Telematic art across the North–South divide.

Telematics; Global North-South divide; Globalization; Gaze; Aesthetics & politics; Exhibition buildings; Telecommunication systems

Telematic artworks are often included in the theoretical framework of relational aesthetics for the ways in which they engender active dialogue and exchange. This study is situated within a critique of the claim that relational art is widely accessible in terms of its formal structure and is thus ‘more or less democratic’ (McIntyre 2007: 35). This argument fails to recognise the political aspect of communication. Particularly because telematic artworks are able to cross geo-political divides, they are imagined within a utopian construction of globalisation. However, all globalisation is mediated and thus loaded with pre-existing power relations that are often merely reproduced and reinforced in telematic artworks. This is explored through a critical analysis of a telematic artwork entitledUrbanet: Jhb–Linzby South African artist collaborative Hobbs/Neustetter as well as its location within the exhibition ‘80+1: A Journey Around the World’, which took place in Austria in 2009. While the exhibition tends to reinforce a privileged gaze of the Global South for audiences,Urbanet: Jhb–Linzdestabilises the act of looking and being looked at through a series of aesthetic and structural choices. This provides a particular challenge to the form of power that pervades North–South communication. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]