Re: [-empyre-] meta view

[daniel mafe <d.mafe@qut.edu.au>]

At 08:40 PM 16/11/2004 +1100, you wrote:

> This is not a silly idea, in fact some people working with artificial 
> evolution have discussed the idea of a population of artificial "critics" 
> which also evolve, and in fact co-evolve with the artwork. Image breeder 
> Steven Rooke (apprently offline now) was one of these... Steven's work has 
> always been concerned with a quite metaphysical idea of "beyond".
>
> Not silly either is the question as to whether we can hope to recognise 
> "good" a-life art... the concept of an artwork constitutes a frame in 
> itself (despite a long history of avant-gardist efforts to bust open that 
> frame (dada, fluxus, conceptual art, etc)). If what we want from a-life 
> art is the other, and the beyond, then if we were to _really_ achieve 
> that, why would the resulting work fit in our category of "art"? If it was 
> sufficiently adaptive it wouldn't be hanging around on a plinth letting 
> people gawk at it. In other words, there's a tension here between the 
> known and the alien, the desires for alterity and familiarity.
>
> As Edward Shanken argues in a Leonardo article (can trace the ref)... life 
> is only ever "life as we know it" - how can it be anything else?

Indeed and art is also "art as we know it"...art does of course change over 
time albeit incrementally, but an artwork is still an artifact of 
conventions...and this is an issue for a-life art or so it seems to 
me.  Which conventional language is it working within for the viewer or 
which discourse or range of  discourses defines its viewing?  In your book, 
Mitchell you give an interesting historical account of a-life's vitalist 
"origins".  This is a problem for its mainstream acceptance now as the 
dominant paradigm for art now is as a purely cultural and even linguistic 
construct or by-product (or maybe symptom!).  How does a-life fit in or 
become visible within that kind of frame?  I am sure it can after all how 
separate is science from the language it uses to describe things and the 
culture within which it is embedded.


> Yet like Melinda, I find that evolved hardware etc etc., contains some 
> whiff of the alien which is really thrilling...

yes, very interesting indeed!!

Enjoying the discussions of this list very much...thanks for all the great 
links and observations. Unfortunately a belated new-comer to this area of 
art making but it is genuinely a fascinating learning curve!

Daniel


> Mitchell
>
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Daniel Mafe
Visual Arts
Creative Industries
Queensland University of Technology
Victoria Park Road
Kelvin Grove, Q. 4059

Tel: + 61 7 3864 3253
Fax: + 61 7 3864 3974
Mobile 0410 485 946