Goldsmiths - University of London

Johannes Maier

In my work I document events and collaborate both with people and institutions, such as interpreters at the European Commission and Newsroom picture editors at the BBC. These collaborations are planned meticulously prior to the production without narrating the events itself.

The project I am undertaking deals with ‘embeddedness’ as a motif of contextual proximity and a conceptual strategy in contemporary art. The proposed research touches on current debates in media studies, questions ‘embeddedness’ in news journalism and folds these discussions back on contemporary art. The aim of the textual element is to provide an understanding about a concept of ‘liveness’ and ‘situatedness’ (embeddedness).

in the 2003 Iraq War contextualises the purpose of the investigation. ‘Embeddedness’ discloses questions journalism in general is confronted with today. How can immediate or embedded reporting claim objectivity considering journalism’s first obligation, the principle of truth? The project claims, that thought as process in respect of its situated dependency generates within that process, which leads me to the discussion of ‘live-thought’.
In this research project I am considering how immediacy, i.e. ‘embeddedness’, is already a mediation. This raises problems about authorship, control and subjectivity and proposes the question how ‘embeddedness’ conveys criticality regarding the mediation that it undertakes? The project claims, that the embeddedness in art is a strategic contextual condition and an editorial concept set up by the artist. This strategy produces the process of the work and is prior to the postproduction. The initial editorial concept leads to the problem of a situational control.

Taking up idioms of ‘embeddedness’ from contemporary artists like Phil Collins, The Atlas Group, and from Christian Jankowski, I propose to produce a comparative analysis of key theoretical literature contesting relevant ideas of mediation:
Jacques Derrida and Bernhard Stiegler (Echographies of Television, 1996), Bill Nichols (Blurred Boundaries, 1994) and Gregory Bateson (Cultural Contact and Schismogenesis, 1935). I also draw on other sources in media studies, such as The Elements of Journalism (2001) by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel or Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq (2003) by Bill Katovsky to undertake this comparative study. I contextualize the investigation of a situated art practice with references to Friedrich Nietzsche’s ‘will to power’ as well as Alfred North Whitehead’s ‘concept of nature’.

The focus of the project, intentionally positioned at the boundaries of the arts, documentary and the media, is a critical engagement with televisual forms of journalism, while working with similar strategies, or even to participate in situations created by the media. One example of my methodology is the interview recording with Darren Conway, an embedded journalist, who was attached to British soldiers in Iraq in 2003. On the one hand his appearance in front of my cameras is the basis for the video piece “Facing”  (2004), on the other hand I refer to his oral statements, which allow me to discuss the evolving subject matter of my theoretical research project.

Academic qualifications

2003 MPhil/PhD Visual Arts, Goldsmiths College, London (UK)
1999-2000 MA Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, London (UK)
1997 BA (Hons) Fine Art, University of Derby (UK)
1992-98 Fine Art Degree at Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, Germany

Presentations and exhibitions

2006 “OSHA project”, LMCC, New York City (USA)
2006 “VIPER”, Film and Videofestival, Basel (CH) (cat.)

2005 “Sommerfrische”, Castle Montfort, Langenargen (D)
2005 “In Media”, APT Gallery, London (UK)
2005 “Brief Encounter”, Academy Reykjavik (ICE)
2005 Oberhausen Film Festival (D)
2005 “3-2-1”, Columbus Art Foundation, Ravensburg (D)

2004 “tainment/haltungen” NGBK, Berlin (D)
2004 “Neurichten (News)” Play Gallery, Berlin (D) *
2004 Video Series, John Hansward Gallery, Southampton (UK)
2004 Take care, Columbus Art Foundation, Kunsthaus Hamburg (D)

2003 ”project artist”, with A. Wyatt, K. Woerwag, C. Jankowski
Kunstverein Friedrichshafen (D)
2003 ”Der Silberne Schnitt”, Württ. Kunstverein Stuttgart (D) / cat.
2003 ”Peripherie und Zentrum”, Landesvert. Baden-Württemberg, Berlin (D)
2003 ”Translator’s Notes”, Cafe Gallery, London (UK)
2003 ”Fairplay”, Play - Gallery for Still and Motion Picture, Berlin (D)
2003 Filmfestival, Baden (CH) cat.
2003 ”Break in Theatre”, Hara Museum, Tokyo (Japan)

2002/2003 Critical Home Video, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth (NZ)
2002 ”Sitting Tenants”, Adam and Eve Mews, London (UK)
2002 IFFR, Rotterdam Film Festival (NL) / cat.
2002 ”mediated.cooperation” Kunststifting Baden-Wuerttemberg, in coop with Sophie von Hellermann *
2002 „reality check“, Sammlung Columbus, Ravensburg-Zussdorf, (D)
2002 HAFF, Animations Filmfestival, Utrecht (NL) / cat.
2002 Critical Video Home, art space, peterborough, ON, Canada

2001 ”acoustic shadows”, Bahnwärterhaus Villa Merkel, Esslingen (D)
2001 ”Insider Trading“, Mandeville Hotel, London / cat. CD-Rom
2001 ”Cut and Life”, One in the Other, London (UK)
2001 ”East International 2001”, Norwich (UK) / cat.
2001 ”future perfect”, Adam Street, London (UK)
2001 ”Break In Theatre 2” Video Screening Exhibition, Tonchiki House,   Yokohama Triennale, (J) / cat.
2001 ”World Wide Video Festival”, Amsterdam (NL) / cat.
2001 ”What’s Wrong?”, The Trade Apartment, London (UK)
2001 ”Critical Video Lounge”, York City Art Gallery, York (UK)
2001 ”Enter”, Apartments Kunststiftung Baden-Wuerttemberg, Stuttgart (D)
2001 ”Break In Theatre 2” Video Screening Exhibition, Kobo & Tomo, Ginza, Chu-oh Ku, Tokyo, (J)

Selected publications

“Being Embedded – the Concept of ‘Liveness’ in Journalism”, The War in Iraq and Visual Culture, Editor: Suhail Malik, Journal of Visual Culture, (April 2006), Sage Publications, London