I missed the debate last night but I did go to a talk at Pace University by two very different digital artists.

José Carlos Casado and Michael Mandiberg couldn’t be more different in their approaches to new media art.

Casado showed and discussed his Pandora’s Box (revisited)*, a two-channel video installation. It’s a lush fantastical tableau evoking themes of love, reproduction, sex, and intimate human relationships. Often lyrical and goofy in an endearing way, the video’s playful quality is very refreshing.

Also playful are Mandiberg’s mostly conceptual pieces. Steeped in Marxist theory, his work criticizes the art object, dot.com e-commerce and identity in a hip and witty way. See aftersherrielevine.com and Shop Mandiberg.

Casado was the weaker speaker. His talk was long-winded and — frankly —boring. Mandiberg, perhaps because his work is based more in the verbal or because he lectures for a living at university, was a much more engaging speaker and explained his work in a much more lucid way. To be fair to Casado, his work doesn’t need much explanation, it’s lyrical, aesthetic work which most people know how to respond too without any context or explanation. He should understand this and not bore us with long-winded histories of the piece and let it speak for itself.

*I would link directly to his on-line documentation, but his Flash interface stops me — just go to his site (linked from his name above) and choose “art works”. permanent link to this post