| JODI on Tue, 3 Jul 2001 22:11:39 +0200 (CEST) |
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
| <nettime> | The HISTORY of TECHNOLOGICALLY-ASSISTED ART SINCE WORLD WAR Iand YOUR appropriate place in this history | |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | | | | | The HISTORY of TECHNOLOGICALLY-ASSISTED ART SINCE WORLD WAR I and | | | | YOUR | | | | appropriate place in this history | | | | | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | | | | | This message is confidential and for you only. | | | | | | | | Frank Popper has been contracted by M.I.T. Press to write a | | history of | | technologically-assisted art beginning with World War 1 and I have | | been | | asked by Frank to help him do so. My silent contribution to the | | book | | concerns my helping choose contemporary colleagues which will | | represent | | digitally-assisted art at the end of the 20th C and the start of | | the new | | millennium. I have placed you on this list. | | | | | | As you are a living being, we want to give you the privilege of | | supplying | | the information on yourself and your work which you think most | | relevant. In | | other words, you can practically write your own entry in this | | important | | history book or at least assemble it from what others have written | | about | | you. What I am requesting from you are around 1500 words written | | in the 3rd | | person describing your evolution and current work. You may stress | | one | | particular work which we will try to include as an illustration of | | the text. | | Please understand that Frank will reserve the right to change your | | text, but | | that he will consider it primary. | | | | The current working title of the book is "A HISTORY of | | TECHNOLOGICALLY-ASSISTED ART SINCE WORLD WAR I" | | | | Prior books by Frank Popper are: | | Popper, F. 1968. Origins and Development of Kinetic Art. London: | | Studio | | Vista | | Popper, F. 1975. Art - Action and Participation. New York: New | | York | | University | | Popper, F. 1993. Art of the Electronic Age. London: Thames and | | Hudson | | | | | | | | Please see below the entry Frank himself has written on me and my | | work and | | please try to adhere to this format. | | | | | | | | Also please place your work into one of the 4 categories here (I | | know you | | may have to chose one aspect of your work over the others): | | 1) ENDURING DIGITAL-BASED WORK | | 2) MULTIMEDIA - OFF LINE WORK | | 3) MULTIM.DIA - ON LINE WORK | | 4) INTERACTIVE and/or VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS | | | | | | Does this opportunity appeal to you and can we count on you supply | | us with | | this English text soon? If so the text should be emailed to me at: | | [email protected]. If you send it as an attached word | | file be | | aware that I am on MAC format n but in general paste it into an | | email. OK? | | | | Yours in increasing bifurcations, | | Dr. Joseph Nechvatal | | Paris/New York | | | | email: [email protected] | | | | home page: http://www.nechvatal.net | | | | home: 143 Ludlow Street (14) New York, NY 10002 USA & 114, Rue de | | Vaugirard | | 75006 Paris FRANCE | | | | | | | | *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* | | | | PS: Here is the outline of the book as it now stands: | | | | INTRODUCTION | | | | CHAPTER I. Historical antecedents (1920-1960) | | | | CHAPTER II. Technological Art and Artsts (1960-1990) | | | | CHAPTER III. Digital-assisted Art and Artists Now | | | | CHAPTER IV. Multimedia Off Line Artists Now | | | | CHAPTER V. Multimedia On Line Artists Now | | | | CHAPTER VI. INTERACTIVE and/or VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS Artists Now | | | | CHAPTER VII. Theoretical considerations | | | | CONCLUSION. A resum of the key developments, aesthetic currents | | and | | paradigm shifts in the 20th century art that underpin contemporary | | digital-assisted art with some basic human issues addressed here. | | | | | | *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | | | | | Please try to adhere to this format: | | | | | | Joseph Nechvatal, originally a painter and performance artist, has | | worked | | with ubiquitous electronic information and computer-robots since | | 1986. His | | computer-robotic assisted paintings and computer animations have | | led to a | | particularly original research commitment, the Computer Virus | | Project, an | | experiment with computer viruses as a creative stratagem. | | | | One way of looking at Nechvatalis development since his first | | shows in New | | York Cityis alternative spaces in the 1970s would be in terms of | | the various | | media with which he had chosen to work, making major shifts in | | presentation | | without markedly altering his artis complex structure based | | primarily on | | telecommunications and its technology. However, the succession of | | pencil | | drawing, photocopying, photography, sculpture and computer-robotic | | assisted | | painting only tells part of the story. In fact, in order to | | understand | | fully Nechvatalis most recent artistic options one has to make | | allusion to | | Nechvatalis progressive attitude towards technology in general and | | his | | existential commitments. | | | | In 1983, Nechvatal wrote: "Images of mass annihilation wrought by | | technology | | now provide the major context for our art and our lives. With | | profoundly | | disturbed psyches, modern people encounter their existential fear | | in the | | atom, for when technology relieved much of manis fear of nature it | | replaced | | that fear with one of technology itself". Three years later, | | Joseph | | Nechvatal accomplished the first decisive step in his career by | | adopting | | frankly the latest infomatic technology into his works before | | introducing | | from 1993 onwards the biological/medical/aesthetic concept of the | | computer | | virus as a leading idea into his art work. | | | | Before analyzing in more detail this option let me make an | | allusion to | | another aspect of Nechvatalis aesthetic commitment. He himself has | | stated | | that the focus of his painting is the interface between the | | virtual and the | | actual, what he terms the "viractual". The basic premise of his | | computer-assisted robotic paintings is the exploration of | | "omnijectivity", | | the metaphysical concept stemming from the discovery of quantum | | physics | | which teaches that mind and matter are inextricably linked under | | the | | influence of todayis high-frequency, electronic, computerized | | environment. | | | | For Nechvatal, art is then a matter of inventing aesthetic | | sensations linked | | to concepts of technology, a mental prosthetic. And the function | | of this | | prosthetic art is to create by extenuation different | | technological-aesthetic | | percepts. Thus his art is about a personal investigation into the | | conditions | | of virtuality - conditions which are not quite historically | | assessable yet. | | | | Nechvatalis highly original computer virus project first exhibited | | at the | | Saline Royale in Arc et Senans, France in Nov ember 1993, is | | closely linked | | to the spread of biological viruses, notably HIV. The artist has | | digitized | | his pictorial work, adjusting the images on the computer screen | | before | | introducing a computer virus unto the iconographical database. The | | images | | are then subject to alteration. | | | | At the end of the year 2000 Nechvatal took a further important | | step. At that | | moment he finished the first phase of the reworked Computer Virus | | Project | | and brought it into the realm of artificial life, i.e. into a | | synthetic | | system that exhibits behaviors characteristic of natural living | | systems - in | | this case viruses. The new project actively propagates viral | | attacks on | | Nechvatalis image-files from the "ec-satyricon 2000 (enhanced) + | | bodies in | | the bit-stream (compliant)" series in real time and so, one might | | say, | | address some fundamental questions about the nature of life and | | death by | | simulating life/death-like phenomena on the computer. Here viral | | algorithms | | - based on a viral biological model - are used to define | | evolutionary | | processes which are then applied to the image-files from | | Nechvatalis | | "ec-satyricon 2000 (enhanced) + bodies in the bit-stream | | (compliant)" show | | which were exhibited in New York, at Universal Concepts Unlimited, | | in 2000. | | | | In Nechvatalis virus project, essentially a grid composed of | | colored cells, | | each virus is localized on a cell and can perceive the color of | | the cells | | close to it. Each virus has an energy level and at each turn a | | small amount | | of energy is lost. If the energy of a virus is too low then the | | virus dies. | | A virus has its own program that defines its behavior and each | | program is | | initially randomly generated, employing a user-defined instruction | | set and | | these instructions govern the chromatic, luminous and resonant | | behavior of | | the virus. | | | | Like his earlier computer robot-assisted paintings of the | | mid-1980s, | | Nechvatalis current work creates immersive saturated space | | dominated by | | pattern. Fragments of soft human form are more clearly visible | | now, emerging | | from patterns of text overlay. Here the lines provide a sharp and | | vigorous | | opposition to the deterioration of the virtual body through viral | | infection. | | Such recent paintings as Viral attack: transmissioN, Viral attack: | | the | | cOnquest Of the hOrrible, Viral attack: regretS or Viral attack: | | piTy | | express fully Nechvatalis existential as well as his artistic | | commitment. | | | | The gene general Fin-de-Si cle ornamental excess of Nechvatalis | | work gives | | to us a metaphor for the current computational conditions of | | seeing - and | | perhaps for our expansive conditions of technological-aesthetic | | being. In | | the rising and collapsing of alternative visualizations and | | unordered | | revelations encountered in his work, the circuits of the mind find | | an | | occupation exactly congruent with todayis techno-informatic | | structures. In | | fact, if Nechvatalis preoccupation with fears, mental anguish, | | illness and | | death has never entirely disappeared from his projects their | | artistically | | prospective realization within an up-to-date technological | | framework allows | | him to come to terms with present-day lifeis complexity. | | | | Frank Popper, 2001, Paris | | | | | | *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=* | | | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Return-Path: <[email protected]> | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Received: from hotmail.com (f6.law14.hotmail.com [64.4.21.6]) | | | | Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft | | SMTPSVC; | | Received: from 195.68.93.230 by lw14fd.law14.hotmail.msn.com with | | HTTP; | | X-Originating-IP: [195.68.93.230] | | From: "Joseph Nechvatal" <[email protected]> | | To: [email protected], [email protected] | | Subject: The HISTORY of TECHNOLOGICALLY-ASSISTED ART SINCE WORLD | | WAR I and YOUR appropria | | Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 20:33:02 -0000 | | Mime-Version: 1.0 | | Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed | | Message-ID: <[email protected]> | | X-OriginalArrivalTime: 18 Jun 2001 20:33:02.0989 (UTC) | | FILETIME=[DF4FFBD0:01C0F835] | | Status: O | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [email protected] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected]