READYMADE AND [2]. Therefore, an explicit partnership or is considered to be reciprocal, Du- ASSEMBLAGE IN perhaps a shared authorship between champ’s Pharmacy (1914), an alteration DATABASE ART artist and viewer has developed in data- of a commercial print of a winter land- base art in which social-cultural assem- scape purchased by the artist. TRANSACTIONS Wun-Ting Hsu and Wen-Shu Lai, Institute of Applied Arts, National blages are involved. As an innovative and culturally trans- Chiao-Tung University, Hsinchu, By collecting ready-made data on the formative approach in contemporary art, Taiwan 30010. E-mail: internet, an inseparable assemblage is readymade has had a great influence on (W.T. Hsu); formed between the database artwork Dada, Surrealism, Pop art, Assemblage (W.S. and its possible interactions with view- art, and a number of other movements Lai). ers. This implies two aspects of interest: and genres. the data as readymade and the viewer Assemblage is a concept closely asso- See intervention as social-cultural assem- ciated with readymade. Most readymade for supplemental files associated with this issue. blage. The two operative concepts of that works are also assemblages, for instance Submitted: 5 September 2011 description, readymade and assemblage, Why not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy? (1921), Abstract are mainly related to the utilization of which utilizes a birdcage with 152 white This paper aims to elucidate the concept of data as ready-made objects. cubes, a thermometer, and cuttlefish readymade and to discuss how data collection and This paper aims to clarify and define bone [6]. Assemblage concerns compo- viewer intervention constitute assemblage in data- the role of data in database art and rec- site artwork and three-dimensional art- base art. After a brief overview of the concepts, insights are provided into how they may be ren- ognize the genre’s specific interpretation work made by assembling everyday dered in database art and what meaningful implica- of these two key concepts. Three guiding manufactured objects, junk, or anything tions such process might yield. questions help to organize our research: never intended as an art material. Keywords: readymade, assemblage, database art (1) What is the role of data in database Alloway notes that “assemblages of such Introduction art? (2) What are the roles of readymade material come at the spectator as bits of and assemblage concepts in database art? life, bits of the environment” [7]. The advent of recent information tech- (3) What are the similarities and differ- Readymade and assemblage have be- nology has led to the proliferation of ences between database art and non- come important approaches and key digital art. In such works, as Manovich digital genres regarding the utilization of themes in contemporary art practices; notes, the “database becomes the center readymade and assemblage? without these concepts, art could not of the creative process” [1]. Database art exist as we understand it today. For rea- is a subset of digital art in which content sons that will become clear, our under- is unfixed and delivered through contin- Readymade and Assemblage standing of database art would be uous movement, not as a completed in Art similarly impossible without these two product. The most distinctive feature of The connection between database art and concepts, and will be greatly assisted by such art is data visualization: in a ran- the concepts of readymade and assem- the juxtaposition. The following discus- dom, continuous process, database art- blage is clear from the genre’s context sion demonstrates how readymade and works retrieve mass-produced data within the histories of art and mass cul- assemblage are rendered in database art. (generally found online) and transform it ture. Readymade, coined by Marcel Du- into a visual presentation. The retrieved champ in 1915, refers to artwork made data (in the form of text, images, etc.) is from ordinary manufactured objects by Data as Readymade stripped from its original context and simply choosing the object and modify- To some extent, the retrieval data in a redefined by its new context. Because of ing it. Since the object is selected by the database artwork could be considered a the dynamic fluctuations and unpredicta- artist, the intention of the artist intrinsi- readymade material because the retrieval bility of the input content, there is no cally alters the index of the object in data is “already” made by the online constant state or final product of any daily life, giving it an entirely new public. In other words, data are “cul- piece of database artwork. meaning. This concept substantially tured” in the process of being perceived Another feature of database art is the challenged the conventional distinction (p.20) [8]. Therefore, data conforms to potential for viewer participation. The between art and non-art in public consid- two established definitions of ready- visualization process of database artwork eration. Subsequently, the concept has made: it functions as the primary content is achieved not only by continuous data been elaborated in more detail through of an artwork but is not made by the collection but also by data transfor- the work of Duchamp and others [3]. artist, and its prior functions are rede- mation; both processes can be automatic Readymade as we understand it in fined by their reallocation to the artistic or dependent upon interactions with modern art is the utilization of unaltered context. viewers. objects such as a comb in Comb There are several different types of da- Database art is therefore interactive in (1916/1964). Sub-concepts include “as- ta readymade in database artwork. The various degrees. Through the fruitful sisted readymade,” referring to the use of first type pertains to unaltered retrieval collaboration between the artist’s contri- two or more readymade objects together; data such as that found in We Feel Fine bution and the viewer’s act of co- “rectified readymade,” referring to alter- [9], a piece that constantly scans blog creation, the viewer is allowed to take ation of an existing object; and “recipro- posts for the phrases “I feel” and “I am power over a portion of the creation of cal readymade,” described by de Duve as feeling” and catalogues them by age, the artwork. This is seen, as with any “a work of art to which one denies this gender, location, and local weather con- good piece of art, as an expressive proxy name in order to use it as utensil” [4] and ditions in six different viewable modes. for some eternal truth; as Jenkins notes, typified by Duchamp’s professed desire The second type of data readymade con- “our culture evolved through a collective to use “a Rembrandt as an ironing- tains retrieval data that is rectified or process of collaboration and elaboration” board” [5]. The first readymade artwork partially modified but still recognizable, for instance in Swarmsketch [10], an

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/LEON_a_00491 by guest on 28 September 2021 ongoing online canvas of collective ganizes viewer participation. These ac- readymade, database art stands as some- sketches in which participants sketch tions by their nature alter the nature of thing in between mass culture and high collaboratively by drawing one small authorship and viewership. Authorship art, between life experience and art expe- line or altering the opacity of lines drawn in the traditional sense is surrendered rience. The readymade and assemblage TRANSACTIONS by others. The third type of data ready- through the varying degrees of power approaches carry database artworks made is called “mutative data ready- released by the artist toward viewer crea- across different media, blending con- made,” and involves retrieval data that is tive contribution. As has been widely cepts of originality, authorship, and altered significantly, usually past recog- noted, in modern participatory culture, viewership. They also characterize the nizance. For instance, Binary waves [11] people can “participate in the creation specific features of database artwork as a collects infrastructural (passengers, cars, and distribution of media narratives” distinctive art expression of our time. etc.) and communicational (electromag- [13]. Therefore, viewer intervention also netic fields produced by mobile phones, concerns the social-cultural assemblages References radios, etc.) flows in the environment of database art. Viewers as collaborators 1. L. Manovich, “Database as a Genre of New and transforms the retrieval data into contribute themselves to the artwork by Media,” AI & Society 14, No. 2 (2000) p. 182. light, color, and sound with 32 rotating actions such as choosing, altering, add- 2. H. Jenkins. “Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars?: Digital Cinema, Media Convergence, and Participa- and luminous panels. ing, etc. Database artwork is meant for tory Culture,” in D. Thorburn & H. Jenkins, eds., The data readymade in database art people not just as spectators but also as Rethinking Media Change (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT has two important characteristics: a re- contributors to the realization of work. Press, 2004) pp. 281–312. sistance to artist-made content and the Both the data collection and the viewer 3. M. Enßlen (2002), transformation of the conventional role intervention constitute an assemblage in , accessed 2 August of the artist. Although the artist of this database art. In this manner, database art 2011. genre must contribute the core concept to could be considered as a reinterpretation 4. T. de Duve, “Resonances of Duchamp’s Visit to the artwork, he or she creates a process of assemblage art. Munich,” in Rudolf Kuenzli & Francis M. more than a final product. It is this pro- Through utilization of readymade and Naumann, eds., Marcel Duchamp: Artist of the cess that causes a flow of meaning be- assemblage concepts, database art estab- Century (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1989). tween the old and new contexts. lishes a number of distinctions between 5. M. Duchamp, “Apropos of ‘Readymades,’” Salt Seller: The Writings of Marcel Duchamp, M. itself and non-digital art. Firstly, being Sanouiller and E. Peterson, eds. (New York: Oxford The Assemblage in Database Art transformational by concept and prac- University Press, 1973). According to van den Boomen et al., tice, the most distinctive readymade fea- 6. J. A. Ramairez, Duchamp: Love and Death, “digital materials should corresponding- ture of database artwork is that it is Even, Alexander R. Tulloch, Trans. (London, UK: Reaktion Books, 1998). ly be seen as assemblages that hold vari- virtual and immaterial. Secondly, data as ous temporal references, tapping from readymade is a temporary constitution of 7. L. Alloway, “Junk Culture,” Architectural De- sign 31, No. 3 (1961) p. 122. previously stored and inscribed cultural database artwork, and is therefore highly resources” [12]. The assemblage in data- impermanent; for instance, retrieval data 8. D. Hakken, Cyborgs@cyberspace?: An Ethnog- rapher Looks to the Future (New York: Routledge, base art embodies two pivotal aspects: in some pieces is collected, displayed, 1999) p. 20. and unlinked within a few minutes. data collection and assemblage of viewer 9. J. Harris and S. Kamvar (2006), intervention. Database artwork is made Thus, the form of the assemblage is con- , by assembling disparate elements of tinuous movement, with no specified accessed 24 October 2010. ready-made data and visualizing them in object of representation at any time. 10. P. Edmunds (2005), an unconventional way; in this sense, , accessed 24 October 2010. database artwork could be viewed as an Conclusion assemblage with infinite extensions and In any era, readymade and assemblage 11. LAb|au| (2008), , connections between external data and are useful concepts for art production. accessed 24 October 2010. the artwork itself. Database art embodies the most radical 12. M. van den Boomen, S. Lammes, A-S. Leh- However, inferences from the assem- implications yet conceived from these mann, J. Raessens, and M. T. Schäfer, Digital blage concept to database art content concepts. This paper examines the roles Material: Tracing New Media in Everyday Life and Technology (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University should not be drawn without an aware- of data, readymade and assemblage in Press, 2009) p. 12. ness of the shifting of authorship caused database art and provides a terrain from by viewer intervention. Database art not which to imagine the possibilities for 13. Jenkins [2] p. 286. only collects disparate data as ready- interpreting this specific type of art prac- made but also requires, solicits, and or- tice. Through the utilization of data

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