Artist and theorist Tom Sherman, associate professor in Syracuse University's School of Art and Design, College of Visual and Performing Arts, is the featured artist at a celebration of his latest book, "Before and After the I-Bomb: An Artist in the Information Environment," from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sept. 20 at SU's Light Work, located in the Robert B. Menschel Media Center, 316 Waverly Ave.
The celebration will feature readings, a screening of Sherman's latest video art, a reception and a book signing. Light Work, the College of Visual and Performing Arts, Banff Centre Press and Follett's Orange Bookstore are co-sponsoring the event.
The videos Sherman will present include three short works he completed in June-"After the I-Bomb," "Talking to Nature," and "Tweak #2"-and two short works completed in 2001-"Half/Lives" and "Sub/Extros #3." The 2001 videos were also featured at the 2001 Toronto International Video Biennial, Eastern Michigan University's Ford Gallery, the "Signal and Noise: Festival of Contemporary Media" in Vancouver and Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, among other venues.
"Before and After the I-Bomb" is an anthology of some of the best of Sherman's thinking and writing about art, nature and technology from the last two decades. His series of personal reflections express both a love for and struggle with the new technologies and the cultural changes they have spawned. Most importantly, the writings provide an instrument for gauging the evolution of a human culture inextricably bound to Earth's ecosystem, and a tool for negotiating the future, even if it is currently "obscured by a dense cloud of scrambled technobabble."
A 1969 graduate of Eastern Michigan University, Sherman is the founder of the Media Arts Section of the Canada Council for the Arts, co-founder of Fuse magazine and represented Canada at the Venice Biennale. He performs and records with the group Nerve Theory and teaches media art history, theory and practice at SU.
