Steve Dietz: The art of technology, the technology of art

Steve Dietz is a self-proclaimed serial platform creator. Steve is linked with media initiatives at such places as the Walker Art Center, Forecast Public Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. He has also organized and curated over a dozen new media art exhibitions worldwide. As a speaker, a writer, and a scholar, Dietz seems to have a golden touch with technology initiatives—yet he is surprisingly humble, tackling his work with a practical outlook and pragmatic zest.

Dietz was trained as a photographer at San Francisco State University, and his first employment was to run the book-publishing program for the Aperture Foundation. He moved on to the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1992 and founded one of the earliest museum-based new media programs. Dietz also served as editor of the scholarly journal American Art. “[While at the Smithsonian] I attended a book conference and saw a book on CD-ROM," he remembers. "I approached our director, and she was very supportive [about using the Internet]; we were interested in reaching out to new audiences. [Given that] this was in the early 90s, it was surprisingly uncontroversial."

Dietz returned to the Twin Cities with his family, where he served as a consultant for arts institutions until he met with the Walker regarding a technology project. “The Walker had a grant from [the] Bush [Foundation], to do something with technology [but] they didn’t quite know what. I wanted to work with artists who used the Internet as a medium and not just a delivery platform.” Dietz was hired as curator of new media at the Walker, where he worked from 1996 to 2003.

At the Walker, Dietz founded the New Media Initiatives department as well as Gallery 9 and the digital art study collection. He also co-founded, with the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the award-winning educational site ArtsConnectEd—a Web site geared to students and educators. Many also know him for his instrumental role in creating and directing mnartists.org, an online publication and database of Minnesota artists and arts organizations.

Dietz's current project is called Northern Lights: a roving, collaborative, interactive media-oriented art agency. “There are some exceptional artists here," he says, "and there are some strong programs at MCAD and the U; but there isn’t the strong environment of support that you get in San Fran and New York.” This is one of the reasons that Northern Lights includes a program called Art(ists) on the Verge (AOV), a two-track fellowship and mentoring program for Minnesota-based, emerging artists working experimentally at the intersection of art and technology, with a focus on practices that are social, collaborative and/or participatory. AOV is a partnership project between Northern Lights and the Jerome Foundation. Northern Lights was also the initiator of the UnConvention, a coordinated effort of artists' responses to the 2008 Republican National Convention.

In addition, Dietz is founding director of the biennial 01SJ Global Festival of Art on the Edge in San Jose, California, and he is artistic director of its producing organization, ZERO1: The Art and Technology Network. ZERO1 Is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to conduct a biennial festival that will offer attendees compelling experiences made possible at the intersection of art and digital culture. He takes the necessary travel in stride. “Working with any artist requires commitment to making his or her vision possible and a certain critical engagement with his or her ideas, but this is true regardless of geography.”

“Ultimately,” says Dietz, “I am a follower of where artists are going, not a leader.”

Betsy Mowry works as an arts administrator with COMPAS and the Arts & Culture Partnership of St. Paul.