[-empyre-] empyre Digest, Vol 104, Issue 25

Fri Jul 26 23:05:08 EST 2013

I only intended to state that interactivity was part of the mix, not the complete paradigm.

I quite like the term inter-agency and Hayles's term technogenesis is workable.

best

Simon

On 26 Jul 2013, at 12:05, carol-ann braun <carol-ann.braun at wanadoo.fr> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> 
> 
> The “entanglement” Hayles writes about is so complex and the technologies so polymorphous that the term “interactivity” (in its simplest form : command-response...) is both too limited and too vague...
> 
> What other concept/term?  At the CUBE’s “Living Art Seminar”, we’re stuck on the term “living” (...which survives a French accent...but maybe not Spanish or Chinese...) and evokes a relational, pragmatic (and mutually attentive?) context. We’re even into “Living community management” :-)
> 
> How does the term strike those of you who are on the other side of the globe ? I’ve been in France so long, I can no longer resist the funky terms that keep popping up here. 
> 
> On another note, artistic activity for me is....I’m embarrassed to admit...resistance to living, however mediated...But that’s another subject...
> 
> Carol-Ann
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> le  26/07/13 11:52  Simon Biggs  simon at littlepig.org.uk wrote:
> 
>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> I want to pick up on Sue's comments about the ubiquity of, and entanglement of ourselves with, technology and Johannes' comment that interactivity is "over".
>> 
>> I'm not sure what Johannes intends with this comment. I agree with Sue - that we live in a technologised environment and we are enmeshed within it. We are in a constant state of "interactive" alert with that environment - although perhaps, for many, this has become such a default condition we are unaware of it. Sue's concern with attentiveness suggests a practice intended to address this existential complacency.
>> 
>> Katherine Hayles' recent work on what she terms technogenesis is relevant here. She argues that human evolution is not an entirely biological process but also social and, thus necessarily, technological. The relationship between language, tool making and social formation is the focus of her thinking, building on the work of Heidegger, Foucault, Latour and others. In her view we have been enmeshed in ubiquitous technology for as long as we have made tools and used language - it follows that being human is all about this entanglement as it is these characteristics that define us as a species.
>> 
>> In this light I would argue that interactivity, in art and in life, is extremely relevant. In this context it might be considered the artist's role, at least in part, to facilitate the critical self-consciousness required to become aware of this condition. I assume this is what Sue means by attentiveness.
>> 
>> Seeking to respond to Ruth's lament concerning the lack of politics at ISEA I would suggest that developing a critical self-consciousness is a political activity and, perhaps, a necessary step if one is to engage broader political agendas. Assange kicked off his keynote by insulting his audience. I can't remember exactly what he said, but it was to the effect that artists are self-absorbed a-political wankers (he definitely said "wankers"). I'm not going to try and defend artists against his attack, firstly because they don't need defending and secondly because Assange is right. Nevertheless, you are likely to find quite a few politically aware and committed people in the ISEA crowd - I know the scene well enough to know they are there and they purposefully choose to work in that context. This would seem to come back to the idea that the artist has an obligation to encourage self-awareness and awareness of context amongst those who encounter their work.
>> 
>> Perhaps the lack of a sense of the political at ISEA was less a product of a lack of politics but of the fragmentation of the agendas being addressed in and around the event? ISEA addressed so many themes and sub-themes, seeking to respond to so many threads of current discourse and practice. This broad engagement and willingness to take on board so many concerns suggests an openness in the direction of ISEA, which we should welcome. However, perhaps future ISEAs need to be more focused, addressing specific questions, if a sense of urgency is to emerge from ISEA's activities. I suspect that even debating what such a focus might  be would generate significant heat.
>> 
>> best
>> 
>> Simon
>> 
>> 
>> On 25 Jul 2013, at 20:23, Sue Hawksley <sue at articulateanimal.org.uk> wrote:
>> 
>>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>>> Dear Simon & all
>>> 
>>> Thanks for the invitation to join this discussion. I'd like to pick up on a point made early on in the month's discussion by Christina Spiesel:
>>> 
>>>> On 4 Jul 2013, at 18:21, Christina Spiesel <christina.spiesel at yale.edu<mailto:christina.spiesel at yale.edu>> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> We are organisms in environments.  If we can't "see" those environments, we can't adapt for self-protection. If we wish to sustain our lives, we must be able to operate under changed signals from a changing environment ... So how we "attend" to what is there, I submit, is very important. And the capacity for play which is the science of children.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> As a dance artist, I am interested in exploring how people shape and are shaped by their environment. Immediately after the debate and activity of ISEA (my first), I had the pleasure of spending time in residency at Bundanon Trust, working with collaborators on the development of a new interactive performance installation work. In the context of the beautiful setting of Bundanon, it sometimes seemed at odds to be in a darkened studio, immersed in projected image, learning to negotiate a highly mediated environment where motion was tracked, voice captured, action augmented, space constrained.
>>> 
>>> The presence of technology was very apparent in the particular environment we created in the studio, which at first glance seemed in total contrast to the 'natural' environment outside and loaded with constraints on 'the performers' 'freedom'  to move. But outside, one has to negotiate the technological infrastructures of communications, transport, power, sanitation, conservation. Operating in an environment like Bundanon requires opening and closing of gates, driving with peripheral vision on high alert for kangaroos (although the roos also adapt to traffic, and carefully stop-look-listen before crossing the track!) taking care where one sits, avoiding wombat-holes, being mindful of the river's currents It would be simplistic to regard the different aspects of this experience as more, less or even un-natural. In the installation system we were creating, I developed embodied practices to nurture the performers' capacity to cope. these emphasised attending to change, treading lightly, listening carefully and/or reacting quickly.
>>> 
>>> I'm sharing this because it was such a great way for me, to put in to practice and make sense of some of the ideas I heard at ISEA - in particular concerning the ubiquity of technology, the impossibility of disentangling ourselves from systems of mediation, and attentiveness to our changing environment.
>>> 
>>> all the best, Sue
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 23 Jul 2013, at 03:00, <empyre-request at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au> <empyre-request at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au> wrote:
>>> 
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>>>> 
>>>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>>>> 
>>>> Today's Topics:
>>>> 
>>>>   1. empyre: Resistance is futile, ISEA, Sydney 2013 - week 4
>>>>      (Simon Biggs)
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> 
>>>> Message: 1
>>>> Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 10:52:01 +0100
>>>> From: Simon Biggs <simon at littlepig.org.uk>
>>>> To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>>>> Subject: [-empyre-] empyre: Resistance is futile, ISEA, Sydney 2013 -
>>>> week 4
>>>> Message-ID: <96FAF381-6119-48A3-8486-1F1BB6F0F9FB at littlepig.org.uk>
>>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>>>> 
>>>> Welcome to the fourth and final week of empyre's July 2013 discussion: Resistance is futile, ISEA Sydney, 2013
>>>> 
>>>> Thank you to Garth Paine and Deborah Ely, who described their own activities at ISEA and considered those of others. Thanks to all those who responded and contributed to the debate. The focus during the week oscillated between themes concerning embodiment and place and how each can be mediated and affected as a creative and experiential site.
>>>> 
>>>> Our guests during the final fourth week (July 22-28) of our discussion about ISEA are:
>>>> 
>>>> Clea T. Waite (US/D) is a research artist-scholar and experimental filmmaker investigating the correspondences between art and science via somatic, cinematic works. Her films are realized using animation, immersion, stereoscopic imaging, structural montage and unique interfaces as well as one inter-species collaboration with several hundred spiders. She received her SB and SMVis degrees from the MIT Media Lab as a physicist and 3D computer graphics developer. She has been an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, a Radcliffe Institute Fellow, and a fellow at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Her artworks have been exhibited and awarded internationally, notably the IBM Innovation Prize for Artistic Creation in Art and Technology. She is currently an Annenberg Fellow at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts pursuing her PhD in Media Arts and Practice.
>>>> 
>>>> Daniel C. Howe (HK/US) is an artist, hacker, writer, musician, and educator whose work focuses on networked systems for image, sound and text, and on the social and political implications of computational technologies. He has a PhD in computer science and an MFA in interactive media and digital literature. He currently lives in Hong Kong where he teaches at City University's School of Creative Media.
>>>> 
>>>> Ruth Aylett (GB) has been working with intelligent graphical characters for more than ten years and, more recently, with social robots. She has led large EU projects (VICTEC, eCIRCUS, eCute) in this area and has helped develop affective architectures driving virtual drama systems such as FearNot!. She has more than 200 publications and leads the Autonomous Affective Agents group at Heriot-Watt University, Scotland, where she is Professor of Computer Science.
>>>> 
>>>> Sue Hawksley (UK) is a dance artist, bodywork therapist and artistic director of articulate animal, an interdisciplinary performance company which undertakes collaborative projects focused upon movement, identity and territory which have been presented internationally. She has previously performed with Rambert Dance Company, Mantis, Scottish Ballet and Philippe Genty among others, as well as on many freelance projects as performer, choreographer or educator. Sue holds a practice-led PhD from the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh College of Art. Her research critically examines concepts of embodiment through choreographic and somatic practices, philosophy, and mediation. She is Senior Lecturer in Dance at the University of Bedfordshire. Her URL ishttp://www/articulateanimal.org.uk
>>>> 
>>>> Before proceeding to the final week's discussion we will again outline July's discussion, engaging the themes and activities underlying and emerging from this year's International Symposium of Electronic Arts, held in and around Sydney, Australia during June 2013. The primary theme for ISEA was "resistance is futile". How are we to interpret this? Resistance to what? The conference programme offered a positive take on this statement - proposing that the electronic arts have moved from the margins to occupy a central role in contemporary culture. But has this happened - and, if it has, is it generally the case or only so in certain contexts?
>>>> 
>>>> Other themes were also apparent at ISEA. Important questions were asked about:
>>>> - sustainability - how this can be achieved in relation to the environment but also how artists, arts groups, academics and activists might ensure their activities are sustainable as the processes of technologisation and globalisation unfold?
>>>> - notions of the human - what does it mean to be human now, in the context of developments in genetics and ICT?
>>>> - globalisation, diasporas and cultural identity?
>>>> - the boundaries of the real - where virtual and augmented realities have become pervasive media?
>>>> - the post-digital and its implications for aesthetics and questions of agency?
>>>> - the challenges and opportunities associated with big data?
>>>> - urbanism, activism and the socially disruptive potential of technology?
>>>> 
>>>> Looking forward to another week's discussion...
>>>> 
>>>> moderator:
>>>> Simon Biggs
>>>> simon at littlepig.org.uk
>>>> http://www.littlepig.org.uk @SimonBiggsUK http://amazon.com/author/simonbiggs
>>>> 
>>>> s.biggs at ed.ac.uk Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh
>>>> http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/edinburgh-college-art/school-of-art/staff/staff?person_id=182&cw_xml=profile.php
>>>> http://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/simon-biggs%285dfcaf34-56b1-4452-9100-aaab96935e31%29.html
>>>> 
>>>> http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/  http://www.elmcip.net/  http://www.movingtargets.org.uk/  http://designinaction.com/
>>>> MSc by Research in Interdisciplinary Creative Practices  http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/degrees?id=656&cw_xml=details.php
>>>> 
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>>>> 
>>>> End of empyre Digest, Vol 104, Issue 25
>>>> ***************************************
>>> 
>>> Sue Hawksley
>>> sue at articulateanimal.org.uk
>>> http://www.articulateanimal.org.uk
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> empyre forum
>>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Simon Biggs
>> simon at littlepig.org.uk
>> http://www.littlepig.org.uk @SimonBiggsUK http://amazon.com/author/simonbiggs
>> 
>> s.biggs at ed.ac.uk Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh
>> http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/edinburgh-college-art/school-of-art/staff/staff?person_id=182&cw_xml=profile.php
>> http://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/simon-biggs%285dfcaf34-56b1-4452-9100-aaab96935e31%29.html
>> 
>> http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/  http://www.elmcip.net/  http://www.movingtargets.org.uk/  http://designinaction.com/
>> MSc by Research in Interdisciplinary Creative Practices  http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/degrees?id=656&cw_xml=details.php
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> empyre forum
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre

Simon Biggs
simon at littlepig.org.uk
http://www.littlepig.org.uk @SimonBiggsUK http://amazon.com/author/simonbiggs

s.biggs at ed.ac.uk Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/edinburgh-college-art/school-of-art/staff/staff?person_id=182&cw_xml=profile.php
http://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/simon-biggs%285dfcaf34-56b1-4452-9100-aaab96935e31%29.html

http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/  http://www.elmcip.net/  http://www.movingtargets.org.uk/  http://designinaction.com/
MSc by Research in Interdisciplinary Creative Practices  http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/degrees?id=656&cw_xml=details.php

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