DOCSLIB.ORG

` Copyright by Edward A. Shanken 2001

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
` Copyright by Edward A. Shanken 2001 ` Copyright by Edward A. Shanken 2001 ART IN THE INFORMATION AGE: CYBERNETICS, SOFTWARE, TELEMATICS AND THE CONCEPTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF ART AND TECHNOLOGY TO ART HISTORY AND AESTHETIC THEORY by Edward A. Shanken Department of Art History Duke University Date:__________________ Approved: ______________________ Hans Van Miegroet, Co-Chair ______________________ W.J.T. Mitchell, Co-Chair ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Art History in the Graduate School of Duke University 2001 ABSTRACT (Art History) ART IN THE INFORMATION AGE: CYBERNETICS, SOFTWARE, TELEMATICS AND THE CONCEPTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF ART AND TECHNOLOGY TO ART HISTORY AND AESTHETIC THEORY by Edward A. Shanken Department of Art History Duke University Date:__________________ Approved: ______________________ Hans Van Miegroet, Co-Chair ______________________ W.J.T. Mitchell, Co-Chair ______________________ ______________________ ______________________ An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Art History in the Graduate School of Duke University 2001 ABSTRACT This dissertation argues that the artistic use of technology demands greater recognition. Scholarship on twentieth century art generally has ignored or disparaged the artistic current otherwise known as Art and Technology. Art History has failed to recognize and incorporate into its canons the rich historical and theoretical underpinnings of this tendency. This oversight is especially conspicuous in the literature's inability to grasp how the sciences and technologies particular to the Information Age have shaped the formal and conceptual development of art since 1945. The research presented here employs a synthetic method drawing on diverse disciplines, archival research, correspondence, and personal interviews. The work of British artist Roy Ascott and American art critic Jack Burnham furnish central practical and theoretical frameworks and are discussed in detail. Their contributions support the dissertation's thesis that the cultural manifestations of the late twentieth century can be better understood by closely analyzing the scientific and technological developments that have played a central role in shaping society. This study does not privilege science and technology as the engines of discovery that drive subsequent cultural developments, but demonstrates how artists have integrated art with science and technology in a praxis that interrogates key aspects of western epistemology and aesthetics. The dissertation examines how this praxis seeks to challenge conventional models of communication, such as aesthetic exchanges in which an authorial message is embedded in an object by an artist and decoded by an audience. By contrast, many works iv of Art and Technology (and artists' theories about them) explicitly propose that richer forms of meaning can arise from a multi-directional flow of information in discursive networks. Such works stress the processes of artistic creation and audience participation. They emphasize the dematerialized forms of ideation and collaboration rather than the materiality of concrete art objects. The dissertation problematizes these aesthetic theories, but maintains that artistic meaning in the Information Age is not embedded in objects or individuals so much as it is abstracted in the collective production, manipulation, and distribution of information. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My large and extended family cultivated an environment in which learning was highly valued, and in which no accomplishment was unattainable. They encouraged my childhood fascinations with both art and technology, and have continued to support my efforts to forge a uniquely branching professional and personal path. My wife, Dr. Kristine Stiles, has been not only a constant source of inspiration and emotional sustenance, but has been my most important mentor and advisor. I am blessed and humbled by her love and brilliance. I am grateful to my committee for standing by me and seeing my work through. Drs. W.J.T. Mitchell and Hans Van Miegroet, in particular, shouldered the responsibility of co-chairing my committee, exhibiting an exceedingly rare degree of commitment and generosity, offering invaluable insight and counsel, and helping to shape my ideas and thinking. Drs. Patricia Leighten, Mark Antliff, and Barbara Herrnstein Smith made themselves available to discuss my work as it developed, resulting in significant contributions to my thinking. Acknowledgement is also due to Drs. Annabel Wharton, who helped guide my research at a critical moment, and Kevin Parker. Dr. Richard Powell has served as an important model as a scholar and leader, and his mentorship and support of my work are deeply appreciated. Many artists and friends of the arts have generously granted interviews, access to their archives, and hospitality, but no one more than Roy Ascott and Jack Burnham. A partial list includes: Eduardo Kac, Joseph Kosuth, Sonia Sheridan, Robert Adrian, Liza vi Bear, Billy Klüver and Julie Martin, Hank Bull, Les Levine, Carolee Schneemann, Hans Haacke, Tjebba van Tijen, Willoughby Sharp, Josephine Coy, Karl Katz, David Antin, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Alan Kaprow, Peter D'Agostino, Ted Victoria, Victoria Vesna, Woody Vasulka, Norman White, Stan Casselman, Stephan Delacher, Arnaud Enné, Daniel Gorn, and the Skwersky, Ziv, Beesch, and Kopelowicz families. A Henry Luce/ACLS dissertation fellowship helped immensely to provide uninterrupted time to study and write. Grants from Duke University's Graduate School, Department of Art History, and the Center for International Studies all contributed greatly to my scholarship. Jeffrey Shaw and Katherina Gsöllpointner provided residencies at the ZKM in Karlsruhe, and at Ars Electronica in Linz respectively, which offered unparalleled learning experiences. Finally, the librarians and archivists at the Jewish Museum, the Corcoran Gallery, the Getty Research Institute, the Los Angeles County Musem of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Stedelijk, the Moderna Museet , and Duke University all facilitated my research. vii CONTENTS Abstract iv Acknowledgments vi List of Illustrations viii Introduction: A Brief History of Art, Technology, and Art and Technology 1 Chapter 1. Cybernetics and Cybernetic Art Chapter 2. Informing Software: Art and Technology in the US, 1966-71 Chapter 3. Telematics and Telematic Art Chapter 4. Conclusion: Towards a Critique of Telematic Art Appendix: Illustrations Bibliography Biography viii Introduction: A Brief History of Art, Technology, and Art and Technology Art and technology have been paired together throughout western intellectual history. The concepts signified by these terms have varied widely, and the relationship between them has been subject to much debate. Contemporary notions of art or technology are markedly different from those shared by Plato and Aristotle, who made no distinction between what are now considered the fine arts and the applied arts. The ancient Greeks did differentiate between the liberal arts and the servile arts, though both were subsumed under the rubric of τεχνε (techne). The division between these arts was based on class distinctions and related attitudes towards different types of skills: the liberal arts (such as logic and rhetoric) required intellectual reasoning and were deemed suitable for free citizens, whereas the servile arts demanded manual skills, such as metalworking and painting, that were performed by slaves or members of the lower classes. According to Aristotle, techne enables what is to be produced to come into being in the absence of reason or judgement. He argued that the virtue of praxis, which is the special work of humankind, cannot be reduced to techne.1 Plato condemned art for its exclusive concern with appearances (or rather, the appearance of appearances). However, the mimetic standards by which painting and sculpture were judged by the ancients included not only their ability to imitate the appearance of things, but to evoke 1 John Phillips, "τεχνε's Other Eye: Concerning an Art with No Effects," in John Gange, ed., Art, Technology, Technique. (London: Pluto Press, 1998): 51-2. 1 states of mind and dispositions of character through psychological association.2 Roman accounts went further, attributing to Greek art wisdom, intuition, and imagination. Descriptions of Pheidias' sculpture by Cicero and Philostratos, for example, recognized not only the skillful, mimetic reproduction of appearances that can be seen, but the representation of the nature of beauty itself, a quality that they could be envisioned only through the imagination. Thus the Roman understanding of art further elevated its status above that of mere craft. The source of contemporary distinctions between science, technology, and art has been credited to Artistotle's parsing of theoretical, practical, and creative goals: truth, praxis, and making, though the origin of these contemporary distinctions is not nearly so neat.3 For example, art and technology were closely aligned in the creation of religious architecture in the Middle Ages, and mathematics, architecture, and art were inseparable in the formulation of the rules of one-point perspective in the Renaissance. The Renaissance also brought a significant reappraisal of the status of art in the hierarchy of human endeavors.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Cartography and Mapping Visualizations—A Genealogy of Space
    THE PARSONS INSTITUTE 68 Fifth Avenue 212 229 6825 FOR INFORMATION MAPPING New York, NY 10011 piim.newschool.edu and artists, such as Buckminster Fuller and Roy Ascott,2 Cartography and Mapping developing devices for territorial knowledge and research- Visualizations—A Genealogy ing the common social understandings under a single, self- of Space: Digitization and Visual comparative, world map. Artist Ursula Biemann also maps matters on geopolitics, mineral resources, and material Representation of Knowledge as Art wars. In her work, she depicts the artist as a change-agent who can help solve problems for society using archives, LAURA GARCIA, MA libraries, and databases. One such example she presents is the history of the Caucasus/Caspian crude oil and gas pipelines that travel KEYWORDS Art and memory, art and technology through East/Middle East roads. This is a geopolitical awareness, genealogy of space, phenomenology, artwork that contributes to developing the aesthetics psychogeography, visual displacement of spaces. Considering artworks using mapping, docu- mental, archives, or databases. These strategies for DATE 2012–2013 social observation can be artistically rendered as car- tographic, databases, or other mapping formats. These URL http://cartographies-of-non-place.blogspot.co.uk/ representational systems can be said to include examples from video.art to net.art, and belong to communication ABSTRACT Since the end of the Cold War art and technol- and social sciences. Using documents and aesthetics of ogy awareness theory has emerged in response to concur- process, art, and language artworks based upon extensive rently developing forms of new media. This theory re- lists, alphabetical orders, archives, etc., 1970s conceptual sponds to digitization as it arises out of analogue systems art tried to resolve the tensions between art and memory.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Etoth Dissertation Corrected.Pdf
    The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School The College of Arts and Architecture FROM ACTIVISM TO KIETISM: MODERIST SPACES I HUGARIA ART, 1918-1930 BUDAPEST – VIEA – BERLI A Dissertation in Art History by Edit Tóth © 2010 Edit Tóth Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2010 The dissertation of Edit Tóth was reviewed and approved* by the following: Nancy Locke Associate Professor of Art History Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee Sarah K. Rich Associate Professor of Art History Craig Zabel Head of the Department of Art History Michael Bernhard Associate Professor of Political Science *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School ii ABSTRACT From Activism to Kinetism: Modernist Spaces in Hungarian Art, 1918-1930. Budapest – Vienna – Berlin investigates modernist art created in Central Europe of that period, as it responded to the shock effects of modernity. In this endeavor it takes artists directly or indirectly associated with the MA (“Today,” 1916-1925) Hungarian artistic and literary circle and periodical as paradigmatic of this response. From the loose association of artists and literary men, connected more by their ideas than by a distinct style, I single out works by Lajos Kassák – writer, poet, artist, editor, and the main mover and guiding star of MA , – the painter Sándor Bortnyik, the polymath László Moholy- Nagy, and the designer Marcel Breuer. This exclusive selection is based on a particular agenda. First, it considers how the failure of a revolutionary reorganization of society during the Hungarian Soviet Republic (April 23 – August 1, 1919) at the end of World War I prompted the Hungarian Activists to reassess their lofty political ideals in exile and make compromises if they wanted to remain in the vanguard of modernity.
    [Show full text]
  • Painting in a Digital World: I Told You So
    AUTHOR James Faure Walker University of the Arts, Camberwell London, United Kingdom Painting in a Digital World: [email protected] I Told You So Over the past 10 years, the proportion of painters who use comput­ like say hello. The curator of new media will casually mention that ers in their work has been rising, and rising dramatically. They may painting is "over" as if it were a given among the digerati. Here is not all be expert users, and they probably know next to nothing a phrase from the SIGGRAPH 2005 Electronic Art and Animation about digital art or its origins, and nothing at all about its pioneer art­ Catalog: "... the now-weary exertions of the 20th century's picture ists. They will not have heard of SIGGRAPH. They read Frieze. They plane." Yet the pot-pourri of post-modernist styles suggests oth­ probably outnumber hardcore digital artists by a factor of 50 to one. erwise. That concept of progress in art, of one phase superseding So if we are to speak of the way things are going in "digital art," they another, whether tired or not - that's history. So "new media" is on a are part of the picture. somewhat anachronistic track: a one-way track. No going back! No mixing! It's all historically determined! Goodbye non-interactive art! In the 1990s, it was different. Only a handful of galleries (special- You're exhausted! Any attempt to integrate, to reconcile the disci­ ist digital art galleries) exhibited inkjet prints as fine art. Today it is plines of that wretched, tired-out 20 picture-plane, is doomed.
    [Show full text]
  • Cyberarts 2018
    Hannes Leopoldseder · Christine Schöpf · Gerfried Stocker CyberArts 2018 International Compendium Prix Ars Electronica Computer Animation · Interactive Art + · Digital Communities Visionary Pioneers of Media Art · u19–CREATE YOUR WORLD STARTS Prize’18 Grand Prize of the European Commission honoring Innovation in Technology, Industry and Society stimulated by the Arts INTERACTIVE ART + Navigating Shifting Ecologies with Empathy Minoru Hatanaka, Maša Jazbec, Karin Ohlenschläger, Lubi Thomas, Victoria Vesna Interactive Art was introduced to Prix Ars Electronica farewell and prayers of a dying person into the robot as a key category in 1990. In 2016, in response to a software; seeking life-likeness—computational self, growing diversity of artistic works and methods, the and environmental awareness; autonomous, social, “+” was added, making it Interactive Art +. and unpredictable physical movement; through to Interactivity is present everywhere and our idea of the raising of a robot as one's own child. This is just what it means to engage with technology has shifted a small sample of the artificial ‘life sparks’ in this from solely human–machine interfaces to a broader year’s category. Interacting with such artificial enti- experience that goes beyond the anthropocentric ties draws us into both a practical and ethical dia- point of view. We are learning to accept machines as logue about the future of robotics, advances in this other entities we share our lives with while our rela- field, and their role in our lives and society. tionship with the biological world is intensified by At the same time, many powerful works that deal the urgency of environmental disasters and climate with social issues were submitted.
    [Show full text]
  • Encounters with Wolves
    Marlis Heyer Susanne Hose Hrsg. Mały rjad Serbskeho instituta Budyšin Kleine Reihe des Sorbischen Instituts Bautzen 32 Encounters with Wolves: Dynamics and Futures Begegnungen mit Wölfen Zetkanja z wjelkami 32 · 2020 Mały rjad Serbskeho instituta Budyšin Kleine Reihe des Sorbischen Instituts Bautzen Marlis Heyer Susanne Hose Hrsg. Encounters with Wolves: Dynamics and Futures Begegnungen mit Wölfen Zetkanja z wjelkami © 2020 Serbski institut Budyšin Sorbisches Institut Bautzen Dwórnišćowa 6 · Bahnhofstraße 6 D-02625 Budyšin · Bautzen Spěchowane wot Załožby za serbski lud, kotraž T +49 3591 4972-0 dóstawa lětnje přiražki z dawkowych srědkow na F +49 3591 4972-14 zakładźe hospodarskich planow, wobzamknjenych www.serbski-institut.de wot zapósłancow Zwjazkoweho sejma, Krajneho sejma Braniborska a Sakskeho krajneho sejma. [email protected] Gefördert durch die Stiftung für das sorbische Redakcija Redaktion Volk, die jährlich auf der Grundlage der von den Marlis Heyer, Susanne Hose Abgeordneten des Deutschen Bundestages, des Landtages Brandenburg und des Sächsischen Wuhotowanje Gestaltung Landtages beschlossenen Haushalte Zuwen- Ralf Reimann, Büro für Gestaltung, dungen aus Steuermitteln erhält. Bautzen Ćišć Druck Grafik S. 33 unter Verwendung eines 32 Union Druckerei Dresden GmbH Scherenschnitts von Elisabeth Müller, Collmen Mały rjad Serbskeho instituta Budyšin ISBN 978-3-9816961-7-2 Grafik S. 87 nach GEO-Karte 5/2018 Kleine Reihe des Sorbischen Instituts Bautzen Page Content 5 Marlis Heyer and Susanne Hose Vorwort · Preface 23 Emilia
    [Show full text]
  • COMPUTER ART As a WAY of LIFE
    COMPUTER ART as a WAY OF LIFE By Gene Youngblood hen I think of computer art I think of Chicago, and of four people there- Jane Veeder, Phil Morton, Dan Sandin and Tom De Fanti-who are pioneer- ring a visual art form that ultimately is not visual at all, but rather the cre- ation of language, and of conversational "envi- ronments" out of which will emerge our future images and the images of our future. Together Wwith Steina and Woody Vasulka in Santa Fe, they inspired me, taught me, and changed me profoundly over thelast tenyears. With infinite patience and dedication, with the passion of vi- sionary seekers, they guided me ever deeper into the digital domain and caused me at last to understand that computer graphics is some- thing more than art, that it is a kind of practical philosophy, a way of life, a way of being in the world anda way of creating a world to be in. No story reflects this more vividlythan that of Jane Veeder, an artist-programmer whose life and work epitomize both the unique computer- art community in Chicago and a personal path- way of growth and discovery that will become representative of the life of the artist in our time. In my opinion, Veeder stands with Ed Em- shwiller and Larry Cuba as one of the most gifted computer artists working in America to- day. Relatively unknown until recently, she is beginning to get the recognition she deserves. Her 1982 animation Montana is the only work of computer graphics in the Museum of Modern Art's video collection, and her interactive paint program/arcade game Warpitout-the sensation of the SIGGRAPH '82 Art Show in Boston-will later this year be installed at the Ontario Sci- ence Center in Toronto, one of the most presti- gious science museums in the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Anansi Boys Neil Gaiman
    ANANSI BOYS NEIL GAIMAN ALSO BY NEIL GAIMAN MirrorMask: The Illustrated Film Script of the Motion Picture from The Jim Henson Company(with Dave McKean) The Alchemy of MirrorMask(by Dave McKean; commentary by Neil Gaiman) American Gods Stardust Smoke and Mirrors Neverwhere Good Omens(with Terry Pratchett) FOR YOUNG READERS (illustrated by Dave McKean) MirrorMask(with Dave McKean) The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish The Wolves in the Walls Coraline CREDITS Jacket design by Richard Aquan Jacket collage from Getty Images COPYRIGHT Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following copyrighted material: “Some of These Days” used by permission, Jerry Vogel Music Company, Inc. Spider drawing on page 334 © by Neil Gaiman. All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. ANANSI BOYS. Copyright© 2005 by Neil Gaiman. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of PerfectBound™. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gaiman, Neil.
    [Show full text]
  • Art, Technology, Consciousness Mind@Large
    Art, Technology, Consciousness mind@large Edited by Roy Ascott intellect Art, Technology, Consciousness mind@large Edited by Roy Ascott First Published in Hardback in 2000 in Great Britain by Intellect Books, PO Box 862, Bristol BS99 1DE, UK Intellect Books, ISBS, 5804 N.E. Hassalo St, Portland, Oregon 97213-3644, USA Copyright ©2000 Intellect Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy- ing, recording, or otherwise, without written permission. Consulting Editor: Masoud Yazdani Copy Editor: Peter Young A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Electronic ISBN 1-84150-814-4 / Hardback ISBN 1-84150-041-0 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Cromwell Press, Wiltshire Acknowledgements There are many individuals to thank for their help in bringing this book into being. In addition to the authors themselves, my colleagues and students in CAiiA-STAR, the editorial support team at ACES, and the staff of Intellect, thanks are due to Professor Ken Overshott, Principal of the University of Wales College Newport, for his continuing support. Contents Preface Beyond Boundaries 2 Edge-Life: technoetic structures and moist media – Roy Ascott Towards a Third Culture | Being in Between – Victoria Vesna The Posthuman Conception of Consciousness: a 10-point guide – Robert Pepperell Genesis: a transgenic artwork – Eduardo Kac Techno-Darwinism: artificial selection in the Electronic age – Bill
    [Show full text]
  • Cybernetics in Society and Art
    Stephen Jones Visiting Fellow, College of Fines Arts, University of NSW [email protected] Cybernetics in Society and Art Abstract: This paper argues that cybernetics is a description of systems in conversation: that is, it is about systems “talk- ing” to each other, engaging in processes through which information is communicated or exchanged between each system or each element in a particular system, say a body or a society. It proposes that cybernetics de- scribes the process, or mechanism, that lies at the basis of all conversation and interaction and that this factor makes it valuable for the analysis of not only electronic communication systems but also of societal organisation and intra-communication and for interaction within the visual/electronic arts. The paper discusses the actual process of Cybernetics as a feedback driven mechanism for the self-regulation of a collection of logically linked objects (i.e., a system). These may constitute a machine of some sort, a biological body, a society or an interactive artwork and its interlocutors. The paper then looks at a variety of examples of systems that operate through cybernetic principles and thus demonstrate various aspects of the cybernetic pro- cess. After a discussion of the basic principles using the primary example of a thermostat, the paper looks at Stafford Beer's Cybersyn project developed for the self-regulation of the Chilean economy. Following this it examines the conversational, i.e., interactive, behaviour of a number of artworks, beginning with Gordon Pask's Colloquy of Mobiles developed for Cybernetic Serendipity in 1968. It then looks at some Australian and inter- national examples of interactive art that show various levels of cybernetic behaviours.
    [Show full text]
  • From Point to Pixel: a Genealogy of Digital Aesthetics by Meredith Anne Hoy
    From Point to Pixel: A Genealogy of Digital Aesthetics by Meredith Anne Hoy A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric and the Designated Emphasis in Film Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Whitney Davis, co-chair Professor Jeffrey Skoller, co-chair Professor Warren Sack Professor Abigail DeKosnik Professor Kristen Whissel Spring 2010 Copyright 2010 by Hoy, Meredith All rights reserved. Abstract From Point to Pixel: A Genealogy of Digital Aesthetics by Meredith Anne Hoy Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric University of California, Berkeley Professor Whitney Davis, Co-chair Professor Jeffrey Skoller, Co-chair When we say, in response to a still or moving picture, that it has a digital “look” about it, what exactly do we mean? How can the slick, color-saturated photographs of Jeff Wall and Andreas Gursky signal digitality, while the flattened, pixelated landscapes of video games such as Super Mario Brothers convey ostensibly the same characteristic of “being digital,” but in a completely different manner? In my dissertation, From Point to Pixel: A Genealogy of Digital Aesthetics, I argue for a definition of a "digital method" that can be articulated without reference to the technicalities of contemporary hardware and software. I allow, however, the possibility that this digital method can acquire new characteristics when it is performed by computational technology. I therefore treat the artworks covered in my dissertation as sensuous artifacts that are subject to change based on the constraints and affordances of the tools used in their making.
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded From: Usage Rights: Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Deriva- Tive Works 4.0
    Colton, David, G (2019) Canned chance - the commodification of aleatory art practice. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University. Downloaded from: https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/623579/ Usage rights: Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Deriva- tive Works 4.0 Please cite the published version https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk Canned Chance - The commodification of aleatory art practice. David G Colton A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Manchester Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Manchester School of Art Manchester Metropolitan University 2019 1 | David Colton Abstract: My practice involves re-imagining aleatory art systems and practices to create products that push the user into a direct relationship with chance. Initial research revealed that modernist aleatory practices have largely been recuperated into the canon of contemporary art techniques. It was my intention to re- invigorate these practices by re-imagining them in a new context outside of art practice: to change perspectives, ‘reality tunnels’ and to transcend culture and social conditioning. There are differences between work that has been made using chance in the creative process, and work that pushes the artist or viewer into chance encounters and situations and exploring the differences between them has been an important part of this project. The resulting works situate the user within the chance process, and in effect, make them the subject of their own experimentation and practice. My insights and discoveries develop out of a range of experimental artistic works that critically examine the re-imagining and commodification of chance processes. This thesis documents the development of each work in a series of chapters which also explain the research and developmental processes, in addition to setting the works in a theoretical and contextual framework.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cybernetic Brain
    THE CYBERNETIC BRAIN THE CYBERNETIC BRAIN SKETCHES OF ANOTHER FUTURE Andrew Pickering THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO AND LONDON ANDREW PICKERING IS PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER. HIS BOOKS INCLUDE CONSTRUCTING QUARKS: A SO- CIOLOGICAL HISTORY OF PARTICLE PHYSICS, THE MANGLE OF PRACTICE: TIME, AGENCY, AND SCIENCE, AND SCIENCE AS PRACTICE AND CULTURE, A L L PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, AND THE MANGLE IN PRAC- TICE: SCIENCE, SOCIETY, AND BECOMING (COEDITED WITH KEITH GUZIK). THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO 60637 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, LTD., LONDON © 2010 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PUBLISHED 2010 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5 ISBN-13: 978-0-226-66789-8 (CLOTH) ISBN-10: 0-226-66789-8 (CLOTH) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pickering, Andrew. The cybernetic brain : sketches of another future / Andrew Pickering. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-226-66789-8 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-226-66789-8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Cybernetics. 2. Cybernetics—History. 3. Brain. 4. Self-organizing systems. I. Title. Q310.P53 2010 003’.5—dc22 2009023367 a THE PAPER USED IN THIS PUBLICATION MEETS THE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS OF THE AMERICAN NATIONAL STANDARD FOR INFORMATION SCIENCES—PERMA- NENCE OF PAPER FOR PRINTED LIBRARY MATERIALS, ANSI Z39.48-1992. DEDICATION For Jane F. CONTENTS Acknowledgments / ix 1. The Adaptive Brain / 1 2. Ontological Theater / 17 PART 1: PSYCHIATRY TO CYBERNETICS 3.
    [Show full text]