Re: LIFESCIENCE: Re: A Reactionary Reaction

[Trevor <tebatt@dds.nl>]

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ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL 99
LIFESCIENCE
Linz, Austria, September 04 - 09
http://www.aec.at/lifescience
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On 07-May-99, Prof. Dr. Birgit Richard wrote:

>Trevor schrieb:

>>
>> Over the last hundred years science has increased in self-criticism while
>> art has decreased in self-criticism.

>that is very true, there has to be the same process in art too and a farewell
>to the paradigm of the artist genius

Yes, I was surprised to see someone still believed that institutionalised
innovation was impossible.

If that was true, then there would be no bio-industry to worry about.

I mean do people seriously believe that genetic engineering is all worked out
on kitchen tables during some mad fit of creative urge?

Or should we believe that these processes are not really innovative?

How then does one define innovation?


Actually, in this context, the Ars Electronica Jury reports are rather
interesting.

The "Animation" jury seems to support large scale studios
-while the "Music" jury seems to prefer the more individual approach.

The situation is made even more complex by the (paradoxical) fact that
musicians generally have a stronger tradition of communal Meta-language and
colabouration than visual artists do.


>> So where (or what) are the self-correcting mechanisms within art?

>at the moment i don4t know perhaps may be we try to develop it on the list?

Well, I am sorry to say I believe we have arrived at difficult times where all
the usual mechanisms have been largely rejected.

     i.e. Conceptualism        has   destroyed      Aesthetics
          Computerized tools   have  destroyed the  Medium
          Virtual Reality      has   destroyed the  Metaphor
          Post Modernism       has   destroyed      Value and Meaning

So I was a little surprised (and pleased) to see the mention of Aesthetics in
your introduction.

Funnily enough, "Science" has discovered "Simulation" (ie. Ontology instead of
Epistemology) and "Non-Euclidean Geometry" -which were perhaps the main basis
for the traditional difference between "Art" and "Science".

Although, of course, Eugene Thacker is correct about not making statements
which are too general -there are indeed many different practices within both
science and art. In fact Anglo-saxon and Germanic (continental?) academic
traditions even disagree about which are "sciences" and which are "arts"
disciplines.

>>
>> Can "Artistic Malpractice" be objectively defined?

>i don4t not what malpractice is?

 Bad/False/Cheating practices (i.e. the opposite of "Good Professional
Behaviour")


>> Can we look forward to someone paying great sums of money for the privelege
>of
>> being the first person to die of an infectious work of art?
>>

>this is a  very provocative question, that will appear if art returns to the
>times
>of dada-like shocking tactics, but as Friedrich Kittler says art does not
>kill,
>but media do.

Is art then not a medium?

Actually, I heard George Steiner on television once saying that he had
concidered the problem of why many violent war criminals appeared also able to
appreciate sensitive forms of art.

He concluded it was not because they were insincere -but because they were so
involved in the "artistic virtual reality" that the reality of their deeds did
not occur to them.

I rather like this idea because it equates, for example, Wagner, Beethoven and
Clockwork Orange with teenage television violence.

The term "Virtual Reality" is redundant -because for the human mind ALL
reality is "virtual".

-------

dear birgit,
thank you for your encouragement.
I hope Eugene Thacker will continue his "Primer" -perhaps adding potential
uses and abuses (although I suppose we should let people invent the abuses
themselves -without our help!).
I'm afraid I got a little addicted to the "Press Report"
if it gets too much -let me know and i will try and switch
hic off,off,off,off,off,off,off,off,hic,off,off,hic......!
greetings
trevor


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