Occasions 18 Parsing Digital

PPaarrSSii nngg DDiiggiittaall Occasions 18 Parsing Digital Conversations in digital art by practitioners and curators Edited by Sally Golding Preface Sally Golding Fabricating Algorithmic Art Alex McLean and Ellen Harlizius-Klück Plotting Critical Research-Practice in Digital Art Martin Zeilinger Towards A Comprehensive Critique of Technological Art: The New Curator Luba Elliott Aesthetics of Machine Learning and Post-AI Art Addie Wagenknecht Travellers between Worlds and the Longing for New Worlds Manuela Naveau Beyond the Machine Irini Papadimitriou Becoming Digital; Digital Becoming Sally Golding Preface Digital art is an incredibly diverse field, intrinsically in dialogue with innovations and challenges within science, technology and also the terms of public engagement. Yet within circles of art-making, art- viewing and art-critique, there remains great scope for conversations that broaden and extend our understanding of what digital art can, and will, become. This publication, instigated by the Austrian Cultural Forum London’s (ACF) public programming stream undertaken in collaboration with Ars Electronica, Victoria and Albert Museum (V& A) and Unconscious Archives throughout 2017, highlights perspectives from practitioners within the field – texts from transmedia artists and programmers of public art who are crucially involved at the forefront of rethinking the definitions, boundaries and creative potential of digital art from inside the system. The articles herein are paths for wider conversations that stoke our imagination as to the application of digital and technological processes involved in the creation and participation of art within public programmes, providing shared knowledge and ideas, rather than discourse. Alex McLean in collaboration with Ellen Harlizius- Klück, and Martin Zeilinger, reflect on ideas gleaned from deep-research projects centred on the consideration of the algorithm as a fundamental process essential in understanding digital contexts. McLean and Harlizius-Klück discuss their research 5 in which they use examples of early traditional series Unconscious Archives) connect interests dance combined with an appreciation of historical in exploring digital art through recent public projects weaving looms, to create a code-based-textile that encourage and open conversations on the using McLean’s own innovative open source multiplicity of digital art and creative technology. software TidalCycles to expand the notion of Naveau evokes a 19th century engraving as a ‘algorithmic dance culture’. Zeilinger presents mechanism for discussion to convey her enthusiasm his ongoing project Pattern Recognition, in which for supporting today’s young artists who freely explore he foregrounds the importance of a critical innovative ideas that enrich ongoing developments research-practice to consider how evolving machine in digital arts through the international forum of agency in artist–computer collaboration shifts the Ars Electronica Export programme. Papadimitriou our understanding of ‘authorship’ and ‘cultural addresses the museum’s role in initiating and shaping ownership’. critical discussions around the impact of technology Luba Elliott and Addie Wagenknecht bring in society and culture as an active rather than fresh discussion and opinion to the field of digital passive method of interaction, which involves both art critique from their individual perspectives as artists and audiences, by drawing inspiration from practitioners. Elliott describes a path towards literary sources and her own involvement with a comprehensive critique of digital art as one that the Digital Design Weekend programme at the V& A now must consider a ‘familiarity with emerging in London. In my own article I attempt to diversify technical features, an anthropological perspective the conversation in digital arts by offering creative [...], and an awareness of the global political and personal ideas reflecting on technology and situation’. Wagenknecht considers how we might archiving while concurrently discussing artworks better use technological artistic processes available exhibited in the exhibition Emotion + the Tech(no)body, to us to focus on the creative development of programmed by Unconscious Archives as part of machine learning systems in order to produce the ACF’s digital arts strand, which brought together diverse and engaging art made by means of international artists using diverse artistic techniques. artificial intelligence, which might be more seriously These contributions suggest ongoing discussions critiqued within larger and historical art canons. that might be had within broad circles, and ones Manuela Naveau (Head of Ars Electronica in which artists, curators, academics, critics and Export), Irini Papadimitriou (Digital Programmes audiences alike can take part. As the application of Manager at the V& A) and myself, Sally Golding digital technologies in both our daily lives and our (director and producer of the independent curatorial art-viewing experiences converge, it is ripe time 6 7 to examine underlying issues and inspirations that About the Austrian Cultural Forum London may lead to progressive, diverse and unusual takes on the digital experience. The Austrian Cultural Forum London promotes cultural contacts between the UK and Austria by Sally Golding, August 2018 organising events and supporting artists and projects in the fields of music, performing arts, visual arts, literature, film and science. It provides a venue in central London for recitals, lectures, readings, film screenings, conferences and exhibitions, while also cooperating with various partners throughout the UK. The ACF London, in partnership with the V& A Museum London, have been presenting Austrian artists at the Digital Design Weekend since 2016. The project, which began as a cooperation with Ars Electronica, will continue to develop in partnership with the Kunstuniversität Linz in 2018. The impetus for this publication arose from our Digital Arts Focus in autumn 2017. Alongside the Digital Design Weekend at the V& A Museum, the ACF London hosted an in-house exhibition, Emotion + the Tech(no)body and collaborated on a series of performances together with the Unconscious Archives Festival. Tünde Huber, Director, Austrian Cultural Forum London, August 2018 8 9 Fabricating Algorithmic Art or indeed as, art. There is much artwork to be recognised throughout this period, but if we keep digging, there are many more ruins to be found. Through research during our European Research Alex McLean and Ellen Harlizius-Klück Council project PENELOPE,2 we find that algorithms Research Institute for the History of Technology have been present in everyday life for millennia. In the and Science, Deutsches Museum, Munich following we will explore some examples that support this claim, with a focus on our recent work while resident at the Textiles Zentrum Haslach in Austria. Introduction ‘We build our computers the way we build our Algorithmic dance culture cities – over time, without a plan, on top of ruins.’ Ellen Ullman (1998)1 An algorithm is defined as a procedure or set of rules, to be followed without ingenuity, in order to create The above quote refers to the historical layers that a reproducible result. Electronic computers follow make up our computer operating systems, where algorithms, but so do humans. The traditional maypole newly developed user interfaces are successively dance is one common example in parts of Europe, placed on top of the old ones, creating a kind of whereby each dancer follows a set procedure to move palimpsest. Behind the graphical user interface we around a central pole, weaving their ribbon inwards find a text-based one, then a programming language, and outwards, and perhaps backwards and forwards, then a low-level assembly language, then machine to create a braid on the pole. Once complete, the and microcode, until we eventually meet with physical dancers must perfectly follow the rules backwards electronic circuits. The conventional timeline for in order to unbraid the ribbons ready for the next computing technology as a whole begins earlier still, dance. This dance takes some skill and training on with the discovery of the electronic transistor the part of the dancers to complete a braid without a century ago. Each of these layers has had its heyday as the dominant user interface of its time, and indeed 2 PENELOPE: A Study of Weaving as Technical Mode of Existence is an ERC Consolidator Grant Project funded by the European Research each has been used to make algorithmic systems for, Council (ERC) under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme of the European Union (Grant Agreement No 682711), conducted at the Research Institute for the History of Technology and Science at Deutsches 1 www.salon.com/1998/05/12/feature_321 Museum, Munich. 10 11 errors, but as it is an algorithmic dance, ingenuity is machinery in the 19th century. However, next to unwelcome. The correct braid is defined in advance the Jacquard device we find the earlier brose machine by the rules that are followed. (German: Bröselmaschine) that was used in Upper Another algorithmic dance is the Pinnal Kolattam Austria by handweavers to replace the drawboy when of Tamil Nadu, India. There is no pole, and the dance working at draw looms. The brose machine follows is done at harvest-time rather than springtime, but like the same principle whereby material is fed into the the maypole dance, each dancer follows a procedure machine, while ups and downs

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