Date of Publication: 2008-04-01

Indigenous epistemologies provide sophisticated structures for negotiating belonging among communities who may become widely dispersed from their homelands. New media, by contrast, demonstrates biases toward the the dislocated: a cosmopolitanism implicitly located in the urban, where communities form and fragment in “virtual” environments. Nonetheless, questions of belonging and identification remain for those of us who use new media networks. Through analysis of a range of contemporary art and film projects, and tracking recent developments in cultural theory, the book provides diverse perspectives on how long-held attachments to place are transforming in the new media context.

Danny Butt is a partner at Suma Media Consulting and editor of the book Internet Governance: Asia Pacific Perspectives. Jon Bywater is Programme Leader,Critical Studies at the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts and is the New Zealand reviewer for Artforum magazine. Nova Paul is a film maker and Senior Lecturer at the School of Art and Design, AUT University.

“The contest over meanings of place stretch back to colonialism and forward to ubiquitous media. This collection draws together politics, aesthetics and ethics in a startling, innovative debate of exceptional value to both artists and sociologists of the new media landscape.”

Professor Sean Cubitt, University of Melbourne

“This book recognises the complex readings of what it means to be contemporary in a place. A compelling set of conversations that consider the alternative modernities and knowledge systems that destabilize colonial understandings of spatialization, self- representation and the role of new media art practice.”

Professor Joel Slayton, San Jose State University

Sample pdf (including Table of Contents)