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Art, Science and Technology in an Expanded Field University of Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities 1993 Art, science and technology in an expanded field Adam Robert Lucas University of Wollongong, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, and the Law Commons Recommended Citation Lucas, Adam Robert, "Art, science and technology in an expanded field" (1993). Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers. 821. https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/821 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Art, science and technology in an expanded field Abstract The author suggests that new concepts in twentieth-century science not only provides commonalitites between the arts, sciences and humanities, they also point to the emergence of a new philosophy of nature with some promising political, sociological and technological implication. These developments demand a throught-going ethical practice and a fundamental reformulation of accepted notions of creativity, consciousness and natural and social organization. Outlining key concepts and discoveries in twentieth-century science and philosophy, the author draws attention to the existence of a strong organismic or process tradition in Western culture that is re-emerging in various fields of the physical, biological and social sciences. The author asserts that such a change in science and technology will have global ramifications for humands and that it is the amplification of these insightso t which artists should turn their attention. Disciplines Arts and Humanities | Law Publication Details Lucas, A. R. (1993). Art, science and technology in an expanded field. Leonardo, 26 (4), 335-345. This journal article is available at Research Online: https://ro.uow.edu.au/lhapapers/821 Leonardo Art, Science and Technology in an Expanded Field Author(s): Adam Lucas Source: Leonardo, Vol. 26, No. 4 (1993), pp. 335-345 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1575929 . Accessed: 25/08/2013 22:46 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The MIT Press and Leonardo are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Leonardo. http://www.jstor.org SPECIAL SECTION: DEVELOPMENT THROUGH IMAGES Art, Science and Technology in an Expanded Field Adam Lucas ABSTRACT Theauthor suggests that new concepts Artists working with new technologies occupy a The other approach, which has intwentieth-century science not only provide commonalitiesbetween the arts, sciences that is with ethical and aesthetic dilemmas. become synonymous with science territory overflowing andhumanities, they also point to the new in most can be Each new technological development engenders problems. people's minds, emergenceof a newphilosophy of nature It is undoubtedly quite difficult for artists (as it is for most peo- identified as mechanistic, reduc- withsome promising political, sociological ple) to orient themselves within such a rapidly transforming tionist, anthropocentric, competi- andtechnological implications. These field. This is true when we consider the that tive, hierarchical, absolutist and developmentsdemand a thorough-going ethi- especially challenge cal anda fundamentalreformulation these new media to traditional and on the of practise present contemporary posited efficacity predic- ofaccepted notions of creativity, assumptions about the transformativepowers of art. tion and control. But the ultimate consciousnessand natural and social organi- To be more specific, it does not take an artist'simagination to hegemony that the mechanistic zation.Outlining key concepts and recognize that any new technology can be as easily deployed for view has achieved has more to do discoveriesintwentieth-century science and theauthor draws attention to the the of and mass with political and economic expe- philosophy, purposes promoting ideological propaganda existenceof a strongorganismic orprocess manipulation as it can be used to further the interests of human diency than any innate theoretical traditioninWestern culture that is re- liberation and mutual understanding. The dichotomies inher- superiority. Just the same, mecha- emerginginvarious fields of the physical, bio- ent in the cultural incorporation of new technologies were rec- nism has reached its own limits. It logicaland social sciences. The author as as the 1930s Adorno and Horkheimer in has failed both and con- assertsthat such a changein science and ognized long ago by practically willhave ramificationsfor their Dialectic to deal with the technology global ofEnlightenment [1]. ceptually complex- humansand that it is theamplification of A central concern of most of the theory undertaken in this ities of nature and human culture theseinsights to whichartists should turn area since then involves the generative role of scientific dis- and is arguably responsible for theirattention. course in the constitution of new technologies. The logic of many of the environmental and theory and design that underlies the technologies that sur- economic crises currently facing round us is intimately bound up with prevailing orthodoxies in humanity. the sciences. However, the classical assumptions that underlie A new scientific philosophy of nature is, however, beginning many of these orthodoxies have not only been questioned by to emerge-a philosophy that has more in common with the analyses in linguistics, anthropology, political economy and organismic approach than it does with the mechanistic. A cen- psychoanalysis, they have also come under serious criticism tral focus of its attention is the empirically demonstrable inter- from within many of the scientific disciplines in which they connectedness of all things; an interconnectedness that have, until quite recently, prevailed. The bases for all of these demands a thorough-going ethical practise, encompassing not criticisms share many things in common. Basic assumptions only human activities but natural processes as well. It is also a regarding what constitutes nature, culture, human perception philosophy that demands humility; the old certainties of unre- and individual identity have all come under scrutiny. stricted prediction and control are grounded on false assump- The motivations for these analyses similarly rest on a pro- tions. Some scientists claim that this change heralds the found dissatisfaction with accepted wisdom that is increasingly beginning of the post-Einsteinian era in both science and being perceived as collaborating in an oppressive network of human culture: the recognition that "God does play dice" and alienated social relations with little, if any, ethical basis. An that uncertainty and chaos are not only ubiquitous through- armoury of epistemological bombshells is in the process of for- out the universe, but also provide the dynamic matrix within mulation that promises to explode many of the myths under which new forms of order are constantly being created. Such a which the human and natural sciences appear to have conclusion should prove interesting to both artists and scien- laboured for centuries. tists. Having emerged from a number of different scientific Over the past 30 years, a number of developments in the sci- disciplines, the new evolutionary paradigm of self-organization ences have served to revive an ancient philosophical dispute accepts as one of its fundamental premises the notion that cre- with important implications for the ways in which science con- ativity is immanent in all natural processes, including human ceives itself and the world. These developments touch on the culture. In such a view, humanity and technology are regarded nature of self, on creativity and on the whole notion of form as recent evolutionary manifestations of a creative principle and organization in nature and human culture. that embraces the whole cosmos. The transformative powers For more than four centuries, there has been an ongoing of art and science are but two manifestations of this ongoing struggle for ideological supremacy within Western science creative process. between two very different approaches to nature and human culture. The first and oldest of these approaches can be Adam Lucas (educator), 8/8 Vialoux Avenue, Paddington, New South Wales, Australia, 2021. described as organismic, holistic, cooperative, collectivist, rela- Received 24 1990. tivistic and posited on the unity in diversity of all things. September ? 1993 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 335-345, 1993 335 AN OLD WORLDVIEW WITH A the present through the alchemical, vital- applications of chaos theory and nonequi- NEW MYTHOLOGY ist and romantic traditions of Western art, librium systems theory. science and philosophy [2]. It is my contention that the shift to pro- The idea that nature is inherently Although organicism has been made to cess-oriented science heralds the emer- dynamic and creative, rather than
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