Technology and ‘the death of Art History’
CHArt ANNUAL CONFERENCE
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Technology and ‘the death of Art History’
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Stewart Dickson TBC
Reports on the Death of Art History are premature and greatly exaggerated
Reports on the Death of Art History are premature and greatly exaggerated. Postmodernism counters the kind of Futurism which led to Fascism in the 1930's-1940's. But, Postmodernism is anti-humanist and extremely pessimistic. I suggest that a tempered Neo-Futurism is a viable alternative.
The Digital Computer is the tool of abstract facility that the Modernists never had. The Digital Computer flattens the discursive arena.
The power of the Digital Computer doubles every eighteen months and its cost is halved every eighteen months. This is a cause for great optimism. The Marxist Means of Production are in the hands of the People. The cure to Nazionalism and Fascism is inclusiveness and Diversity. Is true economic Democracy the first step toward inclusiveness and Diversity?
Academic and Institutional Art, Art History and Art Criticism are most rightly and properly dead. But nothing prevents egalitarian Art production, Criticism and Historical analysis from continuing. In fact, the Convergence of Media: The evolutionary combination of Telephone, Television and Digital Computing -- brings with it the return of non-volatile Media.
The Previous model was a top-down pyramid of expensive, broadcast-only production and distribution. It was produced and distributed only by those with the means to do so. And, as soon as the content was sent over the airwaves, it evaporated, as if it had never existed. There was no way to analyze the content for accuracy.
The Internet is the Democratic, discursive haven. The Wikipedia is disparaged by Academia as "not written by Experts" -- but the credentials of the Wikipedia's authors can be checked. Analytical search engines, such as Google Trends and Wolfram | Alpha have the potential to check the Noosphere for consistency, if not accuracy.
The Internet began with a set of RFC's (Requests for Comment), written by ad-hoc experts. I suggest that the Internet still has its set of built-in checks, balances and self-regulating systems. This is the right and proper arena for Art History and Art Criticism now and into the future.