by tomtenney on December 29, 2010
This is the final paper written for my ‘Media Studies: Ideas’ class at The New School, Fall 2010.
Today’s artist – like Donna Haraway’s cyborg feminist – moves beyond both traditional limitations and modernist ideas about art, and enters into a hypermediated relationship with society and technology in which technological methods and mediated collaboration across networks are common. Art has always been a carrier of cultural information. Cybernetics as a theory of communication has been influential in the arts, as both metaphor and model for the process of artistic creation. Understanding how art and artists are influenced by Norbert Wiener’s cybernetic theory and Haraway’s cyborg theory – and in some cases how certain artists are claiming to actually “become” cyborgs – requires us to look at how Wiener and Haraway’s theories differ, as well as to delve a bit into art’s long relationship with technology and the larger artistic traditions out of which today’s artists have emerged.
In this paper, I will argue that artists calling themselves “cyborg artists” represent only a small fraction of the ways in which cybernetics has infiltrated art and ideas about art. I also hope to demonstrate that, in fact, their work often isn’t cybernetic at all, if we adhere to Norbert Wiener’s definition. The “artist as cyborg,” I will contend, can refer not only to the materiality of the forms used to create art (i.e. machines and/or new media technology) but also to an aesthetic which is modeled on the core principles of cybernetics: negative feedback used within a system to achieve a goal. Soraya Murray calls this “Cybernated Aesthetics,” and in her analysis of Korean artist Lee Bul, explains that “while [Bul is] calling upon an array of technologies that include (but are not limited to) media arts, [her works] are nevertheless fully engaged with cybernated life.” (Murray 47) This is a perceptual shift away from thinking of “cyborg art” exclusively as those that utilize new media technology, and towards a more holistic theory that situates art in Wiener’s more inclusive theory of cybernetics. [continue reading this post...]
Tagged as:
Art,
artists,
cybernetics,
cyborg
by tomtenney on December 15, 2010
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Blip.tv video.
References:
Barbie Dolls, Love Story, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, KC & The Sunshine Band, Jaws, Queen (the band), Barry Manilow, Pong, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Google, Woody Woodpecker, Altered States, True Red, Run Lola Run, The Shining, Dead Alive, The Six Million Dollar Man, ET, The Elephant Man, One Got Fat, The Wolfman, Age of Turbulance, An American Werewolf in London, Physical Aspects of Puberty, Olga’s House of Shame, Carrie, 70′s Bic Commercial, 60′s Wilkinson Sword Commercial, Frankenstein, La Belle et La Bete.
& special nods to Todd Haynes & Bruce Conner
Tagged as:
Remix,
Video
by tomtenney on November 23, 2010
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Tagged as:
audio,
moments,
sounds,
technology,
voicemail
by tomtenney on November 9, 2010
As promised (to the class), here’s the deck for my presentation on Remix Culture given to the SVA grad seminar last week. My apologies for the formatting – some of the fonts & images didn’t translate well to Slideshare. The audio and video didn’t translate at all, so to watch/listen to the examples, you’ll need to click on the buttons on the slides.
Tagged as:
copyright,
Remix
by tomtenney on October 21, 2010
by tomtenney on October 20, 2010
Written as midterm assignment for Media Studies:Ideas
In their 1988 book, Manufacturing Consent, Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman posit a theory of “systemic propaganda” in which the mass media control content in order to serve the ends of the dominant elite. The ingredients of this model are five “filters” used to censor content, which consist of concentrated media ownership, advertising, government news sourcing, flak, and anticommunism. The cultural and technological landscape in which this theory arose is vastly different than today’s, which is characterized by interactive technologies that allow everyday citizens to manipulate media in ways that were impossible 22 years ago. At the same time, interactive technologies pose their own set of challenges to the open distribution of news and other media content. The strengthening of copyright laws benefitting corporate media creators, as well as governmental restrictions on technology, have created a situation in which government is still in control of the creation and distribution of content. Additionally, corporate media producers have engaged in practices of aggressively persecuting fans and citizen producers over intellectual property rights – forcing fan websites to be shut down, and litigating against consumers who share and remix media.
How do changing copyright laws and a participatory media landscape impact the fitters theorized by Chomsky two decades ago? To try to answer this, I will look specifically at Chomsky’s ideas of media ownership and examine how they may be challenged by contemporary media practices. I will examine not only the concept of content ownership, but also ownership of the media companies themselves and try to discern how interactive media both challenges Chomsky’s theory, as well as how it has created an environment in which new censorship filters have emerged, and whether it’s possible for old economic models to survive in the digital age.
[continue reading this post...]
Tagged as:
copyright,
Mass Media
by tomtenney on October 8, 2010
Hello people – I just want to make sure everyone knows about the very special show coming up at the Guggenheim. The shows are almost sold out and I encourage you to grab tix before it’s all sold out.
Details below:
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum presents:
Coup de Foudre
A multi-media event exploring the work of Jean Cocteau by Paul D. Miller in collaboration with Melvin Van Peebles, and Corey Baker of Ballet Noir.
OCTOBER 9 @ 8pm
OCTOBER 10 @ 6pm
TICKETS: $30, $25 for members, $10 for students
DJ Spooky collaborates with Melvin Van Peebles and Corey Baker from Ballet Noir to create an interpretation of the renowned originator of Surrealism, Jean Cocteau’s first film “The Blood of a Poet.” Most of you may know the legendary film maker Melvin Van Peebles from his groundbreaking film “Sweetback’s Baaadaasss Song” but he’s also been considered a revolutionary in cinema with his influences ranging from Quentin Tarantino (who cites Peebles as one of his favorite film makers) to Wu-Tang Clan – who’ve sampled him on several occasions. Basically, he’s one of the most important film makers of the late 20th century. DJ Spooky has scored a string ensemble that will be playing my compositions live for the scenario, and all in all, it’ll be a pretty cool situation. I hope you can come out.
A remix and interpretation of Jean Cocteau’s infamous film “The Blood of a Poet” narrated by renowned film maker Melvin Van Peebles.
In conjunction with Chaos and Classicism, the Guggenheim Museum is pleased to premiere Coup de Foudre, a contemporary art and performance project based on a reinterpretation of Jean Cocteau’s classic film The Blood of a Poet (Le sang d’un poète, 1930) by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky and Corey Baker, resident choreographer of the New York–based company Ballet Noir, and featuring the Telos Ensemble. Cocteau’s work in film, painting, sculpture, poetry, and theater has engaged many themes that continue to drive today’s digital and multimedia contemporary art. In the eyes of Miller and Baker, The Blood of a Poet examines the role of language in relation to cinema and dance and creates a milieu where poetry becomes imagist at every level. For Miller, Cocteau’s sense of interdisciplinary production anticipates the DJ mix through the French artist’s use of musicality and the insertion of classical forms into modern contexts. Baker sees Cocteau’s use of movement in film as animating the inanimate by setting simple images into motion. Coup de Foudre explores the ambiguous relationship between modern compositional strategies, based on sampling and digital media, and an art experience tied to cinematic history and contemporary times.
Tagged as:
Events
Today’s artist – like Donna Haraway’s cyborg feminist – moves beyond both traditional limitations and modernist ideas about art, and enters into a hypermediated relationship with society and technology in which technological methods and mediated collaboration across networks are common. Art has always been a carrier of cultural information. Cybernetics as a theory of communication has been influential in the arts, as both metaphor and model for the process of artistic creation. Understanding how art and artists are influenced by Norbert Wiener’s cybernetic theory and Haraway’s cyborg theory – and in some cases how certain artists are claiming to actually “become” cyborgs – requires us to look at how Wiener and Haraway’s theories differ, as well as to delve a bit into art’s long relationship with technology and the larger artistic traditions out of which today’s artists have emerged.
