Andreas Broeckmann on Tue, 3 Jul 2001 17:51:33 +0200


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Syndicate: | The HISTORY of TECHNOLOGICALLY-ASSISTED ART SINCE WORLD WAR I and YOUR appropriate place in this history |


Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 14:06:36 +0200
To: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net
From: JODI <7061@jodi.org>



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| The HISTORY of TECHNOLOGICALLY-ASSISTED ART SINCE WORLD WAR I and  |
|                                                                    |
|                                YOUR                                |
|                                                                    |
|                 appropriate place in this history                  |
|                                                                    |
|                                                                    |
|                                                                    |
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|           This message is confidential and for you only.           |
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|                                                                    |
|    Frank Popper has been contracted by M.I.T. Press to write a     |
|                             history of                             |
| technologically-assisted art beginning with World War 1 and I have |
|                                been                                |
|  asked by Frank to help him do so. My silent contribution to the   |
|                                book                                |
|   concerns my helping choose contemporary colleagues which will    |
|                             represent                              |
|  digitally-assisted art at the end of the 20th C and the start of  |
|                              the new                               |
|            millennium. I have placed you on this list.             |
|                                                                    |
|                                                                    |
|  As you are a living being, we want to give you the privilege of   |
|                             supplying                              |
|   the information on yourself and your work which you think most   |
|                            relevant. In                            |
|   other words, you can practically write your own entry in this    |
|                             important                              |
| history book or at least assemble it from what others have written |
|                               about                                |
|  you. What I am requesting from you are around 1500 words written  |
|                             in the 3rd                             |
| person describing your evolution and current work. You may stress  |
|                                one                                 |
| particular work which we will try to include as an illustration of |
|                             the text.                              |
| Please understand that Frank will reserve the right to change your |
|                             text, but                              |
|                 that he will consider it primary.                  |
|                                                                    |
|       The current working title of the book is "A HISTORY of       |
|          TECHNOLOGICALLY-ASSISTED ART SINCE WORLD WAR I"           |
|                                                                    |
|                  Prior books by Frank Popper are:                  |
|  Popper, F. 1968. Origins and Development of Kinetic Art. London:  |
|                               Studio                               |
|                               Vista                                |
|   Popper, F. 1975. Art - Action and Participation. New York: New   |
|                                York                                |
|                             University                             |
|   Popper, F. 1993. Art of the Electronic Age. London: Thames and   |
|                               Hudson                               |
|                                                                    |
|                                                                    |
|                                                                    |
| Please see below the entry Frank himself has written on me and my  |
|                              work and                              |
|                please try to adhere to this format.                |
|                                                                    |
|                                                                    |
|                                                                    |
|  Also please place your work into one of the 4 categories here (I  |
|                              know you                              |
|    may have to chose one aspect of your work over the others):     |
|                   1) ENDURING DIGITAL-BASED WORK                   |
|                   2) MULTIMEDIA - OFF LINE WORK                    |
|                    3) MULTIM.DIA - ON LINE WORK                    |
|             4) INTERACTIVE and/or VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS             |
|                                                                    |
|                                                                    |
| Does this opportunity appeal to you and can we count on you supply |
|                              us with                               |
| this English text soon? If so the text should be emailed to me at: |
|  joseph_nechvatal@hotmail.com. If you send it as an attached word  |
|                              file be                               |
|  aware that I am on MAC format n but in general paste it into an   |
|                             email. OK?                             |
|                                                                    |
|                 Yours in increasing bifurcations,                  |
|                        Dr. Joseph Nechvatal                        |
|                           Paris/New York                           |
|                                                                    |
|                email: joseph_nechvatal@hotmail.com                 |
|                                                                    |
|                home page: http://www.nechvatal.net                 |
|                                                                    |
| home: 143 Ludlow Street (14) New York, NY 10002 USA & 114, Rue de  |
|                             Vaugirard                              |
|                         75006 Paris FRANCE                         |
|                                                                    |
|                                                                    |
|                                                                    |
|        *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*         |
|                                                                    |
|       PS: Here is the outline of the book as it now stands:        |
|                                                                    |
|                            INTRODUCTION                            |
|                                                                    |
|           CHAPTER I. Historical antecedents (1920-1960)            |
|                                                                    |
|        CHAPTER II. Technological Art and Artsts (1960-1990)        |
|                                                                    |
|         CHAPTER III. Digital-assisted Art and Artists Now          |
|                                                                    |
|            CHAPTER IV. Multimedia Off Line Artists Now             |
|                                                                    |
|             CHAPTER  V. Multimedia On Line Artists Now             |
|                                                                    |
|  CHAPTER VI. INTERACTIVE and/or VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS Artists Now   |
|                                                                    |
|              CHAPTER VII. Theoretical considerations               |
|                                                                    |
|  CONCLUSION. A resum  of the key developments, aesthetic currents  |
|                                and                                 |
| paradigm shifts in the 20th century art that underpin contemporary |
| digital-assisted art with some basic human issues addressed here.  |
|                                                                    |
|                                                                    |
|        *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*         |
|                                                                    |
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|                Please try to adhere to this format:                |
|                                                                    |
|                                                                    |
| Joseph Nechvatal, originally a painter and performance artist, has |
|                               worked                               |
|  with ubiquitous electronic information and computer-robots since  |
|                             1986. His                              |
|  computer-robotic assisted paintings and computer animations have  |
|                              led to a                              |
|   particularly original research commitment, the Computer Virus    |
|                            Project, an                             |
|     experiment with computer viruses as a creative stratagem.      |
|                                                                    |
|   One way of looking at Nechvatalis development since his first    |
|                            shows in New                            |
|  York Cityis alternative spaces in the 1970s would be in terms of  |
|                            the various                             |
|   media with which he had chosen to work, making major shifts in   |
|                            presentation                            |
|    without markedly altering his artis complex structure based     |
|                            primarily on                            |
| telecommunications and its technology. However, the succession of  |
|                               pencil                               |
| drawing, photocopying, photography, sculpture and computer-robotic |
|                              assisted                              |
|    painting only tells part of the story.  In fact, in order to    |
|                             understand                             |
|  fully Nechvatalis most recent  artistic options one has to make   |
|                            allusion to                             |
| Nechvatalis progressive attitude towards technology in general and |
|                                his                                 |
|                      existential commitments.                      |
|                                                                    |
| In 1983, Nechvatal wrote: "Images of mass annihilation wrought by  |
|                             technology                             |
|   now provide the major context for our art and our lives. With    |
|                             profoundly                             |
| disturbed psyches, modern people encounter their existential fear  |
|                               in the                               |
| atom, for when technology relieved much of manis fear of nature it |
|                              replaced                              |
|    that fear with one of technology itself". Three years later,    |
|                               Joseph                               |
|  Nechvatal accomplished the first decisive step in his career by   |
|                              adopting                              |
|   frankly the latest infomatic technology into his works before    |
|                            introducing                             |
| from 1993 onwards the biological/medical/aesthetic concept of the  |
|                              computer                              |
|             virus as a leading idea into his art work.             |
|                                                                    |
|     Before analyzing in more detail this option let me make an     |
|                            allusion to                             |
| another aspect of Nechvatalis aesthetic commitment. He himself has |
|                               stated                               |
|    that the focus of his painting is the interface between the     |
|                          virtual and the                           |
|  actual, what he terms the "viractual". The basic premise of his   |
|     computer-assisted robotic paintings is the exploration of      |
|                          "omnijectivity",                          |
|  the metaphysical concept stemming from the discovery of quantum   |
|                              physics                               |
|  which teaches that mind and matter are inextricably linked under  |
|                                the                                 |
|   influence of todayis high-frequency, electronic, computerized    |
|                            environment.                            |
|                                                                    |
|     For Nechvatal, art is then a matter of inventing aesthetic     |
|                         sensations linked                          |
|  to concepts of technology, a mental prosthetic. And the function  |
|                              of this                               |
|        prosthetic art is to create by extenuation different        |
|                      technological-aesthetic                       |
| percepts. Thus his art is about a personal investigation into the  |
|                             conditions                             |
|    of virtuality - conditions which are not quite historically     |
|                          assessable yet.                           |
|                                                                    |
| Nechvatalis highly original computer virus project first exhibited |
|                               at the                               |
|   Saline Royale in Arc et Senans, France in Nov  ember 1993, is    |
|                           closely linked                           |
|  to the spread of biological viruses, notably HIV. The artist has  |
|                             digitized                              |
|  his pictorial work, adjusting the images on the computer screen   |
|                               before                               |
| introducing a computer virus unto the iconographical database. The |
|                               images                               |
|                  are then subject to alteration.                   |
|                                                                    |
|   At the end of the year 2000 Nechvatal took a further important   |
|                           step. At that                            |
| moment he finished the first phase of the reworked Computer Virus  |
|                              Project                               |
|   and brought it into the realm of artificial life, i.e. into a    |
|                             synthetic                              |
|  system that exhibits behaviors characteristic of natural living   |
|                            systems - in                            |
|   this case viruses. The new  project actively propagates viral    |
|                             attacks on                             |
|  Nechvatalis image-files from the "ec-satyricon 2000 (enhanced) +  |
|                             bodies in                              |
| the bit-stream (compliant)" series in real time and so, one might  |
|                                say,                                |
|  address some fundamental questions about the nature of life and   |
|                              death by                              |
|  simulating life/death-like phenomena on the computer. Here viral  |
|                             algorithms                             |
|      - based on a viral biological model - are used to define      |
|                            evolutionary                            |
|      processes which are then applied to the image-files from      |
|                            Nechvatalis                             |
|      "ec-satyricon 2000 (enhanced) + bodies in the bit-stream      |
|                         (compliant)" show                          |
| which were exhibited in New York, at Universal Concepts Unlimited, |
|                              in 2000.                              |
|                                                                    |
|    In Nechvatalis virus project, essentially a grid composed of    |
|                           colored cells,                           |
|  each virus is localized on a cell and can perceive the color of   |
|                             the cells                              |
|   close to it. Each virus has an energy level and at each turn a   |
|                            small amount                            |
|  of energy is lost. If the energy of a virus is too low then the   |
|                            virus dies.                             |
|   A virus has its own program that defines its behavior and each   |
|                             program is                             |
| initially randomly generated, employing a user-defined instruction |
|                              set and                               |
|   these instructions govern the chromatic, luminous and resonant   |
|                            behavior of                             |
|                             the virus.                             |
|                                                                    |
|     Like his earlier computer robot-assisted paintings of the      |
|                             mid-1980s,                             |
|     Nechvatalis current work creates immersive saturated space     |
|                            dominated by                            |
|   pattern. Fragments of soft human form are more clearly visible   |
|                           now, emerging                            |
| from patterns of text overlay. Here the lines provide a sharp and  |
|                              vigorous                              |
| opposition to the deterioration of the virtual body through viral  |
|                             infection.                             |
| Such recent paintings as Viral attack: transmissioN, Viral attack: |
|                                the                                 |
| cOnquest Of the hOrrible, Viral attack: regretS   or Viral attack: |
|                                piTy                                |
|   express fully Nechvatalis existential as well as his artistic    |
|                            commitment.                             |
|                                                                    |
|  The gene  general Fin-de-Si cle ornamental excess of Nechvatalis  |
|                             work gives                             |
|    to us a metaphor for the current computational conditions of    |
|                            seeing - and                            |
|  perhaps for our expansive conditions of technological-aesthetic   |
|                             being. In                              |
|    the rising and collapsing of alternative visualizations and     |
|                             unordered                              |
| revelations encountered in his work, the circuits of the mind find |
|                                 an                                 |
|    occupation exactly congruent with todayis techno-informatic     |
|                           structures. In                           |
|   fact, if Nechvatalis preoccupation with fears, mental anguish,   |
|                            illness and                             |
|    death has never entirely disappeared from his projects their    |
|                            artistically                            |
|    prospective realization within  an up-to-date technological     |
|                          framework allows                          |
|      him to come to terms with present-day lifeis complexity.      |
|                                                                    |
|                     Frank Popper, 2001, Paris                      |
|                                                                    |
|                                                                    |
|        *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*         |
|                                                                    |
|                                                                    |
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|            Return-Path: <joseph_nechvatal@hotmail.com>             |
|                                                                    |
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|      From: "Joseph Nechvatal" <joseph_nechvatal@hotmail.com>       |
|                  To: 404@jodi.org, jodi@jodi.org                   |
|  Subject: The HISTORY of TECHNOLOGICALLY-ASSISTED ART SINCE WORLD  |
|                      WAR I and YOUR appropria                      |
|               Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2001 20:33:02 -0000                |
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