|
|
Conformity, Process and Deviation: Digital Arts as 'Outsider' |
German Alfonso Nunez (University of the Arts London)
Frankenstein, Chimeras and Transhumanism: Contemporary Art and its conflicting representations of medical and scientific knowledge
Whilst cultural representations of technology are usually seen through the lenses of popular culture studies, Contemporary Art can offer a quite consistent and rich case study. This paper has the intention to contrast the interpretation of scientific research by a very specific practice, Computational Art, with its broader world of Contemporary Art. A direct product of computational technology developed over the Cold War, Computational Art, also known as Digital, New Media or, simply, Computer Art, had a rather uneasy historical relationship with its own Art World. It should come as no surprise that one of the main contentious points in this relationship is the very discourse professed by Computational Artists in relation to technology; whereas the field of Contemporary Art is frequently averse to technology, romantic and commoditised, Computational Art is keen supporter of technological development, rationality and, quite commonly, dematerialized. We know that this cannot be generalised to all artists from both spheres. Hence, this study will look at specific artworks and individuals, from both extreme sides of the debate, in order to delineate the ideological battlefield that engulfs both sides in relation to their antagonistic view of technological developments. The method for selecting the subjects of our case study will be based on the status held by the each artist in relation to their respective field. We believe that, despite the recent advances towards the insertion of computational practices within the larger contemporary art world, some contentious problems persist, especially in relation to practices seen as high tech ones. Moreover, by way of comparative analyses, we will explain this ideological distance from the point of view of epistemological, art historical and institutional differences. It is important to note that this comparative study focuses at discourse and institutional affiliation as much as it does at artworks. Finally, we hope to clarify the role of these differences, framed by the social movement literature as ideological producers of endogenous resources, necessary for the cohesion and distinction of any collective endeavour and present not only in our artistic context but also in the larger cultural field in general, as part of an on-going and constant struggle for legitimacy and survival, for both Computational Art and Contemporary Art as a whole.
Biography
German Alfonso Nunez is a final year PhD student at The University of the Arts London and based at the Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation (TrAIN). By way of Sociological theory concerned with the collective action common to social movements, his research focus at the historiographical and institutional development of Computational Art. He is also a member of the computational artist trio known as [+zero], nominated for the Brazilian PIPA prize awards in 2012. He has shown his artistic output and research in both Brazil and UK for the past seven years and has been invited for the forthcoming Medical Imaging conference at the Universität Ulm, in Germany. He holds an MA in Digital Art from Camberwell College of Arts and is a translator for both British and Brazilian theoreticians.