17 June, 2018, Srecko Horvat presented the famous German artist and scientist PhD. Hito Steyerl. The New York Times claimed “Hito Steyerl Is an Artist With Power. She Uses It for Change.”(Postmodernism as fragmentation is full of banality and conversation about it, taken out of context, can be perceived as such, so it was not allowed to record video during the talk!)
Hito Steyerl (born 1966 in Munich) is a German filmmaker, visual artist, writer, and innovator of the essay documentary. Her principal topics of interest are media, technology, and the global circulation of images. Steyerl holds a PhD in Philosophy from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She is currently a professor of New Media Art at the Berlin University of the Arts, where she co-founded the Research Center for Proxy Politics, together with Vera Tollmann and Boaz Levin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hito_Steyerl )
She prefers low resolution images, almost abstract… These days: Images are looking people! (We can see the connection to W.J.T. Mitchell’s notion from the book „What do pictures want?“ and the theory of J. Baudrillard.)
„The poor image is no longer about the real thing—the originary original. Instead, it is about its own real conditions of existence: about swarm circulation, digital dispersion, fractured and flexible temporalities. It is about defiance and appropriation just as it is about conformism and exploitation.
In short: it is about reality.“
In her new essay she discusses „Art of arts“ – a dystopian idea. It seems as an extension of her book „Duty Free Art“ (Art in the Age of Planetary Civil War) where she points to new storages of art as new substitutes for museums. (https://www.e-flux.com/journal/63/60894/duty-free-art )
She writes: „Huge art storage spaces are being created worldwide in what could essentially be called a luxury no man’s land, tax havens where artworks are shuffled around from one storage room to another once they get traded. This is also one of the prime spaces for contemporary art: an offshore or extraterritorial museum. (…) Freeport art storage facilities are secret museums. (…)The idea of duty-free art has one major advantage over the nation-state cultural model: duty-free art ought to have no duty—no duty to perform, to represent, to teach, to embody value.”
While discussing the technology and some predicting programs in sports, Steyerl as a media and technology artist claimed Artificial Intelligence has a shadow! She named it – Artificial Stupidity! But she uses technology – in terms of innovative and eduactional tools.
The question from the audience: as well as Karl Marx, Steyerl gives an overview and why not solutions?! She answered: we are not „omnipotent“ individuals but collectively creative through education and collective play (University has to be close to the Universe!).
The pleasant atmosphere of this philosophical talk has been completed as humorously as Srećko’s “Pink Freud” on his t-shirt!
Within the 29th Music Summer in Slavonski Brod, Ensemble for early music -“Minstrel” performed several Renaissance and Baroque compositions by Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger, Salamone Rossi and Bartolomeo Tromboncino at the Franciscan Monastery of St. Trinity.
Some of older city music lovers remember an amateur group of enthusiasts for the early music, founded by Dr. Kruno Martinac in 1970’s, while the editor of this portal and author of the text PhD. Vesna Srnic has played for several years block flutes (soprano, alt, tenor) in a junior ensemble of renowned Igor Pomikalo called Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis, performing at the famous Zagreb Lapidarium in the upper town.
The Zagreb Ensemble “Minstrel” performs sacral and secular compositions of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque, and acts as an educator in the field of Early Music. The ensemble musicians are: Goran Grčić – tenor, Nenad Kosak – tenor, Ante Beno – block flute, viola da gamba, zink, Lada Magdalenić Morpurgo – vielle, baroque violin, Sandra Munić – harp, viola da gamba, Lea Sušanj Lujo – viola da gamba, baroque cello and Darko Karajić – theorbo, lute.
Artistic conductor of the ensemble is Ante Beno.
The first-year students of The Faculty of Culturology in Osijek (Croatia, 
Europe) had to make experiments with glasses, light and liqu
id as a topic named “Creative Glasses” while attending “New Me
dia Genres” board, lectured by M.A. Vesna Srnic, Art Historian and professor of Comparative Literature. Students have inventively made photographs of glasses as the abstractions, using only their cell phones! The aim of this project, realized at the seminary, was to encourage students to explore and reinvent the Reality with a new approach to seeing.
Abstract
Media-Via 