ISSN 1071-4391 ISBN 978-1-906897-11-6 This Issue of LEA Is a Co-Publication Of

ISSN 1071-4391 ISBN 978-1-906897-11-6 This issue of LEA is a co-publication of

Leonardo Electronic Almanac Volume 17 Issue 1 August 2011 ISSN: 1071-4391 ISBN: 978-1-906897-11-6 The ISBN is provided by Goldsmiths, University of London

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2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 17 NO 1 ISSN 1071-4391 ISBN 978-1-906897-11-6 ISSN 1071-4391 ISBN 978-1-906897-11-6 VOL 17 NO 1 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 3 C ONTENTS CONTENT S

Leonardo Electronic Almanac Volume 17 Issue 1

4 EDITORIAL Lanfranco Aceti ACADEMIC VANITAS: MICHAEL AURBACH COGNITIVE LABOR, CROWDSOURCING, 8 AND CRITICAL THEORY 118 AND CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE Dorothy Joiner MECHANIZATION OF THE MIND Ayhan Aytes SOME THOUGHTS CONNECTING DETERMIN- 14 ISTIC CHAOS, NEURONAL DYNAMICS AND INVERSE EMBODIMENT: AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE 128 AN INTERVIEW WITH STELARC Andrea Ackerman Lanfranco Aceti

HACKING THE CODES OF SELF-REPRESEN- ORDER IN COMPLEXITY 28 TATION: AN INTERVIEW WITH LYNN HER- 138 Frieder Nake SHMAN LEESON Tatiana Bazzichelli TEACHING VIDEO PRODUCTION 142 IN VIRTUAL REALITY ELECTRONIC LITERATURE Joseph Farbrook 34 AS A SWORD OF LIGHTNING Davin Heckman ATOMISM: 152 RESIDUAL IMAGES WITHIN SILVER PROFILE: DARKO FRITZ Paul Thomas 42 44 Lanfranco Aceti, Interview with Darko Fritz 50 Saša Vojković, Reflections on Archives in COLLABORATING WITH THE ENEMY Progress by Darko Fritz 156 Shane Mecklenburger 52 Vesna Madzoski, Error to Mistake: Notes on the Aesthetics of Failure THE AMMONITE ORDER, OR, OBJECTILES NEXUS OF ART AND SCIENCE: THE CENTRE 172 FOR AN (UN) NATURAL HISTORY 56 FOR COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE AND Vince Dziekan ROBOTICS AT UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX Christine Aicardi THE CONTEMPORARY BECOMES DIGITAL 184 Bruce Wands MISH/MASH 82 Paul Catanese LEONARDO ELECTRONIC ALMANAC - 188 HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE SIPPING ESPRESSO WITH SALMON Craig Harris 92 Carey K. Bagdassarian ARS ELECTRONICA 2010: THE MAKING OF EMPTY STAGES BY TIM 196 SIDETRACK OR CROSSROADS ? 102 ETCHELLS AND HUGO GLENDINNING: AN Erkki Huhtamo INTERVIEW WITH HUGO GLENDINNING Gabriella Giannachi

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ACADEMIC ABSTRACT In a satiric series of sculptures, Michael Aurbach uses laughter to lampoon the excesses of the contemporary scholarship known as critical theory. Spun from psychology, linguistic hermeneutics, and philosophy, critical theory, in Aurbach’s view, tends to deemphasize art objects, substi- tuting fatuous speculations for straightforward analysis. The Critical Theo- VANITAS rist (2003) is a fantastical contraption on a metal table, each element of Michael Aurbach and Critical Theory which is a visual joke. Reliquary for a Critical Theorist (2005) parodies the tradition of containers for relics. Two Plexiglas “books,” C’est Nothing and Deux Nothing (2009), continue the notion of vacuity. And Critical Theory’s Secret (2010) imitates a safe. It’s empty, however, mocking the notion of an underlying meaning.

To lampoon Socrates’ obsession with the realm of Dorothy Joiner ideas and concomitant disdain for the pedestrian world of ordinary experience, Aristophanes has the Lovick P. Corn Professor of Art History philosopher of The Clouds (423 bc) live ludicrously LaGrange College suspended high up from the earth in a basket. The LaGrange GA 30240 purpose of the Greek playwright’s spoof – indeed, the central aim of comedy – is, in the words of Nathan Critical Theory’s Secret 2010 Scott, “to remind us of how deeply rooted we are in Plexiglas and Metal, 48.3 × 58.4 × 58.4 cm the tangible things of this world.” © Michael Aurbach 1 Photographer: Bill Lafevor Aligning himself to this morally sanative tradition, in which “laughter is corrective” 2, sculptor Michael Aurbach holds up to ridicule the fatuitous contemporary scholarship known as Critical Theory, the dernier Critical Theory: C’est Nothing, Deux Nothing 2009 cri of trendy academics. Wafting like Socrates in his Plexiglas, 30.5 × 22.9 × 30.5 cm basket above actual art objects or literary texts, the © Michael Aurbach Photographer: Bill Lafevor 8 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 17 NO 1 ISSN 1071-4391 ISBN 978-1-906897-11-6 ISSN 1071-4391 ISBN 978-1-906897-11-6 VOL 17 NO 1 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 9 A RTICLE ARTICL E

critical theorist substitutes speculative psychobabble, Aurbach asserts, for straightforward analysis and com- mentary.

Echoing the “high language” that Aristophanes ironi- cally maintains as necessary to “high thoughts” 3, Critical Theory is elusive and resists formulation. Employing a polysyllabic vocabulary, proponents spin The Critical Theorist 2003 intricate lucubrations derived from Freudian psychol- hype. And a meat cleaver, “the Cutting Edge,” under- Mixed Media, 7.5 × 6.5 × 8 ft ogy, Kantian philosophy, and Chomskyesque linguistic scores that conversance with Critical Theory’s jargon © Michael Aurbach hermeneutics. Stars of the “discipline” include, among confirms any academic’s position in the intellectual Photographer: Bill Lafevor others, Jacques Lacan, Roland Barthes, Michel Fou- avant-garde. cault, and Jacques Derrida. Now is the moment to get rid of art altogether. A Aurbach inaugurated his satirical series with The Criti- garbage disposal, alias “Object Disposal,” pulver- cal Theorist (2003), a fantastical, Rube Goldbergesque izes artifacts, while the “Art Evaporator,” a tea kettle, contraption on a metal table. Discharging their imagi- eliminates any residue. Aurbach’s wit becomes even volumes – the first titled C’est Nothing; the second evanescent as bubbles, the image proclaims. A memo- nary contents into an oversized pot – “it’s all cooked more trenchant at the end of this erudite little produc- a witty French-English pun, Deux Nothing (2009). rable example is the glass sphere sequestering an up” – a trio of meat grinders bear telling labels: “Es- tion line. A wooden book on the conveyor belt opens Aurbach’s tabula rasa nods respectfully, of course, to amorous couple on the central panel of Hieronymous sence of Derrida” (whom the New York Times labeled to display a vibrator nested in potpourri (the French Magritte’s The Perfidy of Images (1928–29), in which Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights (1505–1510), a “an abstruse theorist”); “Extract of Foucault” (Derrida’s word for “rotten” is not without significance here). the well-known caption, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe,” con- vivid illustration of the Netherlandish proverb: “happi- teacher); and “art.” But don’t worry; this latest addition Egocentric and finally unfruitful, Critical Theory is a founds the relationship between the words and the ness and glass are both soon broken.” Equally empty is slated for imminent obliteration. kind of learned masturbation. meticulously rendered briar pipe above. and devoid of substance, Aurbach derides, is Critical theory. Other ingredients “season” this scholarly stew. Five Aurbach resumes the visual burlesque with additions Critical Theory’s Secret (2010), a Plexiglas cube with a valved faucets contribute “Fragrance,” “Distillate of to the series. Reliquary for a Critical Theorist (2005), non-functional door and a calibrated dial lock, imitates Those uninitiated into the intellectual gymnastics of Deconstruction” (fancy word for analysis), together a spare Plexiglas box with a pitched roof parodies a safe. A vitrine like that enveloping its forebears ac- Critical Theory will scratch their heads and wonder at with FD&C coloring, i.e., the prescriptive titles of the millennial Christian tradition of ornate containers cents its mock value. But nobody has the combination, the vehemence of Aurbach’s satire. Others inebriated commercial food colors: “yellow #5,” “blue #1,” “red designed to hold saintly relics. The sculptor’s “reli- and why bother? There is nothing inside. by this “skein of owlish verbal irrelevancies” 5 – to #40,” – all artificial, of course. Next, strainers serve quary” is, however, free of adornment; and, like Critical quote Roger Kimball – will puff up in wounded vanity. as “Fact Removers.” Who needs the truth? Condiment Theory, empty. In a meaningful detail, the gable roof It is notable that all the Plexiglas pieces were fabri- A third, more levelheaded group will laugh out loud at dispensers termed “spin cycle” accent the scholarly is “unhinged,” just like those espousing the “theory.” cated for the artist, who otherwise insists on making the burlesque. A second box replicating the first but exactly half the his own work. But because Critical Theory has so size, as though sliced down the middle, bears the title devalued the art object, who cares if it is hand crafted Reliquary for a Second Generation Critical Theorist or not? The use of clear Plexiglas, a friable, glass-like (2005), reminding us of Homer’s dictum that sons are material, brings to mind other associations as well. rarely similar to their fathers; “most are worse.” 4 Frequently depicted in Dutch still-lifes of the 16th and 17th centuries, glass spheres allude to the brevity of life, The artist’s jab at pseudo-scholarship continues with a reminder of the vanitas theme, that earthly goods two Plexiglas “books” within a vitrine, like heirloom are all transitory. Man’s life and his pleasures are as

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REfEREncEs And notEs

To appreciate how apt are Aurbach’s excoriations, one have little to do with van Gogh’s painting. The shoes on a presumed pun between the name “Boit” and 1. Nathan A. Scott Jr., “The Bias of Comedy and the Narrow need sample only two examples from Kimball’s book were in fact the artist’s own, those he wore when he the French “boîte,” “box,” or sometimes “brothel.” His Escape into Faith,” in Comedy: Meaning and Form, ed. The Rape of the Masters (2004). The first is by Martin set out for Belgium as a hopeful young evangelist. 7 argument becomes even more hysterical when he Robert W. Corrigan, (San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Heidegger, who might be termed, in Aurbach’s words, alleges that the capital “E” of Edward represents the Co., 1963), 102. a “first generation critical theorist.” The philosopher Though wrong-headed, the philosopher’s musings are male organ, whereas the little “e” of boîte stands for 2. Benjamin Lehman, “Comedy and Laughter,” in Comedy: romanticizes Vincent van Gogh’s A Pair of Shoes anodyne, whereas other commentaries are downright the clitoris. Perhaps Professor Lubin is most creative, Meaning and Form, ed. Robert W. Corrigan, (San Fran- (1886), which sets two worn, hob-nailed, ankle- ludicrous, such as Professor David Lubin’s “decon- nevertheless, when he maintains that the circonflex cisco: Chandler Publishing Co., 1963), 162. high leather shoes center stage against a dun-hued struction” of John Singer Sargent’s The Daughters over the “i” of boîte indicates the omission of an “s,” 3. Frogs (405 B.C.), line 1058. ground. Waxing eloquent about “the peasant woman” of Edward Darley Boit (1882), clearly the work of a the initial letter of the word “sperm.” 8 Need I con- 4. The Iliad, II, line 276. to whom the shoes belong, the philosopher speaks “second generation” scholar. Rather than a charming tinue? 5. Roger Kimball, The Rape of the Masters: How Political about “the accumulated tenacity of her slow trudge group portrait of four upper middle-class children in Correctness Sabotages Art (San Francisco: Encounter through the far-spreading and ever-uniform furrows their elegant Paris apartment, Lubin reads the girls as In holding academic balderdash up to ridicule, Aur- Books, 2004), 14. of the field swept by a raw wind.” He imagines her “his [Boit’s] servants, his domestics, and even, at the bach is true to the mission of the comic. He pulls 6. Martin Heidegger, “The Origin of the Work of Art,” in “trembling before the impending childbed and shiver- level of submerged sexual fantasy, as his harem, his Socrates’ high-flying basket down from “Cloud-Cuck- Poetry, Language, Thought, trans. by and with an introduc- ing at the surrounding menace of death.” 6 However congregation of wives, his jolies fillettes du bordel/ oo-Land” 9 to earth where it belongs, reminding us, as tion by Albert Hofstadter, 33 (New York: Harper &Row, poetic and heart-rending, Heidegger’s observations maison/boïte”. Lubin bases this incredulous assertion did Bishop Butler in the 18th century, that “everything 1971) quoted in Roger Kimball, The Rape of the Masters: is what it is, and not another thing.” 10 ■ How Political Correctness Sabotages Art (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2004), 150. 7. Meyer, Schapiro, “The Still Life as a Personal Object - A Note on Heidegger and van Gogh,” in The Reach of Mind: Essays in Memory of Kurt Goldstein, ed. Marianne L. Simmel, 205 (New York: Springer Publishing Company, 1968), quoted in Roger Kimball, The Rape of the Masters: How Political Correctness Sabotages Art (San Francisco: However poetic and heart-rending, Encounter Books, 2004), 152. 8. David M. Lubin, Act of Portrayal: Eakins, Sargent, James Heidegger’s observations have little to (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985), 110–111 quoted in Roger Kimball, The Rape of the Masters: How Political Correctness Sabotages Art (San Francisco: Encounter do with van Gogh’s painting. The shoes Books, 2004), 93–94. 9. Aristophanes, Birds, (414 B.C.), line 817. were in fact the artist’s own, those he 10. Roger Kimball, The Rape of the Masters: How Political Correctness Sabotages Art, 89. wore when he set out for Belgium as a hopeful young evangelist.

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