To start off today's session we went through one of the texts that the guest visitor was ment to go through with us and discuss (unfortunately she was ill and therefore absent).
The text we went through was,
"Francis Halsall - Observing Systems-Art from a Systems-Theoretical Perspective"
A lot of interesting perspectives and views came from this text and below is a brief analysis and explanation of my understanding of the text:
Firstly here is a defintion of System Theory:
"Systems theory is an interdisciplinary field of science. It studies the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science. More specificially, it is a framework by which one can analyze and/or describe any group of objects that work in concert to produce some result. This could be a single organism, any organization or society, or any electro-mechanical or informational artifact." (Wikipedia.com)
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'In the field of art history, with its obsessive concern for the materiality and ‘specificity' of media, the supposedly ‘dematerialized' realm of virtual and digital media, as well as the whole sphere of mass media, are commonly seen either as beyond the pale or as a threatening invader, gathering at the gates of the aesthetic and artistic citadel’ Mitchell, W.J.T. (2005), What Do Pictures Want?,
This quote within in the text explains how people frown upon new media because of its digitilisation and mass media appeal. Traditional media e.g. sculputre, has a aura and prescecne about it whereas digital media tends to be screen based. This directly relates to this project where it seems the majority of us are trying to create an interactive piece that comes away from the screen and. It also relates to my Origam-E idea in the design futures brief where I attempted to make something which is both digital and traditional (Digital / Real World Sculpting software).
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Niklas Luhmann states the following defition of Systems Theory within this text:
1. Situating a discussion of art within the context of its relationship to the operation of social systems
2. diverse practices occurring after modernism, practices that we might refer to as systems art.
3. a definition of artistic media that is not materially specific and is thus flexible enough to account for proliferation of different artistic media in new media and systems art.
So my understanding of these definitions is that systems theory is basically theoretical thinking, looking back ar art with retrospective and considering where and how a piece is made, rather than the final product.
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Ben Laposky states that:
"Today's ‘new' media, quickly becomes defunct, and the object of nostalgia and aestheticisation".
I entirely agree with this quote because we constantly look at art in a way of nostalgia, this can be related to all forms of new media, the best example I can give is to look at star wars films, the more mature audience will look at this in a nostalgic way and could relate these films to traditional fictional film such as Buck Rodgers.
The text we went through was,
"Francis Halsall - Observing Systems-Art from a Systems-Theoretical Perspective"
A lot of interesting perspectives and views came from this text and below is a brief analysis and explanation of my understanding of the text:
Firstly here is a defintion of System Theory:
"Systems theory is an interdisciplinary field of science. It studies the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science. More specificially, it is a framework by which one can analyze and/or describe any group of objects that work in concert to produce some result. This could be a single organism, any organization or society, or any electro-mechanical or informational artifact." (Wikipedia.com)
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'In the field of art history, with its obsessive concern for the materiality and ‘specificity' of media, the supposedly ‘dematerialized' realm of virtual and digital media, as well as the whole sphere of mass media, are commonly seen either as beyond the pale or as a threatening invader, gathering at the gates of the aesthetic and artistic citadel’ Mitchell, W.J.T. (2005), What Do Pictures Want?,
This quote within in the text explains how people frown upon new media because of its digitilisation and mass media appeal. Traditional media e.g. sculputre, has a aura and prescecne about it whereas digital media tends to be screen based. This directly relates to this project where it seems the majority of us are trying to create an interactive piece that comes away from the screen and. It also relates to my Origam-E idea in the design futures brief where I attempted to make something which is both digital and traditional (Digital / Real World Sculpting software).
_____________________________________________
Niklas Luhmann states the following defition of Systems Theory within this text:
1. Situating a discussion of art within the context of its relationship to the operation of social systems
2. diverse practices occurring after modernism, practices that we might refer to as systems art.
3. a definition of artistic media that is not materially specific and is thus flexible enough to account for proliferation of different artistic media in new media and systems art.
So my understanding of these definitions is that systems theory is basically theoretical thinking, looking back ar art with retrospective and considering where and how a piece is made, rather than the final product.
________________________________________________________
Ben Laposky states that:
"Today's ‘new' media, quickly becomes defunct, and the object of nostalgia and aestheticisation".
I entirely agree with this quote because we constantly look at art in a way of nostalgia, this can be related to all forms of new media, the best example I can give is to look at star wars films, the more mature audience will look at this in a nostalgic way and could relate these films to traditional fictional film such as Buck Rodgers.
The Buck Rogers Character looks extremely simliar to the Luke Skywalker (especially the attire - white cloak outfit)
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'The dematerialisation of the art object'.
Lucy Lippard quotes:
‘This was work which explored aesthetics of systems and thereby functioned by investigating the ways in which it was embedded in various networks of display, representation, meaning and control.’
So if Banksy puts up a new piece on a street corner, is this still a street corner or a piece of art? In a way Banksy materialises his work by making them public.
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Jack Burnham discusses what system-aesthetic's:
"An attempt to bring together artistic, technological and social conditions under the rubric of systems and a concern in them shared by a variety of groups including artists, scientists and social theorists.’
All information can be pulled and applied to and from (vice versa) different artistic, scienctific and theoritical views. We can relate System Theory to anything...
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What is Systems Art?
(1)An interest in networks, structures and systems of measurement - This can relate to The idea of Renaissance e.g. Golden Meaning.
(2) An engagement (often politicised) with the institutional systems of support (such as the gallery, discourse, or the market) within which it occurs.
(3) The prioritising of non-visual aspects of the work.
(4) The interest in unstable or de-materialised physicality.
(5) The exploration of new technology and new media.
From this section of the text i am mostly drawn to the third quote - "prioritising of non-visual aspects of the work". This directly related to Ellie Rees work (speficially the cakes piece).
Art isn't all about the actual look of a piece, its about the creation the form and manipulation of a piece. This also made me think about the Skoda Car Cake Advert (below):
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'The dematerialisation of the art object'.
Lucy Lippard quotes:
‘This was work which explored aesthetics of systems and thereby functioned by investigating the ways in which it was embedded in various networks of display, representation, meaning and control.’
So if Banksy puts up a new piece on a street corner, is this still a street corner or a piece of art? In a way Banksy materialises his work by making them public.
_________________________________________________________
Jack Burnham discusses what system-aesthetic's:
"An attempt to bring together artistic, technological and social conditions under the rubric of systems and a concern in them shared by a variety of groups including artists, scientists and social theorists.’
All information can be pulled and applied to and from (vice versa) different artistic, scienctific and theoritical views. We can relate System Theory to anything...
________________________________________________________
What is Systems Art?
(1)An interest in networks, structures and systems of measurement - This can relate to The idea of Renaissance e.g. Golden Meaning.
(2) An engagement (often politicised) with the institutional systems of support (such as the gallery, discourse, or the market) within which it occurs.
(3) The prioritising of non-visual aspects of the work.
(4) The interest in unstable or de-materialised physicality.
(5) The exploration of new technology and new media.
From this section of the text i am mostly drawn to the third quote - "prioritising of non-visual aspects of the work". This directly related to Ellie Rees work (speficially the cakes piece).
Art isn't all about the actual look of a piece, its about the creation the form and manipulation of a piece. This also made me think about the Skoda Car Cake Advert (below):
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This text has been more analysed in my sketchbook, to finish with, here is a link to an interesting art-installation artist:
http://www.jeffrey-shaw.net
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To summarise this text, i found it very difficult to read, although it is very interesting and definately makes me look at new media in a different way. I hope to develop my ideas further in relation to this text...
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