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Towards an Ontology of Computer-Generated Aesthetic Artefacts

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Towards an Ontology of Computer-Generated Aesthetic Artefacts UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA FACULDADE DE BELAS-ARTES AESTHETIC INFORMATIONAL SYSTEMS Towards an ontology of computer-generated aesthetic artefacts Rodrigo Hernández Ramírez Orientadores: Prof. Doutor Victor Manuel Guerra dos Reis Prof. Doutor José Miguel Santos Araújo Carvalhais Fonseca Tese especialmente elaborada para a obtenção do grau de Doutor em Belas- Artes, na especialidade de Multimédia 2018 UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA FACULDADE DE BELAS-ARTES AESTHETIC INFORMATIONAL SYSTEMS Towards an ontology of computer-generated aesthetic artefacts Rodrigo Hernández Ramírez Orientadores: Prof. Doutor Victor Manuel Guerra dos Reis Prof. Doutor José Miguel Santos Araújo Carvalhais Fonseca Tese especialmente elaborada para a obtenção do grau de Doutor em Belas-Artes, na especialidade de multimédia Júri: Presidente: Doutora Susana de Sousa Dias de Macedo, Professora Auxiliar e membro do Conselho Científico da Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa (nomeada pela Presidente do Conselho Científico, Professora Doutora Maria João Pestana Noronha Gamito, nos termos do nº 2.1 do Despacho nº 7436/2017, do Diário da República, 2ª série, nº 162, de 23 de agosto de 2017); Vogais: Doutor Fernando Jorge Penousal Martins Machado, Professor Auxiliar do - Departamento de Engenharia Informática da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra (1º arguente); Doutor José Manuel de Figueiredo Gomes Pinto, Professor Catedrático com - Agregação da Escola de Comunicação, Arquitetura, Artes e Tecnologias da Informação da Universidade Lusófona (2º arguente); Doutor António de Sousa Dias de Macedo, Professor Associado da Faculdade de - Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa; Doutor Rogério Paulo Raposo Alves Taveira, Professor Auxiliar da Faculdade de - Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa; Doutor Victor Manuel Guerra dos Reis, Professor Auxiliar da Faculdade de Belas- - Artes da Universidade de Lisboa (orientador). 2018 DECLARAÇÃO DE AUTORIA Eu Rodrigo Hernández Ramírez, declaro que a tese de doutoramento intitulada “Aesthetic informational systems: Towards an ontology of computer-generated aesthetic artefacts”, é o resultado da minha investigação pessoal e independente. O conteúdo é original e todas as fontes consultadas estão devidamente mencionadas na bibliografia ou outras listagens de fontes documentais, tal como todas as citações diretas ou indiretas têm devida indicação ao longo do trabalho segundo as normas académicas. O candidato Lisboa, 22 de Maio de 2018 RESUMO Esta dissertação tem como principal objetivo ampliar o entendimento da natureza de objetos estéticos computacionais; iluminar o que os distingue dos seus homólogos «tradicionais» (não computacionais). O propósito de tal clarificação é, por sua vez, ampliar a compreensão de como os atuais desenvolvimentos tecnológicos afetam a conceção que temos da arte e das obras estéticas. Esta dissertação apresenta os com- putadores como verdadeiras máquinas de criação de modelos; ferramentas que nos permitem criar, representar, interagir com e objetificar entidades e experiências que não precisam de existir na realidade concreta (moderna ou «newtoniana»), mas tão- só como informação. Declara que uma forma melhor de descrever os objetos estéticos computacionais é como simulações: como representações dinâmicas, persistentes e tecnicamente mediadas de um sistema original, com diferentes níveis de abstração (granularidades). Mas também que estes podem igualmente ser encarados e analisa- dos como sistemas informacionais complexos: como padrões, programas ou interfaces que, sendo interpretados, não só transmitem como geram nova informação factual.¹ Incidentalmente, é possível aplicar a mesma caraterização a objetos não computacio- nais. A abordagem seguida por esta dissertação pode ser considerada pouco ortodoxa, por duas razões principais. Em primeiro lugar (e pelos motivos já enunciados), ao contrá- rio da maior parte da pesquisa contemporânea, concentrada na relação entre as tec- nologias de informação e comunicação (TIC) e a arte, a sua estrutura conceptual não se encontra completamente influenciada pela teoria dos meios de comunicação. Ao invés, baseia-se na filosofia da informação, na filosofia da tecnologia, nos estudos de software e — em menor grau — na teoria da arte generativa e na ciência dos sistemas complexos. Em segundo lugar, dado que o objetivo não é desenvolver uma taxono- mia, mas antes uma descrição ontológica geral de objetos estéticos computacionais (daquilo que poderão ser), esta dissertação não apresenta um levantamento detalhado de obras de arte contemporâneas geradas por computadores. As razões para evitar a recolha e a discussão de exemplos são sobretudo metodológi- cas, mas também práticas. Por um lado, existem já muitas descrições que proporcio- nam análises muito mais profundas de práticas estéticas contemporâneas do que as que poderiam ser apresentadas por esta investigação (e.g. Carvalhais 2010). Por outro, é possível afirmar que as TIC contemporâneas são das tecnologias que mais rapida- ¹Uma descrição completa deste termo é apresentada na Secção 4.7. v mente mudam, tal como as «linguagens» dos objetos estéticos computacionais, cuja constituição informacional as torna extremamente propensas a «hibridização» (ver Manovich 2013). Se bem que qualquer sistema de categorização possa ser desafiado por mudanças emergentes, os mais vulneráveis são os que se encontram na depen- dência de mudanças tecnológicas de ponta. Exemplos hoje considerados notáveis e significativos de uma certa categoria de objetos estéticos computacionais podem facil- mente transformar-se amanhã em meros casos irrisórios. Qualquer análise baseada na taxonomia precisa de ter em conta que a realidade em constante evolução dos sistemas tecnológicos poderá nunca se encaixar numa ontologia cuidadosamente organizada. À luz destas circunstâncias, esta dissertação propõe um método «indireto» para ana- lisar objetos estéticos computacionais. Em vez de coligir exemplos e tentar obter um sistema de categorização baseado nas caraterísticas formais, estruturais, processuais ou discursivas que possam partilhar, concentra-se na ferramenta utilizada para os pro- duzir: o computador. Esta abordagem foi determinada pelo propósito de contornar as referidas falhas dos modelos taxonómicos tradicionais mas também pelo princípio fundamental que guia esta dissertação: para a compreensão de fenómenos, o conheci- mento prático (técnico) é igual (se não maior) ao conhecimento teórico. Por outras pa- lavras, esta dissertação parte do princípio de que saber realmente algo implica pelo me- nos uma noção básica das suas origens ou causas. Não sendo possível tomar em conta todos os processos utilizados por profissionais criativos, podemos então concentrar- nos no denominador comum das suas obras: a tecnologia computacional. Todavia, o que esta dissertação propõe não é uma análise geral de funções técnicas ou linguagens de programação, mas antes uma análise geral das circunstâncias (históricas, concetu- ais e outras) que permitiram que os computadores se tornassem instrumentos de cria- ção artística. Para além de contribuir para a compreensão académica — conceptual — daquilo que os computadores podem, não podem e poderiam fazer no contexto de práticas estéticas e não só, esta descrição tem ainda o objetivo de proporcionar ideias das «coisas» que estas máquinas usam e transformam sempre que as utilizamos para criar objetos e experiências, ou seja: informação. A metodologia utilizada é em grande parte uma adaptação do «Método de Níveis de Abstração» (Method of Levels of Abstraction) de Luciano Floridi (2008a, 2011d, 2011a). Trata-se de um instrumento filosófico fortemente inspirado por métodos formais da informática e originalmente criado para especificar e analisar o comportamento de sistemas (de informação). vi Aqui, um nível de abstração (Level of Abstraction, ou LoA) é um conjunto de dados obser- váveis: caraterísticas ou componentes específicas de um sistema, que serão analisadas. A escolha de dados observáveis — e, assim, de LoA — é determinada pelos objetivos, pela perspetiva e pelo grau de pormenor desejado (granularidade) do observador. Os LoAs são aquilo que possibilita fazer análises do sistema; ao resultado de cada análise chama-se modelo. Os LoAs — e, por acréscimo, os modelos — não precisam de ser mu- tuamente exclusivos, nem hierarquicamente relacionados ou ordenados. Na verdade, podem sobrepor-se, ser distintos ou até encaixar-se uns nos outros. Quando determi- nado sistema é analisado através de vários LoAs, ao conjunto daí resultante chama-se interface. Na Secção 3.4.4 apresenta-se uma descrição mais alargada deste método. No contexto desta dissertação, o sistema em análise é o computador, e os LoAs escolhi- dos são, em ordem progressiva: (a) o computador como tecnologia, (b) o computador como máquina de informação, e (c) o computador como «metamédio» ou máquina de simulação. Os dados observáveis são os aspetos históricos, técnicos e concetuais relacionados com cada LoA e que, nalguns casos, requerem maior clarificação. Isso acontece com os conceitos de «tecnologia», «informação» e «simulação». As ideias proporcionadas por esta interface são então utilizadas para demonstrar por que razão os objetos estéticos computacionais podem ser vistos como sistemas informacionais complexos. Por outras palavras, esta dissertação elabora uma série de «retratos» do computador, a partir de várias perspetivas, com o propósito de compreender a natu- reza ôntica dos objetos de produção no contexto de práticas estéticas. Em termos estruturais,
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