Experimental actions:automatism & chance operations

SM1011 / C01Introduction to Contemporary Art

Dr. Linda C.H. LaiJanuary 22, 2010

TWO prominent features of contemporary art / p. 3

TWO kinds of ‘experimental action’ / p. 4

Automatism / p. 5-20

‘Open work’ / p. 21-36

Summary / p. 37

Further research/reference / p. 38

TWO key characteristics of Contemporary Art

Experimental actions

Intermedia

Exercise 1 -a

Drop random phrases and words on the surface of a piece of A3 paper.

Use both English and Chinese words.

Think of the surface of the paper as a space.Interact freely with the music played.

Discussion…1/ How should we look at these works? (understanding)

2/ How are they different from other artworks you have seen? (interface + structuration)

3/ How do we assess these works? (artistic judgment)

Exercise 1-b

Form new works by combining your work with others’…

Form a sequence?Form a diptych (pair), triptych?

By contrast?By complementary qualities?

Discussion…1/ How should we look at these works? (understanding)

2/ How are they different from other artworks you have seen? (interface + structuration)

3/ How do we assess these works? (artistic judgment)

SUMMING UP THE IN-CLASS ARTMAKING SESSION

1-a AutomatismPerception > representationRandom factorMontage of fragmentsPerformance of the mind / hand / wordsWriting as space

1-b Open workThere is always a next possible workEach segment of the work can be understood as a ‘seed’ that generates its own system. A word is not just a word. An apple is not just an apple.

Each segment of the work is a productive fragment that can form new relations with other fragments.

TWO kinds of “experimental actions”

Chance operationsrandomness & rule-based art-making – automatism, chance and accidents, release of the unconscious mind, perceptual experience > comprehension

Open workrandomness & rule-based art-making

– structure, infinite possibilities, complexity / generative arts

e.g. composer + performer

The performer has to actually complete the work,

NOT JUST interpret the work.

Recommended take-home research: the Fluxus

Automatism as one kind of experimental actions

Automatism and randomness: William Burroughs:

"The cut-up is actually closer to the facts of perception than representational painting. Take a walk down a city street and put down what you have just seen on canvas. You have seen a person cut in two by a car, bits and pieces of street signs and advertisements, reflections from shop windows - a montage of fragments... Consciousness is a cut up. Every time you walk down the street or look out of the window, your stream of consciousness is cut by random factors."

William Burroughs & Brion Gysin, from The Third Mind

William Burroughs & Brion Gysin, The Third Mind – an open work

William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin use the term 'the third mind' to describe the collaborative process. This is the idea that the interaction of two minds produces a temporary third entity, one capable of producing things that neither of the two individuals would be able to

create alone.

And here we find ourselves on Flickr, sharing our photos with our contacts, our groups and the world, collaborating all the time – some consciously, some u

nconsciously, but all reacting in some way to one another’s work.

Chance combined with structure: Dada artist Kurt Schwitters

Kurt Schwitters: Ur-Sonata

• He wanted to unite the two extremes: randomness and order. • The selection of sound materials was random. • For instance, Schwitters found the word DRESDEN becomes “D D S S N R” which

then becomes “de des nn nn rrrr”. • The organization of those materials was not random. It was based on a strict structure:

It includes an introduction, four movements, a finale, and a cadenza.

• Thus randomness and organization are combined together. The artist showed that there is no contradiction between them.

Search on youtube: “ursonate.kurt schwitters” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk-3W3c9Svg&feature=related (original)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voI5b5AIHqE&feature=related (arranged for 4 speakers)http://www.ubu.com/sound/schwitters.html Refer also to “The ABC’s of DADA” (3 parts)

Discussion:

• How do you think that artists can combine randomness and order when using video or photography?

• In addition to the Yi Jing, are there other elements from Chinese culture that can be used to produce works at random.

On the nature and purpose of art… “automatism”

Automatism as an artistic impulse emphasizes:

DiscoveryAdventure

The display/performance of the artist’s subjectivities…Gaming

It is not primarily engaged with representation or asking a question although the work may in the end…

Recommended take-home research: Dada

Automatism…as an artistic method…

• Chance over planning

• Process-oriented over goal-oriented

• Rule-based, game-like…

• The design of the initial steps with rules that enable immediate action + possibilities to continue (sustain action)

• To proceed continuously (sustained action) often relies on a self-conscious blend of intuition and reason

Recommended take-home research: Surrealism

To tap our unconscious mind as creative resources…

AUTOMATISMThis is one of the prime Surrealist

motives.

Automatism: keywords

The unconsciousFree association*Chance*DreamsNo censorshipImprovisation** = related t work procedures

These are the keywords in the Surrealist account of automatismSee Manifesto of Surrealism (Paris 1924) by French poet André Breton.

Automatism: a short history

“Automatism is mainly a modern phenomenon, but it has various precedents.” (Webster, US)

Pre-modern examples…

Leon Battista Alberti (in “De statua,” c. 1460): discovery of representational images in chance in natural everyday environments

Leonardo da Vinci:“If you look upon an old wall covered with dirt, or the old appearance of some streaked st

ones, you may discover several things like landscapes, battles, clouds, uncommon attitudes, humorous faces, draperies, etc. Out of this confused mass of objects, the min

d will be furnished with abundance of designs and subjects perfectly new.”

Alexander Cozens - “blot drawings” – blots into landscape

Automatism: a short history

“Automatism is mainly a modern phenomenon, but it has various precedents.” (Webster, US)

Modern examples… (20th century)

Dadaists: Chance effects…

Automatism is a general approach, not a passionately sought theory.

Surrealists: A creative outlook…

Automatism is exercised as a deeply personal method for the exploration of one’s unconscious.

Greater concern with devising methods to facilitate automatism…

Once an image is formed by automatic or chance means, it would be exploited deliberatly with fully conscious purpose.

Abstract Expressionists, Action Painters: mediumistic automatism…

Automatism permeates the whole creative process.

Automatism: a short history

“Automatism is mainly a modern phenomenon, but it has various precedents.” (Webster, US)

Surrealist poets…

influenced by Freudian psychoanalytic theory:

Symbols and images produced via automatism – strange and irrelevant they may appear to the conscious mind – actually constituted a record of a person’s unconscious psychic forces, and therefore possess an innate artistic significance.

André Breton

Paul Éluard

Robert Desnos

Louis Aragon

Philippe Soupault

Automatic writing, therefore, is not for their lasting values, but for its power in catching a here-and-now, momentary state of the writer’s being.

Automatism: a short history

Surrealist painters…

influenced by Freudian psychoanalytic theory:

Symbols and images produced via automatism – strange and irrelevant they may appear to the conscious mind – actually constituted a record of a person’s unconscious psychic forces, and therefore possess an innate artistic significance.

André Masson

Arshile Gorky

Max Ernst (collage, frottage, grattage, decalcomania)

Joan Miro

Les Automatistes (practices automatism), a group of Canadian painters (1946-51):Paul-Émile Borduas, Albert Dumouchel, Jean Paul Mousseau, Jean-Paul Riopelle

Action Painters (US, 1950s): influenced by Masson, Gorky and Ernst:Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Jack Tworkov, Bradley Walker Tomlin

(They looked for abstract pictorial equivalents for states of mind, experimented with chance drippings of paint on the canvas and free, spontaneous brushstrokes...to unlock the artist’s basic cr

eative instinct. – Britannica)

Art Informel

Arte Nucleare

Automatism: different types of…

Chance…emphasizing the unconscious mindChance…tapping external factors

Focus…chance effects (Dada)Focus… “A” as a creative outlook/principle

Psychological Vs mechanical automatism

Range of works:Surrealist automatic writing, drawing and word-play, heatage, fumage,

cut-up techniques (William Burroughs), blot drawings (Alexander Cozens), coffee-stained works…, free jazz, the Canadian Automatistes (Montreal, 1940s), Abstract Expressionist paintings (such as Action Painter Jackson Pollock), frottage (Max Ernst), decalcomania, use of dream imagery in paintings (Dali)

Open Work

Open work’s generative quality

An open work is generative…

It focuses on ways to produce, to allow a work to grow without limit (theoretically speaking)…

All generative art forms have an automatic quality, some highlights chance and randomness;others highlight the “machine” character with heavily designed structure

Open work

• In most classical compositions, the performer has to add a personal interpretation to a musical score. The performer has to decide, for instance, how softly to play a piece, etc.

• In an open work, however, the performer must do more than that. The performer must actually complete the work.

Open work: definitions

• An open work gives the performer a certain degree of freedom to complete the work.

• Another term for an open work is: a work indeterminate with respect to performance.

• Two performances of the same piece can be so different that it becomes impossible to recognize that both come from the same score.

• The performer does not necessarily have total freedom. The composer often selects certain notes or structures that somehow limit the performer’s choices.

• The only way to give the performer the highest degree of freedom is

for the composer to do nothing. Few composers go so far as that.

Open work: the case of music

Traditional music:

Composer Performer

UNIFIED (thru’ SCORE)

Listener

Open work: the case of music

Cage’s experimental sound: each complete the work in very different ways

Composer Performer

Listener

Examples of open works

Example One: Klavierstuck by Karlheinz Stockhausen

• There is a single sheet of music with several note groupings.

• The performer first chooses one grouping to start the piece, and then others to determine the sequence.

• The freedom for the performer is how to combine sounds.

Examples of open works

Example Two: Third Sonata for Piano by Pierre Boulez

• In the first section, there are ten pieces on ten different sheets of paper. They can be combined in any order, within some limitations.

• The second section has four sections, organized as a loop, and the performer can begin with any of these and then continue until returning to the beginning. Once the first section is chosen, the player has no freedom. But some portions leave the beat open to the performer’s choice.

• The composer does give instructions, like “continue without interruption”, etc.

Open work: John Cage

Cage feels that traditional music imposes a rigid, pre-designed concept from the composer.

He believes we should “let sounds be themselves”.

Open work: John Cage

John Cage and others used multiple devices, such as for instance many records on different turntables or multiple radios, and letting visitors start and stop them at will.

Another work that uses tapes is Wikiup by Earle Brown.

Open work: John Cage

Another possibility involves using new methods to write musical scores. This approach can give performers more freedom to discover new sounds. John Cage was the most important figure in this area.

John Cage’s transparency scores

• One method is to make lines (or curves) on a transparent sheet. • Cage would then assign five types of sound for each of the five

lines. • The composer can explain what each type of sound means, or leave

the interpretation open to the performer. • Then mark several points on a separate, non-transparent sheet of

paper. • It is even possible to make more than one transparent sheet and

then superimpose all of them onto the non-transparent paper. This can enhance the complexity of the composition.

• Cage does not specify the instrument or performance medium: it can be any instruments or sound sources, even new instruments to be developed in the future.

• Perhaps this should not be called a “score” in the traditional sense, since the structure is not fixed by the composer. Cage emphasized that “current experimental compositions.. have parts but no scores…” – The parts can be combined in many unforeseen ways. This resembles

the mobile sculpture, a sculpture with multiple moving parts.

See notes on Cage’s Fontana Mix http://www.johncage.info/workscage/fontana.html

John Cage: “let sounds be themselves…”

“27 sounds manufactured in a kitchen” (John Cage)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGrhL49-YQw (on Youtube)

Noise with John Cage (1966)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtSdBtJC42k (on Youtube)

Water Walk performed in January 1960 on a popular TV show “I’ve got a secret.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSulycqZH-U (on Youtube)

A recent example: the Sea OrganThe Sea Organ – musical instrument played by the sea…in Croatia

http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om24550.html

The musical Sea Organ is 70 meters long, located on the shores of Zadar, Croatia. It is carved in white stone, were built on the quayside. Underneath, there are 35 musically tuned tubes with whistle openings on the sidewalk. The movement of the sea pushes air through, and – depending on the size and velocity of the wave – musical chords are played. The waves create random harmonic sounds.

Each musical organ pipe is blown by a column of air, pushed in turn by a column of wave-moved water, through a plastic tube immersed into the water. The pipes' musically tuned sounds emanate to the surroundings through apertures in the vertical planes of the uppermost stairs. The 7 successive groups of musical tubes are alternately tuned to two musically cognate chords of the diatonic major scale. The outcome of played tones and/or chords is a function of random time and space distribution of the wave energy to particular organ pipes.

Air Holes along the top row of steps let the Sea Organ breathe in air to be transformed into musical sounds as the next wave plays its song. The sound apertures are visible along the center of the walkway.

A recent example: the Sea Organ

The Sea Organ – musical instrument played by the sea…in Croatiahttp://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om24550.html

Each musical organ pipe is blown by a column of air, pushed in turn by a column of wave-moved water, through a plastic tube immersed into the water. The pipes' musically tuned sounds emanate to the surroundings through apertures in the vertical planes of the uppermost stairs. The 7 successive groups of musical tubes are alternately tuned to two musically cognate chords of the diatonic major scale. The outcome of played tones and/or chords is a function of random time and space distribution of the wave energy to particular organ pipes.

The Sea Organ – musical instrument played by the sea…

This masterpiece of acoustics and architecture was created by expert Dalmatian stone carvers and architect Nikola Basic in 2005, who recently receive

d the European Prize for Urban Public Space for this project.

Discussion:

• Can you think of any way in which the film projection can be understood as a performance? What can happen during this performance? What can be done? How would you design a film in this way?

• Have you heard of any Asian film tradition where film was combined with live performance?

• Do most film directors that you know about pay any attention at all to the projection as a performance?

• Do they think of new ways in which a film can be performed? Why or why not?

• Can the ideas of John Cage be relevant here?

More on the nature and purpose of art…

*Contemporary art seems to open up the purpose of art: from representation of the world out there to asking questions about the world and art itself [Class Meeting 01]

*Contemporary art opens up the meaning of “representation”…

“Representation” is the activity to re-present (i.e. to show once again, but differently)

mimesis (imitation, a copy of) – improvement of reality – abstraction – philosophizing – deconstruction…

*Meeting 02 introduces the idea of a very different artistic/creative impulse: automatism as one kind of experimental actions

Further Research

For students who want to explore more through reading and have high English-language proficiency, I recommend the following article on automatism and photography…

“Automatism, Causality and Realism: Foundational Problems in the Philosophy of Photography” (2008) by Diarmuid Costello and Dawn M. Phillips; In the “Aesthetic & Philosophy of Art” session of Philosophy Compass (a journal of philosophy and art)