The Contextualization of Ars Systematis
2- Similarities
The project takes the form of a darkened room with a domed ceiling upon which a computer display is projected, like a planetarium. Audiences are immersed in a world of real-time stock market activity, represented as the night sky, full of stars that glow as trading takes place on particular stocks (Portway & Autogena. 2001 internet accessed)
Black Shoals Stock Market Planetarium (2001), an art project created by Joshua Portway and Lise Autogena, is a clear example of a new digital media artwork. Always dependant on information – in this case the constant movement of capital - Black Shoals follows the same mechanism that our artwork The Nature does: Information is organized by the artwork system and, consequently, represented by its’ mediums. Media theorist Lev Manovich believes this same mechanism has a special importance. Such is the importance that a concept was created around the same act: info-aesthetics. Manovich’s aesthetics “refers to various new contemporary cultural practices which can be best understand as responses to the new priorities of information society: making sense of information, working with information, producing knowledge from information” (2002 internet accessed).
Even though they share a common internal mechanism, Black Shoals and The Nature completely disagree on the terms trough which information is processed and represented; in other words, they differ in both their input and output. Originally informed by the artwork original idea, concept and/or intention, both (information) process and representation have unique variations: On one hand, Black Shoals is fed by a huge database whilst its’ observer contemplates a motion picture; The Nature, on the other hand, is informed by the spatial position of its’ observer/participants that, in turn, are subject to sound waves.
Ironically, from the point of view of its’ observers, the most compelling difference between these artworks is actually their own position within it. The difference is obvious. Portway and Autogena’s project relies much of its’ experience in sight and contemplation. Safe as an observer, you are not involved in the general system of the artwork – information process and its’ representation. Proposing the exact opposite, The Nature of Speech involves the observer while it simultaneously shapes the information process. However, an individual observer, at this situation, does become much more than a mere vehicle for information. These observers also become responsible for a perceptual common space, shared by all observers and affected directly by their own action.
In a recent show at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, a “ sculpture of light and sound” (United Visual Artists. 2006 internet accessed) designed by the corporation like group, United Visual Artists, also focused itself on how to promote an action/reaction system between observer and artwork. Consequently, Volume (2006) “responds spectacularly to human movement, creating a series of audio-visual experiences” (United Visual Artists. 2006 internet accessed). Presenting and using the exact same method founded in The Nature, Volume’s observer/participant is given no choice but to interfere with the information process. This act, in return, affects the common space shared by all observers. Volume’s emphasis on its’ own feedback system, however, hides some of its’ real concerns as an art piece. When compared to both The Nature and Black Shoals, Volume seems to be a purely aesthetic endeavour; it does not comment on anything other than its’ own qualities.
Such an idea and rationale is extremely linked to the modernist period. Others have pinpointed this same relationship between new media art and modernistic thought (Stallabrass. 2003 p26; Stocker & Schopf. 1999 p14), tracing media art development back to the experimental work of many “isms”. Despite its’ main medium, new digital media, Volume is closely related to that ideology of the avant-garde which prevailed for most of the twentieth century; aesthetic experience is, therefore, its’ main concern. There are plenty of new digital media artists that still follow this same line of investigation and practice. Yet, for the attentive reader, it is also clear that Volume’s apolitical position is not apolitical at all. The moment an artwork is classified or conceived as being a purely aesthetic object it is also the moment of its’ ideological enlistment. Such political phenomenon, however, does not concern this paper (For a clear introduction on the same subject, please read Ars Systematis, Phd Proposal).
At this point it is important to stress that, despite varying immensely in content (concept), input and output, all three artworks discussed in this essay share that same basic mechanism: information process and its’ representation. Perhaps this mechanism is new digital media own justification of existence. On this case, however, any artwork produced with this same medium would inadvertently inherent such mechanism. Paradoxically, our next contemporary does not use a computer to process and represent information per se. Instead, Eduardo Kac’s artwork, Genesis (1999), employs the ultimate system for processing and representing information: life itself. Genesis, in his own words, “explores the notion that biological processes are now writerly and programmable, as well as capable of storing and processing data in ways not unlike digital computers” (cited in Osthoff. 2001 internet accessed). Kac’s approach to subject and practice is, as usual, based on a complex but rather logic set of events and theories:
“The key element of the work is an "artist's gene", a synthetic gene that was created by Kac by translating a sentence from the biblical book of Genesis into Morse Code, and converting the Morse Code into DNA base pairs according to a conversion principle specially developed by the artist for this work. The sentence reads: "Let man have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." It was chosen for what it implies about the dubious notion--divinely sanctioned--of humanity's supremacy over nature. Morse code was chosen because, as the first example of the use of radiotelegraphy, it represents the dawn of the information age--the genesis of global communication. The Genesis gene was incorporated into bacteria, which were shown in the gallery. Participants on the Web could turn on an ultraviolet light in the gallery, causing real, biological mutations in the bacteria. This changed the biblical sentence in the bacteria. After the show, the DNA of the bacteria was translated back into Morse code, and then back into English. The mutation that took place in the DNA had changed the original sentence from the Bible. The mutated sentence was posted on the Genesis web site. In the context of the work, the ability to change the sentence is a symbolic gesture: it means that we do not accept its’ meaning in the form we inherited it, and that new meanings emerge as we seek to change it” (Kac. 1999 internet accessed).
Constituted by a chain of events originated on its’ own conceptual logic, Genesis is the only artwork in which its’ use of various mediums resembles The Nature; as a result, it too relies on that semantic bound seen on Part 1. Its’ visuals, objects and creatures are all semantically interconnected by the installation space, concept and, more importantly, system. Working within the same principle of action/reaction found on Volume and The Nature, Genesis observer also plays an part on its’ system. The most visible difference, however, comes from the fact that Genesis achieves the exact same system without the support of new digital media. Genesis active observer does not accomplish interaction by acting upon a code or algorithm; instead, it directly influences the artwork bacterial development. Conducted by the laws of natural selection, Genesis bacterial development entirely assumes the role usually associated with new digital media: information process. Kac’s emphasis on information process, both as a medium and as a subject, is such that its’ outcome, the representation of information, is almost neglected. Despite being able to visualize the actual physical development of bacteria, we are not able to contemplate at the changes made by genetic evolution and its’ embedded message. Unfortunately these genetic changes, exciting as they are, are only translated back to English at the end of the exhibition; placing Genesis alongside Black Shoals as an artwork that have an necessary beginning, middle and end on its’ system.
The project takes the form of a darkened room with a domed ceiling upon which a computer display is projected, like a planetarium. Audiences are immersed in a world of real-time stock market activity, represented as the night sky, full of stars that glow as trading takes place on particular stocks (Portway & Autogena. 2001 internet accessed)
Black Shoals Stock Market Planetarium (2001), an art project created by Joshua Portway and Lise Autogena, is a clear example of a new digital media artwork. Always dependant on information – in this case the constant movement of capital - Black Shoals follows the same mechanism that our artwork The Nature does: Information is organized by the artwork system and, consequently, represented by its’ mediums. Media theorist Lev Manovich believes this same mechanism has a special importance. Such is the importance that a concept was created around the same act: info-aesthetics. Manovich’s aesthetics “refers to various new contemporary cultural practices which can be best understand as responses to the new priorities of information society: making sense of information, working with information, producing knowledge from information” (2002 internet accessed).
Even though they share a common internal mechanism, Black Shoals and The Nature completely disagree on the terms trough which information is processed and represented; in other words, they differ in both their input and output. Originally informed by the artwork original idea, concept and/or intention, both (information) process and representation have unique variations: On one hand, Black Shoals is fed by a huge database whilst its’ observer contemplates a motion picture; The Nature, on the other hand, is informed by the spatial position of its’ observer/participants that, in turn, are subject to sound waves.
Ironically, from the point of view of its’ observers, the most compelling difference between these artworks is actually their own position within it. The difference is obvious. Portway and Autogena’s project relies much of its’ experience in sight and contemplation. Safe as an observer, you are not involved in the general system of the artwork – information process and its’ representation. Proposing the exact opposite, The Nature of Speech involves the observer while it simultaneously shapes the information process. However, an individual observer, at this situation, does become much more than a mere vehicle for information. These observers also become responsible for a perceptual common space, shared by all observers and affected directly by their own action.
In a recent show at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, a “ sculpture of light and sound” (United Visual Artists. 2006 internet accessed) designed by the corporation like group, United Visual Artists, also focused itself on how to promote an action/reaction system between observer and artwork. Consequently, Volume (2006) “responds spectacularly to human movement, creating a series of audio-visual experiences” (United Visual Artists. 2006 internet accessed). Presenting and using the exact same method founded in The Nature, Volume’s observer/participant is given no choice but to interfere with the information process. This act, in return, affects the common space shared by all observers. Volume’s emphasis on its’ own feedback system, however, hides some of its’ real concerns as an art piece. When compared to both The Nature and Black Shoals, Volume seems to be a purely aesthetic endeavour; it does not comment on anything other than its’ own qualities.
Such an idea and rationale is extremely linked to the modernist period. Others have pinpointed this same relationship between new media art and modernistic thought (Stallabrass. 2003 p26; Stocker & Schopf. 1999 p14), tracing media art development back to the experimental work of many “isms”. Despite its’ main medium, new digital media, Volume is closely related to that ideology of the avant-garde which prevailed for most of the twentieth century; aesthetic experience is, therefore, its’ main concern. There are plenty of new digital media artists that still follow this same line of investigation and practice. Yet, for the attentive reader, it is also clear that Volume’s apolitical position is not apolitical at all. The moment an artwork is classified or conceived as being a purely aesthetic object it is also the moment of its’ ideological enlistment. Such political phenomenon, however, does not concern this paper (For a clear introduction on the same subject, please read Ars Systematis, Phd Proposal).
At this point it is important to stress that, despite varying immensely in content (concept), input and output, all three artworks discussed in this essay share that same basic mechanism: information process and its’ representation. Perhaps this mechanism is new digital media own justification of existence. On this case, however, any artwork produced with this same medium would inadvertently inherent such mechanism. Paradoxically, our next contemporary does not use a computer to process and represent information per se. Instead, Eduardo Kac’s artwork, Genesis (1999), employs the ultimate system for processing and representing information: life itself. Genesis, in his own words, “explores the notion that biological processes are now writerly and programmable, as well as capable of storing and processing data in ways not unlike digital computers” (cited in Osthoff. 2001 internet accessed). Kac’s approach to subject and practice is, as usual, based on a complex but rather logic set of events and theories:
“The key element of the work is an "artist's gene", a synthetic gene that was created by Kac by translating a sentence from the biblical book of Genesis into Morse Code, and converting the Morse Code into DNA base pairs according to a conversion principle specially developed by the artist for this work. The sentence reads: "Let man have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." It was chosen for what it implies about the dubious notion--divinely sanctioned--of humanity's supremacy over nature. Morse code was chosen because, as the first example of the use of radiotelegraphy, it represents the dawn of the information age--the genesis of global communication. The Genesis gene was incorporated into bacteria, which were shown in the gallery. Participants on the Web could turn on an ultraviolet light in the gallery, causing real, biological mutations in the bacteria. This changed the biblical sentence in the bacteria. After the show, the DNA of the bacteria was translated back into Morse code, and then back into English. The mutation that took place in the DNA had changed the original sentence from the Bible. The mutated sentence was posted on the Genesis web site. In the context of the work, the ability to change the sentence is a symbolic gesture: it means that we do not accept its’ meaning in the form we inherited it, and that new meanings emerge as we seek to change it” (Kac. 1999 internet accessed).
Constituted by a chain of events originated on its’ own conceptual logic, Genesis is the only artwork in which its’ use of various mediums resembles The Nature; as a result, it too relies on that semantic bound seen on Part 1. Its’ visuals, objects and creatures are all semantically interconnected by the installation space, concept and, more importantly, system. Working within the same principle of action/reaction found on Volume and The Nature, Genesis observer also plays an part on its’ system. The most visible difference, however, comes from the fact that Genesis achieves the exact same system without the support of new digital media. Genesis active observer does not accomplish interaction by acting upon a code or algorithm; instead, it directly influences the artwork bacterial development. Conducted by the laws of natural selection, Genesis bacterial development entirely assumes the role usually associated with new digital media: information process. Kac’s emphasis on information process, both as a medium and as a subject, is such that its’ outcome, the representation of information, is almost neglected. Despite being able to visualize the actual physical development of bacteria, we are not able to contemplate at the changes made by genetic evolution and its’ embedded message. Unfortunately these genetic changes, exciting as they are, are only translated back to English at the end of the exhibition; placing Genesis alongside Black Shoals as an artwork that have an necessary beginning, middle and end on its’ system.
posted by G. Alfonso at 28.6.07
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