LIFESCIENCE: Re: LIFESCIENCE

[Enzo Minarelli <3vitre@iii.it>]

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ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL 99
LIFESCIENCE
Linz, Austria, September 04 - 09
http://www.aec.at/lifescience
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Last week I got a parcel from Beograd, with some war-edited books.
Surprised to receive something like that from a bombed country, in one
of them I read the following statements, “Signalism is an intermedia,
interdisciplinary movement, it makes possible a collaboration of all
media, arts and science”... “researches on biochemical,
psychofarmacological means are equal to the researches of Signalism in
all media of arts..” “..Signalism accepts researches of physics,
biochemistry, cybernetics....”...”Signalism goes to a future planetary
artist”.
All that was written by the former-yugoslavian (now serbian) artist,
named Miroljub Todorovic, in the late Sixties, namely in 1968.

The second surprise was to see  how these points fit the terms of our
actual discussion, I’ve been following, silently up to now, more o less
sceptical, more or less involved. Re-thinking of the last quoted
sentence, “future planetary artist”, an immediate question arises: all
the scientifical innovations, we are talking about, go towards the
creation of a ‘new human being’ or a ‘new, say planetary, artist’ ?
Again, is the human body worth being experienced like an object apart
from any ethical rules or consideration? (That really reminds me of the
past experiences done by the now dead beat poet, Allen Ginsberg, with
drugs taken by his own body in South and Central America).

Set in other words, my questions aim to clarify, if possible, the
philosophical direction of our discussion. Do we try to build up a new
‘artist’ or a  new ‘art’? If it is the first case, no doubt that it’s a
dangerous risk to play with genes like the colours of a palette. If it’s
the second one, well we do need to go far beyond the achievements
belonging to body art (do you remember when the italian artist De
Dominicis in a past Venice Biennale, mid Seventies, exibited a real,
handicapped man?) or to Orlan, just to mention two extreme researches.
Along this second line, I am unbale to distinguish the purpose. Where
does the creative  work lie?

I’ve always been thinking that science ought to be nourished through a
symbiotic mixture represented by the ways of rationalism (Gadamer) and
the instinct forces (Vico). Unfortunately one has to admit that the
first, nowadays is prevailing which sounds totally negative at my ears.
Losing the balance between rational-instinctive forces means losing the
centre of man,  rolling inevitably towards an ‘x point’ as Nietzsche
rightly said.
Now, I’m going to tell you two short stories, whose title could be ‘all
that is rational is real, and all that is real is rational’ (the famous
statement of Hegel’s panlogism).

The first.
I live in the north of Italy, between Bologna and Modena. In this second
city, the famous tenor Luciano Pavarotti yearly organizes a huge music
concert for humanitarian reasons. During the concert, he spoke to the
great audience in Modena and to the millions of tv spectators about his
trouble for ‘the small prince’... who ran the risk of dying. Everybody
asked who was the ‘small prince’. The ‘small prince’ was the son of
Michael Jackson!
Of course nobody said that the rock star had had this son by the nurse
who had looked after him during his last illness, as a reward he had
decided to have a son with.. but... through artifical insemination. A
son yes....  but no sexual contact between the deity and the common
people.

The second.
Thanks to the fishing boats of the  Adriatic Sea fishers we are told
that hundreds and hundreds of uranium bombs have been released by Nato
air fighter-planes. Official news are missing. Nobody speak clearly.
Political ambiguity. We only know that uranium continues influencing the
surrounding environment for decades and decades...
So, which is the role played by science in these sad-funny stories? But,
aboveall, where is life?  Where is life?

Enzo Minarelli



--
Archivio 3ViTre di Polipoesia
Enzo Minarelli
c.p.152     44042 Cento Italia
ph.fax +39.(0)51.901719
cellulare 0335.693.4077
email:  3ViTre@iii.it
http://www.iii.it/3vitre




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