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

[carol-ann braun]

Perhaps, but a new terminology is also very helpful.  Why talk of
³composition² when the term ³montage² helps define the specificity of film?
And didn¹t ²montage² provide a handle for subsequent innovative hybrid
time-based practices ?

Yes, in the word technogenesis there is ³genesis², becoming, process,
movement, evolution...But then, does the expression ³technogenesis art² work
? Or ³inter-agency art² ? The terms strike me as more appropriate for
sociologists than for artists.

How to characterize a kind of art doted with autonomous behaviour and
capable of taking an initiative with respect to its environment (including
the viewers whose behaviour it seeks to manipulate) ?  What are the terms of
this new ³rhetoric² rooted in data and fictional agency ?

I don¹t like the term ³living art², because it masks the building blocks of
the illusion of ³life/intelligence²; though, as has been argued here,
perhaps it is futile to ³resist² vast and invisible manipulation. Florent
Aziosmanoof, with whom we regularly discuss these questions at ³Le Cube², is
not interested in resisting anything; he just wants to know how to dive
(artistically) into the fray.

If we narrow the scale of the discussion to consider the building blocks of
a new kind of art-making, there are some basic pillars to consider : the
principles of generated movement + the criteria for analysing sensory data +
the structural principles of ³alterity²... In each of these three areas,
there are precedents that provide ³leads² and the basis for a specific
terminology.   

One lead: Italo Calvino¹s ³Invisible Cities² is a kind of inventory of
structural (and power) relationships between people and their environments.
For me, this book is a key to understanding poetic ³inter-agency²...

Carol-Ann



le  27/07/13 04:40  Garth Paine  garth at activatedspace.com wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> 
> Hi all
> 
> Interesting discussions....
> 
> I wonder why it is necessary to change the term? surely to some extent it
> avoids the discussion? That is how have notions of interaction evolved in
> recent decades?
> todays discourse is of course around evolving notions of interaction ­ once
> pushing the play button on the CD player was regarded as interactive and music
> resulted as an outcome.
> As I mentioned in a recent post in response to comments by Mez, I think asking
> the same (or similar) questions is a constructive discipline. For the context
> of the discourse changes and similarly the nature of the discussed actions
> evolve.
> 
> There is an evolving taxanomic discourse and an epistemic one - both equally
> engaging and with long histories - so to move the target (change the term)
> seems to me to disassociate the evolving discourse from past endeavors - all
> of which have led to our current depth of understanding - surely we want to
> thicken the knowledge, not move its focus completely ?
> 
> Cheers,
> Garth Paine
> garth at activatedspace.com
> 
> 
> 
> On Jul 26, 2013, at 11:05 PM, Simon Biggs <simon at littlepig.org.uk> wrote:
> 
>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> 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---------------------- Re: [-empyre-]
>>> empyre Digest, Vol 104, Issue 25
>>> 
>>> 
>>> The ³entanglement² Hayles writes about is so complex and the technologies so
>>> polymorphous that the term ³interactivity² (in its simplest form :
>>> command-response...) is both too limited and too vague...
>>> 
>>> What other concept/term?  At the CUBE¹s ³Living Art Seminar², we¹re stuck on
>>> the term ³living² (...which survives a French accent...but maybe not Spanish
>>> or Chinese...) and evokes a relational, pragmatic (and mutually attentive?)
>>> context. We¹re even into ³Living community management² :-)
>>> 
>>> How does the term strike those of you who are on the other side of the globe
>>> ? I¹ve 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....I¹m embarrassed to
>>> admit...resistance to living, however mediated...But that¹s another
>>> subject...
>>> 
>>> Carol-Ann
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> le  26/07/13 11:52  Simon Biggs  simon at littlepig.org.uk
>>> <x-msg://32/simon@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
>>>> <x-msg://32/sue@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
>>>>>> <x-msg://32/christina.spiesel@yale.edu%3Cmailto:christina.spiesel>
>>>>>> @yale.edu <http://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
>>>>> <x-msg://32/empyre-request@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au> >
>>>>> <empyre-request at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>>>>> <x-msg://32/empyre-request@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au> > wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Send empyre mailing list submissions to
>>>>>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au <x-msg://32/empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>>>>>> 
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>>>>>> <x-msg://32/empyre-request@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> You can reach the person managing the list at
>>>>>> empyre-owner at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>>>>>> <x-msg://32/empyre-owner@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
>>>>>> than "Re: Contents of empyre digest..."
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> ----------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
>>>>>> <x-msg://32/simon@littlepig.org.uk> >
>>>>>> To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>>>>>> <x-msg://32/empyre@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
>>>>>> <x-msg://32/96FAF381-6119-48A3-8486-1F1BB6F0F9FB@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 <x-msg://32/simon@littlepig.org.uk>
>>>>>> http://www.littlepig.org.uk <http://www.littlepig.org.uk/>  @SimonBiggsUK
>>>>>> http://amazon.com/author/simonbiggs
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> s.biggs at ed.ac.uk <x-msg://32/s.biggs@ed.ac.uk>  Edinburgh College of Art,
>>>>>> University of Edinburgh
>>>>>> http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/edinburgh-college-art/school-of-a
>>>>>> rt/staff/staff?person_id=182&cw_xml=profile.php
>>>>>> http://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/simon-biggs%285dfcaf34-56b
>>>>>> 1-4452-9100-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.p
>>>>>> hp
>>>>>> 
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>>>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> empyre mailing list
>>>>>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au <x-msg://32/empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>>>>>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> End of empyre Digest, Vol 104, Issue 25
>>>>>> ***************************************
>>>>> 
>>>>> Sue Hawksley
>>>>> sue at articulateanimal.org.uk <x-msg://32/sue@articulateanimal.org.uk>
>>>>> http://www.articulateanimal.org.uk <http://www.articulateanimal.org.uk/>
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> empyre forum
>>>>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au <x-msg://32/empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>>>>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Simon Biggs
>>>> simon at littlepig.org.uk <x-msg://32/simon@littlepig.org.uk>
>>>> http://www.littlepig.org.uk <http://www.littlepig.org.uk/>  @SimonBiggsUK
>>>> http://amazon.com/author/simonbiggs
>>>> 
>>>> s.biggs at ed.ac.uk <x-msg://32/s.biggs@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 <x-msg://32/empyre@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 <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/s
>> taff/staff?person_id=182&cw_xml=profile.php
>> http://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/simon-biggs%285dfcaf34-56b1-44
>> 52-9100-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

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