THE NEW SCHOOL’S PROJECT MEDIA SPACE|PUBLIC SPACE PRESENTS
CHANNELS: EMERGING MEDIA PUBLICS

On View May 10–19 at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s 15 Nassau Space
Opening Reception: Tuesday, May 9, 6–9 p.m.

New York, April 24, 2006—In May, The New School will present Channels: Emerging Media Publics, an exhibition organized by the university’s Media Studies and Film department that explores how media—from cell phones and news network billboards to the internet—is changing the way we experience and create public space.  The exhibition will be on view at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s 15 Nassau space from May 10 through May 19. An opening reception will be held on Tuesday, May 9, from 6-9 p.m.

Channels: Emerging Media Publics challenges visitors to experience for themselves how everything from text-messaging to ambient sound effects alter the way we interact with our environment,” said Carol Wilder, chair of the Department of Media Studies and Film at The New School. “The exhibition reflects The New School’s commitment to exploring the social and cultural implications of ever-evolving developments in the fields of film and media studies.”

The exhibition is the result of Project Media Space|Public Space, a yearlong investigation into these issues, which brought together students from across the university, including its Media Studies and International Affairs graduate programs, and the Design and Technology, Fine Arts, and Architecture programs at Parsons The New School for Design. “Project Media Space|Public Space is an example of several new initiatives at The New School, including the India China Institute and the Tishman Environment and Design Center, where the university is placing an emphasis on interdisciplinary programs that take advantage of all that its eight schools have to offer,” said Bob Kerrey, president of The New School.

The 15 projects making up Channels: Emerging Media Publics were chosen by a jury from a pool of student and faculty submissions that were primarily developed either as thesis projects or in the courses “Media Space|Public Space Seminar” and “Sound and Space.” Co-conceived and directed by Shannon Mattern and Elizabeth Ellsworth, core faculty members in The New School’s Department of Media Studies and Film, Project Media Space|Public Space used New York City as its classroom. Through taking field trips as diverse as urban policy meetings, historical and literary walking tours, and simply observing people within their environments, students were exposed to the different ways media are already influencing public space.

Many of the resulting projects are interactive. For example, “Earlids” challenges visitors to listen more critically to the incessant, potentially harmful sounds that invade our environments. To create the project, the team, which included Media Studies student Melissa Grey and Product Design faculty members Robert Kirkbride and Patricia Beirne, recorded ambient sounds, conducted a public survey to determine how pleasant or unpleasant certain sounds were to the listener, and created a life-size interactive instrument to integrate the sounds and the survey results. Stepping inside the instrument, visitors are exposed to a recording of sounds that we encounter every day in our urban environments and are then given a choice—a choice we do not normally have—of filtering out unpleasant sounds.

In “Telephone>Redux,” Media Studies faculty member Michele Handelman tackles the childhood game of telephone and shows how media can at once distort the truth and make private knowledge public. Upon entering the gallery, visitors may be asked for a secret by one of the exhibit’s “agents.” As in the game, the agents relay the secret to one another via cellphone until it finally makes its way to Handelman, who is enclosed in a clear box in the center of the room (see image on page 1). She then broadcasts the text message over a loudspeaker, disclosing the secret and revealing how distorted it has become.

Students are designing and installing the exhibition with support from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and advice from experts at Ralph Applebaum Associates, the Whitney Curatorial Program, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. “One of the nice things about this exhibition and the participation of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council is that it has expanded the visibility of the project and our program,” said Mattern. “It is a great opportunity for our students both to exhibit their work, as well as to curate and run an exhibition in a professional gallery with public exposure.” The students are also working on marketing the event and have developed a series corresponding public programs including concerts, readings, faculty panel discussions, and artist talks. A full list of programming and more information about Project Media Space|Public Space can be found at mediastudies.newschool.edu/projectmsps.

15 Nassau is the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s (LMCC) exhibition and performance venue and was designed and created in 2005 by graduate architecture students at Parsons The New School for Design. It is located at the intersection of Nassau and Pine streets, just a block north of the New York Stock Exchange. Exhibit hours for Channels: Emerging Media Publics are: May 10-18, noon to 9:00 p.m.; May 19, noon to 5:00 p.m.; Saturday,  May 20: noon to 4:00 p.m. Admission is free. For more information about LMCC and the 15 Nassau space, visit www.lmcc.net, call 212.219.9401, or email [email protected].

ABOUT MEDIA STUDIES AND FILM AT THE NEW SCHOOL

The New School offered the country’s first college-level a film course in 1926. Today, The New School Media Studies and Film program offers a master’s degree in media studies, as well as certificate programs in film production, screenwriting, media management and—starting this fall—documentary media studies. Throughout its 36-year history, the Media Studies and Film program has been committed to the essential relationship between media theory and practice. In a world defined by rapidly changing information and communication technologies, the program is focused on innovation yet respectful of the integrity and potential contributions of all media formats, providing state-of-the-art instruction in audio, video, film, and multimedia. Today, more than 420 students are enrolled in the Media Studies MA program, making it the largest program of its kind. For more information, please visit www.mediastudies.newschool.edu.