January 2018 – When art meets technology!

January 30, 2018January 30, 2018

Peace can be Realized Even without Order

Many example artworks we covered in class today have shown artists tend to bring entropy to a system, “the more chaotic the better”, while engineers like to bring things under control. e.g. John Cage’s Variation 5, Robert Rauchenberg’s Soundings, Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece, etc.

Here is an interactive work by Japanese collective teamLab, which presents a reverse narrative. The 80 independent hologram figures play instruments or dance, while they exist independently and don’t really leave the spot, their rhythm and degree of movement are responsive to the sound of their neighbours. When there’s no visitor moving around, their movements and music are in sync, and the scene is rather harmonious. The system has the lowest entropy at this point. When visitors enter, the nearby dancers are interrupted. The participation caused the entropy to increase.

The work is inspired by a traditional Japanese dance festival. The below paragraph is taken from teamLab’s website:

In Japan, there is a primitive dance festival called the Awa Dance Festival dating back so far that its origins are unknown. Groups of individual dancers play music and proceed around the town arbitrarily. Groups play their own music as they like and dance as they like. Interestingly, for some reason, the music forms into a peaceful order across the whole town. Dancers who randomly meet other groups of dancers gradually and subconsciously match the tempo of their music with that of the other group. This is not due to any set of rules; it just feels right and happens without conscious choice. It seems that when people are set free from their inhibitions, an extraordinary peaceful feeling prevails despite the lack of any order to the dances. Perhaps this is how people of ancient times maintained a feeling of peacefulness.

More about the work, click here.

January 27, 2018January 27, 2018

Class 2 Reading Assignment Vocabulary

cybernetics /sʌɪbəˈnɛtɪks/

noun. the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things.

Origin

1940s: from Greek kubernētēs ‘steersman’, from kubernan ‘to steer’.

Use over time for: cybernetics

automaton

/ɔːˈtɒmət(ə)n/

noun

plural noun: automata

– a moving mechanical device made in imitation of a human being.

“a collection of 19th century French automata: acrobats, clowns, and musicians”

– a machine which performs a range of functions according to a predetermined set of coded instructions.

“sophisticated automatons continue to run factory assembly lines”

– used in similes and comparisons to refer to a person who seems to act in a mechanical or unemotional way.

“like an automaton, she walked to the door”

Origin

early 17th century: via Latin from Greek, neuter of automatos ‘acting of itself’, from autos ‘self’.

Use over time for: automata

kinaesthetic

(US kinesthetic)

Pronunciation /ˌkʌɪnɪsˈθɛtɪk//ˌkɪnɪsˈθɛtɪk/

ADJECTIVE

Relating to a person’s awareness of the position and movement of the parts of the body by means of sensory organs (proprioceptors) in the muscles and joints.

‘kinaesthetic learning through a physical activity’

‘walking therapy can improve kinaesthetic awareness’

contingency

/kənˈtɪndʒ(ə)nsi/

noun

noun: contingency; plural noun: contingencies

– a future event or circumstance which is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty.

“a detailed contract which attempts to provide for all possible contingencies”

synonyms: eventuality, (chance)event, incident, happening, occurrence, juncture, possibility, accident, chance, emergency; More

– a provision for a possible event or circumstance.

“stores were kept as a contingency against a blockade”

– an incidental expense.

“allow an extra fifteen per cent on the budget for contingencies”

– the absence of certainty in events.

“the island’s public affairs can occasionally be seen to be invaded by contingency”

– PHILOSOPHY

the absence of necessity; the fact of being so without having to be so.

Origin

mid 16th century (in the philosophical sense): from late Latin contingentia (in its medieval Latin sense ‘circumstance’), from contingere ‘befall’ (see contingent).

Use over time for: contingency

behaviourism

bɪˈheɪvjərɪz(ə)m/

noun

PSYCHOLOGY

noun: behaviourism; noun: behaviorism

the theory that human and animal behaviour can be explained in terms of conditioning, without appeal to thoughts or feelings, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behaviour patterns.

treatment involving the practical application of the theory of behaviourism.

Use over time for: behaviourism

homeostasis

ˌhɒmɪə(ʊ)ˈsteɪsɪs,ˌhəʊmɪə(ʊ)ˈsteɪsɪs/

noun

noun: homeostasis; plural noun: homeostases; noun: homoeostasis; plural noun: homoeostases

– the tendency towards a relatively stable equilibrium between interdependent elements, especially as maintained by physiological processes.

Origin

1920s: modern Latin, from Greek homoios ‘like’ + -stasis.

Use over time for: homeostasis

January 27, 2018

Research Critique: Nam June Paik, “Magnet TV”, 1964

Nam June Paik, MAGNET TV, 1965

An altered television set combined with a magnet sitting on top is unlike the majority of artworks back then. It is not an autarchy. This screen does not broadcast fixed programme but shows a crooked moving abstract image, that can be manipulated at will.

Norbert Wiener’s 1954 essay “Cybernetics in History” outlined the basic concepts of Cybernetics. I drew out my interpretation of it in the below diagram.

A complex action is one in which the data introduced, which we call the input, to obtain an effect on the outer world, which we call the output.

This control of a machine on the basis of its actual performance rather than its expected performance is known as feedback…

My interpretation of Wiener’s Cybernetics theory

Interpreting Magnet TV through Wiener’s Cybernetics lens’, the viewer’s action could be considered the input of the system, the output is the distorted image, and the feedback of the system is achieved by viewers‘ cognitive process, which then informs their next possible action. The work is established in this interactive process. To a certain extent, Paik has turned the passive spectators, to active participants, even the co-creators of the piece. A true piece of Modern Art, in the definition of Roy Ascott.

I came across the following video by a visitor to the Whitney Museum in NYC’s exhibition of this work last year.

I, then wondered, is this the work Magnet TV artist intend to create?

Wiener in “Cybernetics in History” said the following “A shift in the point of view of physics in which the world as it actually exists is replaced in some sense or other by the world as it happens to be observed.”

In considering Magnet TV with this perspective, if every situation is formed by the moment of observing, and “observing” means controlling the movement of the magnet in this context, the informed movement of the magnet controlled by a viewer made the work come into existence.

In another word, when interaction is removed, the work doesn’t exist anymore.

January 23, 2018

Thinking afresh about multimedia

In the overture of the book, Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality, 2001, the authors presented that multimedia experience dates way back, to as early as 15000 BCE of the cave paintings of Lascaux. And the theory of multimedia has been established in 1849 by Wagner as “Gesamtkunstwerk”, or “Total Artwork”.

My initial encounter with the word “multimedia” is in the 90s during my primary school years in China. There was a special venue where English listening class are taught, called “Multimedia Classroom”. In this room, there are screens for video projection and every student are given headsets to listen to English recordings at their own pace. There are the visual, sound, and even interactive component in this initial encounter I had with multimedia, which to certain extent in turn also defined multimedia in my mind as means dealing with technological media.

http://a0.att.hudong.com/84/47/01300000825366131669470243061.jpg — Multimedia classroom

The concept of Wagner’s artistic synthesis theory has really broadened my understanding to consider this art genre from a much pluralistic and unbiased point of view. I then start to notice many art experiences that qualify as multimedia but I have overlooked at. For example, the Japanese tea ceremony which values the overall experience of preparing and appreciating green tea, and Yuefu, a term for the music and dance ensemble that presents poems and folk songs in the Han Dynasty in China. These unification of more than one genre of works of art and engaging multi-sensory experience coincide perfectly with Wagner’s theory.

https://www.insidekyoto.com/tea-ceremony-koto-northwest-kyoto — Tea ceremony

http://chinafestival.carnegiehall.org/events/13980.aspx — Han Yuefu Performance

The recent decades have seen more interdisciplinary collaborations, especially artists seeking help from engineers to realise their work. The projects done by E.A.T in the past 40 years provide many great examples. Another phenomenon is the establishment of many artist collectives that consists of members from all disciplines, like the many engineers, designers and artists for collectives like Dumb Type in the 70s, and today’s Art+Com, Random International, teamLab etc.

I believe the future of multimedia is going to focus more on human beings as a subject matter. Here are two interesting works by Random International and teamLab. Enjoy!