Practicing Art/Science
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Practicing Art/Science Over the last two decades, multiple initiatives of transdisciplinary collaboration across art, science, and technology have seen the light of day. Why, by whom, and under what circumstances are such initiatives promoted? What does their experimental character look like – and what can be learned, epistemologically and institutionally, from probing the multiple practices of “art/science” at work? In answer to the questions raised, Practicing Art/Science contrasts topical posi- tions and insightful case studies, ranging from the detailed investigation of “art at the nanoscale” to the material analysis of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and its cracked smile. In so doing, this volume brings to bear the “practice turn” in science and technology studies (STS) on the empirical investigation of multifaceted experi- mentation across contemporary art, science, and technology in situ. Against the background of current discourse on “artistic research,” the introduction not only explains the particular relevance of the “practice turn” in STS to tackle the interdisciplinary task at hand, but offers also a timely survey of varying strands of artistic experimentation. In bringing together ground-breaking studies from internationally renowned scholars and upcoming researchers in sociology, art theory and artistic practice, as well as history and philosophy of science, Practicing Art/Science will be essential reading for practitioners and professionals in said fields, as well as postgraduate students and representatives of higher education and research policy more broadly. Philippe Sormani is Board member of the Science and Technology Studies Lab at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and affiliated researcher at the Institut Marcel Mauss, EHESS, in Paris, France. Guelfo Carbone holds a PhD in Philosophy and History of Philosophy (Sapienza University of Rome), and is a member of the Editorial Board of the philosophical journal Pólemos. Materiali di filosofia e critica sociale. Priska Gisler is head of the research cluster Intermediality at University of the Arts, Bern, Switzerland, and board member of the Swiss Artistic Research Network (SARN). Routledge Advances in Sociology For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/series/ SE0511 Video Games as Culture Considering the Role and Importance of Video Games in Contemporary Society Daniel Muriel and Garry Crawford The Sociology of Central Asian Youth Choice, Constraint, Risk Mohd. Aslam Bhat Indigenous Knowledge Production Navigating Humanity within a Western World Marcus Woolombi Waters Time and Temporality in Transitional and Post-Conflict Societies Edited by Natascha Mueller-Hirth and Sandra Rios Oyola Practicing Art/Science Experiments in an Emerging Field Edited by Philippe Sormani, Guelfo Carbone and Priska Gisler The Dark Side of Podemos? Carl Schmitt’s Shadow in Progressive Populism Josh Booth and Patrick Baert Intergenerational Family Relations An Evolutionary Social Science Approach Antti O. Tanskanen and Mirkka Danielsbacka Performing Fantasy and Reality in Contemporary Culture Anastasia Seregina The Philosophy of Homelessness Barely Being Pau Moran and Frances Atherton Practicing Art/Science Experiments in an Emerging Field Edited by Philippe Sormani, Guelfo Carbone and Priska Gisler First published 2019 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2019 selection and editorial matter, Philippe Sormani, Guelfo Carbone & Priska Gisler; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Philippe Sormani, Guelfo Carbone & Priska Gisler to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Sormani, Philippe, editor. | Carbone, Guelfo, 1983- editor. | Gisler, Priska, editor. Title: Practicing art/science : experiments in an emerging field / edited by Philippe Sormani, Guelfo Carbone & Priska Gisler. Description: New York : Routledge, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017060793 | ISBN 9781138039414 (hardback) Subjects: LCSH: Science and the arts. | Interdisciplinary approach to knowledge–Case studies. Classification: LCC NX180.S3 P73 2018 | DDC 700.1/05–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017060793 ISBN: 978-1-138-03941-4 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-17588-1 (ebk) Typeset in Goudy by Taylor & Francis Books Contents List of figures vii List of contributors x Introduction: Experimenting with “art/science”?1 GUELFO CARBONE, PRISKA GISLER AND PHILIPPE SORMANI PART I Positions 19 1 Engaging performative contradiction: Introducing the rhetorics of practice and method to artist researchers 21 MICK WILSON 2 Contemporary art as a new paradigm?: An artistic revolution in light of the history of science 45 NATHALIE HEINICH 3 Writing practices as experimental arenas at universities of the arts 56 PRISKA GISLER PART II Practices 79 4 Material play and artistic renderings: The production of essentially useless nanotechnology 81 MICHAEL LYNCH 5 Probing the art/science binary: Notes on the experimental achievement of shared perception 101 DIRK VOM LEHN vi Contents 6 From heterogeneity to hybridity?: Working and living in arts-based research 125 BERNHARD BÖHM 7 Artworks in and as practices: The relevance of particulars 142 YAËL KREPLAK 8 On the discrepancy between objects and things: An ecological approach 164 FERNANDO DOMÍNGUEZ RUBIO PART III Implications 195 9 Re-programmed art: Overcoming obsolescence and opening up programmed and kinetic artworks 197 SERENA CANGIANO, DAVIDE FORNARI AND AZALEA SERATONI 10 Back to the future: Bogomir Ecker’s Tropfsteinmaschine as a thought experiment in stone 216 JOHANNE MOHS 11 Epistemics and aesthetics of experimentation: Towards a hybrid heuristics? 236 HANS-JÖRG RHEINBERGER Index 250 List of figures 3.1 Nina Hebting: Audiovisual installation, BA project 66 3.2 Nina Hebting: Audiovisual installation, BA project 67 3.3 Sarah Tenthorey: Presentation at exhibition, MA project 70 3.4 Sarah Tenthorey: Presentation at exhibition, MA project 71 3.5 Sarah Tenthorey: Presentation at exhibition, MA project 72 3.6 Sarah Tenthorey: Close up, presentation of MA project 73 4.1 Section of electron micrograph of brain tissue. A cross-section of a rendering of brain tissue of a laboratory rat that had been subjected to an experimental lesion. Labels in the margin refer to degenerating axon profiles (d.g.), intact axon profile (a), intact dendrite (d), post-synaptic density (p.s.d.), mitochondrion (mit), and staining artifact (s.a.) 84 4.2 K. Eric Drexler, A Molecular Differential Gear, 1997 88 4.3 Assembly of NanoKid. Chemical diagram showing ‘coupling of NanoKid’s upper and lower body to form NanoKid’ 90 4.4 Model of nanocar on gold surface (left); scanning tunneling microscope image of an array of nanocars (small light clusters of spots) on a surface that has an uneven ‘ridge’ running through it. Nanocar molecules synthesized by James Tour and Yasuhiro Shirai and imaged by Andrew Osgood and Kevin Kelly 92 5.1 Optometric consultation room and standard vision chart 105 5.2 Transcript 1a 107 5.3 Transcript 1b 108 5.4 Transcript 2a 110 5.5 Transcript 2b 111 5.6 Deus Oculi by Jason Cleverly 113 5.7 Transcript 3a 113 5.8 Transcript 3b 115 5.9 Transcript 4 – Anne and Megan at Hendrickje Stoffels 117 7.1 Images of the piece and of the hanging of the artwork 147 7.2 Excerpt 1 151 7.3 Excerpt 2 152 viii List of figures 7.4 Fragment of transcript 155 7.5 View of the exhibition 157 7.6 View of the exhibition 158 8.1 Left: the fear inducing prow-board in its prime. Right: an example of a ‘crepuscular object,’ a worn-down prow-board in an ethnographic museum 166 8.2 The different material components of the Mona Lisa 171 8.3 Left: Mona Lisa’s ‘cracked’ smile. Right, detail of the 11 cm crack reaching the forehead of the Mona Lisa 172 8.4 Left: the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. Right: the recently restored copy at El Prado 173 8.5 Portrait of a man in red chalk, by Leonardo. Red chalk on paper. 33.3 cm x 21.3 cm 174 8.6 Paris’s climatic conditions versus ideal object-sustaining conditions for oil paintings 178 8.7 Top: inside the ceiling, infrastructure designed to transform natural light into ‘aesthetic light.’ Bottom left: zenithal aperture on top. Bottom right: cross-section of the full architecture of containment 179 8.8 Crowds swarming the Salle des États in front of the Mona Lisa 180 8.9 Testing the new LED light 182 8.10 Left: Mona Lisa under ultraviolet light: the pink spots show some of the retouches made to the painting over the years. Right: back of the poplar panel, with brace inserted 186 8.11 Map of forces acting on the panel and their resulting movements.