The Tao of Postmodernism: Computer Art, Scientific Visualization and Other Paradoxes Author(S): Donna J

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The Tao of Postmodernism: Computer Art, Scientific Visualization and Other Paradoxes Author(s): Donna J. Cox Source: Leonardo. Supplemental Issue, Vol. 2, Computer Art in Context: SIGGRAPH '89 Art Show Catalog (1989), pp. 7-12 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1557936 Accessed: 05/04/2010 22:26

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http://www.jstor.org The Tao of Postmodernism: Computer Art, Scientific ABSTRACT The authorsuggests that a [1] paradigmshift must occur in art Visualization and Other Paradoxes criticismto assimilatethe nonlinear branchingof aesthetic activities in ourera. These activities include artand scientific visualiza- DonnaJ. Cox computer tion,and they reflect many issues addressedin postmodern dialogue suchas ourimage-synthetic, "simulacrum"society. Postmodernism unexpectedlyinforms most disciplines,including the natural sciences,and is a culturalsystemic All right, so you want a styleout of America.Stick at it. but teristics of advanced societies), normthat relates to ourelectronic information TheTaoist con- when it comes,it 't be where are it. it [mass mak- age. mayn you lookingfor produced image ceptof onenessis usedas a meta- has become a -Ezra Pound ing] principal phorfor the interrelatedness of agent and a conduit of culture electronic-mediatedsocieties, and and ideology" [4]. The suffer- thissocial connectedness explains The art that is comingwill giveformal expressionto our the and nature ing avant-garde, from Impres- enfolding complex conviction. ofcontemporary aesthetic activity. scientific sionists to Dadaists, were popu- Acybernetic paradigm might pro- -Franz Marc larized in media and liberal arts videa bettermodel for criticism education. During the twenti- thanmodernism orpostmodern- Some enlightening philosophical and social ideas have eth century, the 'Shock of the ism,since this paradigm presents a from art criticism. A brief review of New' was deformed into a lust holisticview that concentrates on emerged postmodern andthe of for the Like creativity organization the shift from modernism to postmodernism outlines some avant-garde. alga interrelatedsystems. The conver- of the aesthetic consequences that include art market in- and fungus that live symbioti- genceof artwith science is as- fluence on artists. The second section of this paper elabo- cally, the artist and the buyer sumedas a logicalinterdisciplinary rates critical issues that to aesthetic activi- have evolved a rela- outgrowthofthis electronic present problems symbiotic oneness. ties such as the making of computer art and the production tionship that must feed its soul of photography. These issues include an unprecedented and pocketbook with the new pluralism of artists' activities in this transition to postmod- vanguard. This complex system ernism. The third section refutes the idea that postmodern- of artists, galleries, museums, ism is merely a style; rather, it is a cultural norm that perme- critics and art brokers has come ates many fields such as film, architecture and science. to be known as the art market Finally, section four places postmodernism in a much larger [5]. context, based on Turchin's cybernetic approach to human evolution. Some cultural characteristics such contemporary Fig. 1. Bea Nettles, Metamorphosis,altered and staged silver print, as the recycling of aesthetic styles, interdisciplinary activity, 7.5 x 7.5 in, 1988.The artist'sfine art explorationshave also in- and 'simulacra' are related to basic human creativity and the volved alternative processes. This type of fine art photography multiplicity of cultural systems. was a radical change from traditional 'straight' photography.

FROM MODERNISM TO POSTMODERNISM Artmaking since the beginning of the twentieth century has been recognized as a major break from artmaking prior to that time. Institutionalized, conventional analysis of art and its history proposes a kind of linear 'cause and effect', trac- ing lines of works and artistic styles'; this approach has provided a paradigm [2] to explain a transition that might cover trends from pre-renaissance to modern [3]. Art historical awareness and the age of mechanical reproduction are un- deniable components in the development of modernism at the turn of the century; and this image production provides a gluttony for public consumption. "For inhabitants of in- dustrialized societies (indeed, production and consumption of images serves as one of the distinguishing charac-

DonnaJ. Cox (artist, educator), School of Art and Design, Adjunct Faculty for Supercomputing Applications, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois-Champaign/Urbana, 605 E. Springfield, Champaign, IL 61820, U.SA.

? 1989 SAST PergamonPress pic. Printed in Japan. 0024094X/89 $3.00+0.00 LEONARDO, ComputerArtin ContextSupplemental Issue. pp. 7-12, 1989 nologies as well [8,9]. However, if one closely analyzes the evolution of fine art photography from the Industrial Revolution into the postmodern era, one gains a different perspective. In order to establish photography as a fine art, Alfred Stieglitz proposed that the artist exploit the camera for its unique qualities and create 'pure' photographs that did not resemble 'painterly' styles. He stated that the photographer should not manipulate photographs nor state allegories (as early photographers had done). Rather, he proposed, the pure photograph employs the camera for what it does best: capturing a slice of the real world from the personal viewpoint of the artist. Thus the artist's personal style and photography's pure form of expression emerged. Consequently, the pure photograph was completely divorced from painting by 1920. How- ever, a transition to postmodernism resulted in the complete inversion of photographic 'purity' by 1970. Staged, altered (Fig. 1) and appropriated photographs have become the accepted market, not the adulteration that Stieglitz refuted with his 'straight' fine art photography [10]. As Abigail Solomon-Godeau has noted, "the properties of photographic imagery which have made it a privileged medium in postmodern art are precisely those which for generations art photographers have been concerned to disavow" [11]. Here we see a paradox that in fine art Fig. 2. Michael Norman, Jack Burns, Martin Snllkinen (scientists) and DonnaJ. Cox developed photogra- (artist), supetcomputer simulation of a galactic jet used for the front cover of Nature phy; such a paradox can also be found magazine, 1988. This image is an example, developed in the hard sciences, of the in the evolution of computer art. 'simulacra' in our Such 'simulation' is characteristic of our Postmodern society. image criticaland theoretical electronically mediated culture. Virtuallyevery issuewhich postmodernist art may be said to engage in in one sense or By the mid-twentieth century, post- some refer to late postmodernism as another can be locatedwith photog- modern discourse the art raphy[and computer art]. Issueshav- exposed post-historical. to do with market search for the next ing authorship, subjectiv- avant-garde ity,and uniquenessare built into the (the dog-seeking-its-avant-garde-tail). verynature of the photographic[and This convolution of thought has been COMPUTER ART: AN computer]process itself [12]. called the 'transcendental historicism' ORPHAN CHIL.n OF The computer artist represents a of art. As Hal Foster "No mat- explains: 'HIGH' ART CRITICISM double risk to the art market, because ter how 'transcendental' or radically the work is often twice removed from new the art, it is usually recouped, Historicism and the concept of 'style', a style, or rendered familiar historicism. Late personal authorship unique- by reified from art-historical thinking, ness: first the art is made with a com- modernism reworks the contra- only have led theorists to conjecture that puter, then documented with a photo- diction: art is insofar as avant-garde artists tend to emulate older tech- graph. The computer art purist might it is historicist-the artist radically nologies with each new technology argue that the 'interactive' mode or delves into art historical conventions until they find a 'pure' form of expres- the 'artist-as-programmer' mode of in order to break out of them. Such sion. For example, historians and crit- the computer aesthetic is sine qua non historicism (the New as its own Tradi- ics proposed that early nineteenth- [13,14]. That is to say, the pure form tion) is both an and an end for origin century photographers emulated of expression from the computer is the avant-garde; and one aim for post- painting style with the camera [7]. realized interactivity or modernism is to retain its through radicality Likewise, it is possible that computer through the artist's personal software. but be rid of its historicism" [6]. Thus, artists are copying styles of older tech- However, interactive computer works

8 Cox,The Tao of Postmodernism and electronic installations are intrin- sically difficult to show and sell in the art marketplace [15]. These types of issues have left art curators and critics in a quandary and have contributed to computer art being outside the mainstream of 'high' art criticism. Interest- ing out-of-the-art-mainstream publications, such as SIGGRAPH [16] art show catalogues, Leonardoor articles from technical publications such as Prince's reviews of computer art [17,18], present critical information that cannot be gleaned from the art market coffers; because "artistic prac- tices employing film or photography [or computer], as well as those using found objects, processes, or systems where creative labor is apparently absent, continue to problematize the transcendental imperatives which pre- dominate in critical and historical lit- erature on art" [19]. In addition to the above, interdisciplinary activity has become a key descriptor in the postmodern era and it prohibits the classification of works merely by the medium. Photography as well as traditional painting and sculpture experienced a radical re- alignment during the 1960s [20]. Painting and sculpture merged to create new hybrid forms. And, like photographers, many artists cast aside the purity of the medium [21]. Douglas Crimp states, the easewith which many artists man- aged, some ten yearsago, to change film media-from sculpture,say, to Fig. 3. Richard Elson, DonnaJ. Cox and Ray Idas7nk, cover image of a contemporary et or from dance (Serra,Morris, al.) science journal, Simulation, 1988. This cover image, illustrating scientific simulacra, shows to film (Rainer)-or were willing to the use of techniqles to visualize abstract numerical information from a one medium with an- computer super- 'corrupt' computer simulation of hot plastic polymer. other-to present a work of sculpture, for example, in the form of a photograph (Smithson, Long)-or moder dialogue for computer art's strate). Postmodernism is like a force abjuredany physical manifestation of 'media/technology identification'. field in which very different kinds of the work (Barry,Weiner) makes it art is like an and forms from cul- clearthat the actualcharacteristics of Thus, computer orphan impulses emerge child to most current art criticism. In tural Postmodern- the medium, per se, cannot any production [25]. longer tell us much about the artist's addition to analyzing these problems, ism is not a style; rather it points to a activity[22]. the next section delineates other neg- social and technological mechanism Other scholars submit that art ative social criticism surrounding the from which styles are being generated. of Critics note the of a so- based upon technology isjust one pos- making computer images. development that has a techno- sible mode of expression and that the ciety experienced transformation of the social medium should not claim to have any logical POSTMODERNISM IS world where electronic artifacts such special status [23]. Alas, many late as television and video modernist or postmodern critics A NEW SYSTEMIC computers, constitute and the radical would be dismayed at the fact that symbolize CULTURAL NORM alteration of our culture's time and computer art segregates itself via the consciousness medium rather than concentrates on It must be made clear here that post- spatial [26]. Computer and electronic the artist's 'aesthetic activities'. Here modernism is not a so-called style; graphics image genera- tion are viewed as contributors to the we see the computer art paradox: rather it is a "new systemic cultural removal of the individual from direct many computer artworks are shunned norm" that informs other disciplines, of in a by the modernist for lack of purity, including science fiction film, music, experience reality, resulting of simulacrum, simula- authorship or originality at the same poetry, architecture [24] and the nat- society image tion of the real world. Real is dis- time that they are shunned by post- ural sciences (as I will later demon- space torted into an electronically mediated

Cox,The Tao of Postmodernism 9 space, a weightless polygonalization, 2) Cross-and InterdisciplinaryActiv- styles inevitably stimulates artists to as in 7ron, Star Warsor Star TrekII: 7he ity-in art, science and philosophy, produce re-associations and some- Wrathof Khan. Real time is deformed people have dissolved many boundar- times to recycle these styles in their in an electronic culture of televised in- ies between traditional modes of be- aesthetic production. A natural out- stant replays, generic pastiche and in- havior, expressions and concepts come of this electronic information teractive mouse control. Postmodern 3) Simulacra-in society, our age of flow is more interdisciplinary activity. architecture and fine art are charac- mechanical reproduction and elec- Simulacra, images synthesis, and the terized by de-historicized collections tronic media have collapsed time, electronic production of visual models of recycled aesthetic styles [27]. In the space and matter into image synthesis, of reality are social extensions of in- classic postmodern film Bladerunner, representation, simulation and elec- dividual creativity resulting from our scenery resembles recycled interna- tronic models of natural phenomena. electronic age. tional junk and costumes rehash fash- Cybernetics provides a model of ions spanning many decades. In this society as well as a model of individual film, genetically engineered repli- THE CYBERNETIC thought that explains the complex dy- cants, artificial simulations of real peo- PARADIGM namic systems in which culture itself is ple, have become more human than rapidly evolving. The whole of these human. The postmodern characteristics noted social systems is like one big brain that Physics and other natural sciences above can be related to cybernetics, moves toward greater complexity have been affected by this electroni- the theory of information control in from which new levels of organization this is cally mediated postmodern milieu of living organisms; theory based and creativity emerge. The evolution simulacra. Scientific visualization is on the concept of systems and subsys- of collective consciousness takes place into hierar- the use of computer graphics to visu- tems that are organized through the natural selection of the alize 'simulations that model reality'. chies [31]. Cybernetic processes in- models that humans create [34]. Scientific observations of real data clude use of memory, free association, The necessaryselection of variants have been transcended in this elec- visualization, but most importantly, for increasingthe complexityof the the construction of new mental mod- tronic age where supercomputers can organizationof matter by trial and of Humans mental solve numerical equations that repre- els reality. build error now takesplace in the human models of the associa- head.This differsfundamen- sent real physical models. These simu- reality through process tion of This model- tallyfrom the processof [Darwin's] lations are visualized with computer representations. naturalselection and takes in- allows humans to create. When we place graphics to represent such natural ing comparably faster, but in both its or phenomenon as an astrophysical jet re-associate concepts representa- function (constructing and using the models of the and in (Figs 2, 3) that might be 100,000 light tions, models undergo reorganiza- environment) in While most of tion or change; thus humans create its results (growth in the total mass of years length [28]. matter and its influence on ex- and re-create models this of living these models of reality cannot be by type matter) it is free association. Members of human nonliving completely perienced directly by human beings, analogous to the earlier process [Dar- they can be computed, digitally society communicate on the highest win's natural selection] and is its nat- of ural continuation. The human stored, recorded and electronically re- level their individual organization being this In this becomes the point of concentration played on a VHS video tape deck, pro- through process. way, people for Cosmic The of have contact brain because these Creativity. pace viding a vicarious view of invisible phe- by evolution accelerates manyfold [35]. nomena. Scientific simulations and models become a continuation of brain This holistic interrelationship as a computer-graphic visualizations can each individual [32,33]. Social basis for creativity and life is evinced compress geophysical time from tens systems and subsystems in culture are in other areas of of billions of years to a millisecond and natural extensions of shared models twentieth-century science. The old mechanistic shrink a blackhole deformation to the and paradigms within our society. And simple outlook has rise to a holistic width of a television screen [29]. people will utilize whatever technol- given a view that treats "the or- Humans have technologically warped ogy is available to continue this crea- approach, as a whole, a view which, in- time and and documented every tive process. ganism space echoes the old Chinese visual "Now, more Twentieth-century technological cidentally, pic- possible image. ture of the universe itself as a than ever before, different strata in advances in electronic communica- self-dependent [36]. our society have converged in their tion and image production have re- organism" passionate interest in the image, in sulted in an accelerated contact of the individual with an external world representation, in the very process of SUMMARY mediation and simulation" [30]. through television and other media. If have Thus, postmodernism is a dynamic, people contact by brain, then People think, understand and create are more brain contact systemic cultural condition that in- people having by building mental models of the forms most disciplines in electroni- more rapidly than ever before. We are world about them. These models bombarded with cally mediated societies and can be constantly changing often develop into complex social sys- characterized primarily by the follow- images and information that model tems that interact and influence the external world media. ing: through others. For example, when Alfred 1) Historical hypersensitivity-work- Today, artmaking and other creative Stieglitz proposed his pure photogra- reformulate ers in many disciplines, media and art disciplines increasingly phy as the appropriate modus oper- have an increased historical aware- models, due to this efficient informa- andi, he created a model that inte- tion flow and of artists to a ness, and their works reflect historical exposure grated fine art photography into the elements that have been recycled and broader range of cultural associations. existing system of the art market. His intense to historic recombined into new aesthetic forms Thus, exposure rationale provided an acceptable

10 Cox, The Tao of Postmodernism model for fine art photographers until these issues have been relegated to cally speaking, this continually evolv- a new model was adopted. technological biases. ing re-creation and modeling of real- Another example of modeling is If one agrees that computer art is ity can be symbolized by the "Tao..., presented here regarding the transi- treated like an orphan child by main- the one ultimate, tireless activity... it tion from modernism to postmodern- stream art criticism, then one would inevitably retains the impression of an ism. The first section proposes that an also agree that a model is yet to be unlimited past and as surely moulds interaction among the cultural sys- born that will assimilate scientific aes- the ceaseless future, but is itself uncon- tems of art history, the art market, and thetic activity such as scientific visuali- ditioned by time, space, or matter" mass media resulted in a hypersensi- zation. This type of artistic exploration [39]. tive art historical awareness, and this attempts to cross an even greater awareness influenced artists in their chasm between two disparate social Glossary attempts to transcend history and cre- systems-that of science and that of association-in thought or information proces- ate an This art. art is often viewed sing, association is the connection of concepts, avant-garde. simple analy- Technological or models. When the brain 'associates' it but art images sis provides a model of an interaction suspiciously enough, delving brings together representations into a new asso- among several cultural systems and its into both science and technology is ciation, and this process results in a new associa- effects art. Such an re- too distant from the current tion of representations, a recombinant associa- upon analysis impera- tion. The latter is at a higher level of hierarchy in flects the cybernetic approach and re- tives of the art world. A shift in criti- the organization of thought processes. Associ- cognizes the major influences that so- cism must occur to assimilate such ating is a primary function in the process of modeling. cial systems and paradigms have upon alien aesthetic activities as scientific visualization. appropriation-in postmodernisin fine art pho- artmaking. tography, this ternl referisto artworksexemplified The point here is that artists are in- The cybernetic paradigm subsumes by Sherrie Levine or Richard Prince, where the immersed in culture; they computer art, scientific visualization artists copy and exhibit other artists' works. extricably Levine and Prince intended to make an artistic are to and other art into a model constantly attempting operate paradoxes statement about authorship and originality and within a multiplicity of social systems of human evolution where technol- attempted to dismantle subjectivity in the art the art market, mass media simulacra, historicism and eclec- works. However, the art market, with its innate including ogy, to commodify almost has also and academia. The ticism characterize intense cultural ability anything, complete analysis marketed these plagiarized photographs as art. of an art would and This object recognize creativity. approach encourages art market-people, businesses and institutions include the multiplicity of systems analysis of the complex network of sys- who have an interest in normalizing and benefit- within which the artist works. Artists tems and in an ing from avant-garde art (this category includes subsystems evolving, dealers, collectors, museum officials, directors of have contact brain with all of crosses by parts dynamic society. Artmaking cultural programs, critics, artists). the world in today's electronically me- many of these subsystems, and this art world-a term that is inclusive of the art mar- diated culture. And to simply say that type of analysis might prove to be very ket as well as university and other art educators, art artists who do not 'the art work speaks for itself is to enlightening. For example, a compari- non-professional students, in the art market, art exhibit at- the whole from which the work son between the current art market participate public ignore tendees who do not generally buy art. evolves. and SIGGRAPH reveal interest- might cybernetics-Norbert Weiner's cybernetics is the The shift from modernism to post- ing influences that these two eco- study of relationships aindinformation control in modernism has been a transition from nomic have had com- the living organism. This term has come to mean systems upon a of human control fuictions and of the me- one to another. Postmod- art this study paradigm puter production. Likewise, chanical and electric systems designed to replace ernism is more general than modern- comparison might reveal the tensions them. This theory is based on the concept of systems and that are into hier- ism because it subsumes many mod- and frustrations of those artists who at- subsystems organized archies. Turchin outlines human cybernetic proc- ernist concepts (e.g. aesthetic purity tempt to operate between these two esses that include use of memory or history, free and lineage of styles) and re-evaluates systems. This type of analysis-where association, visualization, playfulness and the creation of models of and he them in a new context. It a the whole social is consid- reality; applies these proffers organism ideas to society as a whole. schema that clarifies ered to individual artmak- interdisciplinary integral modeling-the creation of models is simply the aesthetic activities. Likewise, post- ing-is characteristic of a cybernetic mental interconnection of associations or repre- modernism generalizes across social approach to art criticism. sentations that have a time coordinate and a re- sultant to criticism and as- Criticism should address art capability foresee the future; this is the incorporates many pro- idea of constructing a model of the environment. pects of our high-technological, elec- duction within all aspects of culture, For example, concepts such as 'season' or 'taxes' tronic culture such economics, mass media, sci- provide simple models that retain a sense of time through concepts including and and allow one to a con- as simulacra. ence and the whole regularity predict interrelatedness tinuation of the phenomenon. In this sense, a However, many postmodern critics, of our heterogeneous cultural life. model both provides a mental representation and in their historicism, fail to rec- has characterized allows one to plan the ftittre. Knowledge is the languid Jameson negatively presence in the brain of a certain model of real- ognize the 'real' 'new', and this period current cultural production as schizo- ity. In our brains, this model of reality is at a high where the old is dying and the new phrenic and randomly heterogene- level in the hierarchy of associations that enables us to foresee the results of our actions cannot be born results in mor- ous. However, none of these eclectic (Turchin, many p. 73). A model that is shared among many people bid symptoms [37]. Many view elec- features should be seen as random; as a system of belief is a paradigm. tronic/computer media as evil, as a rather they confirm one another in an modernm-characteristic of contemporary styles primary contribution to the negation intricate network of social systems and that reject traditionally accepted or sanctioned of humanism. This atti- historical that can be under- forms and emphasize individual experimentation technophobic meaning and sensibility. Modernism is thought to have tude handicaps any emerging techno- stood within the context of human begun around the end of nineteenth century and logical aesthetic. Unfortunately, com- creativity [38]. Electronically medi- to have peaked during the first half of the twentieth century. puter art was born in the transition ated societies are rapidly and collec- between modernism and new models of paradigm-a model or standard; in this paper, postmodern- tively re-creating reality paradigm refers to Thomas Kuhn's meaning (see ism. While both paradigms broach because of the increased exposure to Ref. [2]). At any given time, a discipline or spe- computer art issues, for the most part image and information. Metaphori- cialty will disclose a set of recurrent and quasi-

Cox, The Tao of Postmodernisin 1 standard illustrations of various theories in their 138-139). I might add here that postmodern crit- 24. V. Sobchack, ScreeningSpace: The American conceptual, observational and instrumental ap- ics also question the validity of historical linear ScienceFiction Film (New York: Ungar, 1987) pp. plications. These are the community's paradigms, progression of aesthetic styles. 241, 278. revealed in its textbooks, lectures, and laboratory 3. H. Spencer, ed. Readingsin Art History:The Re- 25. Jameson, F., "Postmodernism, or The Cul- exercises (Ref. [2] 43). is used in two p. Paradigm naissanceto the Present,Vol. 2 (New York: Charles tural Logic of Late Capitalism", New Left Review, different senses: on the one hand, it stands for the Scribner's Sons, 1976). No. 146 (uly-August 1984) p. 57. entire body of beliefs, values, techniques and so on shared by the members of a given community. 4. A. Solomon-Godeau, "Photography after Art 26. V. Sobchack [24] p. 223. On the other, it denotes a concept that is Photography", in Art afterModernism, M. Tucker, single 27. V. Sobchack [24] pp. 223-299. employed as a model or standard (Ref. [2] p. ed. (Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc., 175). Paradigm also refers to a model of reality 1984) p. 76. 28. D. Cox, "Using the Supercomputer to Visual- that is shared and that has ize Dimensions: An Artist's Contribution by many people 5. M. Rosier, "Lookers, Dealers, and Higher into a system of belief. Buyers, to ScientificVisualization", Leonardo21 evolved Makers: on in Art (1988) pp. Thoughts Audience", afterMod- 233-242. postmodern-an art and social-criticism term erism, M. Tucker, ed. (Boston: David R. Godine, that originated in fine art photography and that Publisher, Inc., 1984) pp. 311-339. 29. D. Cox, "Renaissance Teams and Scientific describes the art that followed modernism; post- Visualization: A Convergence of Art and Science", 6. H. Foster, "Re:post", in ArtAfterModernism,M. modernism the mid-twentieth Collaborationin ComputerGraphics Education Course developed during Tucker, ed. (Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, century. Postmodern criticism reveals a hypersen- #29, (ACM/SIGGRAPH,July 1988) pp. 81-104. Inc., 1984) p. 190. sitive historical awareness, recognizes the print/ 30. V. Sobchack [24] p. 236. electronic media as central to the conduit of cul- 7. B. Newhall, Historyof Photography(New York: ture and suggests that electronic media have cre- Museum of Modern Art, 1982) p. 167. 31. V. F. Turchin, ThePhenomenon of Science(New ated an isolation of the individual from direct ex- York:Columbia University Press, 1977) pp. 4,315. 8. L. Furlong and G. Youngblood, SIGGRAPH'83, of reality; critics observe that art from The author is a physicist who outlines the way perience Exhibitionof ComputerArtCatalogue (Detroit: ACM, the era involves a of re- humans model in this book on the cyber- postmodern pastiche 1983). reality cycled styles. netic approach to human evolution. 9. C. Giloth,J. Veeder, "The Paint Problem", In- simulacra-artifacts, images and cultural produc- 32. V. F. Turchin [31] p. 95. Language-seen as stituteof Electrical and ElectronicsEngineers Computer tion that al-e created by electronic simulation to an extension of thought-comprises a system or Graphicsand Applications5, 66-74 (1985). produce an artificial space and time or are pro- model. Larger metasystems such as art, science, duced in any synthetic manner to give the appear- 10. A. Hoy, Fabrications (New York: Abbeville and philosophy are also viewed as systems or mod- ance of or represent some other thing, possibly Press, 1987). els that people create through thought and lan- from some other time or place. This type of cul- guage. Language is not only a continuation of 11. Solomon-Godeau [4] p. 76. tural production often appears as a pastiche or each individual brain but also a general, unitary collage of recycled historic styles. Also, simula- 12. Solomon-Godeau [4] p. 80. continuation of the brains of all members of so- crum is any reproduced synthetic form that is ciety. It is a collective model of reality on whose 13. M. Krueger, 'VIDEOPLACE:A Report from made to give the appearance of some other thing refinement all members of society are working, the Artificial Reality Laboratory", Leonardo 18, or else. Electronic simulacra one that stores the experience of preceding represent something 145-151 (1985). often remove the individual from direct experi- generations. ence of reality television, video, etc.). 14. S. Wilson, to CreateArt (New (e.g. Using Computers 33. V. F. Turchin [31] 92. Turchin notes that Prentice Inc., 261, 341- p. Taoism-'the or 'the order of na- Jersey: Hall, 1986) pp. art is not a formalized like way' perhaps 344. linguistic language, ture'; ancient Chinese religion and philosophy science; however, art does have a complex organi- proposed the unity of nature and oneness of the 15. P. D. Prince, 'The Aesthetics of Exhibition: A zation of concepts and objects that form cultural universe. The universe was seen as an organism Discussion of Recent American Computer Art systems and subsystems, that are linguistically de- made from an interrelated network of hierarchi- Shows", Leonardo,Electronic Art, Supplemental marked, and that provide contextual models. cal nature must be studied as a whole, not Issue 81-88. systems; (1988) pp. 34. T. de Chardin, ThePhenomenon Man (Lon- reduced to its The Taoists were the of parts. among 16. SIGGRAPHis the Association for don: Wm. Collins Sons & Co., Ltd, 1959). Matter first scientists and artists of this Computing great China; phil- Interest on and life have moved toward the same time as ancient Machinery's Special Group Computer constantly greater osophy began a-ound and it is this observation that charac- Greek science, fifth century B.C. Graphics. complexity, terizes our biosphere. 17. P. D. Prince, "Artistsand Computers: A Ret- References and Notes rospective", IEEE ComputerGraphics and Applica- 35. V. F. Turchin [31] p. 98. tions6, No. 8, 8-11 (IEEE Computer Society Pub- 36. C. Ronan, Science:Its Historyand Development 1. The title of this article is in the spirit of TheTao lications,July 1986). AmongtheWorld's Cultures (New York:Hamlin Pub- of Poohby Benjamin Hoff and The Tao ofPhysicsby 18. P. D. Prince, "1900 SIGGRAPH Art Show, A lishing, 1982) pp. 489, 135. Fritjof Capra, who is doing research in theoreti- Review", IEEE ComputerGraphics and Applications cal high energy physics at Lawrence Berkeley 37. A. Gramsci, quote from PrisonNotebooks in B. 6, No. 8, 15-24 (IEEE Computer Society Publica- Laboratory and is a lecturer at the University of H. D. Buchloh, "Figuresof Authority, Ciphers of tions, September 1988). California at Berkeley. Regression", in ArtAfterModernism,M. Tucker, ed. 19. M. Kelly, "Re-viewingModernist Criticism",in (Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc., 1984) 2. T. S. Kuhn, TheStructure ofScientific Revolutions, ArtAfterModernism, M. Tucker, ed. (Boston: David p. 107. 2nd Ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, R. Godine, Publisher, Inc., 1984) p. 91. 1962, 1970). Ktuhi explains that science pro- 38. B. H. D. Buchloh, "Figures of Authority, gresses through major paradigm shifts (e.g. from 20. J. Walker, ArtSince Pop (London: Thames and Ciphers of Regression", in ArtAfter Modernism, M. Ptolemy's geocentric solar system to Copernicus's Hudson Ltd, 1975) p. 50. Tucker, ed. (Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, heliocentric solar from Newton's classical Inc., 1984) 117. system; 21. E. Lucie-Smith, Art in the Seventies p. to Einstein's of In art, (London: physics Theory Relativity). Phaidon Press 11-121. 39. L. Sickman and A. TheArtand Architec- from Kuhn's of the shift from Ltd, 1980) pp. Soper, point view, pre- ture China York: modern to modern be considered a D. in Art of (New Penguin Books, 1971) p. might para- 22. Crimp, "Pictures", AfterModernism, E. Pic- shift. He notes in the scholars M. ed. David R. Pub- 268; quote fromJohn Lodge, "Ch'enJunig's digm that, past, Tucker, (Boston: Godine, ture of Nine Bulletin the Museum have shown the to see the of 176. Dragons", of of tendency history lisher, Inc., 1984) p. Fine 15 67-73. science as a linear or cumulative How- Arts, Boston, (December 1917) pp. process. 23. D. Carrier, "The Era of Post-Historical Art", ever, raises serious contemporary historiography Leonardo20, No. 3, 271 (1987). doubts about this linear approach (pp. 2-3, pp.

12 Cox,The Tao of Postmodernism