DOCSLIB.ORG

Art and Technology

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Art and Technology LEON4102_pp169-174.ps - 3/11/2008 12:37 PM From Technophilia to Technophobia: The Impact of the Vietnam War on the Reception ABSTRACT Using the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s 1971 exhibition REFRESH! CONFERENCE PAPERS of “Art and Technology” “Art and Technology” as a case study, this essay examines a shift in attitude on the part of influential American artists and critics toward collaborations Anne Collins Goodyear between art and technology from one of optimism in the mid- 1960s to one of suspicion in the early 1970s. The Vietnam War dramatically undermined public confidence in the promise of new technology, linking it with corporate support of the war. Technology is not art—not invention. It is a simultaneous hope and technology. In response to the Ultimately, the discrediting of and hoax. Technology is what we do to the Black Panthers perceived Soviet threat, American industry-sponsored technology and the Vietnamese under the guise of advancement in a mate- education emphasized science and not only undermined the prem- ises of the LACMA exhibition rialistic theology. technology, while influential theo- but also may have contributed rists such as C.P. Snow, Reyner —Richard Serra [1] to the demise of the larger “art Banham and Marshall McLuhan and technology” movement in stressed the need for interconnec- the United States. In September 1970 artist James Turrell made a prophetic re- tion between art, science and tech- mark about Maurice Tuchman’s “Art and Technology” exhi- nology [5]. In 1967, engineer Billy bition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Klüver, co-founder of Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), argued that “the new inter- You could make this thing [“Art and Technology”] historically face between artists and engineers . has not developed only significant if you want[ed] to. I have the feeling that whatever is happening here is a symptom of something that’s going on—but out of the historical relationship between art and technology. I think—I hope—it’s going to be vastly overshadowed by the It has rather been born out of the direction and the nature of thrust of things going on independently [2]. contemporary art itself” [6]. Klüver’s observation fits with re- sponses by artists Dan Flavin, Robert Morris and Allan Kaprow As Turrell intuited, the “Art and Technology” exhibition to a 1966 questionnaire circulated by art historian and critic was the product and the victim of a confluence of social, eco- Barbara Rose to assess the “Sensibility of the Sixties.” Dan nomic and political factors that initially inspired, and ulti- Flavin reported that “it would not surprise me to see the evo- mately curtailed, widespread support for projects linking lution of a type of scientist-artist, or engineer-artist” [7]. Robert art, science and technology during the late 1960s and early Morris affirmed: “Some kind of center is needed. Even with 1970s [3]. A close study of Tuchman’s exhibition, planned and a few machines for working plastics and metal the artists them- executed between 1967 and 1971, suggests larger lessons for selves could experiment. Since this doesn’t happen in indus- interpreting the growth and demise of a cluster of similar proj- try it would undoubtedly lead to new ways of working materials” ects, demonstrating in particular the role played by the Viet- [8]. Allan Kaprow, who harbored his own plans to form such nam War in undermining collaborations between the “two an “experimental research” center for the arts, observed: cultures” [4]. Although there is good work being done in the conventional arts—painting, sculpture, music, dance, poetry, etc.—the newest TECHNOPHILIA AND energies are gathering in the cross-overs, the areas of impurity, AMERICAN ART OF THE 1960S the blurs which remain after the usual boundaries have been If the Vietnam War was to undermine in the early 1970s a ma- erased. This zone is increasingly referred to as the “intermedia,” Dick Higgins’ term for the media between the media [9]. jor art project embracing technology, it is worth observing that only a few years earlier the political climate of the Cold War Such opinions were consistent with viewpoints expressed by had encouraged an outlook better described as “technophilic” several pop artists earlier in the decade. As James Rosenquist on the part of many American artists, curators and critics. observed, “Doing a painting now seem[s] very old-fashioned” The launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Union in 1957 created [10]. Roy Lichtenstein asserted: “I think the meaning of my a climate favorable to art projects embracing new science work is that it’s industrial, it’s what all the world will soon be- come” [11]. Warhol claimed that “everybody should be a ma- Anne Collins Goodyear (curator), National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, chine” and later came to refer to his “studio” as “The Factory” PO Box 37012, Victor Building–Suite 4100 MRC 973, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012, [12]. U.S.A. E-mail: <[email protected]>. The drive to combine art with new technology inspired nu- An earlier version of this paper was presented at REFRESH! The First International Con- ference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology, held at the Banff Center merous exhibitions. These included: The Machine as Seen at 28 September–1 October 2005, cosponsored by the Banff New Media Institute, the Data- the End of the Machine Age, at the New York Museum of Mod- base of Virtual Art and Leonardo/ISAST. ern Art in 1968, held with Some More Beginnings, at the ©2008 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 169–173, 2008 169 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/leon.2008.41.2.169 by guest on 24 September 2021 LEON4102_pp169-174.ps - 3/11/2008 12:37 PM Brooklyn Museum of Art; Cybernetic The exhibition, originally projected cardboard pyramids; Robert Whitman’s Serendipity, at the Corcoran in Wash- for 1970, was intended to showcase the mirror-generated virtual images; Newton ington, D.C., in 1969; Software Informa- first results of an ongoing series of col- Harrison’s glowing tubes of color; Roy tion Technology, at the Jewish Museum laborations structured by Tuchman. In Lichtenstein’s films; and Andy Warhol’s in New York in 1970, and Explorations, launching his program, Tuchman aimed Rain Machine. The political cache of proj- at the Smithsonian the same year [13]. high, securing the participation of inter- ects celebrating the combined power of Many of these were supported by or- nationally renowned artists such as Andy the United States’ technological and cul- ganizations formed during this period, Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes tural resources, in the context of the Cold including E.A.T., established in 1966, and Oldenburg and Richard Serra [19]. Em- War, was reflected in the commentary of REFRESH! CONFERENCE PAPERS the Center for Advanced Visual Studies ploying commercial techniques of his an American journalist reporting on the (CAVS), founded in 1967 at the Massa- own, Tuchman created an incentive. Cor- installation, who observed: chusetts Institute of Technology [14]. porations who joined the venture agreed It must . be attractive to the govern- These exhibitions and new art groups to allow a particular artist, with needs ment to consider how “A&T” seems to reflected a broad acceptance of what that matched the company’s strengths, to embody democratic ideals of co-opera- Leo Steinberg described as the model of work at its facilities in exchange for pub- tion and interaction between various lev- els of the society. Pragmatically, “A&T” “the artist as [corporate] engineer and licity from the museum and the oppor- could be interpreted as embodying [Pres- research technician” [15]. Industrial part- tunity to acquire an artwork “issuing from ident Nixon’s] “bring us together” phi- nerships were widely viewed as advanta- the collaboration” [20]. losophy [24]. geous for artists seeking to exploit new technologies. The young curator ambitiously sought THE INCEPTION AND AIMS OF to connect the “futuristic” setting of “ART AND TECHNOLOGY” “Art and Technology,” the only major Los Angeles with the desire of avant-garde exhibition of its kind to originate on the West Coast, sought to capitalize on artists to embrace new technological the enthusiasm for such collaborations. Indeed, as curator Maurice Tuchman ex- methods and materials. plained, the spirit of the time seemed to demand it. According to Tuchman, the show grew out of his negative response to New to the city, Tuchman had reason FISSURES IN “ART the 1966 Venice Biennale: to believe that this undertaking would not only complement the futuristic AND TECHNOLOGY” These works were completely unrelated ARTNERSHIPS to modern times. Ninety-nine percent of setting of Los Angeles but would also en- P it was an irrelevant exercise. The senti- hance the museum’s financial and cul- Yet despite praise for the exhibition’s ments expressed had to do with a view of tural standing. As critic Peter Plagens small-scale debut in Osaka in 1970, man as if he were still existing before the observed, the exhibition catalogue for underlying challenges posed by its in- machine was developed. I then started thinking of artists using different tools. the show, A Report on the Art and Technol- dustrial-artistic partnerships became ap- I had just moved to California, a place ogy Program of the Los Angeles County Mu- parent when it officially opened several where one is always conscious of the fu- seum of Art, 1967–1971, “is not so much months later in Los Angeles. No longer ture. It made me think this would be an the narrative of a completed project, but benefiting from the strategic editing re- exciting thing to do [16].
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Sabbatical Leave Report 2019 – 2020
    Sabbatical Leave Report 2019 – 2020 James MacDevitt, M.A. Associate Professor of Art History and Visual & Cultural Studies Director, Cerritos College Art Gallery Department of Art and Design Fine Arts and Communications Division Cerritos College January 2021 Table of Contents Title Page i Table of Contents ii Sabbatical Leave Application iii Statement of Purpose 35 Objectives and Outcomes 36 OER Textbook: Disciplinary Entanglements 36 Getty PST Art x Science x LA Research Grant Application 37 Conference Presentation: Just Futures 38 Academic Publication: Algorithmic Culture 38 Service and Practical Application 39 Concluding Statement 40 Appendix List (A-E) 41 A. Disciplinary Entanglements | Table of Contents 42 B. Disciplinary Entanglements | Screenshots 70 C. Getty PST Art x Science x LA | Research Grant Application 78 D. Algorithmic Culture | Book and Chapter Details 101 E. Just Futures | Conference and Presentation Details 103 2 SABBATICAL LEAVE APPLICATION TO: Dr. Rick Miranda, Jr., Vice President of Academic Affairs FROM: James MacDevitt, Associate Professor of Visual & Cultural Studies DATE: October 30, 2018 SUBJECT: Request for Sabbatical Leave for the 2019-20 School Year I. REQUEST FOR SABBATICAL LEAVE. I am requesting a 100% sabbatical leave for the 2019-2020 academic year. Employed as a fulltime faculty member at Cerritos College since August 2005, I have never requested sabbatical leave during the past thirteen years of service. II. PURPOSE OF LEAVE Scientific advancements and technological capabilities, most notably within the last few decades, have evolved at ever-accelerating rates. Artists, like everyone else, now live in a contemporary world completely restructured by recent phenomena such as satellite imagery, augmented reality, digital surveillance, mass extinctions, artificial intelligence, prosthetic limbs, climate change, big data, genetic modification, drone warfare, biometrics, computer viruses, and social media (and that’s by no means meant to be an all-inclusive list).
    [Show full text]
  • The Early Works of Maria Nordman by Laura Margaret
    In Situ and On Location: The Early Works of Maria Nordman by Laura Margaret Richard A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History of Art and the Designated Emphasis in Film Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Associate Professor Julia Bryan-Wilson, Chair Professor Whitney Davis Professor Shannon Jackson Associate Professor Jeffrey Skoller Summer 2015 Abstract In Situ and On Location: The Early Works of Maria Nordman by Laura Margaret Richard Doctor of Philosophy in History of Art and the Designated Emphasis in Film Studies University of California, Berkeley Associate Professor Julia Bryan-Wilson, Chair This dissertation begins with Maria Nordman’s early forays into capturing time and space through photography, film, and performance and it arrives at the dozen important room works she constructed between 1969 and 1979. For these spaces in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, Italy, and Germany, the artist manipulated architecture to train sunshine into specific spatial effects. Hard to describe and even harder to illustrate, Nordman’s works elude definition and definitiveness, yet they remain very specific in their conception and depend on precision for their execution. Many of these rooms were constructed within museums, but just as many took place in her studio and in other storefronts in the working-class neighborhoods of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Milan, Genoa, Kassel, and Düsseldorf. If not truly outside of the art system then at least on its fringes, these works were premised physically and conceptually on their location in the city.
    [Show full text]
  • KOREAN ART and the AVANT-GARDE DILEMMA KI-WOONG PARK a Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of Nottingh
    KOREAN ART AND THE AVANT-GARDE DILEMMA KI-WOONG PARK A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Nottingham Trent University for the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts July 2012 1 KOREAN ART AND THE AVANT-GARDE DILEMMA KI-WOONG PARK A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Nottingham Trent University for the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts July 2012 2 This work is the intellectual property of the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed in the owner (s) of the Intellectual Property Rights. 3 Abstract The thesis covers Korean avant-garde art history and the dilemma that faced Korean artists at the end of the Japanese Colonial Period (1910-1945). Current literature adequately details avant-garde as progressive fine arts; however, there is limited literature on Korean art in this period. This thesis suggests the term avant-garde dilemma to indicate Korean artists‘ difficulty in style selection to follow a traditional aesthetical trend or progressive socio-political attitude for the foundation of Korean post-modernism. A salient démarche is found when Korean political avant-garde artists meet this dilemma in the midst of the Korean Demonstration Era (1976-1989) that initiates the decline of aesthetical activism and Demonstrative Art.
    [Show full text]
  • Maurice Tuchman Papers
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8bk1hzm Online items available Finding aid for the Maurice Tuchman papers, Pietro Rigolo Finding aid for the Maurice 2015.M.19 1 Tuchman papers, Descriptive Summary Title: Maurice Tuchman papers Date (inclusive): 1949-1998, undated Number: 2015.M.19 Creator/Collector: Tuchman, Maurice Physical Description: 34.8 Linear Feet(70 boxes, 7 flatfiles) Repository: The Getty Research Institute Special Collections 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100 Los Angeles 90049-1688 [email protected] URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref (310) 440-7390 Abstract: Maurice Tuchman (Jacksonville, Florida, 1936) is one of the most important curators to have emerged from Los Angeles, and his papers form a significant resource for the study of Southern California art history from the early 1960s to the 1990s. The archive documents many of Tuchman's projects both at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), where he served as curator from 1964 to 1994, an those done outside the institution as a scholar and art consultant. His professional files include most notably his appointment books from 1965 to 1994, and the photographs he took during the installation of Art and Technology (1971). A large section of personal correspondence, photographs and miscellaneous papers is also present, together with some audiovisual materials. Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy . Language: Collection material is in English. Biographical/Historical note Maurice Tuchman was born in 1936 in Jacksonville, Florida, to a Jewish Polish immigrant family who raised him in the Bronx.
    [Show full text]
  • A Report on the Art and Technology Program of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
    Cover A&T Copyright ® 197 I by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-146884 SBN: 87587-044-9 A Report on the Art and Technology Program of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art 1967-1971 Contents: A&T 7 Acknowledgments 9 Introduction: Maurice Tuchman 43 Thoughts on Art and Technology: Jane Livingston 49 Participating Artists 361 Participating Corporations Acknowledgments A&T The Museum's Contemporary Art Council has sponsored In organizing the preview exhibition of eight artists' and supported /4rt amy Technology from its inception in work from the A&T program for the United States late 1966 to the present time. I am grateful to this Pavilion at Expo 70, I worked closely with Jack Masey, devoted group, and particularly to its Chairmen during Deputy Commissioner General, Patricia Ezell, Exhibits the five-year development of the program— Harry Sher- Project Officer, and Designer Ray Komai. In Los wood, Dr. Judd iVlarmor and Mrs. Joann Phillips. Angeles, New York and Osaka, Japan there were con- tinual meetings with the designers of the Expo Exhibi- Mrs. Otis Chandler was the primary figure responsible tion Design Team, Davis, Brody, Chermayeff, Geismar, for corporation involvement. She worked indefatigably de Harak, Associates. Designers David Sutton, Yasuo with me to obtain company support for almost three Uesaka, Gary Jacquemin and Tom Kuboda were also at years. the site and involved in the installation of that exhibition. David Antin, Director of the Art Gallery, University of California, San Diego, was commissioned by Viking Press Eric Saarinen & Associates were commissioned by us and in January, 1968 to write a book about the A&T Container Corporation of America to make a film on the program.
    [Show full text]
  • From Technophilia to Technophobia: the Impact of the Vietnam War on the Reception of “Art and Technology”
    LEON4102_pp169-174.ps - 3/11/2008 12:37 PM From Technophilia to Technophobia: The Impact of the Vietnam War on the Reception ABSTRACT Using the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s 1971 exhibition REFRESH! CONFERENCE PAPERS of “Art and Technology” “Art and Technology” as a case study, this essay examines a shift in attitude on the part of influential American artists and critics toward collaborations Anne Collins Goodyear between art and technology from one of optimism in the mid- 1960s to one of suspicion in the early 1970s. The Vietnam War dramatically undermined public confidence in the promise of new technology, linking it with corporate support of the war. Technology is not art—not invention. It is a simultaneous hope and technology. In response to the Ultimately, the discrediting of and hoax. Technology is what we do to the Black Panthers perceived Soviet threat, American industry-sponsored technology and the Vietnamese under the guise of advancement in a mate- education emphasized science and not only undermined the prem- ises of the LACMA exhibition rialistic theology. technology, while influential theo- but also may have contributed rists such as C.P. Snow, Reyner —Richard Serra [1] to the demise of the larger “art Banham and Marshall McLuhan and technology” movement in stressed the need for interconnec- the United States. In September 1970 artist James Turrell made a prophetic re- tion between art, science and tech- mark about Maurice Tuchman’s “Art and Technology” exhi- nology [5]. In 1967, engineer Billy bition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Klüver, co-founder of Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.), argued that “the new inter- You could make this thing [“Art and Technology”] historically face between artists and engineers .
    [Show full text]
  • Essay by David Anfam
    David Anfam, Projection Works 1966-1969. Edited by Michael Hue-Williams Fine Art Ltd, 2004. Framing the Space of Absence David Anfam “And the sublime comes down To the spirit itself, The spirit and space, The empty spirit In vacant space” Wallace Stevens1 “Structure is the giver of light” Louis Kahn2 “I have to confess that I have great love for civic space that is emptied of use” James Turrell3 1 David Anfam, Projection Works 1966-1969. Edited by Michael Hue-Williams Fine Art Ltd, 2004. However ‘spirituality’ is defined, renunciation has been its perennial handmaiden. Across the ages, saints have retreated to their deserts, ascetics to their solitary cells and prophets to their proverbial wilderness. Pioneering modernist painters such as Kasimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian and Ad Reinhardt followed this path visually, reducing their art to the barest absolutes of geometry, space and light. The time- honoured means of oil paint on canvas sufficed for their stark ambitions. But in the 1970s James Turrell bucked the trend. He piloted a plane to scour the Arizona desert for a site from which to model a great arena to survey the cosmos and, meanwhile, utilised umpteen specialist devices—from theodolites and map-making stereoscopes to xenon projectors—to materialise his singular vision. Turrell’s first Projection Works conceived in the late 1960s establish his paradoxical moves. They play with less and more. Less in terms of whatever is renounced—paint, canvas, drawing, movement, sound and matter. More in terms of the absolute materialisation of that most ubiquitous yet intangible of phenomena—light.
    [Show full text]
  • Making the Case
    A PPENDIX Making the Case The effort to induce the professional art world to acknowledge the spiritual content in modern and contemporary art has a history, although not a very successful one with regard to effecting widespread change in the status quo. The following list charts the stream of books, articles, exhibitions, and public lectures on the significant role of prominent artists’ spiritual interests in the creation of their art. It begins in the aftermath of Alfred Barr’s influential exhibition on Cubism and Abstraction at the Museum of Modern Art in 1936, before which there was little need to argue the case for recognizing spiritual interests in the new art because the subject was so well-known and frequently written about in Europe by artists and art critics between the mid-1880s and the early 1920s. Each of the works and presentations listed below addresses a sub-set of the larger story by focusing on an art movement, or a time period, or an area of influence. Monographs of individual artists are not included here, although hundreds of relevant monographs are cited in the Notes. A complete bibliography of all the books I consulted during the years of researching this book would be too vast for the space limitations I was given. Finally, this list is limited to works written in or for the art world. Many insightful papers and articles have been presented within the academic fields of religion and philosophy about modern art, but those have not generally attracted the attention of art world professionals. 1937 Meyer Schapiro, “The
    [Show full text]
  • Art & Technology Bewegungen in Amerika
    14.11.2018 Inge Hinterwaldner Art & Technology Bewegungen in Amerika VL, Di. 13.11.2018: Maurice Tuchmans Initiative am LACMA (1966‐1971) Maurice Tuchman: Zeichnung von 1950. Maurice Tuchman und Henry Hopkins während des Aufbaus der Ausstellung American Sculpture of the Sixties, 1967, LACMA. 1 14.11.2018 Andrew Perchuk (Getty Research Institute) mit L.A. Kuratorinnen: Jane Livingston, Barbara Haskell, Helene Winer. Getty Center, 26.10.2011. Tuchman, Maurice: A report on the art and technology program of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1967- 1971, Viking: New York 1971. Cover. Online: https://archive.org/stream/reportonarttec hn00losa_/reportonarttechn00losa#page/ n0/mode/2up 2 14.11.2018 William Crutchfield: Beached City, 1972. Zeichnung. Werkstatt von Daniel Düsentrieb. William Crutchfield: Illustration zum Projekt von Rockne Krebs und Hewlett Packard Company, in: A Report …, S. 20. 3 14.11.2018 "Much of the most compelling art since 1910 has depended upon the materials and processes of technology, and has increasingly assimilated scientific and industrial advances. Nevertheless, only in isolated circumstances have artists been able to carry out their ideas or even initiate their projects due to the lack of an operative relationship with corporate facilities. Our objective now is to provide the necessary meeting ground for some eminent contemporary artists with sophisticated technological personnel and resources. Naturally we hope that this endeavor will result not only in significant works of art but in an ongoing union between the two forces. It is our conviction that the need for this alliance is one of the most pressing esthetic issues of our time.” Maurice Tuchman, A Report on the Art and Technology Program at the Los Angeles county Museum of Art 1967‐1971 (Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art), 1971, S.
    [Show full text]
  • The Early Works of Maria Nordman by Laura Margaret Richard A
    In Situ and On Location: The Early Works of Maria Nordman by Laura Margaret Richard A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History of Art and the Designated Emphasis in Film Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Associate Professor Julia Bryan-Wilson, Chair Professor Whitney Davis Professor Shannon Jackson Associate Professor Jeffrey Skoller Summer 2015 Abstract In Situ and On Location: The Early Works of Maria Nordman by Laura Margaret Richard Doctor of Philosophy in History of Art and the Designated Emphasis in Film Studies University of California, Berkeley Associate Professor Julia Bryan-Wilson, Chair This dissertation begins with Maria Nordman’s early forays into capturing time and space through photography, film, and performance and it arrives at the dozen important room works she constructed between 1969 and 1979. For these spaces in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area, Italy, and Germany, the artist manipulated architecture to train sunshine into specific spatial effects. Hard to describe and even harder to illustrate, Nordman’s works elude definition and definitiveness, yet they remain very specific in their conception and depend on precision for their execution. Many of these rooms were constructed within museums, but just as many took place in her studio and in other storefronts in the working-class neighborhoods of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Milan, Genoa, Kassel, and Düsseldorf. If not truly outside of the art system then at least on its fringes, these works were premised physically and conceptually on their location in the city.
    [Show full text]