CONTEMPORARY ART AND THE BYTES of Paul Dirac, taken in 1933 Contemporary Art and the Bytes 07 Major Work Part 01 - TVU MA New Media Art and Design Mathematics are imperative to and

Immo Blaese

e: [email protected]: 0787 538 9814

CONTEMPORARY ART AND THE BYTES

On the relevance of computers, code and automated processes to the arts

A proposal and research document

Major Work Part 01

TVU MA New Media Art and Design

23 February 2011

01Contemporary Art and the Bytes

Major Work Part 01 - TVU MA New Media Art and Design

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

When are we contemporary? Art now

Where did the bytes come from? Exploring mathematics

The origins of the universal artwork

Universal Bytes, the contemporary “Gesamtkunstwerk”

“Universal Byteswerk”, the proposal

Evaluating the “Byteswerk”

Delivering the “Byteswerk“

Further research materials

References

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INTRODUCTION

The goal of this proposal and research document for my MA Digital Arts and Design major project is to explore the ideas and concepts behind systems and artworks with the aim to transform and manipulate subject matters to reveal and explore new relationships through means of coding languages, subjectiveinterpretations or both.

Its principal aim is to understand the artists’ relationship to science, how science and art inspire each other and what it can reveal about society, our perception of the world, what it means to be contemporary, a term which has gained much popularity in the arts world in recent years. This proposal will explore the ideas behind coding languages through mathematics in history, how those havetransformed the way we look at and interpret our world, how they have affected artists throughout history to the digital revolution. This document will conclude with a proposal for an artifact to evaluate, reflect and interpret all thepoints discussed.

“When a work utilizes techniques of transformation, it retains a connection be-tween its original and transformed versions and such radical transformations can reveal entirely new relationships.” - Casey Reas [01]

- Introduction



When are we contemporary?

As part of my MA modules research I visited the Turner Prize exhibition [02] at the Tate Britain and the Decode[03] exhibition at the V&A museum. Those twoexhibitions happened roughly around the same time frame, but interestingly I thought they did not share any common aspects other than being regarded ascontemporary exhibitions. So comparing those provokes interesting thoughts on the role of art these days, what it means precisely to be contemporary, I think questions both exhibitions aimed to answer to some degree.

The Turner Prize was set up in 1984 to celebrate new outstanding developments in contemporary art and likes to celebrate itself for its cutting edge notion of what makes art art and provoking debate about its relevance to society. It is widely recognized as one of the most important and prestigious awards for the visual arts in Europe. It played an undeniable role in highlighting some outstanding artists in the past, of which my personal favourites Anish Kapoor, Antony Gormleyand Wolfgang Tillmans.

The Decode exhibition at the V&A museum was what I believe to be a one offexhibition around the theme of “Digital Design Sensation”. The theme implies this exhibition was not set up to declare the work it showcased explicitly as art but rather an exploration into the rapid development of new tools available todesigners and artists. Visitor were free to interpret the work on display asshowcases for new technology, design or art. It featured such experiments as an “open source” exhibition marketing campaign[04] by the designer Karsten Schmidt as well as works by leading artists in the digital field such as Golan Levin and John Maeda.

- When are we contemporary? Art now.

ART NOW

Decode - open source digital identity, 2009/2010 - Processing - Karsten Schmidt



The main concept at the heart of the Decode exhibition, the combination and exploration of technology and design/art is not really new, an aspect I will explore further in chapter 4 “On the origins of the Universal Artwork”, also considering Frank Popper’s work since the 1960‘s, who has established an overview of thetechnological art sectors in catalogues such as “art.of.the.electronic.age”[05].So if the base concepts outlined by the Decode exhibition in themselves arenothing new I believe they are now as relevant if not more important than ever considering how recent advances in digital technology have completely reshaped our world, how we communicate with each other, how information transcends across cultures and how it accelerates the development of cultures. A factblatantly apparent in recent developments such as the revolution in Tunisialeading on to Egypt and turmoil in many other arabic countries, but also as subtle as phenomenas such as the Kickstarter[06] funding platform, a type of selforganized micro lender as well as open source software and hardware movements which could spell a major downturn to the traditional key holders as already witnessed in the music industry. I believe people across the world are increasingly disappointed with what traditional governments and institutions can offer with regards to the key challenges of the new millennium such as world poverty and ecocide. New digital technology offers manifold opportunities for alternatives and self organization. Ignore those phenomenas at your peril, lessons now learnt bypoliticians as well as private companies.

To come back to my original comparison of the Decode exhibition and the Turner Prize I think the Turner Prize has currently maneuvered itself in a position where it has become somehow irrelevant to contemporary arts by ignoring such majoradvances in society and technology, much better revealed in the Decode exhibition or else the recent Web Biennial at the Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum[07]. Although last year’s Turner Prize artists such as Lucy Skaer and Richard Wright are well adept in their respective fields I do not believe they are representative of our times and could have been equally at home in a gallery anytime in thepast century.


The Stairwell Project, 2010 - Acrylic on wall - Richard Wright



I enjoyed watching Banksy’s “Exit Through the Gift Shop”[08] as part of myresearch on contemporary art. Beside the comedy of smuggling his work in the Tate Britain to be displayed illegally, I think it brings up valuable questions of why such a relevant, daring and intelligent contemporary artist will never beconsidered for the Turner Prize. But I believe such issues were not somethingBanksy was trying to imply, I think he works on the basis that most traditional galleries have lost their spark of creativity and relevance anyway. Something he sought out to prove in his documentary with what I believe to be his hoax char-acter of Mr. Brainwash. With concepts indebted to Andy Warhol’s ideas of how contemporary culture works, Mr. Brainwash goes on to take the art world on hype and money investment opportunities alone. What impressed me most is that itdid work.

“The contemporary is the person who perceives the darkness of his time assomething that concerns him, as something that never ceases to engage him.”- Giorgio Agamben [09]


West Bank Wall - 2005 - Banksy



Where did the bytes come from?

“The beginnings of mathematical thought were found in the desire to count sheep and in the need to keep track of property and of the passage of time.”- Charles Seife [10]

- Where did the bytes come from? Exploring mathematics.

Exploring mathematics

Administrative writing tablet, proto-urban period, late 4th millennium BC- Iraq (Mesopotamia)

“By pursuing beauty you end up with truth, an idea often used metaphorically but Dirac meant it literally.” - The artist Matt Collins on Dirac who predicted theexistence of antimatter [11]

Photo of Paul Dirac, taken in 1933



Mathematics are imperative to and at the basis of any modern coding language or digital project no matter how simple and as such I am interested in its origins and relevance to art. Why did humans develop mathematics? What did they try to express and when did it become relevant to art and culture? According to Charles Seife [10] the beginnings turn out to be quite profane, in example ancientcultures sought to describe whether a hunter had seen many birds or just one bird. Interestingly the sole distinction between one or many would turn into a counting system made up of just the numbers one and two. Meaning early cultures would count by twos, almost like the binary systems at the core of our moderncomputers. But nature gave us two hands, two feet with five fingers each.Since we all still like to count with our hands it seems it was only a matter of time before humans would develop decimal (e.g. Germanic languages) or vigesimal (e.g. Latin languages) systems.

One of the first distinct developments in the history of mathematics came with the Egyptians which sought to predict the levels of the Nile river and keep track of their plots of land to cultivate more efficiently. Those were practical applications of mathematics with little if any relevance to the arts. Charles Seife argues that the first abstract concepts in the western world in mathematics appeared with the Greeks which evolved the Egyptian system further and with theintroduction of geometry by philosophers such as Pythagoras (around 570 BC), one of the first clear attempts to describe our relationship to space and our universe through mathematics alone. I, like many other digital developers, still use the Pythagorean theorem in my day to day work to describe spacial relationships in interactive systems and games. I believe it is no coincidence that such a first elaborate and abstract mathematical system has been introduced by a philosopher and not a practical accountant or farmer. In order to understand who we are, our relationship to the world, philosophers required and developed abstract tools to describe our world beyond our average practical day to day problems. In my opinion from this point on mathematics and the arts became inextricably linked, leading to universal luminaries such as Leonardo Da Vinci: “For him science and art were one, their task to reveal the perfect geometric proportions that governed all of the natural world.” - Marcus Du Sautoy [12]




Another key point in the relevance of mathematics to our cultures and the arts is the introduction of the number zero, as Charles Seife explains, zero is a concept to which western cultures resisted for hundreds of years, it would undermine the ba-sis Christian religion and beliefs are based on, a finite world with clear boundaries, with a start and an end. It comes to show how powerful and important a player mathematics turns out to be to human culture. It is also no coincidence paintings and drawings before the fifteenth century were flat and lifeless. Artists did not know about the power of zero, the vanishing point had not been discovered yet.I find of particular interest the fact that the initial roots on the idea of zero have absolutely no practical connotation as all other numbers do, it is based on the mystics of eastern cultures.

“There was neither non-existence nor existence then; there was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond. What stirred? Where?” - The Rig Veda [13]


Vitruvian Man, c. 1487 - Leonardo da Vinci



the orig ins of the universal artwork

“The spectator will no longer observe film like a theatrical procession but will par-ticipate in it optically and acoustically... leading him to envisage a total art form of light, 3d images and sound.” - Van Doesburg [14]

- The origins of the Universal Artwork

Amakwenkwe Xhosa tribe - 1970TV Buddha, Closed Circuit video - 1974Nam June Paik

Having outlined the origins of mathematics and their connections to the arts in the previous section I would now like to turn my attention to the history behind the “Gesamtkunstwerk” which can be translated from German into an “Universal Artwork” a synthesis of different forms into one, basically the underlying concept of any modern digital installation.

It is no surprise the term “Gesamtkunstwerk” is closely linked to the composer Richard Wagner dating back to 1849 as I believe any opera could be described as an all-embracing art form, the synthesis of music, theater and plastic arts. Such close relationships of form would later manifest in Pablo Picasso designing the costumes and sets for Eric Satie’s ballet “Parade” in 1917. From this point of view I can only assume “Universal Artworks” must have appeared early on in humanhistory, probably as soon as humans decided to tell stories through songs,costumes and dance, which can be observed in any tribes still left intact.



But in relation to this research proposal I am more interested in the interpretation of a “Gesamtkunstwerk” as the synthesis of abstract forms and concepts of colour, plastics, mathematics and physics through technology. Frank Popper has discussed many such installations in recent times: “As I see it the real break during the 80’s and 90’s took place when the technological artist managed both to master the technical media, the internet, the computer and even holography and combine them aesthetically with plastic, narrative, sociopolitical, biological and ecological issues.”[15] I believe one of the first most important visionary of the “Gesamt-kunstwerk” to fit Frank Popper’s description to be Theo Van Doesburg. As with the digital revolution now, the industrial evolution changed the way our world functioned for ever and cutting edge artists of the time started to explore the new medium at hand “The entire avant-garde made the machine their hobby horse, vaunting its functionalism... the aesthetics of the machine both in form and con-ception became a prime consideration for numerous artists.” - Gladys Fabre [14]

One of the first schools to revolutionize and embrace the idea of the artist as a multi disciplined master of various forms was to be the Bauhaus which in itself was very much influenced by Van Doesburg. “Important to Gropius was the idea that the Fine Arts and the Crafts were not fundamentally different activities but two varieties of the same thing.” - Frank Whitford[16] After a slow start and on to an unfortunate end due to its forced closure by Nazi Germany the Bauhaus brought up many discussions on how modern art could combine different forms and affect our society in a positive way. Such Bauhaus teachers and artist as Itten andKandinsky have had a major influence on the way we utilize, interpret colour and its relationship to space and form, which is something I look forward to explore further through my MA major work. In my opinion the ideas of the Bauhaus are still as relevant as ever and live on to our present day as seen as recently as the architect John Pawson’s exhibition at the Design Museum.

“Pawson’s highly refined and sensitive designs reveal that, even in our confused and sceptical times climate it is still important to make architecture that hasspiritual qualities.” - Design Museum London [17]

- The origins of the Universal Artwork

Chroma ballet - Royal Opera House, 2007Set design, John Pawson

Counter-Construction, 1923Theo Van Doesburg



UNIVERSAL BYTES

“When I have finished typing, it is the writing itself that starts to create. The code becomes a working machine and it is fascinating to see what it will do.”- John Simon [18]

- Universal Bytes, the contemporary Gesamtkunstwerk

THE CONTEMPORARY GESAMTKUNSTWERK

NewSpeak, Webbiennial 2010, Istanbul Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum

Having looked at the origins of a “Universal Artwork” in the previous section I am now proceeding to explore the latest developments in such fields. A fairly recent addition to the arts world has been the term of “net-art”, building up on thephenomena of the internet. As exemplified by the recent Web Biennial at the Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum this field is gaining in importance. I find of particular interest concepts which include, utilize and interpret streams ofinformation and user generated content. A media which in this form and ease of access has never been available to artists before. In this context I created my “NewSpeak” social media “net-art” project to be included in the Web Biennialdirected by Genco Gülan: “The Web Biennial is a solid example of the fact that new technologies may transform art, both theoretically and practically.” [19]



I also had the chance to exhibit twice at the Kinetica Art Fair as part of my MA where I had the opportunity to experience and get to know many artists whose works explore the possibilities of combining different forms into one. The diversity of sculptures presented at the Kinetica Art Fairs was impressive, such as by the retro futuristic organization ArtHertz[20] to commercial studios like Cinimod[21]. From purely mechanical, magnetic installations using refurbished junk to electric set ups using sound, air and movement to digital set ups using the latest advances in technology, it seems the possibilities in creating a contemporary universalartwork are limitless.

V&A, Decode - Videogrid, 2009Ross Phillips

ArtHertz - Kinetica Art Fair 2011Citrus Division, Adrian Lee

- Universal Bytes, the contemporary Gesamtkunstwerk

The V&A museum, in what I believe to be a bid to remove themselves from their image of a traditional museum set up, has been pushing for new cutting edge contemporary installations which has resulted in collaborations with studios such as UVA[22] and Jason Bruges[23]. As previously mentioned in chapter 2 “When are we contemporary? Art now” this has lead to the “Decode” exhibition whichshowcased some of the best artists working in digital technologies these days. I particularly enjoyed the Videogrid display by Ross Phillips[24] for its engaging, friendly nature. After further researching his work it became obvious most of his projects are of a commercial nature in the fashion industry which brings up an in-teresting question, when is a project art, design or just a mere technical gimmick?

“Having witnessed infinite variations of subjectively colorized Mandelbrot sets that have been declared ‘art’ on must wonder where the art begins and the math exists” - John Maeda [25]



universal byteswerk

“The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” - Sol Le Witt [26]

- Universal Byteswerk, the proposal

THE PROPOSAL

Just as the architect John Pawson has translated and evolved ideas of the Bauhaus into contemporary Architecture I am interested in developing and applying Theo Van Doesburg’s ideas into a contemporary context. I propose to create a“Universal Byteswerk” with the “Art Concrete” manifesto in mind:

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- Carslund, Doesburg, Hélion, Tutundjian, Wantz, April 1930 [14]

To do this I am interested in the creation of an “auto-generative” artifact which will build up further on experiences gained from my social media project“NewSpeak”. Combining aspects of social networks, code, transformation and repetition to ultimately come up with a tangible plastic artwork. By utilizing social feeds on the internet and applying different parameters to it, I am looking torepresent those as abstracts through simple mathematic formulas to bring up questions about the times we live in in relation to concepts of ownerships as well as spirituality as discussed by Kandinsky in “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”[27] and Steven Johnson’s talk “Where good ideas come from” [28]. Where do the es-sential ideas occur? Who owns the artwork? What are the artist’s responsibilities?

Art is universal

The work of art should be fully conceived and spiritually formed before it is produced. It should not contain any natural form, sensuality orsentimentality. We wish to exclude lyricism, dramaticism, symbolism andso forth.

The painting should be constructed completely with pure plastic elements, that is to say, with planes and colours. A pictorial element has no other meaning than what it represents; consequently the painting possesses no other meaning than what it is by itself.

The construction of a painting and its elements should be simple and direct in its visualization.

The technique should be mechanical, that is to say, precise ratherthan impressionistic.

Absolute clarity should be sought.



Art Concrete Manifesto - Paris, 1930

“It is immediately clear that the process of creating an abstract image in which the individuality of the object observed is nullified by breaking it up into its visualaccents, had the aim of letting the object the thing be absorbed in a greater whole. The object falls apart. The boundaries are abolished. A field of untiedrelationships opens up. Relationships between parts of the object and parts ofthe environment.” - Theo Van Doesburg [29]

- Universal Byteswerk, the proposal



EVALUATING THE byteswerk

“In submitting colour form and line to rigorous, quasi scientific analysis he opened his students to the possibilities afforded by an art that was intellectually controlled as well as emotionally expressive.” - Frank Whitford on Kandinsky [16]

- Evaluating the Byteswerk

Since my main inspiration for the proposed artifact stems from ideasoriginating from the Bauhaus and Theo Van Doesburg I think the evaluation which will form my final thesis for the MA Digital Arts and Design should be closely linked and compared to their ideas with the “Art Concrete” manifesto set as the basic principle. The evaluation should clarify whether my artifact’sinterpretations and translations of those theories in a contemporary context are adequate. If not then it should be clarified for which reasons. Further the final artifact should also shed light on whether those ideas are still relevant in our times and how they could be further developed in the future. I hope to exhibit the final artifact as it will be paramount to understand and analyze how it relates tothe public.



DELIVERING THE byteswerk

- Delivering the Byteswerk

I intend to divide the deliverables for my major work artifact in four distinct stages which will represent a logical conceptual progression from one to another, each stage will be based on and evolve from the previous one.

Stage 1 “The abstract”

This will be a theoretical stage where I will aim to outline further the concept for the final artifact as well as the necessary code functions and parameters to interpret and manipulate the subject matter. This stage reflects point 2 of the “Art Concrete” manifesto: “The work of art should be fully conceived and spiritually formed before it is produced. It should not contain any natural form, sensuality or sentimentality. We wish to exclude lyricism, dramaticism, symbolism and so forth.”

Stage 2 “The code”

This stage will translate ideas explored in stage 1 into a screen based softwareprototype to test and explore the subject matter further. “Rosalind Krauss has compared the concept of the grid with Malarme’s use of the window as a symbol as a transparent vehicle, the window is that which admits light or spirit... and the bars of the window- the grid- are what helps is to see, focus on.”- Gladys Fabre[14]

Stage 3 “The construction”

This stage will direct the concept explored in stage 2 to its logical conclusion of a physical plastic installation in keeping with point 5 of the “Art Concrete”manifesto: “The technique should be mechanical, that is to say, precise rather than impressionistic.” Although I believe the “Art Concrete” manifesto refers toprinting techniques I will be looking into creating an artifact using an Arduino circuit board to communicate the software code to physical devices for a perpetual ever changing sculpture.

Stage 4 “The analysis”

A written thesis as part of the evaluation to analyze the concepts and artifact as outlined in chapter 7.

I intend to be flexible on time spent on each of those stages but anticipate more time will be spend on stage 3 “The construction” due to my relative inexperience in building Arduino controlled physical artifacts. Keeping this in mind I hope to spend no more than 2 weeks on stage 1 and 2 each and use all remaining time on building the final artifact.



FURTHER RESEARCH MATERIALS

- Further research materials

The font used for the title headers throughout this document is based on Theo Van Doesburg’s alphabet created 1917.

I have engaged in further research for my major proposal which I have not fully integrated or discussed in this research proposal for sake of brevity and concise statements but which I feel are still relevant to my project:

“Interface Metaphors and Signal Representations for Audiovisual Performance Systems” by Golan Levin

“The Stranges Man”, a biography on Paul Dirac by Graham Farmelo

“The Cathedral and the Bazaar” by Eric Steven Raymond

“Bricolage Programming in the Creative Arts” by Alex Mc Lean andGeraint Wiggins

“Behavioral Kinetic Sculpture” by Casey Reas

I have also taken part in a five weeks practical Arduino workshop taughtby Daniel Hirschmann:www.danielhirschmann.comhttp://learn.plankman.com



REFERENCES

- References, primary

PRIMARY

Chapter 1

[01]

Chapter 2

[02]

[03]

[04]

[05]

[06]

[07]

[08]

Chapter 3

[10]

[11]

[12]

Chapter 4

[14]

Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture - Casey Reas, Chandler Williams, LUST - Princeton Architectural Press / New York, published 2010

Turner Prize, www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprizelast visited 21.02.2011

V&A Decode, www.vam.ac.uk/decodelast visited 21.02.2011

Recode decode, Karsten Schmidt open source identitywww.vam.ac.uk/microsites/decode/recodegallerylast visited 21.02.2011

art.of.the.electronic.age - Frank Popper - Thames and Hudson,published 1993

Kickstarter, www.kickstarter.com last visited 21.02.2011

Web Biennial, www.webbiennial.orglast visited 21.02.2011

Exit Through The Gift Shop - Banksy - www.imdb.com/title/tt1587707/Released 5 March 2010, Paranoid Pictures

Zero, The biography of a dangerous idea - Charles Seife - Souvenir Press,published 2000

Beautiful Equations - Matt Collings - Documentary viewed on BBC iPlayerwww.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wltbmLast broadcast on 21.01.2011, 01:15 on BBC Four

The Beauty of Diagrams - Marcus du Sautoy - Documentary viewed on BBC iPlayerwww.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w5675Last broadcast on 24.12.2010, 01:50 on BBC Four

Constructing a New World - Van Doesburg & The International Avant-GardeTate publishing, 2009



- References, primary

Chapter 4

[15]

[16]

[17]

Chapter 5

[19]

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23]

[24]

[25]

Chapter 6

[27]

[28]

Origins of Virtualism: An Interview with Frank Popper Conducted by Joseph Nechvatal, Spring 2004 issue of the CAA Art Journal pp. 62 — 77www.eyewithwings.net/nechvatal/popper/intervewww1.htmllast visited 21.02.2011

Bauhaus - Frank Whitford - Thames&Hudson, published 1984

John Pawson, Plain Space exhibition - Design Museum Londonvisited 30.12.2010

Regeneration.011, Revealing the politics and poetry in net-artPlatosanat exhibition catalogue 20.01.11/20.03.11

ArtHertz art organisationwww.arthertz.comlast visited 21.02.2011

Cinimod Studiowww.cinimodstudio.comlast visited 21.02.2011

United Visual Artistswww.uva.co.uklast visited 21.02.2011

Jason Bruges Studiowww.jasonbruges.comlast visited 21.02.2011

Ross Phillipswww.rossphillips.melast visited 21.02.2011

Creative Code - John Maeda - Thames&Hudson, published 2004

Concerning the Spiritual in Art - Wassily Kandinsky, published 1914The Project Gutenberg EBook, released 2004www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5321last visited 21.02.2011

TED talk: Where good ideas come from, Steven Johnson - 2006www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_come_from.htmllast visited 21.02.2011



REFERENCES

- References, secondary

SECONDARY

Chapter 2

[09]

Chapter 3

[13]

Chapter 5

[18]

Chapter 6

[26]

[29]

What Is Contemporary Art? Manifestos for the future - Hans Ulrich ObristSternberg Press, publised 2010

Zero, The biography of a dangerous idea - Charles Seife - Souvenir Press,published 2000

Creative Code - John Maeda - Thames&Hudson, published 2004

Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture - Casey Reas, Chandler Williams, LUST - Princeton Architectural Press / New York, published 2010

Constructing a New World - Van Doesburg & The International Avant-GardeTate publishing, 2009

Documents

CONTEMPORARY ART AND THE BYTES of Paul Dirac, taken in 1933 Contemporary Art and the Bytes 07 Major Work Part 01 - TVU MA New Media Art and Design Mathematics are imperative to and