Computability of Intentionality? The problem of the relation of operational and optimal (computable) Iconicity...

If one thinks together the "halting problem" "the tiling problem" as problems of non-computability of intentionality with Stjernfelts two iconicity notions (shown in Peirce´s diagramatological philsophy") one could propose the thesis, to solve - or better more approximatly describe and eventually formalize(and compute) the relation of of the two notions of optimal(computable) and operational iconicity as a well possible path leading towards the computablity of intentionality.
The hard question is: how the fact that Peirce generally conceived of iconicity as as operationally defined by the possibility of deriving further, implict, information from the iconic sign, be possibly be formalized?

see here some details:

Frederik Stjernfelt(2006): Two Iconicity Notions in Peirce's Diagrammatology. ICCS 2006: 70-86

"Two Aspects of Iconicity in Peirce's Diagrammatology
Frederik Stjernfelt / Learning Lab Denmark
http://www.springerlink.com/content/1666243427t06714/
Two different concepts of iconicity compete in Peirce’s diagrammatical logic. One is articulated in his general reflections on the role of diagrams in thought, in what could be termed his diagrammatology – the other is articulated in his construction of Existential Graphs as an iconic system for logic representation. One is operational and defines iconicity in terms of which information may be derived from a given diagram or diagram system – the other has stronger demands on iconicity, adding to the operational criterion a demand for as high a degree of similarity as possible.
This paper investigates the two iconicity notions and addresses some of the issues they involve.(...)
It is a well-known fact that Peirce conceived of logic in terms of diagram observation and manipulation, and Jaakko Hintikka has pointed to the general relevance of these two modes in terms of "corollarial" and "theorematical" deduction, respectively. In Peirce's account for diagrammatical reasoning, however, a further, less noticed difference stands out - that between what I would call "operational" and "optimal" iconicity, respectively. The former pertains to the fact that Peirce generally conceived of iconicity as operationally defined by the possibility of deriving further, implict, information from the iconic sign. Measured on this criterion for iconicity, however, different representation modes, e.g. graphical and algebraical, are equivalent to the extent that they possess the same informational strength and permits the derivation of the same set of theorems. This leaves open the issue of how further to distinguish such types - graphical representations being "more iconical", according to Peirce, than algebraical representations, even if the two have the same operational power. This further aspect of iconicity might be called "optimal" iconicity."

2) from
http://www.consciousentities.com/?p=77

"Is intentionality non-computable?
November 22, 2008
Peter Hankins

Picture: tiles. I undertook to flesh out my intuitive feeling that intentionality might in fact be a non-computable matter. It is a feeling rather than an argument, but let me set it out as clearly (and appealingly) as I can.

First, what do I mean by non-computability? I’m talking about the standard, uncontroversial variety of non-computability exhibited by the halting problem and various forms of tiling problem. The halting problem concerns computer programs. If we think about all possible programs, some run for a while and stop, while others run on forever (if for example there’s a loop which causes the program to run through the same instructions over and over again indefinitely). The question is, is there any computational procedure which can tell which is which? Is there a program which, when given any other program, can tell whether it halts or not? The answer is no; it was famously proved by Turing that there is no such program, and that the problem is therefore undecidable or non-computable.

Some important qualifications should be mentioned. First, programs that stop can be identified computationally; you just have to run them and wait long enough. The problem arises with programs that don’t halt; there is no general procedure by which we can identify them all. However, second, it’s not the case that we can never identify a non-stopping program; some are obvious. Moreover, when we have identified a particular non-stopping program, we can write programs designed to spot that particular kind of non-stopping. I think this was the point Derek was making in his comment on the last point, when he asked for an example of a human solution that couldn’t be simulated by computer; there is indeed no example of human discovery that couldn’t be simulated - after the fact. But that’s a bit like the blind man who claims he can find his way round a strange town just as well as anyone else; he just needs to be shown round first. We can actually come up with programs that are pretty good at spotting non-stopping programs for practical purposes; but never one that spots them all.

Tiling problems are really an alternative way of looking at the same issue. The problem here is, given a certain set of tiles, can we cover a flat plane with them indefinitely without any gaps? The original tiles used for this kind of problem were square with different colours, and an additional requirement was that colours must be matched where tiles met. At first glance, it looks as though different sets of tiles would fall into two groups; those that don’t tile the plain at all, because the available combinations of colours can’t be made to match up satisfactorily without gaps; and those that tile it with a repeating pattern. But this is not the case; in fact there are sets of tiles which will tile the plane, but only in such a way that the pattern never repeats. The early sets of tiles with this property were rather complex, but later Roger Penrose devised a non-square set which consists of only two tiles.

The existence of such ‘non-periodic’ tilings is the fly in the ointment which essentially makes it impossible to come up with a general algorithm for deciding whether or not a given set of tiles will tile the plane. Again, we can spot some that clearly don’t, some that obviously do, and indeed some that demonstrably only do so non-periodically; but there is no general procedure that can deal with all cases.

I mentioned Roger Penrose; he, of course, has suggested that the mathematical insight or creativity which human beings use is provably a non-computable matter, and I believe it was the contemplation of how the human brain manages to spot whether a particular tricky set of tiles will tile the plane that led to this view (that’s not to say that human brains have an infallible ability tell whether sets of tiles tile the plane, or computations halt). Penrose suggests that mathematical creativity arises in some way from quantum interactions in microtubules; others disagree with his theory entirely, arguing, for example, that the brain just has a very large set of different good algorithms which when deployed flexibly or in combination look like something non-computational.

I should like to take a slightly different tack. Let’s consider the original frame problem. This was a problem for AI dealing with dynamic environments, where the position of objects, for example, might change. The program needed to keep track of things, so it needed to note when some factor had changed. It turned out, however, that it also needed to note all the things that hadn’t changed, and the list of things to be noted at every moment could rapidly become unmanageable. Daniel Dennett, perhaps unintentionally, generalised this into a broader problem where a robot was paralysed by the combinatorial explosion of things to consider or to rule out at every step.

Aren’t these problems in essence a matter of knowing when to stop, of being able to dismiss whole regions of possibility as irrelevant? Could we perhaps say the same of another notorious problem of cognitive science - Quine’s famous problem of the impossibility of radical translation. We can never be sure what the word ‘Gavagai’ means, because the list of possible interpretations goes on forever. Yes, some of the interpretations are obviously absurd – but how do we know that? Isn’t this, again, a question of somehow knowing when to stop, of being able to see that the process of considering whether ‘Gavagai’ means ‘rabbit or more than two mice’, ‘rabbit or more than three mice’ and so on isn’t suddenly going to become interesting.

Quine’s problem bears fairly directly on the problem of meaning, since the ability to see the meaning of a foreign word is not fundamentally different from the ability to see the meaning of words per se. And it seems to me a general property of intentionality, that to deal with it we have to know when to stop. When I point, the approximate line from my finger sweeps out an indefinitely large volume of space, and in principle anything in there could be what I mean; but we immediately pick out the salient object, beyond which we can tell the exploration isn’t going anywhere worth visiting.

The suggestion I wanted to clarify, then, is that the same sort of ability to see where things are going underlies both our creative capacity to spot instances of programs that don’t halt, or sets of tiles that cover the plane, and our ability to divine meanings and deal with intentionality. This would explain why computers have never been able to surmount their problems in this area and remain in essence as stolidly indifferent to real meaning as machines that never manipulated symbols.

Once again, I’m not suggesting that humans are infallible in dealing with meaning, nor that algorithms are useless. By providing scripts and sets of assumptions, we can improve the performance of AI in variable circumstances; by checking the other words in a piece of text, we can improve the ability of programs to do translation. But even if we could bring their performance up to a level where it superficially matched that of human beings, it seems there would still be radically different processes at work, processes that look non-computational.

Such is my feeling, at least; I certainly have no proof and no idea how the issue could even be formalised in a way that rendered it susceptible to proof. I suppose being difficult to formalise rather goes with the territory.
Comments »

1.

It is my belief that human computation is based on our ability to estimate degrees of similarity. To me, this clearly explains how we are able to learn the meanings of words and to understand what a finger is pointing at. Such mechanisms would also seem to be applicable to sorting out tiling and halting questions, although I am not at all sure how to go about setting up these problems other than the fact that I can read about them and, more or less, follow the arguments as presented. Neither my similarity detectors nor the logical reasoning techniques I have built up based on those detectors have anywhere near the capabilities of those of Drs. Penrose, Turing, or Goedel.

I am tempted here to jump on your suggestion that “the same sort of ability to see where things are going underlies both …” and I believe your suspicion is correct, but at this point, I really cannot justify the argument.

In an earlier post (Ouroboros, comment 3), I tried to argue for a connection between similarity detectors and scripts. To the extent that a script in the traditional AI sense contains a fragment of an algorithm, this was wrong. However, some script implementations do involve some aspects of similarity detection. It was this that I referred to.

The fundamental question would be how to compute using similarity detectors. Obviously, there are some related requirements, such as the ability to form links between the discovered similarities.

It is my belief that the overall architecture of the logical reasoning portions of the cortex would work something along the lines of the ACT system proposed by Anderson at CMU, but with similarity links replacing his explicit computational steps. Math would be based on successively nested metaphors, such as described by Lakoff and Nunez. Such a system would implement a kind of stack with an ability to suspend computations in one region where a subtask has been set up and proceed with another subtask in a separate cortical region, eventually (maybe) resuming computations in the original subtask before the short-term memories representing that subtask fade away.

Comment by Lloyd Rice — November 25, 2008 @ 10:02 pm"
from:http://www.consciousentities.com/?p=77

48 degreeeees- Public Art Ecology

"December 12-21 Public.Art.Ecology Dheli India

48 degrees is a massively ambitious project that examines the teetering ecology of Delhi through the prism of contemporary art interventions in public spaces, all within a rickshaw-ride of the centre of Delhi as a way of drawing its citizens into the debate about warming. The 25 artists exhibiting in eight public spaces include Anwar Kanwar, Andrej Zdravic, Ashok Sukumaran & Shaina Anand, Asim Waqif, Atul Bhalla, Chrysanne Stathacos, Ichi Ikeda, Haubitz + Zoche, Tomas Saraceno, Learning Site, Mary Miss and Desire Machine. More information

48◦C Public.Art.Ecology

"From the 1960s through most of the 1990s, the Left considered environmentalism to be
‘soft politics’. While the bold action of Greenpeace and the extremes of 'eco-terrorism’ had to be acknowledged, for the most part those who supposedly cared more for the earth and its creatures/creations than for people's revolutions were perceived as acting from a kind of political surburbia. Today, sparked by indisputable proof of human agency in climate change, the environment is in the centre foreground. It has become the radical edge."
– Lucy R. Lippard, Beyond the Beauty Strip


Envisioned as a „festival‟, this three-week experiment is located in the metropolitan city of Delhi. It aspires, as Lippard suggests above, to lodge the theme of environment in “the centre foreground” as the new radical edge in contemporary art practice. The festival will attempt to interrogate the precarious ecology of India‟s capital city through the prism and aesthetic strategies of contemporary art. Situated in various public spaces around Delhi, artworks will try to draw a complex and diverse public into this critical imaginary.

The festival‟s title, 48◦C Public.Art.Ecology,is thus an urgent reference to the exigencies of global warming which can be felt in Delhi's continuously escalating summer temperatures, as also to the frenzied paradoxes of a city that seems to be in perpetual, strident overdrive, yet is also mutely, violently, „running on empty‟...The snarled throb of daily gridlock, the grotesque,gigantic spasms of steel and concrete
structures, the rags of cloud drifting across glass-faced corporate towers, the obdurate stratigraphy of caked roadside detritus, the phantom horizon: all these are
superimpositions on an urban matrix whose embedded reality is fracture, rupture,
corrosion, squalor and steady decay."

excerpt of the curators statement


One of the participing artists is Tomas Saraceno







Interview > Tomas Saraceno [Stefano Boeri and Hans Ulrich Obrist]

Monday, 30. January 2006, 12:13:49

tomas saraceno, air-port city, flying gardens, intreview


Do you have a problem with gravity?

Whoa, no idea. I think Cedric Price was once asked a similar question. Fortunately, we don’t have problems, only opportunities. I like the idea that a problem can become an opportunity, a problem as the driving force behind developing something new. In your question there is half of the answer: gravity is a physical psycho-social relationship.


Tell us about your Air-Port-City project.

My idea for an Air-Port-City is to create platforms or habitable cells made up of cities that float in the air. These change form and join together like clouds. This freedom of movement is borrowed from the orderly structure of airports, and it allows for the creation of the first international city. Airports are divided by “air-side” and “land-side”; on the “air-side” you are under the jurisdiction of international law. Your every action is judged according to international norms. Air-Port-City is like a flying airport; you will be able to legally travel across the world while taking advantage of airport regulations. This structure seeks to challenge today’s political, social, cultural and military restrictions in an attempt to re-establish new concepts of synergy.



Cells made up of cities?


Up in the sky there will be this cloud, a habitable platform that floats in the air, changing form and merging with other platforms just as clouds do. It will fly through the atmosphere pushed by the winds, both local and global, in an attempt to equalise the (social) temperature and differences in pressure. It will be a sustainable and mobile migration. These aerial cities will be in a permanent state of transformation, similar to nomadic cities. After all, gypsies never go back to the same place simply because the place is constantly changing.


Is it a flying utopia?

Air-Port-City is like a huge kinetic structure that works towards a real economic transformation. Moving from a personal “belief” to a collective one is the first step in the realisation of this idea. After the unification of Europe, a “europeanafroamericanasianoceaniasfydsdf” will be created. Like continental drift at the beginning of the world, the new cities will search for their positions in the air in order to find their place in the universe. From cirrocumulus to cirrocumuluscity! It provides feedback so as to enable a faster process of communication, capable of imagining more elastic and dynamic border rules (political, geographical, etc.) for a new space/cyberspace.


And what about your flying gardens?

Flying gardens are part of the Air-Port-City family. These spatial and temporal characteristics are needed for a sustainable occupation, a necessary invasion made up of plants, humans and animals. The geographic range of most plant and animal species is limited by climatic factors and any shift will have an impact on the organisms living there. Climate changes faster than plants can disperse to new, more suitable areas. A flying garden (think of it as multiple Amazons in transcontinental flight) with 62 different cities joined in the air will generate a spherical shape; the interior of the sphere will enclose enough air to lift the city and its flight will depend on solar energy. There will be “airplants” from the genus Tillandsia. Native to South America and Africa, these are true air plants: they derive all their nutrition from the air, imbibing rain and dew and whatever nutrients the air brings to them through their leaf tissues. There are no roots for water and nutrient uptake so they are quite air-sufficient.



Who are your heroes?

Today it is difficult to identify just one hero. Maybe it is better to have many. Unfortunately, some cultures still need to identify with individual heroes. Here is my pick: “Tensegrity”, sculptural structures invented by the artist Snelson that were later taken by Buckminster Fuller, who went on to develop his own theory. Your work deals with natural processes, as well as with dreams of transgravitation and elevation.


What is your link to science? Do you have dialogues with scientists?

I will try to answer this by talking about aerogel. A year ago, with the help of engineers and lawyers, I took advantage of an application of a material called aerogel, which has been used in spacecraft. These vehicles use a gas that is lighter than air to rise up: a mix of helium and hydrogen and other gases. Aerogel gives these vehicles the possibility of flying solely on solar energy. These vehicles are the more efficient alternatives for mobility in the future and for a possible “colonisation” of the sky. There will no longer be a need for airports and air pollution will cease; they will be efficient alternatives for new satellites and will create new possibilities for communication. This will allow for greater energy saving and give people not only data but also an incredible mobility, thus permitting a constant redefining of boundaries and of national, cultural and racial identities.


from Domus 883 July/August 2005

Art Intervention - place making?? Intercultural Citydiplomacies...

http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2008-10-23-tsui-en.html
Hilary Tsui
Art interventions as alternative place-making
Urban cultural exchange between Vienna and Hong Kong

The creative city has become the buzzword on the agenda of many city governments, economic developers, and cultural planners since Charles Landry[1] introduced this idea in his book The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators in 2000. Innovative, inward-looking and coherent as it is intended to be, the creative city rhetoric has been adopted in variation, like a universal formula, sometimes over-simplified, by city administrations, simply because the label of being a creative city provides competing post-industrial cities with a second chance to reboot and reload their profiles to make them more attractive.

The tag creative city does indeed have positive and forward-looking connotations. It advocates the use of culture for fostering the creativity of cities and regions to revive local economy and to mark places symbolically as different[2]. Following this logic, the creative city rhetoric does seemingly grant arts and culture an authoritative role on the urban development agenda. Although cultural and urban planning have never before been officially teamed up so intimately, the use of culture as a tool for urban and image regeneration is not an entirely new movement.

Since the increase in economic globalization, the shift of the urban economy from production to consumption, and the corresponding rise of the leisure and entertainment industry, culture has long been deployed for economic motives. Sociologist Sharon Zukin described this as our symbolic economy. She insightfully analyzed that the production of space and symbols are the key parallels inside the symbolic economy[3]. Approaching the 1990s we witnessed what Evans Graeme described as the urban renaissance[4] in major and post-industrial cities around the world. We have more flagship museums, cultural landmarks, art biennials, waterfront and city-centre cultural clusters in cities across the globe, not to mention the ever increasing numbers of replica or newly-constructed heritage and cultural sites that make our cities so much more attractive to visit. In Europe, the European Capital of Culture officially supports two cities each year in transforming their culture base and showcasing it to the world.

These cultural strategies for place promotion and urban regeneration, or the so-called cultural-led urban regeneration[5], despite their good intentions, have intensified the speed of commodification of culture and are further stifling the competition between cities and the festival marketplace phenomenon described by John Hannigan[6]. In our increasingly competitive and interconnected world, the cultural-led urban regeneration and creative city logic have spread across the globe and been picked up by municipal administrations in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan: Singapore's waterfront Esplanade, a large-scale performing arts landmark, was opened in 2002; Hong Kong has planned an ambitious 40-hectare West Kowloon Cultural Quarter, still pigeonholed after more than a decade of discussions and planning.
Making places and identities

Amidst the global competition of increasingly footloose capital investment, tourists and talents, it has become almost inevitable that cities are craving tried and tested recipes to boost their profiles, their infrastructure, and to build up an attractive and unique image. The lucrative tourist industry[7] and economic globalization have authoritative effect on the construction of our urban landscape – urban redevelopment, gentrification, the displacement of disadvantaged groups, social segregation, and the privatization of public space are only some of the corresponding effects.

Place-making and urban design have become key issues for urban planners and city administrators. The aforementioned cultural places for direct consumption, leisure, experience and entertainment are created from scratch to produce programmed meanings and inscribed identities. With this making of places for quick consumption the city's complex multi-layered cultures are often reduced to a single entity. This is the background to the urban cultural project Urban Imaginary Series: Cities of Desire, an initiative intended to instigate a critical discourse on the top-down place-making strategies and image representation in city regions worldwide while spotlighting art practices that act as strategies of resistance against the aforementioned hegemonic place-making rhetoric.

The project, including the exhibition, is a critique of the frantic imaging politics and culturalization of urban space and the neutralization of political spaces through cultural means, and an exploration of how urban narratives can be reconstructed through artistic interventions. How can urban space be re-appropriated by artists or community initiatives to create inventive experiences? What are the strategies of resistance against the current production of places and identity?

Indeed, being useful resources and elements for place-making, art and culture have been gradually recognized as interim solutions to our urban problems, or, to a certain extent, contemporary life in general. The late advocacy and increasing financial support of public art in many European cities proves the point here. The Drive Thru Gallery project was planned from 2007-2010 in Aschersleben, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In this project windows of uninhabited houses and specially erected billboards in the polluted desolate inner city centre function as surfaces for display of art and provide a visual experience for passing motorists, intended to attract attention to this shrinking city before the local government instigates any new measures.

Over the last few years we have witnessed an increasing number of art exhibitions held in different urban and spatial settings. Some genuinely attempt to engage in a critical urban discourse and enhance the interaction in the public domain, like the former two editions of the Istanbul Biennials, curated respectively by Hou Hanru (2007), and Charles Esche and Vasif Kortun (2005). Others are more site-specific experiments, including two innovative projects organized by OK Center for Contemporary Art. These were Schaurausch (2007), an urban exhibition spread across the inner city of Linz, where display windows and the interiors of commercial premises were used as display surfaces, and Tiefenrausch (2008), a recent large-scale exhibition in the underground world of Linz. In this project the audience was led into a labyrinth of underground passages where new media and installation work was shown in an extraordinary setting well beyond the white cube.
Interventions as alternative place-making

The project Urban Imaginary Series is looking for alternative cultural strategies in a specific urban context. Accordingly, the project focuses on different forms of urban interventions. Interventionists usually have their own political agenda. They operate of their own free will, without commission (or authorization, for that matter), moving into the social realm, addressing socio-political issues and speaking to the general public outside the glossy gallery or museum space.

There is a fine line between art in public space and urban interventions. The question as to what the cultural practices are that help to create democratic forms of expression in our prescribed urban environment are to be addressed in a roundtable discussion of the place-making politics of competing cities. Representatives from cultural institutions, public art funding bodies, interventionists, and community art groups will discuss the problems and perspectives of top-down and community-based place-making strategies.

City Mine(d)[8], one of the speakers at this roundtable discussion, is a production house for urban interventions with its origins in Brussels and affiliated offices in London and Barcelona. As a non-profit organization it initiates urban art projects that intersect between arts, urban sociology and the exploration of new modes of public governance. Within the ten years since its inception they have completed numerous interventions and research projects that engage the public with the city through art interventions and deal with the issue of public empowerment. Micronomics is a current project by City Mine(d), that envisages new forms of economic and social exchange systems on a micro-level, implemented in Brussels, London, and Berlin.

Another supporter for bottom-up initiative is Scott Burnham. He curated Urban Play with Droog Design within the ExperimentaDesign biennial in Lisbon, Portugal (20 September-2 November 2008). Burnham is an obvious supporter of open source culture and its physical and social manifestation in urban life and the cityscape. Besides exhibiting illegal interventions – and thereby raising questions regarding the effectiveness of the prevalent city planning in engaging its citizens socially and culturally – new interventions will be created by a group of commissioned designers and architects from across the globe aiming to engage citizens with their own urban environment and provoke interaction with the city's system. Conceptually, Urban Play provides an open platform to let citizens discover the prescribed environments they are living in, and above all to remind them of the role they could play in adjusting these predetermined urban conditions to more socially oriented ones – as an innovative response to current generic city developments.

Roadsworth[9] is one of the interventionists of Urban Play, a Canadian street artist who has been painting cycle paths on the streets of Montreal since 2001. His work, which often appears as large-scale stenciling on the roads, addresses environmental issues triggered by international political and economic developments. Despite being caught and threatened with heavy fines for over 50 charges of public mischief, he continues his interventions in public space and has received numerous commissions.

Indeed, ever since artists like Barbara Kruger, Hans Haacke and Jenny Holzer began using urban space as their canvas and made political art a genre in the 1980s, and thanks to the sound foundation that the Situationist International has lain for artists working in and on the urban arena, urban art intervention has slowly become a catchword both at international biennials and on the local home front. The question as to whether urban intervention is becoming too fashionable and incorporated into institutional structures, and so risks losing its critical voice, will also be addressed.
Vienna and Hong Kong – differences and parallels

The exhibition Cities of Desire juxtaposes two antipodean cities, not for the sake of comparison but to highlight differences and possibilities. Both Vienna and Hong Kong are prototypical cities as popular tourist destinations. There are common grounds in their top-down place-making campaigns: Hong Kong has adopted a lopsided imaging and place promotion methodology, the Asian World City title has pushed its capitalistic and profit-oriented urban development even further. Its cityscape and its local culture have been suffering dramatically from the late urban redevelopment campaigns. In a mere decade after the end of colonial rule, local citizens have witnessed the demolition of numerous valuable cultural sites (see dérive 29: Demolition of Star Ferry Pier), the exhaustion and destruction of the natural landscape and the continuous privatization of public space. In contrast, Vienna has continuously exhausted its cultural treasures, both classical and contemporary, with a constructed image of an artistic bourgeois European city. However, this image largely ignores a significant migrant population from Eastern and Southern Europe while a centralized and sanitized inner-city development intensifies the segregation of racial groups.

However, the Urban Imaginary Series is not intended to preach but to search for options and new perspectives. The exhibition focuses on displaying cultural practices in both cities that engage in alternative place-making and the empowerment of community-driven initiatives. Re-making places, reclaiming the street, temporarily using public spaces to enhance participation, and discussions. Art does not necessarily solve problems in our contemporary world, but it should at least retain its role to critique, experiment, and make waves.

Urban Imaginary Series: Vienna and Hong Kong is an urban cultural exchange project at the intersection between art, architecture and cultural policy, initiated by Hilary Tsui.

Exhibition
Cities of Desire
IG bildende Kunst, Gumpendorferstraße 10-12, 1060 Wien
26 September – 31 October 2008



Urban Interventions:
Martin Krenn, Machfeld
More under: www.city-transit.org



[1] Charles Landry is director of COMEDIA, a cultural consultancy, which he founded in 1978, working specifically with cities. www.comedia.org.uk
[2] More under: Landry, Charles (2000): The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators. London: Earthscan
[3] Zukin, Sharon (1996): The Cultures of Cities. Cambridge Mass./Oxford: Blackwell Publishers
[4] More under: Evans, Graeme(2001): Cultural Planning: An urban renaissance? New York/London: Routledge
[5] Many research papers on cultural policy and urban studies have addressed this topic in the last few years. Also: Hilary Tsui, Cultural Strategies for Urban Regeneration – cultural quarters for local cultural development?, IKM, Vienna, 2006
[6] Hannigan, John (1998): Fantasy City. Pleasure and Profit in the Postmodern Metropolis. New York/London: Routledge
[7] According to figures provided by World Tourist Organisation in 2002, the total income from tourism in Europe, Africa, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the Middle East almost doubled across the board between 1990 and 2000.
[8] www.citymined.org
[9] www.roadsworth.com

NeuroArtHistory or "hogbrushscience"?

Onians, John (2008). Neuroarthistory: From Aristotle and Pliny to Baxandall and Zeki. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300126778.


Neuroarthistory? What’s next…
September 6, 2006, 9:19 am
Filed under: CogNeuroSci, HistorySci, SillySci
It seems to me that neuroimaging really excites people. Seldom a week goes by without reading a news article referencing some new study using fMRI. This flood of interest fuels ever more weird and wonderful sub-fields. The latest is ‘Neuroarthistory’. Today, Prof. John Onians, an art historian the University of East Anglia will present to the BA Festival of Science, coining this new term.

“We can…use neuroarthistory much more widely, both to better understand the nature of familiar artistic phenomena such as style, and to crack so far intractable problems such as ‘what is the origin of art?’” said Prof. Onians.

“The most interesting aspect of neuroarthistory is the way it enables us to get inside the minds of people who either could not or did not write about their work. We can understand much about the visual and motor preferences of people separated from us by thousands of miles or thousands of years.”

Although no details of published research studies are available yet, Prof. Onians new book, Neuroarthistory, will apply his theories of neural plasticity and mirror neurons to case studies from the history of art. He addresses questions such as why Florentine painters made use of line whereas the Venetians favoured colour, and why Europeans prefered vertical canvases unlike artists of the far east, who were more partial to a flat painting surface.

Whatever Prof. Onians concludes, he certainly knows how to push to neuro-fan’s buttons: a mere mention of ‘mirror-neurons’ can make even the most speculative researcher hip. It will be interesting to see if anything of substance comes out of this new field.
from:
http://sciatnight.com/2006/09/06/neuroarthistory-whats-next/


***
http://www.painterskeys.com/clickbacks/neuroarthistory.asp
Challenge to scientists

by Tatjana Mirkov-Popovicki, Port Moody, BC, Canada



I have a great idea. Why don't we start up a project where we would make paintings of all the scientists we can think of, live and dead, as a reciprocal project to the "neuroarthistory." Let's call it "hogbrushscience." The objective of the project would be to express the science through art, as a coupled effort to explaining art through science. I love art and I love science, but I cringe at these two worlds colliding. I think that the expensive brain scans will show just a bunch of ordinary folks that from some reason made wonderful paintings... use those scanners for medical research. The scientist in me would love to know exactly how an artist decides to draw a lovely or an ugly line, but the artist in me doesn't want to be told by a scientist.

The Bienal Boom: or the need for an deepening debate for differential cultural politics, cultural industries and economies and arts

In an article (Público19/11/2008: "Em favor de um Ministério da Cultura e Turismo") today the ex-minister of culture of Portugal and member of the Portuguese Parliament-Isabel Pires de Lima- proposes a junction of turism and cultural ministery in the purpose of widenening the competencies of the cultural ministery, giving the example of the "Hermitage Exibition", the "Allgarve" Festival or the new "Museu dos Coches" em Lisbon as success stories, where one can think on the influence cultural events or spots might have on the turism economy, thus puting forward the idea to include the turism inside the cultural ministery.So far so good. Sounds good, but could have unwished side-effects: the economisation of th ewhole cultural sector, proposing officially the actors of cultural events and structures to accept the stand as economic actors, which I deeply dissagree with. She left out another case that has to do with visitor attraction ( not only for tourists, but also local people, the inicially hottly debated and ambigous Museu Berardo Collection(that the state of portugal opted to put in the CCB)-that by showing excellent numbers of visitors(quantative factors), but also with interesting temporary exhibitions beside the collection(qualitative factors) the positive role that this collection of Berardo could play, exactly, then when the public money for its development and sustainment would come from an economic fund for culture ( and for instance didn't have to occupy the CCB space permanently- even though it is a possible choice (especially for the temporary exhibibitions and in the moment of new parts of the collection). All these initiatives mentioned (and I will add others like the Alkantara performative arts festival briding cultures and being a possible and necessary platform for conflictual and intercultural debates, that should have a proper space in Lisbon and with a continuos program along the year) are not merely culturally in the sense of artistically, but also economically, turistically, some socially or diplomatically relevant "big" projects (one can count bienals, treinals, festivals etc. to that kind of initiatives), but one cannot reduce the cultural commitment to these events and museums as the only desired for cultural funding, and more importantly, one should not think that these events are the most important for cultural or regional development, even though they are highly attractive for economic, turistic or social-diplomatic reasons, and attain international visibility.
Fact is that for example the portuguese cultural turism industry (e.g. the city of Lisbon) is since several years outperforming beach&sun turism spots (Algarve). The interdependence of economies linked to the cultural sphere (cultural industries and the "cultural class")has to be closely looked upon and with differentiated point of views in all its relational logics of necessary and possible interdependence and synergy-factors between different societal systems(arts/politics/economy/comunity/diplomacy/ambiental etc.) Thus my counterproposal would be to liberate the money of the traditional cultural ministry for these events that have been analyzed as having societal side effects on a larger scale (economic/turism/societal/political-diplomatic etc.) influence being funded by the respective ministeries in dialogue with the cultural ministery, but as an extra funding, not influencing other projects that might not have the "international perspective" the economic flowback t a city. Each ministery giving 2-5%of their budget to cultural projects, working on, comunicating, critically reflecting their field of action. In the big science projects already 5% of the budget have to be used to communicate research with the society. Often this leads to collaborations of artists and scientists that not have to stand in a predefined hirarchy relation...
(continuing...more soon on this blog)

Alexander Gerner
Just one more notice: an article on the bienal syndrom-everycity got one every city gets one, every city needs one






" The Biennale Syndrome


Carolyn-Christov Bakargiev
http://www.undo.net/cgi-bin/openframe.pl?x=/cgi-bin/undo/magazines/magazines.pl%3Fid%3D1201013037%26riv%3Djanus%26home%3D
Janus Anno 8 Numero 22 giugno-dicembre 2007

Big biennials? Baby biennials? Banal biennials? What is the “biennale syndrome” that seems to have taken over the art world and the world at large over the last fifteen years? Why and to whom are Biennales so attractive? Why are they also so unattractive for some audiences?

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, interested in contemporary art and historical avant-garde, is artistic director of the 16th Biennale of Sydney (2008) and chief curator at the Castello di Rivoli museum in Turin.

From a general perspective, beneath these events lie political imperatives, struggles and the negotiations and transformations of a global economy of interrelated cities.
The rise of biennales (and other periodic international exhibitions) has decentralized art and has created multiple art systems. It has provided a platform for artists from what used to be called “peripheral areas” of the world to practice and enter into the conversation of contemporary art. It has decreased the legitimizing powers of the old “centers” and this has been a healthy world development. Artists are often actively partaking in political struggles, and international exhibitions such as biennales have provided a place where these conversations can be articulated.
At the same time, the new emerging network of biennales is also disempowering. It is one of the causes behind the weakening of other alternative forms of artistic self-organization, which now risk being accused of elitism alongside the new “public success” of contemporary art that is breathtaking today and of which the biennale system is a part. This is a form of success that tends to marginalize some of the most refined and serious artistic research.

Basically we need to deal with the pros and cons of cultural populism.

The accelerated increase in biennale events since the early 1990s runs parallel to the rise of the internet, to the multiplication of art fairs and generally to the prominence of contemporary art as a shared idea today. There is an impulse to turn art into something very popular, visible, consumable, accessible (accessibility is a key word of the internet society), into the highest form of popular culture. Art becomes the ultimate object of communication at a time when communication itself has become the ultimate object of consumer culture. We are in a Google-scanning and Wikipedia age where knowledge is readily available because of the immediacy of the internet, and the collaborative nature of the net, yet for these same reasons this is often superficial knowledge.
There are more than one hundred biennales in the world today, and every city seems to be planning one. As this phenomenon grows around the world, it is also increasingly fashionable now in Western circles to criticize the “new biennales" - saving only the oldest and thus the most DOC (to borrow a term from the Italian wine industry) European and American periodic exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale, the Carnegie International and documenta in Kassel. This is a typically conservative attitude dictated by fear – fear of losing power. Many high-brow museums in New York (I have experienced this directly) even send letters of rejection upon the request of loans solely on the basis that they "do not lend to biennales" - as if the simple fact of being a “biennale” would imply the exhibition is curated superficially and quickly, or that the venue is certainly unsound and inappropriate from a conservator's perspective. This occurs independently of whether or not the biennale is hosted in museum venues with high standards of conservation and facilities, and independently of the intellectual rigor of the proposal. These same institutions however, have begun to lend works to private commercial galleries for what they feel are instead highly “curated” exhibitions. What are the latent reasons for all this? What are the fears and the desires of our troubled times?

Are we all very confused?

The same people who criticize the “biennale syndrome” rarely criticize the rise of the art fairs and auction houses that has run parallel, with every big city in the world attempting to become a center of the art market. Since the mid-1980s when ARCO Madrid set up special programs, art fairs have been competing directly with biennales for cultural prominence as global platforms, by initiating and developing more and more experimentally “curated programs”. Newspapers and art magazines now discuss and compare the latest Art Basel to the latest Venice Biennale. The boundary between the art fair and the Biennale is thus blurring in some instances. Yet few critics are noticing that the art fair model is also eroding the singularity of the curated exhibition and the individual's ability to hypothesize and construct knowledge: the fair is indeed a celebration and an expression of pure cultural relativism - a multiplicity of positions (each booth) happily juxtaposed in the democratic space of the “free market”.
On the one hand we are witnessing a trend of “biennale-bashing”, in favor of exclusivity, wealth and status, while on the other, more and more cities around the world look at Venice, whose biennale started in 1895, or São Paulo (1951), Sydney (1973) and the more recent Istanbul (1987) and Gwangju (1995) as examples to follow.
The image of a city is “vehicled” to its own local population through a biennale, and also “vehicled" to the world, far from the location where the biennale actually takes place. This occurs through the catalogue, the e-flux announcement, the word-of-mouth. Sharjah for example has been put on the map by the few biennale editions it has hosted.
Biennales are thus attractive to city planners, investors, local politicians and reformers from many walks who want to develop their cities and educate people through art, as well as support tourism and foster a local identity.
Similarly, for progressive and socially-minded politicians, there is a wish to use art as a tool for democracy and peace. A space of dialogue that might reduce social conflict by creating experiments in community building: the biennale as a locus and model for a “happy community”. Art is to be a form of public education, for the widest possible audiences.
Indeed, art in late consumer culture carries huge symbolic value as a catalyst for collective identification and as the ultimate sphere of desire - to desire and consume that which is most useless, and that which may hopefully carry by its “mystery” some aura previously constituted in the sphere of religion and belief.
There is thus a strange and unexpected alliance that has been forged. The investors and tourist industry are joining with progressive politicians and those who believe in the social role of art.

In other words, a double and contradictory movement has occurred. On the one hand, there is a healthy decentralization of the art world and multiplication of art centers that runs parallel to a thematic focus on socially relevant topics of most recent biennales (justice, ecology, contact zones). On the other hand, a loss of intellectual freedom (the freedom that comes with being part of revolutionary avant-gardes rather than mainstream culture) and a surprising amnesia of linguistic awareness - a loss of awareness that language itself is political. Because a broad audience has to “understand” contemporary art, the crucial nature of contemporary art is denied - its ability to break paradigms, to break language, to contradict consensus, to be radically “other” from society at large, to create and experiment different ways of presenting itself.

Because of all this, biennales and indeed public group exhibitions generally, or even public art projects, are often unattractive to many radical artists who feel that their research is being used as a promotional tool for purposes far from their own deeper motivations. This is because art has become “successful” and a tool of propaganda in more and more contexts, thus eroding its avant-garde and revolutionary potential, its negativity and its critical power. While in the late 1960s and 1970s, contemporary artists began to work outside of institutions and the “white cube” as a way of anarchically disrupting the boundaries between art and life, and high and low, thus initiating context-specific art and public art. Today public space - the “outdoors” - has become privatized over recent years to the point that art is being used to decorate, to gentrify and “aestheticize” (and anesthetize) corporate public arenas in many cities. Rather than provoke questions and disrupt accepted conventions, art is used to create consensus and control populations.

It is interesting, however, to “psychoanalyze” the biennale syndrome, rather than only analyze it as a social phenomenon. What domesticates culture most? Rules and structures do. Curatorial practice consists of creating models of experience, dispositifs through elements that stake-out a position on the level of the language of presentation that coincides with the basic tenets and positions of the art one is exhibiting. The form of the exhibition repeats and reiterates the position that the curator chooses to align and agree with in terms of how we could construct or should construct knowledge – the politics of aesthetics we choose to agree with.
Curating, therefore, is not a neutral endeavor. If, for example you express a politics of disagreement with the consumer culture of globalization through the selection of artworks you include (and you believe in artworks that enact a resistance to this mediatization and flattening of life in a world where “economics” is the only value) then it is absurd to take artworks that in their own discrete experience suggest this critique and create an exhibition where you juxtapose them, one after another, in a way that neutralizes them – as if they were each expendible and substitutable. If you do this, you are only repeating on the level of the experience of the exhibition as a whole, the same problem that exists in real life and that the artist is dealing with. Thus you are subliminally denying the political stance that you appear to want to embrace on the level of the theme of the exhibition.
The language of exhibition-making must be the same or in relation to the language of the artworks you choose to display or set in conversation with each other.

Biennale means “every two years”. The term itself denies any possibility of a radical and absolute statement, just as it denies any possibility of creating something unexpected. If a biennale occurs every two years, then it is not unexpected. Also, if one curator says something this time, another will say something else in two years time, so not to worry, we can take his or her statement with a grain of salt, we don't have to take it that seriously after all. Thus it is the etymology of the term biennale itself, which expresses the dilemma: the periodicity and temporal regularity of the nature of the event is the problem: it is an extreme form of relativism that cannot but flatten uniqueness, difference and singularity. No curator can ever make an absolute statement in any biennale. To create a temporal structure, like a television series, means to deny that any edition of any biennale can be revolutionary. So the problem of the “biennale syndrome” in the end is cultural “relativism” itself, and there is a strange alliance now between the late postmodernist intellectuals who aspired to introduce cultural relativism and the market economy that can thrive only on relativism, maintaining the status quo by confirming itself through the institutionalization of difference.

The question today is how not to be contemporary, how not to make a festival, how not to communicate, and yet somehow manage to deliver the event. For a curator today, to make a biennale means to learn from artists how to navigate this misunderstanding, how to create an exhibition with them as a decoy, how to open up spaces of revolt with them, how to deny, while celebrating them."

UN-natural Energies?

http://www.joaquinfargas.com.ar/art_en/new_projects.htm
+ video performance


ROPA INTERACTIVA es una colección de ropa que implica el uso de tecnología en su confección.
Cada prenda de la colección es diseñada para formar parte de una performance.

Para el desarrollo del proyecto, se indaga en diversas modalidades y grados de interacción e interactividad para las prendas.

Algunas prendas interactúan con su usuario, a modo de segunda conciencia, que reproduce y reelabora procesos del cuerpo. Otras interactúan con terceros, a través de controles, o sensores. En otra línea de investigación, el entorno y el medio ambiente inciden en el estado de la ropa. Y más extremo aún, hay conjuntos de prendas que interactúan entre sí.

Se indaga en materiales, tejidos, mecanismos, nunca antes atribuidos a la confección de ropa.

Los materiales con los que la colección se construye van desde tecnología existente, que se adapta a las creaciones, hasta tecnología en desarrollo, que adquiere una dirección conforme las proposiciones artísticas, tal como lo hace el cultivo de tejido biológico para la línea
Bio-WEAR/segunda piel

Justificación

La vestimenta ha cumplido en la sociedad siempre una función comunicativa. Hay ropa para ciertas ocasiones, hay ropa para cada personalidad…

Ropa Interactiva tematiza esa condición comunicativa del vestuario. Las prendas de la colección adoptan esta cualidad como una capacidad cuasi-autónoma, como un simulacro de sujeto. A través de la interactividad, la relación con los estímulos externos completa su identidad. La operación del artista es por sobre todo, esta adjudicación ontológica al objeto-de-uso ropa. La tecnología se ofrece como material para la imaginación.


20 Láser: longitud de onda: 635nm-670nm. Potencia de salida: 5mW

Fibra óptica plástica, diodos de alta luminosidad blancos. Sistema de radiocontrol de 4 bandas (27 a 49 MH). Tejido de aluminio.


The Art of Alternative Energy
The world faces an unprecedented crisis in energy production, global warming produced by hydro­carbon emissions, and shrinking non-renewable energy resources. This crisis has brought about des-truction of species and habitats, international conflict, economic instability, and population displace­ment. These issues will worsen as global warming increases and fossil fuel supplies decline. There exist viable technologies and solutions to the current and pending energy and environmental crisis.
The project group seeks to create a dialog around innovative solutions that would include the work of electronic artists and other creative thinkers. We will examine solutions and ideas through website, panel discussion, and community meetings for large-scale energy production with the focus on the pos­sibility of scaling production to the level of the local community and the individual.
The discussion may include transportation issues, but will primarily focus on the production and distribution of electrical power. Individuals participating in this dialog will include artists, technol­ogists, alternative energy users, individuals from the alternative energy industry, designers and architects, computer-networking experts, and sociologists. Some questions and topics for examination include:

How can artists and technologists work together to develop and promote alternative energy methodologies, concepts, uses, and implementation?
Zoning laws stipulate aesthetic criteria for construction within a community. Can artists, architects, contractors, et al. participate in developing aesthetically appropriate alternative energy construction that maintains the desires and in­te gri ty of a community?
Can artists work as activists creating awareness of the crisis of energy con­sump tion and possible solutions?
In what ways can artists through activism bring together individuals interested in possibilities for rethinking energy con sump tion and production? Are there ways in which artists can initiate dialog between governmental agencies, local citizens, designers, engineers, and industry?
Can artists work to facilitate and help implement social strategies and ed u ca­tion for the use, design and implementation of alternative energy projects?
Electronic artists are consumers of energy as part of their practice. How can artists examine their use of energy resources toward conceptualizing al tern tive energies in the production and presentation of their work?
Can artists work with industry, designers, and researchers to develop research projects that promote and develop alternative energy?
What is the current state of renewable energy production technologies?
Can production of energy be localized to communities of producer/users, such as networking together homes that share their excess energy with others?
In what ways can communities structure, develop, and converse about local energy producing resources?
It is possible that movement toward a more sustainable energy environment will be incremental – slowly offsetting the use of fossil fuels. What kind of stra­te gies and processes are possible for a substantial switch over to alternative and renewable energy in the near future? What would be a reasonable timeline for implementation?


Artists & Supporting Institutions Working With Alternative Energy
Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla. Artists.
An artist team whose wide-ranging practice is connected to issues of environmentalism, globalization and consumerism, relations of power and acts of resistance.
http://www.whitechapel.org/content.php?page_id=3017
Ameila Amon & Wendy Brower. SolSpherica. Installation.
Public installation (since removed) of solar powered interactive sculptures at the Liberty Science Library.
http://www.asci.org/LSC~solar/solspherica.html
Armory Center for the Arts. Armory Solar Project. Gallery.
Rooftop solar panels powers studio space, galleries and artworks.
http://www.armoryarts.org/solar/index.html
Beyond Green: Toward a Sustainable Art @ iCI. Exhibition
A traveling show in 2006 which explored the influence of sustainable design on " an emerging generation of international artists who combine a fresh aesthetic sensibility with a constructively critical approach to the production, dissemination, and display of art.
http://www.ici-exhibitions.org/exhibitions/beyond_green/beyond_green.htm
Catalog .pdf | Press Release .pfd | Book @ Amazon.com
Graham Chalcroft. Solar Stills Sculpture Project. Installation.
"The Project aims to develop community interest and awareness in solar still water purification through sculptural workshops, to produce designs and possibly completed stills in areas where they can be used in an ongoing manner."
http://www.reportage.uts.edu.au/stories/2002/arts/solar_24042002.html
Joaquin Fargas. Artist.
"A combination between Engineer and Artist." Interactive kinetic artwork using solar power and biospheres.
http://www.joaquinfargas.com.ar/art_en/home.htm
Free Soil. website.
An international hybrid collaboration of artists, activists, researchers and gardeners who take a participatory role in the transformation of the environment. "We believe art can be a catalyst for social awareness and positive change."
http://www.free-soil.org
Greenmuseum.org. Online museum.
A nonprofit, online museum of environmental art.
http://greenmuseum.org/
Newton & Helen Mayer Harrison. Artists.
"Leading pioneers of the eco-art movement." Faculty emeritus at University of California, San Diego
http://greenmuseum.org/content/artist_index/artist_id-81.html
Chris Jordan. Artist
Photographer whose works include Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption and In Katrina's Wake: Portraits of Loss from an Unnatural Disaster
http://www.chrisjordan.com/
Kathleen Laziza & William Laziza. AC/DC Window. Installation.
Solar powered kinetic sculpture in Brooklyn, NY.
http://www.freewords.org/biennial/artist/acdcwind.html
Learning Site. Website, artists collective.
Rikke Luther, Cecilia Wendt, Julio Castro, and Brett Bloom.
Works with resource materials and economies related to the specific situations where work has been carried out. Economic, environmental, labor, property rights,
and many other issues are investigated in tandem to produce a variety of perspectives.
http://www.learningsite.info/
Nils Norman. Interview.
Norman’s work demonstrates that the desire for alternative urban spaces and experiences—the renewal of the public realm—has definitely gone global.
http://artforum.com/index.php?pn=interview&id=2281
Dan Peterman. Reclamation Project.
Conceptual artist Dan Peterman explores the fate of objects, the nature of borders, and the trajectory of obsession.
http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0010/features/peterman.html
Marjetica Potrĉ. Artist.
Artist and architect based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She works extensively with sustainable materials, and has had her work exhibited extensively throughout Europe and the Americas.
http://www.potrc.org/
Rikrit Tiravanija. The Land. Artist.
Large scale collaborative and transdisciplinary project in Thailand.
http://architettura.supereva.com/esposizioni/20030608/
Sim Van der Ryn, Videos on Design and Ecology. Architect's Lecture.
Sim Van der Ryn was a professor of architecture at University of California Berkeley for over 30 years and is a pioneer in sustainable architecture. Hosted at bigpicture.com
Design for Life – Part One | Design for Life – Part Two | Ecological Design
Francis Whitehead. Artist.
A printmaker, sculptor and public artist whose work models the complexity of the natural world and re-imagines the role of culture within it.
http://www.pimkey.com/~interscu/is2003/3dsc/competiteurs/WHITEHEAD.HTM
WochenKlausur. Artist group.
Develops concrete proposals aimed at small, but effective improvements to socio-political deficiencies. They frequently deal with environmental issues.
http://www.wochenklausur.at
Wowhaus. Radio Free Market Street. Installation.
Solar-powered micro-radio roving installation.
http://www.sfgate.com/
Mark Yukiw. FireFly. Installation.
Public installation of solar powered lighting sculpture in the Liberty Science Library.
http://www.asci.org/LSC~solar/fireflies.html
Andrea Zittel. A-Z. Artist.
Multidisciplinary environmental artist in Joshua Tree, CA.
http://www.zittel.org/

Post-car-post-ford-post-gm-post chrystler - Car Blocks for building a new society

http://www.no9.ca/mission.html

TORONTO INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR,
T&T: EVERYTHING'S GONNA BE OK
OCTOBER 3RD TO 6TH, 2008

No.9 is pleased to be taking part in TIAF08 with a new commission by T&T.

T&T is a collaborative project by the young Canadian artists Tony Romano and Tyler Brett. T&T practices a wide range of experimental art activities that connect architecture, art history, sculpture, graphic design and music into a cohesive vision of an optimistic future. They combine humour, irony and fantasy with serious technological and environmental concerns to offer a picture of a post-apocalyptic future constructed from familiar elements of the recent past. Their Carchitecture series of drawings and maquettes imagines a post-oil world where cars are best used as building blocks for a new society.

T&T's commission for No.9 at TIAF is their first full-scale creation of this imaginative and unconventional version of sustainable design.



No.9 will produce three provocative projects a year in Toronto, with three main objectives: to provide the best Canadian and International artists with a highly visible platform for their ideas; to make their work accessible to the widest possible audience, by installing it in public space and by involving different communities each time; and to provide extensive education around each project, so that our audiences learn about the artists, their work, the environmental issues they explore and the value of creative thinking in dealing with real problems.

We are creating something completely new for Toronto, a major venue for Contemporary Art with the whole city as our gallery. By working with artists to develop their vision, each location and the artist's response to it will be specific and unique.

For each new installation, the journey through the city to reach the site is crucial, an opportunity to see familiar places in a new light or to discover places that are neglected or off-limits. Public space is reclaimed for the viewer as a site for enjoyment, community interaction, and education.
To be added to our mailing list for updates on this and all of our projects, please send an email to info@no9.ca.




No.9 is committed to the belief that contemporary art can stimulate positive social and environmental change. We are a curatorial agency that provides artists who address these concerns with the opportunity to make ambitious work in the public realm. No.9 brings the power of art to bear on some of the most pressing issues of our time, using urban public space as a forum for exhilarating creativity and vital discussion.

No.9 will provide a wide variety of education programmes and events to expand on the ideas behind our public projects, such as artist talks, film presentations, education programmes, and multi-disciplinary symposia. In collaboration with our artists' projects, these programmes will make our audiences more aware of their environment, the impact they have on it and the opportunities for local and global change.

Contemporary Art & the Environment
Art and Ecology Symposium in collaboration with No.9: Contemporary Art & the Environment
Thursday, June 26, 2008 6:00:00 PM

Symposium



By Catherine Dean


http://www.environment.utoronto.ca/PreviousEvents/No9SymposiumJune262008.aspx
"Art & Ecology Symposium - Water: From Local to Global", June 26, 2008
No.9: Contemporary Art & the Environment was pleased to collaborate with the Centre for Environment in the presentation of the symposium Art & Ecology - Water: From Local to Global on June 26, 2008.
Toronto-based No.9 is committed to the belief that contemporary art can stimulate positive social and environmental change. As a curatorial agency, it provides artists who share this conviction with the opportunity to make ambitious work in the public realm. It brings the power of art to bear on some of the most pressing issues of our time, using urban public space as a forum for creativity and vital discussion.
No.9's inaugural installation, Project for the Don River by Québec City-based visual artist collective BGL (Jasmin Bilodeau, Sebastien Giguère, Nicolas Laverdière) opened on Earth Day, April 22, 2008 and ran until June 29. It consisted of a shrunken cruise ship - christened the Nowhere II - 30 feet long, completely blackened and anchored on the turgid waters of Toronto's Lower Don River. Installed just upriver on the old Eastern Avenue bridge was a giant life buoy, totally out of proportion to the ship. With these absurd shifts in scale, the function of the objects are brought into question. In case of emergency, is the buoy intended to save the entire ship, or is it meant for the river itself? If the ship is seen as full size, then what monstrous waterway is the Don? The Nowhere II and its life buoy are emblems of luxury, idleness and materialism, representing a leisure activity gone slightly wrong. They point to the possibility of being in a place without really seeing it. With their belief in the capacity of art to elucidate the consciousness of an era, BGL are reflecting back to us the conditions of our time, while bringing attention to the ecological issues of the site.
BGL's phantom cruise ship makes the connection between water, waste and luxury, and the fact that water is never just a local issue. If a luxury can be defined as something of value that is available only to a few then water is the ultimate luxury, while at the same time being the ultimate necessity. The Don is our local water challenge, but also a symbol of water in a larger sense.
The Art & Ecology symposium took BGL's installation as its starting point in order to make the connection between contemporary art and environmental awareness. BGL's Nicolas Laverdière started things off with a discussion of their work, much of it made in the public realm and relating to natural systems and ecologies. Often using found materials and re-purposed objects, they are known for making work which responds directly to a specific site. The ecological ideas implicit in their work often stem from a subtle anti-materialism and anti-commercialism.
Jennifer Bonnell, a doctoral candidate in OISE/UT's Department of Theory and Policy Studies in Education, followed with an illustrated talk on the ecological and social history of the Don River, the focus of her thesis work. By showing the progression of the Don from a wild, natural area to its polluted and industrialised current state, her talk was enlightening as well as sobering. After decades of treating the river as a dumping ground, it is only in the fairly recent past that we have begun to see the Don as a valuable asset which should be restored to its natural condition.
The evening was moderated by renowned broadcaster and writer Jane Farrow. After the first two speakers, she led a discussion with Bring Back the Don's John Wilson, who spoke briefly about the current health of the river, which has improved since the years when heavy industry lined the banks of the Don but is now compromised by run-off from the city and an aged sewer system.
The evening was completed by a special screening of Irena Salinas' acclaimed documentary film FLOW: For Love of Water. The film, which concentrates on water privatisation and governance worldwide, provided a global view of water and demonstrated just how crucial it is that this precious resource not be taken for granted.

Art, Science & Copyrights Congress Akademie Solitude

Workshop
art, science & copyright
12.11.2008 Julia Warmers

Veranstalter: Akademie Schloss Solitude Programm art, science & business, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
Datum, Ort: 11.12.2008-12.12.2008, Solitude 3, 70197 Stuttgart
art, science & business/workshop
Do 11. und Fr 12. Dezember 2008
Akademie Schloss Solitude

»Art, Science & Copyright«

Das Stehlen geistigen Eigentums war bereits den Dichtern im Rom des ersten Jahrhunderts nach Christus bekannt. »Seelenverkäufer« – als solcher wurde Fidentinus von seinem Kollegen Martial beschrieben, dessen Gedichte er gestohlen und unter seinem Namen publiziert haben soll. Martial verglich die Veröffentlichung eines Gedichtes mit der Freilassung eines Sklaven und folglich die Aneignung durch einen anderen als Menschenraub. Durch die unrechtmäßige Verwendung und Verletzung des Urheberrechts stempelte er Fidentinus als »plagiarius« ab. Heutzutage hat sich die Form des Plagiats weiterentwickelt im allgegenwärtigen »googeln« und »wikipedien« als Wissensbeschaffung und anschließendem »Cut + Paste«-Verfahren. Zu verlockend ist das Angebot im digitalen Zeitalter und zu einfach ist das Verfahren, als dass sich jemand davon frei machen könnte.

Doch wie gehen Künstler mit der freizügigen Verwendung ihrer eigenen Werke und den Werken anderer Künstler um? Wie beurteilen Wissenschaftler das nicht gekennzeichnete Zitat, wenn sie nicht die Ansicht des US-Drehbuchautors Wilson Mizner (1876-1933) teilen: »Von einem Autor abzuschreiben ist Plagiat, von zweien abzuschreiben ist Forschung.« Und wie gehen Wirtschaftsunternehmen in globalen Rechtsstreitfällen gegen das allzu offensichtliche Kopieren ihrer Produkte vor? Die Grenze zwischen Plagiat und Zitat scheint auf den ersten Blick klar zu ziehen und das Recht auf der Seite des Urhebers zu sein – doch verweisen unterschiedliche Rechtsformen und -verständnisse (droit d’auteur, Copyright) gerade im internationalen Kontext eher auf eine Unendlichkeit der Deutungs- und Rechtsprechungsmöglichkeiten. Quo vadis? Gilt es, die nationale Gesetzsprechung mit einer Urheberrechtsnovelle auszubauen, einen internationalen Kompromiss zu finden? Oder versprechen neue Angebote wie das Sharing-Concept vom Lizenzsystem Creative Commons die dringend benötigte Lösung?

Der Workshop »Art, Science & Copyright« geht diesen Fragen nach und lässt Theoretiker wie Praktiker zu Wort kommen. In den einzelnen Sektionen am Freitag besteht nach einem einführenden Vortrag ausreichend Zeit zu gemeinsamer Diskussion und zum Erfahrungsaustausch. Die gemeinsame Sprache ist Englisch.

Der Workshop wird eingeleitet durch einen Abendvortrag in deutscher Sprache über rechtsphilosophische und -historische Grundlagen des Urheberrechts von Alexander Peukert, Wissenschaftlicher Referent am Max-Planck-Institut für Geistiges Eigentum, Wettbewerbs- und Steuerrecht, München.

Die Veranstaltung wurde initiiert von Philippe Perreaux. Der Jurist und Spezialist für Copyright-Fragen war 2007 Stipendiat im Programm art, science & business der Akademie Schloss Solitude.

Um Anmeldung wird gebeten bei Julia Warmers,
jw@akademie-solitude.de, T. 0711-99619-135,
Eintritt frei,

Das Programm art, science & business wird durch die finanzielle Unterstützung der Landesstiftung Baden-Württemberg, der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart sowie der LBBW Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur ermöglicht.

»Art, Science & Copyright«

Workshop at Akademie Schloss Solitude
in the framework of the art, science & business program,
initiated by Philippe Perreaux

December 11 and 12, 2008

Program

Thursday, December 11, 2008

8.00 pm

Welcome Remarks by Prof. Jean-Baptiste Joly, Director of the Akademie

»Geht es im Urheberrecht um Kreativität? Bemerkungen aus historischer
und rechtsphilosophischer Sicht« (Lecture in German language)
PD Dr. Alexander Peukert, Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for
Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, Munich

Friday, December 12, 2008

Moderation: Julia Warmers, Akademie Schloss Solitude

10.15 – 10.30 am

Welcome Remarks by Prof. Jean-Baptiste Joly, Director of the Akademie

Introduction by Philippe Perreaux, legal advisor, Zurich

10.30 – 11.30 am

»Copyright 101 and the Legal Concept of Creativity«
Dr. Ivan Mijatovic, Vice President Innovation & Growth, Swiss Reinsurance Company, Zurich

11.30 am Coffee Break

12.00 – 1.00 pm

»Images in a New Media World – How Does the Copyright Law React?«
Philippe Perreaux, legal advisor, Zurich

1.00 pm Lunch

Moderation: Philippe Perreaux, legal advisor, Zurich

2.30 – 3.30 pm

»Creative Commons International – The Global License Porting Project«
Dr. Catharina Maracke, Director, Creative Commons International, Berlin

3.30 pm Coffee Break

4.00 – 5.30 pm

»Surviving in a World of Red Tape: Legal Issues in Arts«
Yi Shin Tang Ph.D., Research Assistant, National University of Singapore Faculty of Law

5.30 pm Final Discussion

Kontakt:
Julia Warmers

Akademie Schloss Solitude
Solitude 3, 70197 Stuttgart
0711/ 99619-135
0711/ 99619-50
jw@akademie-solitude.de

URL: http://www.akademie-solitude.de
itude

Culture Money- Money for culture- how why what?

If one may imagine, and it is already hard, but say "we can", let´s say the whole world woud enter in the state of global dilirium of saying: Let´s give 5% of all the economy in the world to culture, artists, creative industrie etc. But not as a normal budget, but beside the existing cultural budgets of museums, theatres, galleries etc. an extra "Mr and Mrs 5%" say inside the economy budget (to art not just dealing with economy but working with and on economy and alterative strategies) on art not just dealing with social issues but to rethink and perform social issues, to art dealing with and on health, ecology, energy, strategies of democracy,peace with and in education etc.. HOW ABOUT TRYING THIS OUT AND HAVE A LOOK WHAT WOULD BE POSSIBLE WITH A 5% of arts in all areas of governmentality.
How to get this going? A cullture Lottery? A decision of the taxpayers to decide in which area they want to invest their 5% of culture? What do you think? How to get it starting?

Eco-Logical ART: The PIG Question!

Ecological Strategies in Today's Art
REGINE DEBATTY
JANUARY 3, 2008 11:57 AM


One of my favourite exhibition spaces for new media art is the Edith Russ Haus in Oldenburg (Germany). It's hell to get there from Berlin. Hell as in 3 different trains and although they are the usual super comfortable kind you expect from the German railway services, it's still a total of 7 hours spent in stations and wagons for a return trip. But once you're back from Oldenburg, there isn't any doubt left: the quality of the show was worth the transport tedium.

The current exhibition, Ecomedia - Ecological Strategies in Today's Art, presents projects founded on progressive ecological models and conceive utopian horizons in the process. It peruses fundamental considerations concerning ecosystems, sustainability, renewable energy sources, as well as visions of the future. In addition, it examines the role of art and new media over and above science, technology, and ecoactivism. I liked the theme, the way the curators explored it but most of all i found that the works on show were of particularly good quality, individually and as a whole.

The work that moved me the most is Christina Hemauer’s and Roman Keller’s video and installation work, A Moral Equivalent of War: A Curiosity, a Museum Piece and an Example of a Road not Taken (2006-7). Reading news headlines yesterday, i realized how meaningful the work is. The title of the work, inspired by a television speech to the Nation delivered by Jimmy Carter in 1977, documents the artists’ quest for the solar panels that President Carter had mounted on the roof of the West Wing of the White House in 1979 during a moment of awareness of the dangers of the US’ dependence on foreign oil.

In 1977 Carter convinced the Democratic Congress to create the US Department of Energy. Promoting the department's recommendation to conserve energy, Carter wore sweaters, had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House, had a wood stove in his living quarters, and requested that Christmas decorations remain dark in 1979 and 1980.

Carter called for 20 percent of American energy to come from solar power by the year 2000, he even had very generous tax reductions implemented for people who installed solar panels at home. But the Reagan administration in the 1980s put a stop to that, the panels and all their symbolic power were torn down and the energy budget was curtailed by 90%. 25 years later people are slowly starting to understand how foolish Reagan's gesture was.
In 1991, «America’s Environmental College», Unity College in Maine, tracked the panels, found them in a warehouse just outside DC, bought them for peanuts and installed them on the roof of their dining room. Hemauer and Keller strapped one of the panels to the roof of their car and drove from Maine to the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, filming a documentary along the way, interviewing people who had been involved in the solar panel experiment, and reopening a dialogue about present energy policy.

Just like A Moral Equivalent of War, The Acorn Pig Cinema, MILKproject and F.R.U.I.T. are projects which slap you in the face with all their relevance.

We keep reading that eating local food might not always be such a good idea. Sometimes the food is sent on huge globetrotting journeys whether the reason for the trip is that english prawns are cheaper when shelled in Asia or that lamb is four times more energy-efficient when imported from the other side of the world than when it is bought from a producer in your backyard. Eating local can have damaging effects on African organic farmers. You can't make feta in Yorkshire and we should all start thinking about adopting a vegetable.

FRUIT, by Free Soil, invites visitors to take their ecological knowledge into their own hands, by becoming aware of the entire life of a product, from production to utilization, and not just what they see in the stores. Consumers must be aware that every phase of a product's life influences the environment and ourselves. F.R.U.I.T wrappers, a website, and a traveling installation are part of an initiative to inform people about alternative food systems and local food movements.

Free Soil uses oranges as a vehicle to explore the complex relationships that make up the worlds Food Systems. The oranges --that Free Soil found at the Oldenburg local distributor-- in Winter come from South Africa. This means that they have been underway at least one month by boat. This is also why it is practically impossible to have organic oranges at this time of year as most of them would rot if they were not treated chemically.

MILK, a project by Esther Polak, Ieva Auzina and Rixc, follows the milk from the cow to the table of the consumer. All the participants, from Latvian farmers to Dutch cheese makers and market salesmen, were given a GPS device for one of the days that saw them involved in the movements of the dairy product.

Insa Winkler's work intends to make us reflect on the globally implemented industrial farming.

In a mass production factory located Wülknitz, a municipality in Saxony (Germany), pigs destined to become Tyrolean bacon are fattened. Wülknitz is situated in a highly exploited mono-cultivated land and suffers greatly from an exodus of the population.

How is it that the famous Tyrolean bacon can make its name by means of anonymous pigs from Saxony? If these pigs can be made into Tyrolean bacon, then it should also be possible to produce a speciality of equal quality – the “Saxon acorn ham” – in a setting which is worth living in for both man and animal in compliance with the premises of the Agenda 21.
Insa Winkler interviewed farmers of conventional pig farming, studied the mechanisms of industrial meat production, the destruction of landscape with monoculture and fields for liquid manure, etc. She searched a piece of land around Wülknitz, got authorization to keep pigs outside, bought a special breed of pigs and learned how to raise and feed them on acorns. The ham from these pigs will be produced in a local factory, and then sold in local restaurants, throughout Germany and also internationally.

Raising piglets in acorn forests – like some parts of Spain still do today – is not just a romantic ideal, it can also be an important contribution for the biodiversity of landscape.

Insa Winkler created a logo and a public relation vehicle for her project: The Acorn Pig Cinema which transports the film from the Project since 2004.

Parallel to a public discussion, the practicality of The Acorn Pig as an agricultural project is explored, making it both an agricultural and a cultural experiment.

But what if we should keep on breeding, feeding and killing pigs industrially? Is there a way to keep the animal welfare element in the equation? Rotterdam architecture office MVRDV thinks so. The Pig City project, for which they collaborated with the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Fisheries, is a computer simulation of skyscrapers for industrial pig breeding.

Pigs would inhabit stacked 'apartments', balconies would allow them to rummage around under trees outside. Pigs for slaughter would be moved in lifts and brought to a central abattoir housed in the plinth. On top, a fish farm would supply some of the food needed. Each tower contains a central slurry-processing plant and a biogas tank, which caters for the tower's energy needs. To reduce transport costs, towers are located either in the port or close to major cities.

When first presented the project met with heavy discussions: criticism centred on the dangers of centralisation. Should one element be put out of operation, then the consequences for the whole system couldn't be foreseen. There were also unfavourable comments about the belief that society can reduce nature into models that are then turned into reality. What is more, the pig flats would 'harm' the image of the pig-farming sector. Architecture critics in the media were much more receptive and viewed it as a courageous proposal.

Ecological Strategies in Today's Art ran until January 13 at the ERH in Oldenburg, Germany.

Sérgio Costa na Arte Lisboa

Sérgio Costa
Strata#7,2008
oil on canvas 200cm x 163cm

Data de nascimento 10/07/1969
Naturalidade Maputo
País Moçambique

Address:
Rua Valasco, 27-A
7000-878 Évora
Portugal
Galeria:http://www.galeriapedroserrenho.com/

CLIMATE CHANGES ART

http://www.chrisjordan.com/

September 23, 2007
ART; Looking for Inspiration in the Melting Ice

By CLAIRE DEDERER
BOULDER, Colo.

HULKING over this bucolic college town like Frankenstein's redoubt, the National Center for Atmospheric Research is a constant reminder that Boulder -- party-loving college students and Olympic-caliber athletes aside -- is at heart a science town.

More specifically it's a hotbed of research on one of the scientific world's most pressing issues: climate change. And it was probably inevitable that the topic would be harnessed by the town's 35-year-old art museum.

''We have the highest density of climate scientists in the world in the Boulder-to-Broomfield corridor,'' said Marda Kirn, who runs EcoArts, an interdisciplinary arts organization here. Her group is a driving force behind ''Weather Report: Art and Climate Change,'' an ambitious new art show at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art. ''We have buildings full of climate scientists,'' she added, as if climatology Ph.D.'s were stacked like rolls of paper towels at Costco.

For the show dozens of artists, including Agnes Denes, Mary Miss, Subhankar Banaejee, Andrea Polli, Joel Sternfeld, Iain Baxter and Chris Jordan, were asked to join with scientists to create pieces about climate change. Some of the artists had been collaborating with scientists for years; Ms. Kirn matched other artists with scientists from the Boulder area. ''The artists had to be very specific about the questions they wanted to ask and the research they were doing,'' she said. ''Matching them with scientists was almost like setting up dates.''

Her idea -- to create an interdisciplinary show on global warming -- enticed the art critic Lucy Lippard to step into the curator's role for the first time in 15 years. ''It's a killer -- it's the hottest topic, so to speak,'' said Ms. Lippard, 70, who in her long career has championed Conceptual Art, public art and feminism in books including ''The Pink Glass Swan'' and ''The Lure of the Local.''

The pieces in the show spill from the museum to the park across the street, along the Boulder Creek path and up the mountainside to the university and beyond.

The collaborations vary from artist to artist and scientist to scientist. Brian Collier, an artist in Kansas City, Mo., drew on data and imagery provided by Chris Ray, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Colorado, and by Shana Weber, the sustainability manager at Princeton, for his work ''Pika Alarm.'' He chose the pika, a tiny mountain-dwelling mammal related to rabbits, as his subject because it may prove to be the first animal to become extinct because of global warming. It's also very cute, he acknowledged.

''I'm always looking for accessible focal points for people to approach big problems,'' Mr. Collier said. He mounted a motion-activated speaker atop a pole that emits the pika's singular high-pitched cry when someone approaches or passes by. A help-yourself postcard describes the creature's plight.

For some collaborators the research and creative roles began to overlap. Working from her home on a remote Maine island the artist Aviva Rahmani communicated for months with the geologist and environmental scientist Jim White via a desktop sharing system. With Mr. White's input she created computer images of the effects global warming might have on the Nile, Mississippi and Ganges river deltas, all of which are home to major urban centers. Ms. Rahmani manipulated satellite photographs of the three sites to show how they might fare under a hotter sun as Mr. White gave feedback on her speculations.

To their surprise they found it easy to collaborate, both said. ''When Jim and I started working together, we each had preconceptions about the other's work,'' Ms. Rahmani said. ''We found out immediately that we're on the same page. He would be talking to me about the ethical implications of the decisions we need to make about global warming. I would be talking to him about how we're raping the planet.''

Working with Sheila F. Murphy, a hydrologist, and Peter W. Birkeland, a geologist, the artist Mary Miss looked for ways to help local residents envision the flooding of Boulder Creek, in the heart of town. Ultimately she affixed six-inch bright blue discs to trees, telephone poles, the facade of the museum and the doors of the downtown library. ''If you look from one dot to the next, each is placed at the high-water mark of a 500-year flood,'' she said.

And Jane McMahan received permission to head up to Arapahoe Glacier, which provides drinking water for Boulder, and remove a hunk of it with a chain saw. Her collaborator, the glaciologist W. Tad Pfeffer, has said the glacier has receded at least 100 feet since 1960; the artist's solution was to put the ice on ''life support'' in a plastic enclosure that she likens to an infant incubator. Solar panels power the refrigerator for the incubator, which sits in a sunny park between the creek and the library.

Amy Franceschini, a performance artist and designer from San Francisco who has collaborated with scientists for several years, was inspired this time by Arthur Shapiro, a professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis. Ms. Franceschini, who joined him in the field as he took notes, later spoke of his line of research -- butterfly migration -- as if it were an art installation or an earthwork.

''I told him: 'You're as much of an artist as any artist I know,' '' she said.

''He does his practice along a line that stretches across California, from the coast up to about 3,000 feet,'' she said, adding: ''Their migratory patterns are changing. They're moving higher into the hills as it gets hotter.''

Ms. Franceschini is one of many artists who are trying to invent strategies for combating global warming. For the show her art collective, Futurefarmers, created a performance piece called ''The Unfinished Journey of Carl Linnaeus.'' Visitors were invited to climb into a structure in Central Park in Boulder and discuss quotations from scientists about climate change. Ms. Franceschini was curious: ''Do laypeople have ideas about how we might live differently? Do you have to be a scientist to be the voice of reason, or can you be a freak who's building inventions in your garage?''

Ms. Lippard has noted the split between prescriptive and descriptive work about climate change by the artists and scientists. ''It remains to be seen which will be more effective, imagining what the change will be like or coming up with ideas for what to do about it,'' she said. ''I want to include some way at the museum for people to talk about which piece made them feel more like doing something.''

Ms. Lippard has long argued that a powerful image can foster change. She cites ''The Mountain in the Greenhouse,'' a piece in the show by the environmental artists Helen and Newton Harrison. They were spurred by the research of the Viennese biologist Georg Grabherr, who found that the habitats of Alpine plants were moving slowly upmountain as the temperature warmed. The resulting work, which shows flowers fleeing up a mountain, is ''one of those pieces where all of a sudden I could really grasp the whole concept,'' Ms. Lippard said. ''An emblematic image can really make a difference.''

In an installation by Melanie Walker and George Peters -- constructed, they say, from the detritus of an outmoded energy system -- black-painted power lines, anchored by lumps of coal, lean away from a walkway at the atmospheric research center. Stretched taut between poles are ribbons that vibrate in the breeze, emitting an eerie, thereminlike whir.

For visitors among the installations in ''Weather Report'' it's clear that conceptual art and science have more in common than some may have thought. ''At the core of art and science is this flame,'' Ms. Kirn said. ''It's about curiosity and asking questions and not taking no for an answer.''

Ms. Lippard agreed. ''The critics used to say that conceptual art brings in too much other stuff, too many ideas,'' she said, but ''I love the idea that art can become something that acts in the world.''


Copyright 2008 The New York Times
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
EXPO
SEPTEMBER 14 - DECEMBER 21, 2007 -- "Weather Report: Art and Climate Change" is an exhibition curated by internationally renowned critic, art historian, and writer Lucy R. Lippard. It is presented in collaboration with EcoArts.
http://www.bmoca.org/artist.php?id=74

This exhibit partners the art and scientific communities to create a visual dialogue surrounding climate change. Historically, visual arts play a central role in attracting, inspiring, educating and motivating audiences. "Weather Report: Art and Climate Change" will exhibit artwork, in the museum and our partnering venues, and in outdoor site specific locations throughout Boulder, that will activate personal and public change.

Our collaborating partner EcoArts is a new effort bringing together scientists, environmentalists, and performing and visual artists - along with producers, presenters, scholars, spiritual leaders, policy makers, educators, businesses, and people from all walks of life - to use the arts to inspire new awareness of, discussion about, and action on environmental issues, with new possibilities for envisioning a sustainable future. Its programming principles are artistic excellence, scientific accuracy, environmental effectiveness, ethical practice, and whenever possible, presenting activities that strive to follow "the middle way" of being either non-partisan or bi-partisan to reach the widest audience possible.

Participating Artists:
Kim Abeles, Lillian Ball, Subhankar Banerjee, Iain Baxter&, Bobbe Besold, Cape Farewell, Mary Ellen Carroll (Precipice Alliance), CLUI (Center for Land Use Interpretation), Brian Collier, Xavier Cortada, Gayle Crites, Agnes Denes, Steven Deo, Rebecca DiDomenico, Future Farmers (Amy Franceschini and Michael Swaine), Bill Gilbert, Isabella Gonzales, Green Fabrication (via Rick Sommerfeld, University of Colorado, College of Architecture and Planning), Newton & Helen Harrison, Judit Hersko, Lynne Hull, Pierre Huyghe, Basia Irland, Patricia Johanson, Chris Jordan, Marguerite Kahrl, Janet Koenig & Greg Sholette, Eve Andree Laramee, Learning Site (Cecilia Wendt and Rikke Luther), Ellen Levy, Inigo Manglano-Ovalle, Patrick Marold, Natasha Mayers, Jane McMahan, Mary Miss, Joan Myers, Beverly Naidus, Chrissie Orr, Melanie Walker & George Peters, Andrea Polli, Marjetica Potrc, Aviva Rahmani, Rapid Response, Buster Simpson, Kristine Smock, Joel Sternfeld, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Ruth Wallen, Sherry Wiggins, The Yes Men, Shai Zakai










http://www.klima.bild-art.de/
Ausstellung in der Galerie im Alten Zeughaus Mönchengladbach - Juni 2008

Xenia Marita und Bernd Riebe - Der globale Klimawandel - künstlerische Aufarbeitung wissenschaftlicher Resultate.

Seit dem vierten Report des IPCC besteht kein Zweifel mehr an dem vom Menschen verursachten Klimawandel. Belege sind die steigenden Temperaturen, das weitverbreitete Schmelzen von Eis und Schnee und ein ansteigender Meeresspiegel.
Die globale Erwärmung hat bereits erkennbare Auswirkungen auf viele natürliche Systeme, etwa den früheren Frühlingsbeginn oder die polwärts bzw. in höhere Lagen gerichtete Veränderung des Verbreitungsgebietes von Tier- und Pflanzenarten.
Die möglichen Folgen umfassen unter anderem zunehmende Wetterextreme wie Hitzetage, Hitzewellen und Starkregen. Tropische Stürme werden heftiger; in hohen Breiten nimmt die Niederschlagsmenge zu, in niederigen Breiten ab. Semiaride Gebiete werden unter zunehmendem Wassermangel leiden. Besonders betroffen werden Afrika (schwere Beeinträchtigungen der Landwirtschaft in vielen Ländern) und Asien (Überflutungen in den bevölkerungsreichen Großdeltas) sein.

Mit dem Klimawandel wird die Gefahr von Kriegen, Flucht und Krisen steigen. Wasser und Nahrung können wegen der Erderwärmung knapper werden, der Streit darum heftiger.
Nach dem Wirtschaftswissenschaftler Sir Nicholas Stern droht der internationalen Wirtschaft durch den Klimawandel ein Rückgang um rund 20 Prozent. Die Welt könne in eine Depression schwerer als jene Anfang der 30er Jahre abgleiten. Mehr als 200 Millionen Menschen könnten auf der Flucht vor Überschwemmungen oder Dürren Aufnahme in fremden Ländern suchen.
Und dieses Desaster droht nicht in einer fernen Science-Fiction-Zukunft, sondern in unserer Lebenszeit.
Wir haben aber noch die Zeit und wir haben das Wissen zu reagieren

Dies ist eine der Botschaften dieses Projekts. Die dargestellten wissenschaftlichen Fakten in Form von Schaubildern, Diagrammen und vor allem die amtlichen Wetterkarten dienten als Material für die künstlerische Aufarbeitung des Themas. Die somit künstlerisch überhöhten Informationen und die vermittelten Botschaften mögen verstanden werden als ein Beitrag zum so dringend nötigen Bewusstseinswandel in unseren Köpfen.

Zu den Exponaten

Eisberg
Das von Anika Gerlach, der Tochter der Künstlerin, gestaltete Modell eines Tafeleisbergs steht als mahnendes Symbol des schmelzenden Eises und den damit verbundenen dramatischen Folgen für die Kryosphäre und vermittelt die Botschaft, dass jeder etwas gegen das Fortschreiten des Klimawandels unternehmen kann.
Wetterkartensäule
Über 30 Jahre dokumentierte Klimageschichte soll den Betrachter zur kritischen Reflexion anregen.
Thementafeln
Die künstlerisch gestalteten Tafeln haben je ein klimarelevantes Thema zur Grundlage, z.B.
Das chaotische Verhalten von Systemen wie das Wetter, deren Dynamik unter bestimmten Bedingungen empfindlich von den Anfangsbedingungen abhängt, so dass ihr Verhalten nicht langfristig vorhersagbar ist. (Schmetterling in Florida verursacht todbringenden Wirbelsturm in Südostasien) oder die Schneekatastrophe im Winter 78/79 in Norddeutschland als Beispiel für extreme lokale Ereignisse.
Figuren
Die aus Wetterkarten gestalteten Figuren symbolisieren zum einen den Menschen, der sehr wohl um die Gefahren des Klimawandels weiß, aber trotzdem verschmitzt schaut, sich hinter einer Maske verbirgt und keinen Finger rührt, wofür die fehlenden Arme der Figuren stehen. Zum anderen stehen die Figuren für die Wirbelstürme mit ihrer zerstörerischen Kraft, was die Namen der Figuren (Namen von Wirbelstürmen aus dem Erscheinungsjahr der verarbeiteten Wetterkarte) verdeutlichen sollen.
Jede Figur ist aus der Wetterkarte eines bestimmten Tages gearbeitet und enthält so alle Informationen über das Wettergeschehen an diesem Tag.
Collagen
Der wahrhaft globale Charakter des Klimawandels wird deutlich an den Collagen, die neben thematisch relevanten Karten Fragmente internationale Presseberichte erkennen lassen, wobei das jeweils geschilderte Ereignis immer nur von scheinbar lokaler Bedeutung ist und erst die Collage-Technik die globalen Zusammenhänge erahnen lässt.
Klang-Collage
Neben dem visuellen wird hier auch ein akustischer Eindruck vermittelt und es werden auch ganz direkte verbale Botschaften transportiert.
Schmelzendes Eis
Im Außenbereich aufgetürmtes und langsam schmelzendes Originaleis symbolisiert die immer rascher abschmelzenden Eisschilde und Gletscher.
Ausstellung in der Galerie im Alten Zeughaus, Weiherstr. 4, Mönchengladbach
31. Mai - 22. Juni 2008

Who´s afraid of the red blue & black inking machine

Thomas Hirschhorn & Marcus Steinweg:”The Friendship of Philosophy and Art”

“(...)The map of friendship of art and philosophy” is written in a heart-centered middle, but still on the left side of the so called mapping in red. The Map is composed of red frames and smaller blue frames. The red frames are linked towards the middle graphic of two shaking hands- remembering for instance eastgerman-russion friendship iconography of the eastern-communist block. On the fingers the headlines or metagraphs are repeated written one on each finger. The most upper is “universality” on the two shaking hands, on the left hands thumb, that is mirrowing the most left down red frame on the map. From the Red “Universality” frame goes a red line to the red core as a directional blacl triangle, which may be interpreted as a force triangle from which the whole map is triggered, including the included list of concept-words: TRUTH, AESTETICS POLITICS EQUALITYStroke DIFFERENCE, JUSTICETHE OTHERstokeNEIGHBOUR,then in an set that is put together by an black inclusive line THE REAL and THE ONE WORLD, and on the down part of the lost in the red outline of the UNIVERSALITY frame NON-EXCLUSIVE AUDIENCE. The artistic hand, so my interpretation, has the concept of “headlessness” written on the thumb(the philosophical hand UNIVERSALITY), then follows on the shaking hands fingers from up to down and right to left. “COURAGE”, “RESISTANCE”, “AUTONOMY”, , and the right hands fingers continue with the concepts of “FORM”, HOPE”, and “LOVE”,finishing the centralized graphic with the concept “WAR” written on the little finger of the “philosophical” hand. All the red frames are linked by a strong current of red colour towards each of these conceptual frames that each include lists of other handwritten concepts, within these and at and on the border of these written red conceptual frames are machine written texts or copied from books. It is a mapped conceptual archive of word, images & graphic forms.
The red conceptual frames are linked together and overwritten with the connected Meta-Graphs, lines of connection or reference towards other conceptual frames, such as in the “love” red frame that includes inside two different concepts, on the left “PASSION” with a list of DESIRE,INFINITUDE, CRUELTY, ECSTASIS. And on the right side a Homage, a “LOVE TO: doublepoint) in which the reference-system of the map is explained by the names of painters/artists (Duchamp, Warhol, Mondrian, Malevitch, Beuys) mixed with philosophers/thinkers (Deleuze/ Badiou/ Derrida/Lacan/Sartre). Mondrian is framed by a thin black line that crosses the border, vaguely strikes through ecstasy on the left list of concepts inside the red LOVE metaframe, crosses three fotographies of naked women in different contexts taken, fotocopied from papers, turns in the central red sphere upwards goes along the line of a representation of a frontpage of an english edition of a Kierkegaard book turns left striking through a blue wordconcept “EXCLUSION” (strikethrough) and frames with the black line a small Mondrian painting reproduction, that is included in the red conceptual frame “FORM”. The play of lines inside this abstract piloting diagram machine that not represents concepts, but actually performs diagrammatic reasoning as a red, blue and black inkingmachine, but by the use of colour indicates what kind of concepts are in use at the moment and which not. This is a generative inkingmachine and not a fixed definite linkage map, that plays amusedly with our attention, and pilots on multipe levels with possible relations of the entities envolved: lines, colours, word-concepts, etc."
Alexander Gerner (2008)from "Pilots of complex Relations.On diagrams and conceptual mappings in contemporary art"

Map of the World- ART & MAPPING I

WORLD MAP

(2008)
118 X 174 CM

by Marcus Steinweg

17 Jan 2008

see also: Belgrade as the World
http://www.beogradjesvet.com/
A world-scale city: Belgrade

"The artist Slavisa Savic discovered an unusual and an unexpected coincidence between the town plan of Serbian Belgrade and the map of the world as shown on the website Belgrade is the World. The world's continents seem to match the cities populated areas. Just as the Atlantic Ocean separates the Old and New World, the river Sava separates the Old en New Belgrade. Just like Greenland is situated in the confluence of the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, the island Veliko Ratno ostrvo lies at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers.

Users can zoom in and out step-by-step using the respective magnifying glasses. The steps between the zoom levels are very small. In order to quickly zoom in, you can drag a rectangle across the map to define the view port for the next zoom action. To pan around, you have to drag the rectangle in the overview map. Since most people are now used to draggable maps, this is not a very intuitive way to move the map view. Finally, there is not a option available to quickly return to the full map view.

Clicking the button with the question mark first before clicking on a world city on the map, another browser window opens with pictures of Belgrade that correspond to the world city. For example, when you click on Strazbur (Strasbourg) which is one of the seats of the European parliament, you see pictures of the parliament building on the Nikola Pa?i? Square in Belgrade! permanent link for this entry"

UNWIRKLICHE BILDER DER REALITÄT

UNWIRKLICHE BILDER DER REALITÄT

by Conny Becker

Berlin, 14 Nov 2007, in German, published in PZ 47/07


Labor zur Erforschung der Marihuanapflanze
National Center for Natural Products Research
Oxford, Mississippi
Das National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR) ist die einzige Einrichtung in den Vereinigten Staaten, die bundesstaatlich autorisiert ist, Cannabis für die wissenschaftliche Forschung anzubauen. Zusätzlich zum Anbau von Cannabis-Pflanzen, ist das NCNPR dafür verantwortlich, beschlagnahmtes Marihuana auf dessen Wirkungsverlauf, Herbizidrückstände (Paraquat) und auf Fingerabdrücke hin zu untersuchen, die der Identifizierung dienen. NCNPR ist durch das National Institute on Drug Abuse lizenziert und erforscht außerdem aus Pflanzen oder Meeresorganismen zu gewinnende Chemikalien und andere Naturprodukte.
Während elf Bundesstaaten den medizinischen Gebrauch von Marihuana legalisiert haben, ermöglicht eine Entscheidung des U.S. Supreme Court von 2005 die Festnahme jeder Person, die Marihuana zu diesem Zweck benutzt. Nahezu die Hälfte der jährlichen Festnahmen wegen eines Verstoßes gegen das Betäubungsmittelgesetz betreffen den Besitz von oder den Handel mit Marihuana.


UNWIRKLICHE BILDER DER REALITÄT

Was haben eine Glasampulle mit virulentem HI-Virus, Cannabispflanzen und ein weißer Tiger gemeinsam? Sie befinden sich an versteckten oder geheimen Orten, die die amerikanische Künstlerin Taryn Simon mit ihrer Großbildkamera erstmals öffentlich macht.


Dicht an dicht stehen sie nebeneinander, die Cannabis sativa-Pflanzen in kräftigem Grün, und man meint, ihren markanten Geruch in der Nase spüren zu können. Ungewöhnlich mutet die Umgebung an. Die Pflänzchen gedeihen nicht auf freiem Feld, in keinem lichten Gewächshaus oder versteckt auf einem Hinterhausbalkon, sondern auf Tischen in einem geschlossenen Raum, der von Kunstlicht beleuchtet wird: in einem Labor des amerikanischen »National Center for Natural Products Research« (NCNPR) in Oxford, Mississippi.

Dieses Foto ist charakteristisch für eine Serie von Fotografien der amerikanische Künstlerin Taryn Simon. Es ist ästhetisch, perfekt arrangiert, dabei von einer Sterilität, die es unwirklich erscheinen lässt und Fragen aufwirft. Diese beantwortet Simon jedoch prompt, denn zum Kunstwerk gehört jeweils ein Text, der den Bildinhalt erläutert. Beispielsweise ist das NCNPR die einzige Einrichtung in den USA, die autorisiert ist, Cannabis für die wissenschaftliche Forschung anzubauen.

Die »geheimen Orte« durfte die Künstlerin zumeist erst nach zähen Verhandlungen betreten und ablichten, und nicht selten stieß sie bei ihren Recherchen auf Widersprüche, auch zum Thema Rauschmittel: »Während elf Bundesstaaten den medizinischen Gebrauch von Marihuana legalisiert haben, ermöglicht eine Entscheidung des U.S. Supreme Court von 2005 die Festnahme jeder Person, die Marihuana zu diesem Zweck benutzt.«

Mehr als 60 großformatige Fotografien zählt die Serie »Ein amerikanischer Index des Versteckten und Unbekannten«, die erstmals im Frankfurter Museum für Moderne Kunst vollständig zu sehen ist. Der Titel lässt vermuten, dass die Künstlerin in ihrem dokumentarischen Werk Kunst und Politik zusammenfließen lässt, häufig mit einem Seitenhieb auf die Protagonisten. Angesprochen werden daher auch typisch amerikanische Problemherde wie der Ku-Klux-Klan, Scientology sowie die in den USA auf 200 Millionen geschätzten Feuerwaffen im privaten Besitz.

Medizinische Themen gerieten Simon ebenso vor die Linse, ist dieses Terrain für die meisten Menschen doch ein tabuisiertes oder unzugängliches. Im Begleittext erfährt der Besucher, wie unter der Biosicherheitsstufe 2 plus HI-Viren in der Impfforschung eingesetzt werden oder medizinischer Sondermüll möglichst umweltschonend entsorgt wird: mit Mikrowellen statt durch Verbrennen. Das Hochglanzbild der Sondermüllhalde wirkt dabei ebenso wohl komponiert wie dasjenige eines Zoll-Raumes am Flughafen John F. Kennedy in New York, in dem Simon konfiszierte Lebensmittel von Passagieren – von Mangos über frische Eier bis hin zum Schweinskopf – gefällig nebeneinander drapierte.

Menschen kommen in der Fotoserie eher selten vor und sind ebenfalls »steril« in Szene gesetzt, wie etwa die Schauspielerin Sharon Grambo. Sie wurde vom medizinischen Zentrum der University of California engagiert, um als so genannte »Standardpatientin« die diagnostischen Fähigkeiten der Behandelnden zu testen.
Gesundheitlich tatsächlich beeinträchtigt ist dagegen ein anderes Modell Simons, ein weißer Tiger, den die 32-Jährige bei seinem Züchter in Arkansas entdeckte. Er ist, wie alle weißen Tiger in den USA, Resultat einer selektiven Inzucht und hat, geistig zurückgeblieben und hinkend, aufgrund seines Fehlwuchses Schwierigkeiten zu atmen.

Gewiss ist Simon nicht an alle versteckte Orte der USA gelangt – Disney versagte ihr beispielsweise den Zutritt in seine »Welt« ­, und auch bei der CIA mag man größere Geheimnisse vermuten als die gezeigten Bilder, die die CIA-Kunstkommission im Amtsgebäude ausgestellt hat. Auf den zweiten Blick bergen aber auch sie ein Geheimnis. Denn die »harmlose« abstrakte Kunst ist im Kalten Krieg in Amerika instrumentalisiert worden. In der Abgrenzung zur gegenständlichen Malerei, die sowohl die Nazis als auch die Sowjets förderten, diente die Abstrakte als Aushängeschild für die scheinbar grenzenlose Freiheit westlicher Demokratien.

Simon kaschiert die politischen oder sozialkritischen Bezüge in ihren Bildern keineswegs, aber verurteilt nicht, lobt nicht. Sie liefert Vorlagen und überlässt alles Weitere dem Betrachter, der nach der Ausstellung tatsächlich mit reichlich Gesprächsstoff nach Hause geht.

artnews.org/connybecker

Neuroaestetics II: don´t forget exteriorisation- the issue of reductionism

"If one were to jumble all the disciplines of a modern University up in some giant hat, and just choose two out at random, one fairly seemingly random duo would be Art and Neuroscience. Yet, there are surprisingly strong connections, as the collection "The Artful Minds" - connections that may very well lead us to the heart of symbolic thought itself.

The first article by Merlin Donald points out that "Art should be regarded as a specific kind of cognitive engineering. As a first principle, art is an actively intended to influence the minds of an audience." Furthermore, "Cathedrals, and films, are specific kinds of cognitive machines. Their major social functions are cognitive: they influence memory, shape public behavior, set social norms, and modify the experience of life in their audiences." While that's a pretty broad definition of art - after all, this also includes rather conceptual appartuses such as legal rhetoric and political ideologies whose existence in the rather material world is at least hard to pin down (as opposed, to say a painting), it's at least a good place to begin.

However, Donald then begins with what appears to be (but only on first glance!) rather old-fashioned "computational" reductionism: "All things cognitive - and art is no exception - are ultimately products of brain activity...any complex mental task...is made of up chains of these cognitive components, arranged in functional architectures, or operational hierarchies that resemble the algorithms of computation." However, he escapes this by stating that there exists "Distributed networks...[that] combine the memory storage capacities of many brains with whatever memory technology a given social network has at its disposal, and weaves these into a cognitive system that extends far beyond the individual brain." In other words, culture, which he thinks starts with "mimetic action", or in other words, imitation. I'm not sure if I buy his point that other animals don't have mimesis and that prefrontal cortex "explosion" is absolutely crucial, but obviously culture had to start somewhere. Indeed, I only wish he pursued more the line of thinking he had with distributed networks.

The next chapter by Terrence Deacon of "The Symbolic Species" fame starts with the viewpoint that art is, well, symbolic since it refers to something, such as an emotion or a memory, that is not present in the sign itself. However, symbols are not mere signs "in terms of the arbitrariness of the reference relationship or the use of conventional token as a sign" but "encrypted signs" whose keys are their relationships. And so "because of its mediating system of relationships, symbolic reference gains a degree of disconnection from formal or physical linkage with its ground of reference." and therefore the "potential combination, composition, and juxapositon of symbols make symbolic reference necessarily limitless in its referential capacity."

Deacon has a superb distinction to draw between symbol and sign, one crucial to language. Yet, even a symbol or sign needs a referent, a signified, and I find Deacon's thrust to make distinct emotions as signified to be a bit wrong-headed, after all, one can think symbolically of "Marxism" or "My pet dog Fido" but one does not, when viewing art, think symbolically of "beauty" or "loneliness" - these are directly evoked.

The next chapter is by George Lakoff, my academic grandfather in one of his more Californian phases. His central insight of his cognitive grammar or "embodied theory of metaphor" is that "spatial relationships can decompose into universal cognitive primitives that recur across languages" such that "These primitives are not concrete images that you can see but "schemas" - cognitive structures that fit many scenes that you can see." Therefore, we recognize art as art since we use our evolved spatial groundings to recognize these schemas, so that art is only art because of our "bodies - and mirror neurons, a system of neurons forming a cluster across the premotor and parietal cortices with bidirectional connections. These neurons fire when we perform a coordinated action or see a corresponding action performed." Furthermore, each of these schemas, even the more conceptual ones like "HUMILITY IS DOWN", is just parasitically encoding itself on top of earlier motor neurons.

What I find mildly strange with Lakoff is first, his lack of recognition that his entire schema of "metaphors" is just an embodied version of Shank and Abelson's more or less discredited "Scripts" theory of cognitive psychology and AI. In fact, this theory fell apart because there is no finitely enumberable number of "scripts" - and likewise, despite his attempts otherwise, I refuse to believe there are finitely ennumerable number of "METAPHORS AS SCRIPTS" (using ALL CAPS, as Lakoff likes) that in anyway give us a better understanding of what it means to be human, particularly as most of scripts such as "KNOWLEDGE IS LIGHT" are, well, clearly culturally conditioned and not neurally localizable.

The last reading is Zeki's take on ambiguity, where he states that ambiguity results when there are two many possible interpretations: "Usually we just choose the most likely, but this is impossible then both are equally likely and giving each a place on the conscious stage, one at a time, so that we are only conscious of one of the interpretations at any given time. Thus a neurobiologically based definition of ambiguity is the opposite of the dictionary definition; it is not uncertainty, but certainty- the certainty of many, equally plausible interpretations, each one of which is sovereign when it occupies the conscious stage." This has the wonderful consequence of reminding us that our "consciousness" is not a unified thing as such, but "Visual consciousness consists of many micro-consciousnesses that are distributed in time and space." This makes a lot of sense, and Zeki has a lot of evidence to back him up. However, again, like many neuroscientists Zeki tends to be neural reductionist, hoping to find "interpretation" purely in terms of the brain, which leads him and neuroscientists like him to be dangerously close to being the phrenologists of our time. And as any technologists (or Deleuze, or even Hegel) would remind us, exteriorization is just as important as interiorization. In fact, I would bet that exteriorization is more important, and that if there is a secret to our minds (and who knows, maybe art), it is to be found in the interaction of our neurons with the world, and our reshaping of that world. Understanding art is clearly crucial in understanding that reshaping that world - and neuroscience will be increasingly crucial in that understanding of art surprisingly enough."
by hhalpin on February 3, 2007 - 9:40pm

From: http://www.hastac.org/interfaceneuroandart

Kulturindustrie Adorno China - Kunst und Kulturkontrolle

Culture industry reconsidered
by Theodor W. Adorno

From: New German Critique, 6, Fall 1975, 12-19 (translated by Anson G. Rabinbach)



"The importance of the culture industry in the spiritual constitution of the masses is no dispensation for reflection on its objective legitimation, its essential being, least of all by a science which thinks itself pragmatic." That is the warning given by Adorno in this essay, in which he looks back at his earlier writings on the culture industry.

1 The term culture industry was perhaps used for the first time in the book Dialectic of Enlightenment, which Horkheimer and I published in Amsterdam in 1947. In our drafts we spoke of "mass culture". We replaced that expression with "culture industry" in order to exclude from the outset the interpretation agreeable to its advocates: that it is a matter of something like a culture that arises spontaneously from the masses themselves, the contemporary form of popular art. From the latter the culture industry must be distinguished in the extreme. The culture industry fuses the old and familiar into a new quality. In all its branches, products which are tailored for consumption by masses, and which to a great extent determine the nature of that consumption, are manufactured more or less according to plan. The individual branches are similar in structure or at least fit into each other, ordering themselves into a system almost without a gap. This is made possible by contemporary technical capabilities as well as by economic and administrative concentration.
2 The culture industry intentionally integrates its consumers from above. To the detriment of both it forces together the spheres of high and low art, separated for thousands of years. The seriousness of high art is destroyed in speculation about its efficacy; the seriousness of the lower perishes with the civilizational constraints imposed on the rebellious resistance inherent within it as long as social control was not yet total. Thus, although the culture industry undeniably speculates on the conscious and unconscious state of the millions towards which it is directed, the masses are not primary, but secondary, they are an object of calculation; an appendage of the machinery. The customer is not king, as the culture industry would have us believe, not its subject but its object. The very word mass-media, specially honed for the culture industry, already shifts the accent onto harmless terrain. Neither is it a question of primary concern for the masses, nor of the techniques of communication as such, but of the spirit which sufflates them, their master's voice. The culture industry misuses its concern for the masses in order to duplicate, reinforce and strengthen their mentality, which it presumes is given and unchangeable. How this mentality might be changed is excluded throughout. The masses are not the measure but the ideology of the culture industry, even though the culture industry itself could scarcely exist without adapting to the masses.
Cao Fei





3 The cultural commodities of the industry are governed, as Brecht and Suhrkamp expressed it thirty years ago, by the principle of their realization as value, and not by their own specific content and harmonious formation. The entire practice of the culture industry transfers the profit motive naked onto cultural forms. Ever since these cultural forms first began to earn a living for their creators as commodities in the market-place they had already possessed something of this quality. But then they sought after profit only indirectly, over and above their autonomous essence. New on the part of the culture industry is the direct and undisguised primacy of a precisely and thoroughly calculated efficacy in its most typical products. The autonomy of works of art, which of course rarely ever predominated in an entirely pure form, and was always permeated by a constellation of effects, is tendentially eliminated by the culture industry, with or without the conscious will of those in control. The latter include both those who carry out directives as well as those who hold the power. In economic terms they are or were in search of new opportunities for the realization of capital in the most economically developed countries. The old opportunities became increasingly more precarious as a result of the same concentration process which alone makes the culture industry possible as an omnipresent phenomenon.
4 Culture, in the true sense, did not simply accommodate itself to human beings; but it always simultaneously raised a protest against the petrified relations under which they lived, thereby honoring them. In so far as culture becomes wholly assimilated to and integrated in those petrified relations, human beings are once more debased. Cultural entities typical of the culture industry are no longer also commodities, they are commodities through and through. This quantitative shift is so great that it calls forth entirely new phenomena. Ultimately, the culture industry no longer even needs to directly pursue everywhere the profit interests from which it originated. These interests have become objectified in its ideology and have even made themselves independent of the compulsion to sell the cultural commodities which must be swallowed anyway. The culture industry turns into public relations, the manufacturing of "goodwill" per se, without regard for particular firms or saleable objects. Brought to bear is a general uncritical consensus, advertisements produced for the world, so that each product of the culture industry becomes its own advertisement.
5 Nevertheless, those characteristics which originally stamped the transformation of literature into a commodity are maintained in this process. More than anything in the world, the culture industry has its ontology, a scaffolding of rigidly conservative basic categories which can be gleaned, for example, from the commercial English novels of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. What parades as progress in the culture industry, as the incessantly new which it offers up, remains the disguise for an eternal sameness; everywhere the changes mask a skeleton which has changed just as little as the profit motive itself since the time it first gained its predominance over culture.


TITEL: Mask Series
HERSTELLER: Zeng Fanzhi
ENTSTEHUNGSJAHR: 1998
KATEGORIE: Paintings
MATERIAL: Oil on Canvas

6 Thus, the expression "industry" is not to be taken too literally. It refers to the standardization of the thing itself — such as that of the Western, familiar to every movie-goer — and to the rationalization of distribution techniques, but not strictly to the production process. Although in film, the central sector of the culture industry, the production process resembles technical modes of operation in the extensive division of labor, the employment of machines and the separation of the laborers from the means of production — expressed in the perennial conflict between artists active in the culture industry and those who control it — individual forms of production are nevertheless maintained. Each product affects an individual air; individuality itself serves to reinforce ideology, in so far as the illusion is conjured up that the completely reified and mediated is a sanctuary from immediacy and life. Now, as ever, the culture industry exists in the "service" of third persons, maintaining its affinity to the declining circulation process of capital, to the commerce from which it came into being. Its ideology above all makes use of the star system, borrowed from individualistic art and its commercial exploitation. The more dehumanized its methods of operation and content, the more diligently and successfully the culture industry propagates supposedly great personalities and operates with heart-throbs. It is industrial more in a sociological sense, in the incorporation of industrial forms of organization even when nothing is manufactured — as in the rationalization of office work — rather than in the sense of anything really and actually produced by technological rationality. Accordingly, the misinvestments of the culture industry are considerable, throwing those branches rendered obsolete by new techniques into crises, which seldom lead to changes for the better.

Chi Peng

7 The concept of technique in the culture industry is only in name identical with technique in works of art. In the latter, technique is concerned with the internal organization of the object itself, with its inner logic. In contrast, the technique of the culture industry is, from the beginning, one of distribution and mechanical reproduction, and therefore always remains external to its object. The culture industry finds ideological support precisely in so far as it carefully shields itself from the full potential of the techniques contained in its products. It lives parasitically from the extra-artistic technique of the material production of goods, without regard for the obligation to the internal artistic whole implied by its functionality (Sachlichkeit), but also without concern for the laws of form demanded by aesthetic autonomy. The result for the physiognomy of the culture industry is essentially a mixture of streamlining, photographic hardness and precision on the one hand, and individualistic residues, sentimentality and an already rationally disposed and adapted romanticism on the other. Adopting Benjamin's designation of the traditional work of art by the concept of aura, the presence of that which is not present, the culture industry is defined by the fact that it does not strictly counterpose another principle to that of aura, but rather by the fact that it conserves the decaying aura as a foggy mist. By this means the culture industry betrays its own ideological abuses.
8 It has recently become customary among cultural officials as well as sociologists to warn against underestimating the culture industry while pointing to its great importance for the development of the consciousness of its consumers. It is to be taken seriously, without cultured snobbism. In actuality the culture industry is important as a moment of the spirit which dominates today. Whoever ignores its influence out of skepticism for what it stuffs into people would be naive. Yet there is a deceptive glitter about the admonition to take it seriously. Because of its social role, disturbing questions about its quality, about truth or untruth, and about the aesthetic niveau of the culture industry's emissions are repressed, or at least excluded from the so-called sociology of communications. The critic is accused of taking refuge in arrogant esoterica. It would be advisable first to indicate the double meaning of importance that slowly worms its way in unnoticed. Even if it touches the lives of innumerable people, the function of something is no guarantee of its particular quality. The blending of aesthetics with its residual communicative aspects leads art, as a social phenomenon, not to its rightful position in opposition to alleged artistic snobbism, but rather in a variety of ways to the defense of its baneful social consequences. The importance of the culture industry in the spiritual constitution of the masses is no dispensation for reflection on its objective legitimation, its essential being, least of all by a science which thinks itself pragmatic. On the contrary: such reflection becomes necessary precisely for this reason. To take the culture industry as seriously as its unquestioned role demands, means to take it seriously critically, and not to cower in the face of its monopolistic character.

Liu Xiadong




9 Among those intellectuals anxious to reconcile themselves with the phenomenon and eager to find a common formula to express both their reservations against it and their respect for its power, a tone of ironic toleration prevails unless they have already created a new mythos of the twentieth century from the imposed regression. After all, those intellectuals maintain, everyone knows what pocket novels, films off the rack, family television shows rolled out into serials and hit parades, advice to the lovelorn and horoscope columns are all about. All of this, however, is harmless and, according to them, even democratic since it responds to a demand, albeit a stimulated one. It also bestows all kinds of blessings, they point out, for example, through the dissemination of information, advice and stress reducing patterns of behavior. Of course, as every sociological study measuring something as elementary as how politically informed the public is has proven, the information is meager or indifferent. Moreover, the advice to be gained from manifestations of the culture industry is vacuous, banal or worse, and the behavior patterns are shamelessly conformist.
Yang Fudong





10 The two-faced irony in the relationship of servile intellectuals to the culture industry is not restricted to them alone. It may also be supposed that the consciousness of the consumers themselves is split between the prescribed fun which is supplied to them by the culture industry and a not particularly well-hidden doubt about its blessings. The phrase, the world wants to be deceived, has become truer than had ever been intended. People are not only, as the saying goes, falling for the swindle; if it guarantees them even the most fleeting gratification they desire a deception which is nonetheless transparent to them. They force their eyes shut and voice approval, in a kind of self-loathing, for what is meted out to them, knowing fully the purpose for which it is manufactured. Without admitting it they sense that their lives would be completely intolerable as soon as they no longer clung to satisfactions which are none at all.
11 The most ambitious defense of the culture industry today celebrates its spirit, which might be safely called ideology, as an ordering factor. In a supposedly chaotic world it provides human beings with something like standards for orientation, and that alone seems worthy of approval. However, what its defenders imagine is preserved by the culture industry is in fact all the more thoroughly destroyed by it. The color film demolishes the genial old tavern to a greater extent than bombs ever could: the film exterminates its imago. No homeland can survive being processed by the films which celebrate it, and which thereby turn the unique character on which it thrives into an interchangeable sameness.
12 That which legitimately could be called culture attempted, as an expression of suffering and contradiction, to maintain a grasp on the idea of the good life. Culture cannot represent either that which merely exists or the conventional and no longer binding categories of order which the culture industry drapes over the idea of the good life as if existing reality were the good life, and as if those categories were its true measure. If the response of the culture industry's representatives is that it does not deliver art at all, this is itself the ideology with which they evade responsibility for that from which the business lives. No misdeed is ever righted by explaining it as such.
13 The appeal to order alone, without concrete specificity, is futile; the appeal to the dissemination of norms, without these ever proving themselves in reality or before consciousness, is equally futile. The idea of an objectively binding order, huckstered to people because it is so lacking for them, has no claims if it does not prove itself internally and in confrontation with human beings. But this is precisely what no product of the culture industry would engage in. The concepts of order which it hammers into human beings are always those of the status quo. They remain unquestioned, unanalyzed and undialectically presupposed, even if they no longer have any substance for those who accept them. In contrast to the Kantian, the categorical imperative of the culture industry no longer has anything in common with freedom. It proclaims: you shall conform, without instruction as to what; conform to that which exists anyway, and to that which everyone thinks anyway as a reflex of its power and omnipresence.
14 The power of the culture industry's ideology is such that conformity has replaced consciousness. The order that springs from it is never confronted with what it claims to be or with the real interests of human beings. Order, however, is not good in itself. It would be so only as a good order. The fact that the culture industry is oblivious to this and extols order in abstracto, bears witness to the impotence and untruth of the messages it conveys. While it claims to lead the perplexed, it deludes them with false conflicts which they are to exchange for their own. It solves conflicts for them only in appearance, in a way that they can hardly be solved in their real lives. In the products of the culture industry human beings get into trouble only so that they can be rescued unharmed, usually by representatives of a benevolent collective; and then in empty harmony, they are reconciled with the general, whose demands they had experienced at the outset as irreconcilable with their interests. For this purpose the culture industry has developed formulas which even reach into such non-conceptual areas as light musical entertainment. Here too one gets into a "jam", into rhythmic problems, which can be instantly disentangled by the triumph of the basic beat.
15 Even its defenders, however, would hardly contradict Plato openly who maintained that what is objectively and intrinsically untrue cannot also be subjectively good and true for human beings. The concoctions of the culture industry are neither guides for a blissful life, nor a new art of moral responsibility, but rather exhortations to toe the line, behind which stand the most powerful interests. The consensus which it propagates strengthens blind, opaque authority. If the culture industry is measured not by its own substance and logic, but by its efficacy, by its position in reality and its explicit pretensions; if the focus of serious concern is with the efficacy to which it always appeals, the potential of its effect becomes twice as weighty. This potential, however, lies in the promotion and exploitation of the ego-weakness to which the powerless members of contemporary society, with its concentration of power, are condemned. Their consciousness is further developed retrogressively. It is no coincidence that cynical American film producers are heard to say that their pictures must take into consideration the level of eleven-year-olds. In doing so they would very much like to make adults into eleven-year-olds.
16 It is true that thorough research has not, for the time being, produced an airtight case proving the regressive effects of particular products of the culture industry. No doubt an imaginatively designed experiment could achieve this more successfully than the powerful financial interests concerned would find comfortable. In any case, it can be assumed without hesitation that steady drops hollow the stone, especially since the system of the culture industry that surrounds the masses tolerates hardly any deviation and incessantly drills the same formulas on behavior. Only their deep unconscious mistrust, the last residue of the difference between art and empirical reality in the spiritual make-up of the masses explains why they have not, to a person, long since perceived and accepted the world as it is constructed for them by the culture industry. Even if its messages were as harmless as they are made out to be — on countless occasions they are obviously not harmless, like the movies which chime in with currently popular hate campaigns against intellectuals by portraying them with the usual stereotypes — the attitudes which the culture industry calls forth are anything but harmless. If an astrologer urges his readers to drive carefully on a particular day, that certainly hurts no one; they will, however, be harmed indeed by the stupefication which lies in the claim that advice which is valid every day and which is therefore idiotic, needs the approval of the stars.
17 Human dependence and servitude, the vanishing point of the culture industry, could scarcely be more faithfully described than by the American interviewee who was of the opinion that the dilemmas of the contemporary epoch would end if people would simply follow the lead of prominent personalities. In so far as the culture industry arouses a feeling of well-being that the world is precisely in that order suggested by the culture industry, the substitute gratification which it prepares for human beings cheats them out of the same happiness which it deceitfully projects. The total effect of the culture industry is one of anti-enlightenment, in which, as Horkheimer and I have noted, enlightenment, that is the progressive technical domination of nature, becomes mass deception and is turned into a means for fettering consciousness. It impedes the development of autonomous, independent individuals who judge and decide consciously for themselves. These, however, would be the precondition for a democratic society which needs adults who have come of age in order to sustain itself and develop. If the masses have been unjustly reviled from above as masses, the culture industry is not among the least responsible for making them into masses and then despising them, while obstructing the emancipation for which human beings are as ripe as the productive forces of the epoch permit.


China
Markt und Mao


Von Mark Siemons, Peking


Kunst ist gut, Kulturkontrolle ist besser

08. Mai 2006 Ein schönes Wort war „Kulturindustrie“ nie. Aber es funkelt auch nicht immer so düster wie bei Horkheimer und Adorno und deren Adepten zumal im deutschen Sprachraum, für die es der Inbegriff aller Verblendungszusammenhänge im Spätkapitalismus war. Für die kühlen Rechner etwa in der Europäischen Union bezeichnet es einfach eine Wirtschaftssparte neben anderen, die daher der gleichen beschäftigungspolitischen Fürsorge wie andere bedarf.

Wer will, kann in dieser Bedeutungsverschiebung das Merkmal eines Mentalitätswechsels erkennen: Was zuvor als polemische Formel wider die Vermischung der Sphären und den Verlust jeglicher kulturellen Autonomie gemeint war, ist nun der fröhlich gebrauchte Terminus technicus, um ebendiese Vermischung zu befördern. Es scheint gar kein Gefühl mehr dafür zu geben, daß es sich dabei um etwas Ungehöriges handeln könnte.

Nationale China-Marken entwickeln

Was zur Zeit in der Volksrepublik China passiert, geht noch einen Schritt weiter: Hier erklimmt die „Kulturindustrie“ die nächsthöhere Windung in der Begriffsspirale. Die Regierung gebraucht die Vokabel nicht nur ungeniert, sie macht aus ihr das Schlüsselwort ihres Modells einer leninistisch organisierten Postmoderne: eine Zauberformel, die Ideologie, Kultur, Staat und Wirtschaft wundersam vereint. Im neuen Fünfjahresplan dreht sich in der Sparte Kultur alles um dieses eine Wort.
Mao hat es vorgemacht: Der Funktionär wird Kunst-Export

Mao hat es vorgemacht: Der Funktionär wird Kunst-Export

Es soll „eine flexiblere Umgebung für die Kulturindustrie“ geschaffen werden, sie soll dabei helfen, nationale China-Marken zu entwickeln und die zurückgebliebenen Regionen im Westen des Landes auf die Beine zu bringen. Sun Jiazheng, der Kulturminister, beklagt, daß viele „Kultur-Ressourcen“ des Landes immer noch nicht in „Kulturprodukte“ überführt seien und daß viele Kulturprodukte immer noch nicht der Nachfrage der Konsumenten entsprächen.

Symbolische Form des Neuen Lebens

Die Kommunistische Partei Chinas hat sich anscheinend endgültig dazu entschlossen, die Kultur in marktwirtschaftlichen Kategorien zu verstehen. Was das bedeutet, ist alles andere als harmlos oder banal, auch wenn marktwirtschaftliche Reformen für China schon lange nichts Neues mehr sind. Denn wie in allen sozialistischen Ländern nimmt die Kultur auch in der Volksrepublik bis heute eine sorgsam gehütete Sonderstellung ein. Sie gilt nicht bloß als Instrument der Propaganda, sondern als die symbolische Form des Neuen Lebens selbst, für das die Kommunistische Partei steht. „Eine Kunst, die parallel mit der Politik liefe oder unabhängig von dieser wäre, gibt es in Wirklichkeit nicht“, sagte Mao 1942 in seiner berüchtigten Rede in Yanan. Der oberste Künstler ist in gewisser Weise die Partei selbst, die, wieder nach einem berühmten Mao-Wort, die schönsten Schriftzeichen auf das leere Blatt des Volkes malt. Das oberste Prinzip „Dem Volke dienen“ findet sich auch heute noch auf der Website des Kulturministeriums: „Kultur und Kunst sollten das Leben des Volkes spiegeln“, heißt es dort. Worin das Leben des Volkes besteht, definiert im Zweifel natürlich die Partei.
Mao auf dem “Dashanzi International Art Festival“ in Peking

Mao auf dem "Dashanzi International Art Festival" in Peking

Der neue Kulturindustrie-Begriff vereint nun diesen Definitionsanspruch mit den Bedingungen des Markts. Das muß nicht unbedingt eine „Liberalisierung“, wie der Westen sie sich vorstellt, bedeuten. Zu den Säulen des neuen Fünfjahresplans gehört auch die Perfektionierung des „Monitorings“ über den Kulturmarkt, es soll dazu ein einschlägiger „Langzeit-Management-Mechanismus“ mit immer präziseren Regulierungen eingerichtet werden. Die Kontrolle fällt also mitnichten fort, sie wird jetzt nur in betriebswirtschaftlichen Begriffen beschrieben.

Neues Marketing für altes Kulturland

Was die Partei an der „Kulturindustrie“ beeindruckt, ist wohl am meisten die Idee des Marketings. Sie löst die beiden dringlichsten Fragen der chinesischen Kulturpolitik auf einen Schlag. Das ist zum einen: Wie kann das alte Kulturland China wieder ein Bild von sich hervorbringen, das die Welt überzeugt? Das eklatante auswärtige „Kulturdefizit“ Chinas wird zunehmend als Skandal empfunden. Das Verhältnis des Imports zum Export etwa von Büchern betrage zehn zu eins, bezogen auf westliche Länder vermutlich hundert zu eins. Das will man nicht länger hinnehmen. Und die andere Frage: Wie läßt sich die zunehmende Diversifizierung und Zersplitterung der Gesellschaft entschärfen, so daß sie der regierenden Partei nicht um die Ohren fliegt? Über den ungewohnten Pluralismus der Anschauungen und Lebensweisen hatte sich Parteichef Hu Jintao wiederholt besorgt geäußert.

In dieser Lage scheint die Regierung nach 1989 die Entwicklung nicht nur der Sowjetunion und Osteuropas genau analysiert zu haben, sondern auch der westlichen Kultur. Lehrte die eine, daß man die Zügel nicht zu locker lassen darf, scheint die andere zu beweisen, daß derselbe Markt, der den Pluralismus hervorbringt, diesen auch beliebig und ungefährlich machen kann. Worauf es also ankommt, ist, die Kultur planmäßig in die Obhut der Wirtschaft zu geben - dann kann sich der Staat auf die Oberaufsicht zurückziehen und muß nur noch in Ausnahmefällen eingreifen. In der kapitalistischen Welt mit deren klaren Kategorien, Interessen und Grenzen fühlt sich die Kommunistische Partei Chinas ohnehin seit langem zu Hause. Diese Welt ist in der Lage, Realitäten zu schaffen, mit denen sich besser umgehen läßt als mit den Vieldeutigkeiten einer kulturellen Sphäre, die sich selbst überlassen ist. So muß das Kontingenzbewußtsein, das die ganze Gesellschaft und längst auch Teile der Partei ergriffen zu haben scheint, nicht notwendigerweise eine Schwächung der Macht bedeuten; indem es in das konstruktivistische Wirklichkeitsverständnis des Marketings überführt wird, vermag es immer noch an die Marken, Träume und Wünsche zu glauben, die es selber geschaffen hat.

Exportschlager Politischer Pop

Es versteht sich, daß Kultur als Staatsaktion eine besondere Vorliebe für ideologisch vergleichsweise unschuldige Zweige wie Design, Comic und Online-Spiele hat. Aber auch Kino und bildende Künste haben unter den kulturindustriellen Bemühungen der letzten Jahre ihr Gesicht sehr verändert. Ehedem unberechenbare und wichtige Regisseure wie Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou und Zhang Yuan, die immer wieder mit der Zensur zu kämpfen hatten, werden heute vom Staat entschlossen gefördert - und produzieren mittlerweile Filme, die ebenso weltmarktkompatibel wie sozialverträglich und künstlerisch bedeutungslos sind. Sie sind große chinesische Marken geworden, genauso wie die Künstler des „Politischen Pop“ und „Zynischen Realismus“, deren Bilder mittlerweile auf internationalen Auktionen Hunderttausende von Euro einbringen.

Die Regierung hat gemerkt, daß das Spiel mit Mao-Ikonen und Propagandapostern, dem im Westen eine gewisse Subversivität zugute gehalten wird, keine politische Gefahr darstellt, und tritt jetzt sogar als Sponsor von Messen zeitgenössischer Kunst auf. Und die Pekinger Stadtverwaltung hat den Kunstdistrikt „798“ als einen „Standort der Kreativindustrie“ unter ihren Schutz gestellt. Daß sie auch immer wieder dort ausstellende Künstler zensiert und deren Bilder abhängen läßt, erhält dem Bezirk zugleich im Westen seinen Ruf als Stätte der Widerspenstigkeit.

Künstlerischen Eigensinn verwalten

Die kulturindustrielle Offensive kommt zu einem Zeitpunkt, da sich die chinesischen Stadtgesellschaften mit wachsendem Wohlstand ohnehin verändern. Sie stehen an der Schwelle zu dem, was im Westen postmaterialistische Werte genannt wurde: Immer mehr Chinesen versuchen sich über bestimmte Ausflugs- und Reiseziele, Design, Cafe- und Kinobesuche voneinander zu unterscheiden. Da mag die Regierung nicht ohne Grund erwarten, daß sich auch die Ideen, Interessen und künstlerischen Eigensinnigkeiten, wenn sie erst in ordentliche Konsumartikel verwandelt sind, auf Dauer neutralisieren und keine Gefahr mehr für die „Stabilität des Landes“ darstellen.

Ein großes Geschäft verspricht das Ganze ohnehin zu werden. Die Kulturausgaben der Stadtbewohner (eingeschlossen allerdings die Bildungsausgaben) steigen jährlich um zehn Prozent. Auch westliche Medienkonzerne versuchen am prospektiv gigantischen Markt zu partizipieren, bislang freilich mit beschränktem Erfolg. Demnächst wird im südlichen Shenzhen die zweite „Internationale Messe für Kulturindustrie“ stattfinden, die die Kommerzialisierung und den Export der einschlägigen Produkte in den Mittelpunkt stellt.

Kein Comeback für die „Super Girls“

Das heißt natürlich nicht, daß allen Funktionären diese neue List der Geschichte einleuchten würde. Der frühere Kulturminister Liu Zhongde sprach sich zum Beispiel vor kurzem für ein Verbot der „Super Girls“ aus, jener chinesischen Version von „Deutschland sucht den Superstar“, die im vergangenen Jahr der größte und überraschendste Fernseherfolg im Lande war. „Wenn wir blind der Marktentscheidung folgen“, sagt Liu, „wird das nur dazu führen, daß die Seele des Volks verlorengeht.“ Von der abgeklärten Coolness, mit der die Künste im Westen als selbstverständlicher Teil des Lebens behandelt werden, bleibt die Volksrepublik noch weit entfernt.

Gesagt werden muß freilich auch, daß die meisten chinesischen Künstler und Intellektuellen selber nicht gerade Adorno-hörig sind. Auch die Ungebärdigsten pflegen, durchaus anders als im Westen, nicht unbedingt das Idealbild einer autonomen Kunst und haben daher in Habitus und Berufsauffassung irritierend wenig Berührungsängste zur ökonomischen Sphäre. Vielleicht ist gerade das aber die beste Voraussetzung dafür, um die kulturindustrielle Unterwanderung der Künste ihrerseits zu unterlaufen: mit Kunst. Wer am Ende die Oberhand behält, ist keineswegs gewiß.



Text: F.A.Z., 08.05.2006, Nr. 106 / Seite 37






Begehrt und teuer: Nie zuvor war Chinas Kunst-Avantgarde so erfolgreich wie heute. Über den Balanceakt zwischen Kommerz und Kunst, die auch ohne öffentliche Förderung ihren Weg in die Galerien findet.

Der Hammer fiel bei 9,7 Millionen US-Dollar. Damit erzielte das Gemälde „Mask Series 1996 No. 6“ des Kunstmarkt-Stars Zeng Fanzhi den höchsten Preis, der jemals für ein zeitgenössisches chinesisches Kunstwerk bezahlt wurde. Die Arbeit, die sich thematisch mit der Kulturrevolution auseinandersetzt und eine Gruppe junger Rotgardisten zeigt, wurde im Mai dieses Jahres bei den internationalen Frühjahrsauktionen in Hongkong versteigert. Ein Rekordergebnis jagt derzeit das nächste, Chinas Kunst-Avantgarde scheint in den Galerien in West und Ost angekommen zu sein.

Noch vor zwei Jahren führte die moderne chinesische Kunst ein Nischendasein. Als sie Anfang der 1990er Jahre „im Westen“ das erste Mal wahrgenommen wurde, spielte ihr Marktwert keine oder nur eine sehr marginale Rolle. Eingeführt wurde die sogenannte exotische Kunst aus China durch Überblicksausstell-ungen, so zum Beispiel die legendäre „China Avantgarde Ausstellung“ 1993 im Berliner Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW). Kurz nach Ende des Kalten Krieges herrschte beim westlichen Publikum eine überwiegend anti-sozialistische Einstellung. Deshalb – und weil andere Interpretations-Parameter fehlten – wurde moderne Kunst aus China damals in erster Linie als Kritik am sozialistischen Regime verstanden und nach politischen Gesichtspunkten beurteilt. Umso paradoxer ist es, dass sich auf Grundlage dieser ideologisch gefärbten Sicht auf die chinesische Gegenwartskunst eine Art Kanon herausgebildet hat, der auf dem heutigen Kunstmarkt für höchste Gewinnspannen sorgt.


Inspiration durch Pop und Sozialismus
Viele der aktuell marktführenden chinesischen Künstler, wie zum Beispiel Wang Guangyi, Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun, Zhang Xiaogang oder Zeng Fanzhi, begannen ihre Karrieren Anfang der 1990er Jahre mit figürlicher Malerei. Die Stile des Zynischen Realismus und des Political Pop entstanden in Auseinandersetzung mit dem Sozialistischen Realismus, der während der Mao-Zeit staatlich verordnet war, aber auch mit westlichen Kunstströmungen wie der Pop Art. Der große Boom der chinesischen Gegenwartskunst und die Eroberung des internationalen Kunstmarktes nahmen erst 2006 ihren Anfang, als chinesische und internationale Auktionshäuser begannen, sehr erfolgreich Spezialauktionen für asiatische und chinesische Gegenwartskunst zu organisieren. Dadurch wurde chinesischen Künstlern auch der heimische Kunstmarkt erschlossen: Kamen die Sammler chinesischer Kunst bisher hauptsächlich aus dem westlichen Ausland, so nimmt heute die Zahl chinesischer Investoren zu. Die Zukunftsprognosen für Zeitgenössisches aus China fallen deshalb rosig aus: Große Erwartungen werden in den chinesischen Binnenmarkt gesetzt, der den globalen Kunstmarkt in Zukunft vermutlich immer mehr mitbestimmen wird. Allerdings sind auch warnende Stimmen zu vernehmen, die von einer Überhitzung des Marktes sowie von einem drohenden Qualitätsverlust in der chinesischen Gegenwartskunst sprechen. Tatsache ist, dass chinesische Künstler in China aufgrund mangelnder öffentlicher Förderung und nur weniger Privatinitiativen auf den kommerziellen Erfolg angewiesen sind.


Gekaufte Kritiker, gemietete Museen
Neben der künstlerischen Praxis leiden auch Kunstkritik und Ausstellungswesen unter dem starken Einfluss des Marktes. Unabhängiges Schreiben und Kuratieren erweisen sich ohne die öffentliche Förderung von Museen und Kuratoren als sehr schwierig. Zudem ist die Grenze zwischen privater Förderung und Korruption manchmal schwer zu ziehen: Um den Wert eines Künstlers zu steigern, muss man nur über das nötige Kleingeld verfügen, um Museen für Ausstellungen anzumieten und Kritiker für positive Berichte zu bezahlen.

Um dieser von finanziellen Interessen bestimmten Atmosphäre entgegen-zuwirken, wird seit kurzem versucht, stärker auf inhaltliche Aspekte einzugehen. Die Geschichte zeitgenössischer Kunst in China, die lange nur in Künstler- und Expertenkreisen diskutiert wurde, hält Eingang in das kollektive Bewusstsein. Große Aufmerksamkeit fand beispielsweise 2007 die Inaugurationsschau über die sogenannte „85er Bewegung“ des neuen Pekinger Privatmuseums Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. 1985 artikulierten sich chinesische Gegenwartskünstler das erste Mal seit der Öffnung des Landes und legten somit die Basis für weitere Entwicklungen. Aktuell werden außerdem viele Einzelausstellungen konzeptionell arbeitender Künstler organisiert. Diese finden nach Marktaspekten zwar kaum Beachtung, sind aber maßgeblich an der pluralistischen Entwicklung der chinesischen Kunst beteiligt. Auch in Europa scheint die Rezeption der chinesischen Gegenwartskunst auf der nächsten Stufe anzukommen, was sich darin äußert, dass die zusammenfassenden Ausstellungen seltener werden. Anstatt „das Chinesische“ zu betonen, werden einzelne Künstler ins Blickfeld gerückt. Im Rahmen der großen Ausstellung „Re-Imagining Asia“ im Berliner HKW (bis Mai 2008) wurde die Installation „Waste Not“ des Pekinger Künstlers Song Dong gezeigt, die dieser zusammen mit seiner Mutter kreierte und die den Verlust des Ehemannes und Vaters thematisiert. Im Groninger Museum in den Niederlanden ist derzeit eine Solowerkschau des seit der documenta 12 auch in Deutschland bekannten Künstlers Ai Weiwei zu sehen. Und im Winter findet im Kunstmuseum in Nürnberg eine Einzelausstellung mit Arbeiten der Künstlerin Cao Fei statt, die bereits bei der Venedig Biennale mit ihrem installativen Videoprojekt „China Tracy“ für Aufsehen sorgte. Chinesische Gegenwartskunst wird nicht mehr nur auf ihre vermeintliche Ideologiekritik oder ihren Marktwert reduziert, sondern in ihrer Pluralität ernst genommen und rezipiert.
ARTE-GASTAUTORIN BIRGIT HOPFENER IST IN CHINA UND DEUTSCHLAND ALS KURATORIN UND AUTORIN TÄTIG


ARTE PLUS

BUCH-TIPPS: „China Art Book“, hrsg. v. Uta Grosenick und Caspar H. Schübbe, Dumont 2007; „Touching the Stones. Chinas Kunst heute“, hrsg. v. Waling Boers, König 2006

AUSSTELLUNGEN: „CHINA GOLD“ IM MUSÉE MAILLOL, PARIS BIS 13.10. 2008; WERKSCHAU ZU AI WEIWEI IM GRONINGER MUSEUM BIS 23.11.2008; EINZELAUSSTELLUNG VON CAO FEI IN DER NÜRNBERGER KUNSTHALLE VOM 4.12.2008 -1.2.2009

Critique of Creative Industries- Fix it with the culture glue

http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-06-28-peck-en.html
Jamie Peck
The creativity fix

In Richard Florida's "creative city" theory, the creative class dissolves the classical division between the productive bourgeoisie and the bohemian ­ thereby giving rise to a new creative subject. Jamie Peck discusses the implementation of these ideas in contemporary cities and shows how capital investments intended to attract the creative class to the city prioritize an urban middle class. "Creativity strategies have been crafted to co-exist with urban social problems, not to solve them," writes Peck. "It should come as no surprise, then, that the creative capitals exhibit higher rates of socioeconomic inequality than other cities."

Creativity is the new black. An increasingly fashionable urban-development script has it that an historically distinctive "creative economy" – powered by raw human talent, as cool as it is competitive – is displacing sclerotic, organization-era capitalism. The prime movers in this new new economy are members of the so-called Creative Class, a mobile elite whose finicky lifestyle preferences increasingly shape the geographies of economic growth. We are told that cities – like corporations – have become embroiled in an endless "war for talent", as flows of creative individuals have become the fundamental vectors of innovation-rich growth. And lo, there is man in black at the centre of this burgeoning creativity fad – Richard Florida, who makes frequent recourse to sartorial signifiers in his best-selling primers on the creative economy. As an architect and popularizer of the creative class thesis, Florida has been feted around the world as a cool-cities guru. His germinal texts on the creativity thesis serve, simultaneously, as cliff notes for Creative Economics 101, as how-to manuals for anxious city leaders and opportunistic policymakers, and as lifestyle guides for the rising class of creatives.[1] While Florida's catchy notions concerning the creative city and its favoured inhabitants have certainly benefited from some savvy promotion, their evident allure and alleged salience have little to do with the intrinsic explanatory power of the model of creative growth – "my theory"[2] – or indeed the inventiveness of the associated marketing push. Rather, the creative-cities thesis has travelled so far so fast because – as a seductive urban development script-cum-vision, complete with prescriptively defined policy practices and positions – it has been artfully crafted for today's neoliberalized political-economic terrain.

The creativity script encodes an engaging "economic imaginary," based on a set of principles that combine cultural libertarianism and contemporary urban-design motifs with neoliberal economic imperatives. Undeniably, there are liberal and even progressive themes running through the creativity script – notably, its explicit embrace of social diversity, arts, and culture, together with its articulation of a positive economic role for (central) cities. But these pinkish elements are folded into a development vision that is profoundly market orientated (creative cities, assets, and actors, always in competition) and individualistic (creative subjects as hedonistic free agents). So while the creativity thesis has generated attention, and controversy in some conservative circles, for highlighting the positive contribution of gays and lesbians to the life of cities, here these contributions are ultimately valued for their economic functionality, or as mere indicators of a favourable competitive climate. Likewise, art and culture are discursively commodified, as productive assets and positive externalities of creative capitalism, while streetlife and authenticity are also located within the circuits of (accelerating) interurban competition. For all its social-liberal compensations, the creativity script works with grain of the contemporary realpolitik. It offers a feel-good but fiscally undemanding development vision, consistent with a post-entitlement, intensively competitive urban realm. It facilitates revamped forms of civic boosterism (flogging cultural assets), alongside the gratification of middle-class consumption desires and the lubrication both of flexible labour markets and gentrifying housing markets. The creativity script also subtly relegitimizes regressive social redistributions within the city: the designated overclass of creatives are held to have earned their superior position in the creative city, by virtue of raw talent and creative capital, validated through the market, and it is they who must be catered to in what amounts to a post-progressive urban policy. The lumpen classes of service and manual workers, on the other hand, are so positioned in the new socioeconomic structure by virtue of their creative deficits, and they play little or no positive role in Florida's account of the creative economy. They must be content with lectures on creative bootstrapping and – in lieu of their own creative awakening – the benefit of downward-trickling positive externalities like the opportunity to wait tables for the creative bohemians.

The discourses and practices of creative-cities policymaking are barely disruptive of the prevailing order of neoliberal urbanism, based inter alia on polarizing labour and housing markets, property- and market-led development, retrenched public services and social programming, and accelerating intercity competition for jobs, investment, and assets.[3] The creative cities thesis represents a "soft" policy fix for this neoliberal urban conjuncture, making the case for modest and discretionary public spending on creative assets, while raising a favoured bundle of middle-class lifestyles – based on self-indulgent forms of overwork, expressive play, and conspicuous consumption – to the status of an urban-development objective. Urban leaders, a key audience for the creativity shtick, are likewise urged to do what it takes to transform their cities into "talent magnets", having been made acutely aware of the risk – if they do not adequately tend to the needs of the "young and restless" – that they will be demoted to the rust belt of the shiny, creative economy. Discursively downloading both risk and responsibility, the creative-city concept is predicated on, presumes and (re)produces the dominant market order. So is revealed the funky side of neoliberal urban-development politics.

Creative subjects are celebrated for their hypermobility and for their strictly circumscribed, individualistic commitments to place. These economic hipsters thrive in buzzing 24/7 neighbourhoods, where they can satisfy their craving for "heart-throbbingly real" experiences,[4] but at the drop of a hat may chose to relocate to an even more happening place. It follows that anything short of public pandering to the needs and desires of the restless creatives is practically guaranteed to secure their automatic "flight".[5] The creativity discourse amounts to a paean to the international talent market and its favoured agents, to which cities and regions must be performatively deferential. In this retread of the orthodox globalization script, the argument for decisive local action – featherbedding the creative supply side – is presented as no less than a new urban imperative. Cities must "attract the new 'creative class' with hip neighbourhoods, an arts scene and a gay-friendly atmosphere – or they'll go the way of Detroit".[6] Which way, then, to the creative city?
The creativity catechism...
Routinely overstated and hyperbolic, Florida's essential argument is that human creativity has become the engine of twenty-first century economic development, such that the competitiveness of nations and cities is increasingly rooted in the capacity to attract, retain, and "nurture" talented individuals – the newly dominant factor of production. For Florida, human creativity is the "defining feature of economic life [...] [It] has come to be valued – and systems have evolved to encourage and harness it – because new technologies, new industries, new wealth and all other good economic things flow from it."[7] What this account lacks in causal analysis it makes up for in alliterative chutzpah. Success in the new, creative economy is down to three T's – technology, talent, and tolerance. Technological capacity is a precondition for creative growth, but on its own is insufficient. The gist, though, is that cities with a shot at the creative big time must have a strong cluster of high-tech companies and a good university. The lifeblood of the system is the flow of talented individuals, the second T, this restless-but-critical factor of production having become the carrier of creative potential. Productive capacity is therefore located not in institutional matrices or production systems, but in the heads and hearts of creative individuals. Yet a city's development strategies will add up to naught in the absence of the third T, tolerance, where open, dynamic, and heterodox local cultures represent the supply-side foundations upon which creative meccas are built. As Florida informed the readers of Salon magazine:

[I]n every economic measure, Detroit and Pittsburgh should be trouncing Austin. These are places that had probably two of the greatest technological powerhouses of their time – they were the Silicon Valleys of their day. Detroit in automotive, Pittsburgh in steel and chemicals [...] What happened, however, was that both places fell victim to institutional and cultural sclerosis. They got trapped in the organizational age; they thought we really live in a patriarchal, white, corporate society and that the key to success was to strap on your tie, go to work 9 to 5, and behave yourself. There was no room for people with new ideas ... [In contrast, what] Austin did was they really hustled. In the 1980s and 1990s they said, "We want to grab some of these high-tech companies," so they did that. [Then] they said, "We're going to make this a fun place to live" [...] They created a lifestyle mentality, where Pittsburgh and Detroit were still trapped in that Protestant-ethic/bohemian-ethic split, where people were saying, "You can't have fun!" or "What do you mean play in a rock band? Cut your hair and go to work, son. That's what's important." Well, Austin was saying, "No, no, no, you're a creative. You want to play in a rock band at night and do semiconductor work in the day? C'mon! And if you want to come in at 10 the next morning and you're a little hung over or you're smoking dope, that's cool." [...] Austin saw this from day one. [8]
Florida uses this kind of sophomoric sociology to make the argument that, riding the new wave of urban economic development, the creatives have inherited the earth, and it is they who now make the rules. The logical, if stark, conclusion is that "the Creative Class has become the dominant class in society".[9] Florida softens the edges of this millennial pronouncement with his own form of new-age atmospherics: he frequently declares that every human being has the capacity to be creative, just as every city has a shot at becoming a creative hot spot.

The economics of creativity are more utilitarian: from the perspective of corporations and cities (the difference hardly seems to matter in this instance), talented workers are a scarce resource, yet they are both highly mobile and discerning in their tastes; therefore, they must be given what they want or they will not come/stay; without them, there is only creative disinvestment and economic decline. In the context of a persistent shortfall in the supply of talent, cities must learn what corporations have before them been forced to learn, that if they do not take steps to establish the right "people climate" for creative workers, if they are not appropriately welcoming, "they will wither and die".[10] There are roles for government in this development vision, but they are safely located on the supply side of the creative economy: establishing the right kind of urban ambience becomes the key to "harnessing" creativity.

Paradoxically, Florida seeks to celebrate certain "qualities of place," like buzz and cosmopolitanism, while at the same time recirculating pernicious neoliberal narratives of external competitive threat/vulnerability to flight.

The core of the challenge is what I've come to see as the new global competition for talent, a phenomenon that promises to radically reshape the world in the coming decades. No longer will economic might amass in countries according to their natural resources, manufacturing excellence, military dominance, or even scientific and technological prowess. Today, the terms of competition revolve around a central axis: a nation's ability to mobilize, attract, and retain human creative talent [...] The global talent pool and the high-end, high-margin creative industries that used to be the sole province of the US and the crucial source of its prosperity have begun to disperse around the globe. A host of countries – Ireland, Finland, Canada, Sweden, Australia, and New Zealand among them – are investing in higher education, producing creative people, and churning out cutting-edge products, from cellular phones to computer software to blockbuster movies.[11]
It follows that no-one, and nowhere, is safe from this new competitive threat. Even powerful economies can fall prey to new forms of creative competition, which (along with the hyperbole) is said to be "heating up".[12]

Help is, however, at hand, since Florida's self-appointed role is not simply to disclose the new economic order. He is also a purveyor, conveniently, of winning urban strategies. Right along with the identification of policy imperatives comes a suite of new policy solutions, all designed to give the creatives what they want, while securing the position of cities within the evolving creative division of labour. Figuring out what the creatives want, and where they want to be, was a primary task of Florida's opening salvo in the creativity debate, The rise of the creative class. This bestselling book probed the locational proclivities of the creative class using a combination of pop-culture anecdotes, focus groups with young, restless, and talented people, excruciating insights into Florida's own creative lifestyle, and supposedly suggestive spatial correlations, for instance between gays and growth. The results – sparsely documented from a social-scientific perspective, but nevertheless emphatically stated – indicated that the creative class yearn, above all, to "validate their identities." Creatives seek out neighbourhoods amply endowed with the kind of amenities that allow them to maintain an experientially intensive work-life balance. They are drawn to "plug and play" communities, where social entry barriers are low, where heterogeneity is actively embraced, where loose ties prevail, where there is plenty of scope for creative commingling. These are communities that creatives "can move into and put together a life – or at least a facsimile of a life – in a week".[13] Such diagnostically-critical conditions are signalled by conspicuous presence of gays and lesbians, designated here both as the "canaries of the creative economy" and as "harbingers of redevelopment and gentrification in distressed urban neighbourhoods".[14] Other more concrete indicators of urban edginess include "authentic" historical buildings, converted lofts, walkable streets, plenty of coffee shops, art and live-music spaces, indigenous street culture, and a range of other typical features of gentrifying, mixed-use, inner-urban neighbourhoods.

These environments serve as creative incubators. Homo creativus thrives on weak attachments and noncommittal relationships, most often mediated through the market. These atomized actors seem to lack families and non-market support systems, revelling instead in long hours of work and individualistic competition. This twenty-first century version of economic man may have a better social life, but he is still economic man. As a member of the creative class, Florida understands that "there is no corporation or other large institution that will take care of us – that we are truly on our own."[15] The edgy urban neighbourhood facilitates and enables this productive lifestyle, allowing the creatives to plug into the new economy and play as hard as they like. The defining characteristics of this new urban überclass are all framed in competitive terms. They are, one might say, neoliberals dressed in black. It takes no effort at all to translate the founding principles of the creative doctrine into just such terms.

Since it is the creatives who are the primary decision-makers in Florida's account, then it is ultimately their choices – writ large – that shape the spatial division of creative labour, the creative urban hierarchy, and the parameters of the interurban talent war. And, "when it comes down to it, creative people choose regions," Florida explains, "They think of Silicon Valley versus Cambridge, Stockholm versus Vancouver, or Sydney versus Copenhagen. The fact that many regions around the world are cultivating the attributes necessary to become creative centres makes this competition even fiercer."[16] Just like the wave of entrepreneurial urban strategies that preceded it, this form of creative interurban competition is both self-fulfilling and self-perpetuating: establishing open, plug-and-play communities that are welcoming of restive creative types becomes tantamount to both enabling and subsidizing the very forms of mobility that were the source of competitive anxiety in the first place. But since there is (again) only one game in town, cities had better make sure they are ready to participate, to do what is necessary, or they will certainly lose out. This is a variant on the "do it, or else" style of neoliberal urban policymaking, in which favoured strategies are translated into economic imperatives, a new-age variant of smokestack chasing.[17] Again, cities must be reflexively responsive to a hypercompetitive external environment, comprising "liberalized" flows of capital, public investment, consumer dollars... and now talent workers:

Lasting competitive advantage today will not simply amass in those countries and regions that can generate the most creative, innovative, or entrepreneurial output. The places that will be most able to absorb new energies will be those that are both open to diversity and also capable of internalizing the externalities that the creative economy gives rise to [...] The most successful places will require a socially adaptive capability that will enable them to pioneer new fields and innovative industries.[18]
The role for government, in this context, is to invest in the creative supply side, Florida's chameleon-like position being to sanction discretionary, pink-tinged interventions at the local scale, while demanding that big government get out of the way. "Where I share common ground with some Republicans and libertarians [is] that old-style government programs have become a huge impediment to leveraging the creative age and allowing it to emerge," Florida explains, the more limited function of the State being to "set up the parameters in which market-based actions take place".[19] Priming the creative pump therefore becomes a task for urban leaders; the way forward is with "grassroots initiatives" and "community-oriented efforts". Step forward the street-level activists of the creative age.
... and its converts
The response to the creative cities thesis amongst urban policymaking communities around the world has bordered on the ecstatic. Florida's ideas have been picked up by mayors, regional development agencies, policy entrepreneurs, advisors, and consultants across the United States, Europe, Australasia, and parts of Asia, both in wannabe locations at the bottom of his creative league tables (which are now available in numerous countries) and in established centres like London, Toronto, and Melbourne. This "fast policy" success story may be attributable less to the revolutionary or transformative nature of the Florida thesis itself, more to its character as a minimally disruptive "soft neoliberal" fix. The story is, in many ways, a familiar one, though the cast of characters has changed. National governments just have to get out of the way for the creative economy to flourish; effective urban responses call for bold leadership and vision, but some kind of response is essential for any city that wants to stay in the game; self-managing and hyperactive creatives, as bearers of creative market forces, will look after the rest, so earning their status as privileged urban subjects. In this neoliberalized urban terrain, a receptive and wide audience has effectively been pre-constituted for the kinds of market-reinforcing, property- and promotion-based, growth-oriented, and gentrification-friendly policies that have been repackaged under the creativity rubric. The creative cities policy fix can be deployed to accessorize extant, market-based urban development agendas, with the minimum of interference to established interests and constituencies. At root, it simply adds a livability-lifestyle component to the established urban competiveness stance. The typical mayor is likely to see few downsides to making the city safe for the creative class. Establishment power elites have little to fear from conspicuous urban consumption, gen-x marketing campaigns, key-worker attraction strategies, and gentrification-with-public-art. A creativity strategy is easily bolted on to business-as-usual urban-development policies, while providing additional ideological cover for market-driven or state-assisted programs of gentrification. Inner-city embourgeoisement, in the creativity script, is represented as a necessary prerequisite for economic development: hey presto, thorny political problem becomes competitive asset!

Creative cities policies, of course, would hardly be spreading like wildfire if they represented a revolutionary challenge to the neoliberal status quo. In fact, they are being stamped out cookie-cutter style across the urban landscape, spanning a quite remarkable range of settings[20] having become policies of choice, in particular, for those left-leaning mayors who have learned to live with, if not love, the market order. Nominally bespoke creativity strategies can be purchased from consultants in practically any mid-sized city these days, or they can be lifted off the shelf from countless websites and urban regeneration conferences. These are almost ideal products for the fast-policy distribution systems that have evolved in the past two decades: both the rationale and the design parameters of the policy are essentially portable – just make sure that each plan contains at least a dash of local cultural "authenticity", while nodding to the right "grassroots" constituencies in each city.

To take just one of dozens of (very) similar examples: Michigan's recently enacted Cool Cities program, derived directly from the creativity playbook, retasks state funds to the goal of localized gentrification, hipster-style, in the hope that this will attract the creative class. Beneath the rhetoric of avant-garde economic development, this entails the public subsidy of various kinds of "creative" collective goods and infrastructure projects, focused exclusively on locations with demonstrated development potential (a.k.a. "happening", gentrifying neighbourhoods). Making Michigan's cities attractive to the creative class has entailed a youth-oriented marketing program; extensive learning from other cities and from creative citizens themselves (given that "government cannot create 'cool'"); and a bundle of mostly repackaged policies aimed at the rehabilitation of historic buildings (specifically, theatres, galleries, mixed-use housing), farmers' markets, streetscaping and public art, physical infrastructure development, façade improvements, outdoor recreation facilities, greenspace, parks, pavilions, and, if necessary, demolition.[21]

Posing in fashionable shades to launch the program, Michigan's Governor, Jennifer Granholm, insisted that it was essential that this struggling, auto-industry state catch the next wave of economic development. Michigan has been experiencing an "exodus" of young, highly educated people in recent years, as "large numbers of talented workers have fled the state in search of employment".[22] According to the creativity script, the way to alleviate Michigan's economic decline is to reverse this critical flow of talent, since in the new knowledge economy jobs follow workers, not the other way around. Curiously, even though Michigan's creative class decamped "in search of employment," we are expected to believe that they will be attracted back by enhanced urban environments, and then the state's economy will revive: "Given the right mix of services and amenities, this group will 'vote with their feet' and relocate to vibrant, walkable, mixed-use communities. Attracted by a talented, diverse workforce, business will follow".[23]

The target demographic for the Cool Cities program is defined as college-educated young professionals in core fields like science and engineering, art and design, entertainment, computing, and the media, whose defining characteristics include a "preference for lifestyle," distinctive purchasing patterns (reflecting individuality and self-statement), and above all, mobility:

[T]oday's young professional workforce is more interested in working as a means of experiencing and enjoying their lifestyle than their counterparts in decades past. This group is increasingly mobile, and in order to attract and retain them, cities have to change their paradigm of physical and social development. The city itself has to be attractive, not only to business, but also to the workforce.[24]
But will young Michiganders, who left the state in search of better career opportunities (apparently having had their fill of the lifestyle options of Flint, Kalamazoo, and Saginaw), really be tempted back by the policy-induced trendification of their old neighbourhoods? Even if the goal of "making Michigan the 'coolest' state in the nation" is a realistic one, it sits rather awkwardly with the sobering realities of structural economic decline and public-sector downsizing in a state hardly renowned as a hipster haven.[25] Michigan has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, the auto industry has entered a(nother) major phase of restructuring, and the rate of job loss in the state has been characterized by local commentators as "staggering".[26] The city's economic trajectory has been described by David Littman, chief economist at Comerica Bank, as a "graveyard spiral".[27]

Inhospitable territory for creative cities strategies? Apparently not. In some respects, the level of enthusiasm for creativity makeovers may be inversely proportional to the scale of the economic challenge confronting local policymakers. Even in the rustbelt capitals, the creativity cult has been recruiting new members. CreateDetroit, an offshoot of the state's Cool Cities program established in 2003, characteristically self-describes as a "grassroots organization", despite sponsorship from the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Governor's Office, the City of Detroit, Wayne State University, Detroit Renaissance, the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, and corporations like Apple and SBC. CreateDetroit has been striving to turn around the flagging fortunes of Motown by making it a "destination city" for the creative class. Detroit was ranked 39th out of 49 major cities in Florida's original "creativity index," but as the creative economist himself has pointed out, this means that the city has more creative potential than almost anywhere in the nation (see Klein 2004b).[28] CreateDetroit is pursuing similar strategies to a range of other (newly designated) creative bottomfeeders, like Memphis and Tampa Bay, who were similarly spurred to action by their lowly rankings in Florida's widely publicized league tables.[29] These include periodic events that splice the arts and urban development; lobbying for creative investment; creatively themed marketing and promotion activities; and hobnobbing initiatives like "Connect Four," where artists, writers, designers and media types can "meet, mingle, hunt, gather, network, and play".

"The idea behind CreateDetroit," a founding member explained, "is to create a long-range plan, focused on making the Detroit region a magnet for new economy talent. The stakes are high. Those regions that do not flourish in the new creative economy will fail, according to Carnegie Mellon University professor Richard Florida".[30] A formative early step for CreateDetroit was to invest in one of the professor's two-day "regional transformation" workshops, photographs from which adorn the group's web site. Following a well-established methodology, the event featured a range of local performance artists, plenty of feel-good provincial pride (along with I am Detroit t-shirts), and a 350-person audience heavily titled towards the arts and cultural communities, together with local policymakers and advocates. Florida's polished performance was greeted with enthusiasm, and there was widespread support for his populist rendering of "pro-people" economic development. His energetically delivered message, that Detroit was losing out in the balance of trade in creativity, focused attention on the out-migration of "talented" individuals, while validating a distinctive set of arts-intensive investments in the city. An irreparable failure of the computer system (and its backup) unfortunately marred the audience-participation segment of the workshop, in which attendees were invited to vote on their city's creative strengths and weakness prior to revelations of the "actual data" – perhaps calling attention to some of Detroit's deficits on the first T of technology. But most of the participants, especially those in the (previously-neglected) arts and cultural communities, seem to have left invigorated by Florida's "call to arms to take themselves seriously as an economic force".[31]

"The purpose of the event," Florida insisted, was not for "me and my team to come to Detroit and prescribe fixes. What will help Detroit is for swelling grassroots efforts like CreateDetroit to say, 'This is where we want to be in the future. This is what we plan to do to get there'".[32] However, some noted that, for all his talk of "reach[ing] down and harnessing that energy," Florida failed to offer the hungry audience "a single concrete suggestion".[33] Others were left wondering whether the creative backwash, should it ever reach the shores of Lake Michigan, would really lift all boats. Buzz aside, most recognized that this was in many respects a canned presentation, and that Florida's troupe would soon be pulling "up their tent stakes, and mov[ing] on to their next destination".[34]

Florida had the air of a motivational speaker, claiming that Detroit has more raw potential than any other city in the nation. He gave a brief synopsis of his concept of what makes a city livable, vibrant place – but other than the obligatory White Stripes and Eminem references, the speech could have been delivered in Anyville, USA.[35]
In a sense, of course, the speech had been delivered in Anyville, a generic location for which it was carefully crafted. Scores of cities have heard, and often responded to, the same basic message, with each being urged to value – and valorize – whatever creative assets they might have to hand. (So, the creativity tonic for Milwaukee is ginned up with a dash of Liberace and the Violent Femmes, while Baltimore's makeover references Billie Holiday and Frank Zappa – what creative-city consultants now routinely decant as the "audio identities" of place.) According to Dr. Florida's prescription, practically any city can respond to the creativity treatment, at least as long as their civic leaders "get it".[36]

On the face of it at least, Detroit's "hip hop mayor", Kwame Kilpatrick, still under 40 and the proud wearer of a diamond ear stud, gets it. The Mayor offered a fulsome introduction to Florida when he came to Detroit. (On this occasion, the Mayor chose not to mention his opposition to same-sex marriage, which would not earn him high marks on the Tolerance scorecard.) While the realistic prospects of a creativity-fuelled economic turnaround in Detroit may be remote, the city can hardly be faulted for its willingness to give anything a try. Its population has fallen by half since the mid-1950s; its unemployment rate is twice the state's average and getting on for three times the national average; 72 percent of the city's public school children receive free school meals (up from 61 percent in 2001); and "white flight has become bright fright, with families and people earning more than $50 000 a year leading the way out of town".[37] For the city's government, sustained population loss, coupled with a declining tax base, has been fueling an unprecedented and unresolved fiscal crisis: Mayor Kilpatrick's administration hovers on the brink of receivership, having cut bus services, closed the city zoo and 34 schools, and laid off one in ten of the municipal workforce. The City has also been considering closing "non-essential departments," including – note unfortunate inconsistencies – the Department of Culture, Art & Tourism, and turning off street lights. Its paralyzing three-year deficit amounts to just under one quarter of annual general fund revenues, while the first round of serious cuts has been said to threaten "a vicious cycle for a city already on the edge".[38]

Compared to the usual package of corporate tax breaks and big-box development subsidies, cool-cities policies certainly look like a break with the past. While there may be novelty in urban policymakers sharing the stage with fashion designers and hip-hop artists, none of this makes the causal relationships between buzz and economic growth any more real. But none of this will prevent cities, with few other realistic options, from trying. Recall, however, how entrepreneurial urban strategies proliferated during the 1980s and 1990s, facilitated by competitive leverage and the weak emulation of "winning" formulas, quickly stacking the odds against even the most enthusiastic of converts.[39] Coming on the heels of this experience, the creativity fix also seduces local actors with the no-less false promise that any and every city can win in the battle for talent. Under such circumstances, the first-mover advantages for a few quickly descend into zero- or negative-sum games: more players pursue the same mobile resources, the price of "success" rises, the chances of positive outcomes fall. In cities like Detroit, the odds look daunting. This said, there remains plenty of enthusiasm amongst the activists at CreateDetroit for what they are calling "Plan B [...] [making] sure the talent comes here".[40] Plan A was automobile manufacturing.

The Cool Cities program may indeed be an "economic development strategy that puts 'creative people' first",[41] but in cities like Detroit these look like perversely indulgent priorities. Should the Motor City really be investing its dwindling tax revenues in a market-following means of underwriting middle-class house prices and consumption desires, with distributional consequences that seem certain to be socially and spatially regressive? Entrenched problems like structural unemployment, residential inequality, working poverty, and racialized exclusion are barely even addressed by this form of cappuccino urban politics. According to urban historian, Matt Lassiter, "the Rust Belt capital of Detroit has basically adopted the Sunbelt strategy of Atlanta and Los Angeles: ignore social problems of segregation and poverty, and instead try to transform the image rather than the reality of the central city".[42] Creativity strategies have been crafted to co-exist with these problems, not to solve them. It should come as no surprise, then, that the creative capitals exhibit higher rates of socioeconomic inequality than other cities, as has been belatedly acknowledged by Florida himself.[43] This awkward correlation is quite consistent, of course, with the argument that creativity strategies are predicated upon, and constitutively realized in the context of, uneven modes of urban growth and neoliberal politics. In this light, the creativity fix begins to look less like a solution to, and more like a symptom of, Detroit's problems.
Conclusion: creativity redux
Beneath the creative rhetoric, Florida presents a familiar urban-economic development story: construct new urban governance networks around growth-oriented goals, compete aggressively for mobile economic resources and government funds, respond in formulaic ways to external threats, talk up the prospects of success, and, whatever you do, don't buck the market. The emphasis on the mobilization of elite policy communities around growth-first urban policy objectives is nothing new, but whereas the entrepreneurial cities chased jobs, the creative cities pursue talent workers; the entrepreneurial cities craved investment, now the creative cities yearn for buzz; while entrepreneurial cities boasted of their postfordist flexibility, the creative cities trade on the cultural distinction of cool. Notwithstanding some conventional neoliberal frames of reference, the creativity fix is also a distinctive development vision, tailored to appeal to left-tilting mayors, with its easily digestible cocktail of cultural liberalism and economic rationality. Moreover, it is very much a mobilizing discourse, which actively reconstitutes external competitive threats in novel terms, while pointedly defining new responses, together with new roles for an enlarged network of urban policy protagonists and beneficiaries. It establishes a fresh set of "models" of urban development, distilling the essence of their success into a series of portable policy routines and mobile rationalities. It nudges urban leaders to contemplate new forms of fiscally modest, supply-side investment, mostly targeted at economically secure residents of neighbourhoods in which property prices are already on the up.

The seductiveness of creativity strategies must be understood in terms of their basic complementarity with prevailing neoliberal development fixes, their compatibility with discretionary, selective, and symbolic supply-side policymaking, and their conformity with the attendant array of development interests. Creativity strategies presume, work with, and subtly remake the neoliberalized terrain of urban politics, placing commodified assets like the arts and street culture into the sphere of interurban competition, enabling the formation of new local political channels and constituencies, and constituting new objects and subjects of urban governance. Creativity strategies work upon, indeed celebrate, mobile and adaptive creative subjects, making the case for public investment in their preferred urban milieu, while shifting the primary focus of proactive governance towards the "needs" of a techno-bohemian slice of the middle-class. Taking the flexible/insecure/unequal economy as given, these post-progressive urban strategies lionize a creative elite while offering the residualized majority the meager consolation of crumbs from the creative table. They enforce soft-disciplinary modes of creative governmentality based on mandatory individualism, relentless innovation, and 24/7 productivity. Say what you will about the fuzzy causality in Florida's model, its central message has certainly struck a chord. But as Detroit writer Carey Wallace, among others, has begun to wonder, does the creativity craze represent "a new truth, or something people want very much to believe?"[44]



* [1] Richard Florida, The rise of the creative class (2002), Cities and the creative class (2005), The flight of the creative class (2005).
* [2] Florida, The flight of the creative class, p. 20.
* [3] Jamie Peck and Adam Tickell, "Neoliberalizing space", i Antipode, vol. 34, no. 3 2002, p. 380-404.
* [4] Richard Florida, The rise of the creative class, p. 166.
* [5] Florida, The flight of the creative class.
* [6] Chris Dreher, "Be creative - or die", Salon 6 June 2002, p. 1.
* [7] Richard Florida, The rise of the creative class, p. 21.
* [8] Quoted in Dreher (2002), p. 4-5.
* [9] Richard Florida, The rise of the creative class, p. ix.
* [10] Ibid., p. 13.
* [11] Florida, The flight of the creative class, p. 3-4.
* [12] Ibid., p. 7.
* [13] Florida, "The rise of the creative class", Washington Monthly May 2002, p. 20.
* [14] Florida, The flight of the creative class, p. 131.
* [15] Florida, The rise of the creative class, p. 115.
* [16] Florida, The flight of the creative class, p. 10.
* [17] See Peck and Tickell, p. 380-404.
* [18] Florida, The flight of the creative class, p. 243-244.
* [19] Quoted in Bill Steigerwald, "Q&A: Florida sees a 'different role' for government", Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 11 April 2004, p. 2.
* [20] Jamie Peck, "Struggling with the creative class", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol. 29, no. 4 2005, p. 740-770.
* [21] See Cool Cities Initiative, Michigan's cool cities initiative (2004).
* [22] Ibid., p. 3.
* [23] Ibid., p. 4.
* [24] Ibid., p. 13.
* [25] Ibid., p. 3.
* [26] Louis Aguilar, "Michigan loses jobs. Rate worst in nation", Detroit News, 20 January 2005, p. A 1.
* [27] Quoted in Jodi Wilgoren, "Shrinking, Detroit faces fiscal nightmare", New York Times 2 February 2005, p. A 12.
* [28] See Sarah Klein, "Hipster economics", Metro Times 25 February 2004.
* [29] See Peck, Cities and the creative class.
* [30] Hans Erickson, "Create Detroit: Who needs it? We do!", The Detroiter November 2003, p. 1.
* [31] Nick Sousanis, "Rise and shine Detroit", The Detroiter March 2004, p. 4.
* [32] Quoted in Carey Wallace, "Does civic creativity pay", Metro Times 25 February 2004, p. 2.
* [33] Sarah Klein, "Creation station", Metro Times 10 March 2004, p. 1.
* [34] Sousanis, p. 3.
* [35] Klein, "Creation station", p. 5.
* [36] Florida, The rise of the creative class, p. 302-303.
* [37] Wilgoren, p. A12.
* [38] Marisol Bello, "Detroit is bracing for a lean new year", Detroit Free Press 30 December 2005, p. A1.
* [39] David Harvey, "From managerialism to entrepreneurialism: The transformation in urban governance in late capitalism", Geografiska annaler B 71, p. 3-17.
* [40] Klein, "Hipster economics", p. 5.
* [41] State of Michigan, Office of the Governor, Michigan cool cities initial report (2003), p. 3.
* [42] Quoted in Ari Paul, "32 flavors of cool: Making over Michigan", Next American City 7 (2005), p. 19.
* [43] Florida, Cities and the creative class.
* [44] Wallace, p. 1.



Published 2007-06-28

Original in English
First published in Fronesis 24 (2007)

Contributed by Fronesis
© Jamie Peck/Fronesis
© Eurozine


18 09 06
Critique of Creative Industries
A Workshop in Kiasma Museum, Helsinki, 31.8. – 1.9. 2006

Monika Mokre
http://transform.eipcp.net/correspondence/1158928854

The workshop provided an interesting and inspiring overview of critical positions towards the Creative Industries (CI). Papers were devoted (1) to general problems of the concept of Creative Industries, and (2) to national and supranational case studies. This short report is a subjective summary of the main points of the presentations and discussions.

http://eipcp.net/projects/ecp2015ff/2006
http://www.frame-fund.fi/news/news5.shtml



1. General Problems


Using the provocative header “Creative Industries as Mass Deception” Gerald Raunig asked for the timeliness of Adorno/Horkheimer’s thought on the cultural industries. While Adorno/Horkheimer focussed on mass culture (produced by huge industrial complexes) and their impact on the audience, Raunig argued that contemporary CI can be understood as a form of self-deception of the producers working in CI. Both forms of subjectivation use the desire of the subject in order to integrate her in the economic system. Since 1944, when “Dialectics of Enlightenment” was published several transitions took place: from Fordism to Post-Fordism, from Liberalism to Neo-Liberalism, from dependence as employee to dependence as entrepreneur and self-precarisation. Still Adorno/Horkheimer’s analysis of constant promise and constant deception as a way of disciplining can be made fruitful for our thought on the CI. However, Adorno and Horkheimer do not provide us with a convincing alternative – Adorno’s retreat to exclusive and assumedly more progressive art forms not presenting a satisfying solution. Based on Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, Paolo Virno's book Grammar of the Multitude and Isabell Lorey's essay "Governmentality and Self-Prcarization" Raunig therefore asked for ways of institutional critique including one’s own position within these institutions.

Matteo Pasquinelli described concepts of the CI as a mixture of a new economic concept brought forward most prominently by Richard Florida and older European concepts of the role of intellectuals in society. Cognitive capitalism can, thus, be understood as the neo-liberal turn-around of the concept of the general intellect as e.g. proposed by Operaism. While the European left has focused on the representative part of cognitive work, Florida emphasizes its productive part. The traditional definition of the Bohemian as a person with high education and low income is transformed into an economic development programme by Florida. However, it seems questionable if Florida’s analysis is sound out of an economic point of view. Maybe, instead of cities becoming affluent due to their creativity, creatives go to affluent cities.

Esther Leslie argued that parallel to the economisation and privatization of culture and creativity, culture has been subjected to government and state intervention by cultural policies. She brought forward the argument (highly contested within the workshop) that this subjection has been supported by cultural studies. Cultural studies in their focus on symbolic values have neglected conditions of production and, thereby, furthered late capitalist modes of subsumption and not least the success of the creative industries.

More concretely, Aku Alanen analysed the use of the term “Creative Industries” in statistics and, consequently, in cultural politics and called for a rejection of the concept as, due to its fuzziness and all-inclusiveness, it obfuscates the structures of different sectors included under this header. In this vein, he analysed statistical data on the constant growth of the CI and thereby showed that, in fact, software industries are growing while the cultural sector is declining.

Out from a different perspective, Ulf Wuggenig deconstructed contemporary interpretations of creativity focussing thereby on conceptualizations of art history. By emphasizing the role of arts dealers in 19th century art sociologists like Harrison and Cynthia White have promoted an understanding of “the dealer as genius” claiming that the role of art dealers was crucial for the success of artists such as Monet. By looking more concretely at stories of artistic success Wuggenig makes plausible that this interpretation is rather due to contemporary paradigms than to historical accurateness.

Finally Tere Vadén deconstructed the notion of the creative commons as a generally desirable alternative to the CI. Due to the different affluence and access to technology in different parts of the world, creative commons are nearly exclusively developed in the USA and Europe as can be seen in the geographical position of developers of GNU and Linux. Furthermore, commonly developed contents like Wikipedia further promote the use of English as a lingua franca and, consequently, reduce multilingualism. Thus, Vadén defines the impact of the creative commons as a new form of colonialism.


2. Case Studies

All case studies shared the observation of an increasing neo-liberal orientation of cultural policies. Raimund Minichbauer analysed the policy strategies of the European Commission as part of EUropean neo-liberal politics. Programmes supporting the political or social function of culture are weak and becoming continuously less ambitious as a comparison between “Culture 2007” and “Culture 2000” shows. Mainly, cultural policy is understood as competition and employment policy while the latter usually neglects the quality of employment. Copyright questions based on the concept of economic competition in the production of content play a crucial role.

The question of copyright was taken up by Branka Ćurčić with regard to the post-communist countries. For capitalism, the importance of property has led to the historical spread of this concept to ever new sectors - from the property of land to the property of means of production to the property of information. In Communist countries, copyright played a completely different role; it did not have much importance as a legal entitlement but was, on the one hand, part of the social support system and, on the other hand, a means of censorship. Thus, the capitalist copyright system means a radical change for these countries. This rupture is intensified by EU regulations, above all the Copyright Directive that combines the hardest legal measures of all Member States and, e.g., allows house searches and the freezing of accounts in cases of alleged copyright infringements. In the debates on copyright cultural producers question certain dimensions of property rights in this field but not the concept of property in general.

The Finnish and Austrian contributions focussed on concrete developments in national cultural politics and their impact on the cultural sector. For Finland, Marita Muukkonen described the development of Finnish cultural politics in three phases – nation building from the end of the 19th century to the 1960s, welfare ideology from the 1960s to the 1990s and an increasing economic orientation since then. This economic orientation goes hand in hand with a growing emphasis on national culture that became obvious when, in summer 2006, a media debate on “Finnishness” developed focusing above all on the claim that immigrants have to become acquainted with Finnish culture. The combination of economic and national orientation becomes obvious in the fact that the Finnish arts-exchange-programme has been renamed “programme for cultural exportation”. Marketta Seppälä added to this description some further facts pointing to a similar direction: Finland ends its “artists-in-residence”-programme and the Nordic Council for the Arts closes down the Forum for Contemporary Arts in Helsinki while the Nordic Innovation Centre has developed a programme for cultural economics.

Monika Mokre described traditional Austrian cultural politics as a mixture of patronizing politics towards culture and the arts, mostly focussing on the cultural heritage, and a strong and well developed welfare state. The concept of the creative industries does not fit into this scheme and, consequently, Austrian political measures in this regard are characterised by helplessness and ineffectiveness. Still, the creative industries play an increasing role in Austria due to creatives taking up this concept as part of their self-understanding.

Two further contributions dealt with the ways in which cultural workers oppose the neo-liberal paradigm. Maria Lind described artistic practices aiming at gaining economic and political autonomy, e.g. the New York City based initiative “16 Beaver” that owns a house in Lower Manhattan and uses income from rents for artistic projects, or the Berlin bookshop “pro qm” understanding itself as a place for debating alternative spaces for cultural productions and, at the same time, as a practical example of such an alternative space. In a different way, the Manifesto Club in London aims at developing niches from hegemonic paradigms by claiming for a “strategic separatism” of the arts. Similarly, the project “Opacity” of the Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art” claimed the right of artistic institutions to renounce transparency in order to be able to experiment.

Maurizio Lazzarato focussed in his speech on the French movement of the “intermittants du spectacle”, people who are temporarily employed in cultural projects and, between these phases, live from unemployment benefits. The French cultural sector encompasses three, structurally different, sub-sectors: the public sector, the creative industries (above all TV/cinema) and the independent sector. People working for culture are either continuously employed or intermittants and their incomes differ widely. From the 400.000 people working in the French cultural sector, 100.000 are intermittants. The movement of the intermittans was started by the poorest intermittants working outside of the creative industries. It was a protest against a change of unemployment insurance: in the future, the number of days for which benefits are paid should depend on one’s own payments into unemployment insurance. This does not only mean a deterioration for concrete living conditions but also a paradigmatic change in the understanding of unemployment insurance - from a collective to an individual investment. The intermittants see themselves as permanently working in the cultural sector while only temporarily employed and understand this form of living as opposed both to permanent employment and to entrepreneurship. This form of organizing one’s life is endangered by the new regulation.

Altogether, a wide variety of important issues for a critique of the Creative Industries was brought up during the workshop leading in many cases to more open questions than convincing answers - which is, as we know, a characteristic of most intellectually fruitful engagements.

China - the cultural revolution in the West I- On the philosopher François Jullien

http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2006/10/JULLIEN/14010
http://www.philomag.com/article,entretien,francois-jullien-la-chine-est-un-depaysement-de-l-esprit,1.php
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2008/02/JULLIEN/15588

François Jullien
Was ist die Zukunft des chinesischen Denkens?

Pour une cohérence de la prognose
Vortrag in französischer Sprache



»Umweg über China« lautet die Formel, durch die der französische Sinologe und Philosoph François Jullien bekannt geworden ist.

In den oft hitzig geführten Debatten über die neue Wirtschaftsmacht China, die Banken und Großkonzerne als Zukunftsmarkt preisen, taucht Julliens Stimme nicht nur als die eines umsichtigen akademischen China-Kenners auf, der aktuelle Prozesse im Spiegel der langen, komplexen Geschichte dieses Landes reflektiert und die gegenwärtigen ökonomischen, sozialen und politischen Entwicklungen zu solchen des Denkens und der kulturellen Praxis in Verbindung setzt.

Jullien plädiert stets auch dafür, China nicht als ein bloßes Objekt zu behandeln, dem bestimmte Eigenschaften einfach zukämen, sondern als ein Moment in unserer Auseinandersetzung mit unserem eigenen »westlichen« Denken.

Seine Umwege über China gehen stets von der europäischen, von ihrem Ursprung her griechischen Philosophie aus und führen dorthin zurück, um die Kontingenzen ihrer Voraussetzungen und Bedingungen offen zu legen. Sie konfrontieren diese Philosophie mit dem, was man in China gedacht hat – und mit dem, was man dort nicht gedacht hat, denn es sind oftmals gerade die Leerstellen des chinesischen Denkens, die auf die Gebundenheiten und Aporien des europäischen Denkens verweisen.
Wozu »die Zeit«?

Eine solche Leerstelle ist, wie Jullien in seinem Buch Über die »Zeit« ausführt, der Begriff einer einheitlichen, abstrakten, neutralen, für alles und alle geltenden Zeit.

Während die abendländische Philosophie sich von Aristoteles und Augustinus über Kant, die Frühromantiker und Hegel bis zu Bergson, Husserl und Heidegger unaufhörlich an diesem Problem der Zeit abgearbeitet hat, wurde in China niemals auch nur der Versuch unternommen, so etwas zu denken.

Das chinesische Denken kennt die Jahreszeit und die konkrete Dauer der Prozesse. Diese Kenntnis hat über Jahrtausende hinweg genügt. Und besagt das nicht – so Julliens provokante Frage –, dass dieses philosophische Denken der Zeit unnötig ist? Dass es keiner praktischen Notwendigkeit des Lebens entspricht? Und uns vielleicht sogar gehindert hat, die praktisch relevanten Fragen zu den Lebensprozessen wirklich zu stellen?
Die Zukunft wissen ohne Einheit der Zeit

Was hieße das für die Prognose? In den westlichen Konzepten des Vorhersagens und Prognostizierens treffen ein allgemeiner, abstrakt-theoretischer Begriff der Zeit und eine Vielzahl singulärer Praktiken und praktischer Motive direkt aufeinander. Wie verändert sich der prognostische Blick auf oder in die Zukunft, wenn er jener Bewegung eines Umwegs über China folgt, die Jullien beschrieben hat?

Sehen wir die Zukunft mit anderen Augen, wenn wir uns von der Vorstellung eines universalen Zeithorizonts verabschieden oder diese Vorstellung zumindest relativieren? Treten an die Stelle des Dramas der Vorhersage, in dem das westliche Subjekt den Kampf gegen die Zeitlichkeit seines Existierens inszeniert, eine Reihe konkreter, situationsspezifischer Techniken des Vorhersagens?
Natürliches Wachstum und Hyperkapitalismus?

Wir fragen François Jullien zudem nach möglichen Berührungspunkten zwischen den Vorstellungen eines natürlichen Wachstums im chinesischen Denken zeitlicher Beziehungen und dem kapitalistischen Begriff des Wachstums.

Jullien selbst verwendet in seinen Umschreibungen des chinesischen Denkens eine Reihe von Formulierungen, die auf die Ökonomie verweisen. Er spricht vom Kontinuum des Prozesses als einem »Fonds von Immanenz«, der als »Kapital und Quelle« fungiert. Steht die kapitalistische Zukunftskonstruktion dem chinesischen Denken möglicherweise näher als der Zukunftsbezug des historischen Materialismus?
Eine simultane Prognose

François Jullien wird einen philosophischen Vortrag in französischer Sprache über die Prognose halten und seine Reflexionen im Präsens anstellen. Eine Simultanübersetzung ins Deutsche wird seine Sätze ins Futur übertragen und daraus prognostische Aussagen konstruieren. Das Publikum hat die Wahl, welcher der Versionen es sich zuwenden will.

Konzept der Konzeptlosigkeit
François Jullien erklärt den Taoismus
Rezensiert von Marius Meller

Der französische Professor für Philosophie und Sinologie François Jullien vergleicht in seinem Buch "Vom Nähren des Lebens. Abseits vom Glück" fernöstliche Philosophien und die westliche Postmoderne. Er erklärt die Konzepte des Taoismus und spricht sich für eine grundlegende Änderung der westlichen Denkweiseaus. Für Esoterik hingegen ist bei Jullien kein Platz.

Der Franzose François Jullien ist anders als in seinem Heimatland hierzulande erst einem kleineren Kreis von Bewunderern bekannt, obwohl mit dem Essay "Sein Leben nähren. Abseits vom Glück" nun ein volles Dutzend Bücher auf Deutsch vorliegen.

Es geht dem Philosophen und Sinologen um nichts weniger, als um eine fundamentale Revision des westlichen Denkens aus der Perspektive der chinesischen Weisheitslehren. Ein Projekt für Esoteriker?

Für den Standortwechsel des Denkens bringt Jullien zunächst gute, aktuelle Gründe vor:

"Nach der Dekonstruktion und der Postmoderne ist dies meiner Meinung nach die heutige Agenda: die spezifischen Fragen der Philosophie überprüfen, aber von Gebieten aus, die außerhalb von ihr liegen."

Ganz bewusst hat sich Jullien, Jahrgang 1951, schon als Student deshalb für das Studium des Chinesischen entschieden, weil er sich die Grundlage für sein gewagtes denkerisches Programm erarbeiten wollte. Das Chinesische und die chinesische Philosophie schien ihm der weitestmögliche Abstand zur abendländischen Tradition. Weiter sogar als das Sanskrit, das ja durch das "Indogermanische" sprachliche Wurzeln mit dem europäischen Kulturraum teilt.

Für Esoterik bleibt in diesem ehrgeizigen Programm kein Platz. Julliens Bücher lesen sich ebenso präzise wie leidenschaftlich, und sind, zwischen den Zeilen, immer auch bezogen auf die prekäre politische Konstellation im Reich der Mitte.

Julliens Projekt ist eine "Dekonstruktion von außen". "Denn von innen (von unserer Tradition aus) durchgeführt, droht sie fehlzuschlagen." So werden Analogien zwischen östlicher Philosophie und Postmoderne sichtbar: Kategorien wie Gott, Seele, Subjekt gibt es in China nicht nur nicht, sondern sie werden, das ist Julliens These, gleichsam weggedacht.

Vor diesem Hintergrund hinge die Postmoderne im luftleeren Raum, wenn sie sich nur darauf beschränkte, Brüche und Risse in der europäischen Tradition aufzuzeigen, und sich nicht auf ein Terrain einließe, in dem gerade das Nicht-Gedachte oft als große Idee gelten muss.

Jullien liefert auf 200 Seiten eine minutiöse Lektüre einiger Kapitel des klassischen Weisheitswerkes "Das wahre Buch vom südlichen Blütenland" des Philosophen Zhuangzi (4. Jahrhundert vor Christus.) und eines Textes des bei uns unbekannteren Xi Kang (4. Jahrhundert nach Christus). Xi Kang bezieht sich auf Zhuangzi mit seiner Abhandlung "Vom Nähren des Lebens" und entwickelt ein Konzept des "langen Lebens".

Philosophie ist das gute "Nähren des Lebens". Jullien erklärt, gut verständlich auch für Noch-Nichtkenner der taoistischen Literatur, das Konzept von der Konzeptlosigkeit der weisen Welthaltung, von der Nicht-Getrenntheit von Physis und Lebenskraft, von "Atem und Wirbelsäule".

Aber: Was man gemeinhin Esoterik nennt, ist ihm ein Gräuel.

"Es ist höchste Zeit ein solches Denken des Atems, der Harmonie und des 'Nährens' aus diesem Pseudo-Wissen rauszuholen und es in den Bereich der philosophischen Reflexion zu integrieren, indem man seine Kohärenz zeigt."

Will man die Postmoderne auch als Globalisierungsprojekt beschreiben, müssten laut Jullien deren Risiken dringend ausbalanciert werden durch eine Kenntnisnahme des Komplementären, eben des Fernöstlichen, und zwar auf einer mehr als therapeutischen Ebene.

Auf die Postmoderne, auf die "neuere Abkehr von der Produktion und Förderung eines Sinns im Westen sieht man heute allein seine massive Wiederaufladung durch eine primäre Rückkehr zum Religiösen, eine Rückkehr zur Frage des Bösen, Rückkehr zu Gott".

Die Philosophie hingegen muss ihre "eigenen anthropologischen Grundentscheidungen in Frage stellen, indem sie sich auf die kulturellen Entscheidungen anderer Zivilisationen stützt" ohne sich durch eine "billige Exotik zerfressen zu lassen".

François Julliens Werk verdient eine breite Resonanz, denn es ist höchste Zeit die "Lehre der Leere" des Taoismus und die "philosophische Praxis" des Zen jenseits orientalistischer Phantasmen als Weisheitslehren zu verstehen: um das Eigenste zu sondieren und, neu synthetisiert, möglicherweise wieder schätzen und leben zu lernen.

François Jullien: Sein Leben nähren. Abseits vom Glück.
Aus dem Französischen von Ronald Voullié
Merve, Berlin 2006
218 Seiten, 18 Euro


OUVRAGES DE FRANÇOIS JULLIEN TRADUITS EN ALLEMAND


- Uber das Fade, eine Eloge
Traduction de Eloge de la fadeur par Andreas Hiepko
Merve Verlag, Berlin, 1999

- Uber die Wirksamkeit
Traduction de Traité de l'efficacité par Ronald Voullié et Gabriele Ricke
Merve Verlag, Berlin, 1999

- Umweg und Zugang, Strategien des Sinns in China und Griechenland
Traduction de Le Détour et l'accès par Mag Markus Sedlaczek
Passagen Verlag, Vienne, 1999

- Der Weise hängt an keiner Idee
Traduction de Un Sage est sans idée par Mag Markus Sedlaczek
Fink Verlag, Munich, 2001

- Der Umweg über China, Ein Ortswechsel des Denkens
Traduction de divers articles présentant le travail de François Jullien par Mira Köller
Merve Verlag, Berlin, 2002

- Dialog über die Moral, Menzius und die Philosophie der Aufklärung
Traduction de Fonder la morale par Ronald Vouillié
Merve Verlag, Berlin, 2003

- Vom Wesen des Nackten
Traduction de De l’Essence ou du Nu par Gernot Kamecke
Sequenzia, Munich, 2003

- Über die « Zeit », Elemente einer Philosophie des Lebens
Traduction de Du « Temps », éléments d’une philosophie du vivre par Heinz Jatho
Diaphanes, Zürich-Berlin, 2004

- Die Kunst, Listen zu erstellen
Traduction de L’Art de la liste (collectif dirigé par François Jullien) par Ronald Voullié
Merve Verlag, Berlin, 2004

- Das grosse Bild hat keine Form
Traduction de La Grande image n’a pas de forme, ou du non objet par la peinture par Markus Sedlaczek
Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich, 2005

- Schattenseiten, Vom Bösen oder Negativen
Traduction de L’Ombre au tableau, du mal ou du négatif par Dirk Weissmann
Diaphanes, Zürich- Berlin, 2005

- Sein Leben nähren, Abseits vom Glück Traduction de Nourrir sa vie par Ronald Vouillé
Merve Verlag, Berlin, 2006


- Vortrag vor Managern ûber Wirksamkeit und Effizienz in China und im Westen
Traduction de Conférence sur l’efficacité par Ronald Vouillé
Merve Verlag, Berlin, 2006




ENTRETIENS & ARTICLES

Chinesisches Werkzeug, Eine fernöstliche Denkposition zur Archäologie des Abendlands,
François Jullien im Gespräch mit Roman Herzog, Lettre international, n° 64, printemps 2004 ;

Vom Umweg über China, ein Gespräch mit dem Französischen philosophen und sinologen
François Jullien, par Amine Haase, Kunstforum, n° 173, 2004 ;

Eine Dekonstruktion von aussen. Von Griechenland nach China oder wie man die fest gefügten
Vorstellungen der europäschen. Vernunft ergründet, traduit par Felix Heidenreich, DVA-Stiftung,
mai 2005 ; et Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, Akademie Verlag, n° 2005-4, pp. 523-539


Francois Jullien
Die Kunst, Listen zu erstellen

Cover: Die Kunst, Listen zu erstellen

Merve Verlag, Berlin 2004
ISBN-10 3883962015
ISBN-13 9783883962016

Jullien und Cheng erfahren Kunst
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 23.08.2004
Bei der Flut von Lebenshilfe-Büchern, die "Zen" oder "Tao" im Titel tragen und deren Zweck ein eher therapeutischer, wenigstens kompensatorischer zu sein scheint, vergißt man leicht, wie stark das frühe chinesische Denken immer wieder auch die ästhetischen Avantgarden des letzten Jahrhunderts inspiriert hat. Bezeichnenderweise waren es meist Außenseiter des akademischen Betriebs, die in verschiedenen Phasen westliche Künstler und Schriftsteller zu entzünden vermochten. Eine überwältigende Wirkung hatten etwa die Übersetzungen von Laotse, Zhuangzi und Liezi, die der deutsche China-Missionar Richard Wilhelm von 1910 bis 1912 bei Diederichs herausgab. Der Einfluß war um so weniger mit geschmäcklerischer Chinoiserie zu verwechseln, als er Stile und Autoren erfaßte, wie sie unterschiedlicher nicht sein könnten: eben nicht nur Hermann Hesse, sondern auch Döblin, Brecht und Kafka ("im Grunde bin ich ja Chinese und fahre nach Hause", schrieb dieser damals an Felice). Eine andere Phase setzte Anfang der fünfziger Jahre ein, als der hochbetagte japanische Zen-Mönch Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki an der Columbia University lehrte und dort den Komponisten John Cage, den Schriftsteller Jack Kerouac und die gesamte Beat-Generation mit Zen und Daoismus in Berührung brachte. Das Bewußtsein für die Tragweite dieser Begegnung nahm solche Ausmaße an, daß John Cage in einem Vortrag sagte: "Die Bewegung mit dem Wind des Orients und die Bewegung gegen den Wind des Okzidents treffen sich in Amerika."

Nunmehr, weitere fünfzig Jahre später, scheinen sie sich eher in Frankreich zu treffen. Wieder liegen in den Kunstbuchhandlungen und Museumsshops Abhandlungen über zweitausendvierhundert Jahre alte chinesische Texte aus, von denen man sich offenbar einen Ausweg aus ästhetischen Sackgassen erhofft. Im Zentrum der Bewegung steht diesmal der Pariser Sinologe und Philosoph François Jullien. Die meisten seiner Bücher gibt in Deutschland der Berliner Merve Verlag heraus. Julliens weitgespanntes Unternehmen, der westlichen Rationalität durch einen "Umweg über China" wieder die nötige Spannung zu geben (siehe F.A.Z. vom 13. 11. 2002), hatte immer schon einen ästhetischen Subtext - vor allem in seinem Lob der "Fadheit", durch die die chinesische Kunst in der Lage sei, einen allen Unterscheidungen und Ausgrenzungen vorausliegenden "Immanenzgrund" der Wirklichkeit zu evozieren.

Ein verblüffendes Beispiel für eine solche hart am Rande der Unauffälligkeit balancierende Fadheit präsentiert Jullien nun mit der "Kunst, Listen zu erstellen" (aus dem Französischen von Ronald Voullié. Merve Verlag Berlin 2004. 121 S., br., 9,80 [Euro]). Das Thema kann auch dem mit Asien völlig unvertrauten Konsumenten von Zeitschriften auf Anhieb einleuchten, insofern das Prinzip der Liste dort seit langem ein beliebtes Mittel ist, ob es nun Objektivität suggeriert oder ironisch mit Subjektivem spielt. Es liegt auf der Hand, daß die immer neue Zusammenstellung von zuvor zerschlagenen Ganzheiten heute endlose Anschlußmöglichkeiten eröffnet. In diesem Sinn präsentiert auch Jacqueline Pigeot in dem von Jullien herausgegebenen Band das berühmte "Kopfkissenbuch", das um das Jahr tausend herum eine japanische Hofdame namens Sei Shonagon geschrieben hat. Das Buch besteht aus lauter Listen von Dingen, die nur das sehr persönliche, durch ebensoviel Poesie wie Humor gebrochene Empfinden ihrer Autorin zusammenhält, ob es nun um Insekten ("die Zikade des Abends") oder um "Beunruhigendes" ("die Mutter eines Mönches, der für zwölf Jahre fortgegangen ist, um zurückgezogen im Gebirge zu leben") geht. Pigeot interpretiert dieses Spiel mit Fragmenten als "eine Art Maschine zur Rauscherzeugung". Jullien selber analysiert keine Kunstwerke, sondern höchst praktische Anweisungen der chinesischen Tradition für Kalligraphie und Schattenboxen, Zitherspielen und Poesie. Überall werden die Anordnungen in Listen zusammengestellt, die schon dadurch irritieren, daß sie kein Kriterium für die beanspruchte Vollständigkeit angeben; sie genügen sich selbst ohne jede weitere Erklärung. Jullien deutet diese Listen als "komplexe Magnetfelder", deren innere Spannung die Spannung spiegele, die gemäß chinesischem Denken in der Struktur der Wirklichkeit selbst zu finden ist. Die Aufgabe der Liste sei, diese Spannung im Sinne einer größtmöglichen Dynamisierung und Selbsterneuerung auszunutzen. Man merkt schon, wie sich auch dieser kleine Mosaikstein in das Gewebe von Julliens Gesamtentwurf der chinesischen "Heterotopie" fügt, wo eines das andere erklärt und der bisweilen sich einstellende Eindruck von Wiederholung gern in Kauf genommen wird.

Bodenständiger kommen da François Chengs Betrachtungen über "Fülle und Leere" in der chinesischen Malerei daher, die ebenfalls Merve herausgibt (aus dem Französischen von Joachim Kurtz. Merve Verlag Berlin 2004. 184 S., br., 20,- [Euro]). Der Autor, ein in Paris lebender Dichter, Kunstkritiker und Kalligraph, der 2002 als erster Asiate in die Académie Française aufgenommen wurde, bietet mit zahlreichen Zitaten von frühen Theoretikern und Malern eine sehr ergiebige Materialsammlung zur chinesischen Ästhetik. Cheng zeigt, wie die unbemalte Fläche - in der Song- und Yuan-Zeit hat sie oft zwei Drittel der Gemälde eingenommen - die einzelnen Elemente des Bildes miteinander in Beziehung setzt, ja ineinander übergehen läßt und am Ende auch den Betrachter einbezieht. Das Malen erscheint als ein "Denken in Aktion", durch das der Mensch seine Lebenseinheit suchen kann. Cheng bleibt so nah an den Quellen, daß die Verbindung zur gegenwärtigen Ästhetik der lesende Künstler schon selber herstellen muß - was im ganzen wohl auch kein Nachteil ist.

MARK SIEMONS

Alle Rechte vorbehalten. © F.A.Z. GmbH, Frankfurt am Main

Change Obama Change: From "Infinite Justice"(Bush) to the Infinite Potientiality of change "we can"(Obama)

What will Obama do with the Bush heritage of the US?
Will he introduce the "ethical bomb"?
Obama has little time to change radically the course of US politics, but "he can".

April 30, 2002
Guantanamo, Justice and Bushspeak
Prisoners of the Infinite

by Jacques Ranciere

"Infinite Justice". This was the initial name given to the Pentagon's offensive against that fuzzy-contoured enemy, referred to by the term of 'terrorism'. As we know, the name was quickly changed. It had been, as we were told, a case of language excess on the part of a president still inexperienced in the art of nuances. If he had wanted bin Laden "dead or alive", it was obviously due to having seen too many Westerns at too young an age.

Such an explanation left no one convinced. That's because the 'dead or alive' principle isn't the one from Westerns. On the contrary, it's quite common to find sheriffs risking their skin to save assassins from a lynch mob, and hand them over to Justice afterward. Infinite Justice, as opposed to the Far West's whole morality, means justice without limits. It's justice that ignores all of the categories by which its practice is traditionally circumscribed: distinguishing legal punishment from the vengeance of individuals; separating the law from politics, ethics or religion; separating police forms by which criminals are hunted down from the military forms by which armies engage in battle.

From that point of view, there was no language excess. 'Nuances' would be inappropriate indeed. These traces are precisely what characterize the retaliatory operations undertaken by the USA. They involve eliminating the differences that separate war and the police from all the legal forms by means of which we've sought to specify and limit the action of war onto justice. We're no longer talking about 'dead or alive', except to say that nobody knows whether the accused is dead or alive. Yet no one knows exactly what the charge is under which the American military is detaining, with the intension of trying, prisoners who benefit neither from POW status nor from the ordinary guarantees granted to defendants with proceedings brought against them. 'Infinite justice' states exactly what's at stake: the assertion of a right identical to the omnipotence hitherto reserved for the vindictive God. All traditional distinctions end up by being abolished with the erasure of international forms of law.

To be sure, this erasure is already the principle of terrorist action, to which political forms and the norms of law are also indifferent. But 'infinite justice' is not only the answer to the adversary's provocation, thus being compelled to share the same field as him. It translates as well the strange status that the erasure of the political nowadays grants to law, within nations and amongst them.

Reflecting on the current state of law reveals an extraordinary inversion of things. In the 1990's, the undoing of the Soviet empire and the weakening of social movements in major Western countries were usually celebrated as utopias being liquidated from real and social democracy to the benefit of the rules of the State of Right. Whereupon unleashed ethnic conflicts and religious fundamentalism ended by contradicting this simple philosophy of history. But identifying Western triumph as the State of Right's has also proved to be problematic. That's because at the very heart of Western powers and in their modes of foreign intervention, the relation between right and fact has evolved in such as way as to tend increasingly toward erasing the boundaries of law.

In these countries, we've seen two phenomena emerge. On the one hand, there's an interpretation of law in terms of the rights granted to a whole series of groups. On the other, legislative practices have aimed at harmonizing the letter of the law entirely with new lifestyles and workstyles, new forms of technology, and the family or social relationships.

This is how the political forum, shaped in the gap between the law's abstract literalness and the polemics over its interpretations, has been found to have shrunken as much. Thus celebrated, the law increasingly tends to be the record of a community's lifestyles. Ethical symbolization has substituted the political symbolization of power and its limits, and the law's ambivalence. What's now familiar to us is a relation of consensual inter-expression between the fact of a society's state and the norm of the law.

What the American response asserts is the unmediated likeness of law and fact in the way a community lives. Yet this is also what the American Constitution's dominant representation symbolizes: the ethical identity between a particular lifestyle and a universal system of values. As we know, 'ethos' means sojourn and lifestyle before referring to a system of moral values. The recent manifesto issued by American intellectuals in support of George W. Bush's policies highlighted this point well: the United States are first and foremost a community united by common moral and religious values, an ethical community more than one of law and politics. The Good, by which the community is founded, is therefor the identity between law and fact. And the crime perpetrated against thousands of American lives can be immediately considered a crime perpetrated against the Empire of Good itself.

Yet for some time already this rise of ethics to the detriment of justice has characterized the forms by which the Western powers have intervened abroad. Blurring the limits between fact and law has taken on another face, one opposite and complementary to consensual harmony, i.e. the face of the humanitarian and 'humane interference'.

The 'right of humane interference' has enabled the protection of some populations of the former-Yugoslavia from ethnic liquidation. However, this was carried out at the cost of blurring symbolic boundaries as well as State borders. It has not only consecrated giving up a structural principle of international law, i.e. the principle of non-inference--whose virtues were admittedly ambiguous. It especially introduced a destructive principle of limitlessness regarding the very idea of the gap separating law and fact, which otherwise endows the law with its status.

Back in the days of the Vietnam War or of the coups American power engineered more or less directly in various regions throughout the world, there existed an explicit or latent opposition between the great principles as asserted by the Western powers and the practices subordinating those principles to their vital interests. The anti-imperialist mobilizations of the 1960's and 1970's had denounced this split between the founding principles and real practices. Nowadays the polemics over means and ends seems to have vanished.

The principle behind this disappearance is represented by the absolute victim, a victim of infinite evil, forcing a response of infinite reparation. This 'absolute' right of the victim has come to full fruition in the framework of 'humane' war. It was backed up during the last quarter century by the major intellectual movement that worked on theorizing infinite crime.

We've undoubtedly not heeded the specific features enough of what could be called the second denunciation of Soviet crimes and the Nazi genocide. The first denunciation had aimed at establishing the reality behind the facts while also reinforcing the determination of Western democracies to struggle against an ever-present and ever-threatening totalitarianism. The second kind, developed during the 1970's as a record of communism, or in the 1980's when returning to the way in which the European Jewry was exterminated, has acquired a whole new meaning. Not only have the crimes been transformed into the monstrous effects of regimes that have to be fought against, but into the forms whereby an infinite, unthinkable and irreparable crime was made manifest_the work of an Evil power exceeding all legal and political measure. Ethics has become the way to think this infinite evil, which has created an irremediable break in history.

The ultimate consequences of the excess of ethics over law and politics is the paradoxical constitution of an individual's absolute right whose rights have, in fact, been absolutely negated. This individual actually appears as the victim of an infinite Evil against which the fight is itself infinite. This is the point at which the one defending the victim's rights inherits absolute right.

The unlimited feature of the wrong perpetrated against the victim justifies his counsel's unlimited right. American reparation for the absolute crime perpetrated against American lives has brought the process to its culmination. The obligation of attending to the victims of absolute Evil has become identical to the fight without limits against this evil. And this is identified with deploying unlimited military power, acting like a police force in charge of restoring order to every part of the world where Evil can find shelter. This military power is also a legal one, exercising the mythical power of Vengence in hot pursuit of Crime against all alleged accomplices of infinite Evil.

As the saying goes, unlimited right is identical to non-right. Victims and culprits alike fall into the cercle of 'infinite justice'. These days this translates into the total indeterminacy of the law as it deals with the status of the American army's prisoners and the way of qualifying the facts held against them.

Hegel had already sunk into the night of the Absolute in which "all cows are gray". The lack of ethical distinction, in which politics and the law drown nowadays, has transformed the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay into captives of the same type of infinite, with gray being switched to orange.

Legal and political symbolization has been slowly substituted by another ethical and police symbolization of the lives of so-called democratic communities and of their relations with another world, identified by the sole reign of ethnic and fundamentalist powers. In the one corner, the world of good: that of consensus eliminating political litigation in the joyous harmonizing of right and fact, ways of being and values. In the other: the world of evil, in which wrong is made infinite, and where it can only be a matter of war unto death.

Jacques Ranciere's most recent work in translation is Disagreement: Philosophy and Politics, (Julie Rose, translator) University of Minnesota Press, 1998; and in French: L'inconscient esthetique, Galilee, 2001.

Translated for CounterPunch by Norman Madarasz.

BioMediale Russia

Biomediale 2008



Biomediale
CONTEMPORARY ART IN THE POST-BIOLOGICAL AGE

What is radicalization and redundancy of technological and scientific progress? What is the evolutionary potential of the basic technological trends of the XXI century - robotics, bio- and genetic engineering, nanotechnology - like? Each of these trends actualize the traditionally formed boundaries of beginning and end of human existence, the demarcation of norm and pathology and the distinction of the non-(or semi-)organic model or entity. These - and many other issues - cannot be taken into consideration without the experience of contemporary techno-biological arts; the representatives of which do not so much confirm the technological versions of contemporaneity, as determine their boundaries. Art that is created under the new conditions of postbiology - under the conditions of an artificially fashioned lifespan - cannot help but take this artificiality as its explicit theme. However, time, duration, and life cannot be shown directly but only as documentation. The dominant genre of postbiological art is thus technological documentation: plans, drafts, and videos. It is precisely at this point where documentation becomes indispensable, and produces the life of the living thing: the documentation inscribes the existence of an object in history, and gives the object a lifespan which this existence (independent of whether this object was 'originally' living or artificial).



Biomediale


Dmitry Bulatov

THE THIRD MODERNIZATION:
A techno-biological artwork

1. History of the 20th century art abounds with examples of art trends that appeared in the conditions of the so called "scope of complexity". By "scope of complexity" I mean such state of technical and socio-cultural human environment, which is characterized by lack or insufficient development of humanitarian technologies. In this case culture doesn't have enough time to adapt the emerging technological innovations to man, and technical periphery starts developing chaotically. Eliminating of such discord between man and technology requires effort of humanitarian technologies and return of the principle of their correspondence to physical technologies.

2. At such "scope of complexity" moments, trying to "match" the developmental levels of humanitarian and physical technologies, every time artists had to pay special attention to the material basis of their artwork. They were interested not only and not so much in construction and composition (i.e. formal aspect) of the representational sign, as, in fact, in technical mechanism of image's functioning (its physical technology). The very change of representational mechanism has always made possible the emergence of new physics of representation and as a result appearance of new models that give birth to new meanings and interpretations of structural superfluity of the system. Both art of Modernism, which was a reaction to the machine industrial revolution, and art of the second modernization (postmodern), stimulated by postindustrial computer and informational revolution, equally depended immediately on technical changes in functioning of representation mechanism.

3. On the whole it's necessary to note that the main indicator that manifests the end of a certain historic period is the emergence of strong tendencies of the system's transition onto a more complex level - tendencies which are radically incompatible with the fundamental structures of that period. Incorporating those trends into the reality invariably leads to the systemic catastrophe, followed by the whole environment's shift to the new development phase. According to John Von Neumann, "any system's development occurs in the circumstances when it is on the verge of a catastrophe".





A sound humanitarian base is formed in people's minds allowing to operate with new subject matters.

4. This characteristic is applicable to the state-of-the-art of man's technological and socio-cultural sphere. Introducing the definition, we understand the Third Modernization as the next stage in the development of the socio-economic and cultural Modernistic project, which is taking shape under radicalization and redundancy of the technological and scientific progress. At present the Third Modernization process is concurrently supported by two long-term tendencies, equally constituting a structural revolution, both in the socio-economic sphere, and in man's psychophysical organization.

5. Firstly, this is the on-going revolution in the information science that already now enables handling of immense data arrays, and put forward the intellectual production, leading to an exceptionally fast and continuous renewal of the technosphere, and to an "instantaneous", from the point of view of ordinary perception, change of social and economic configurations. Radicalization which defines this process is well illustrated not only by the applications of Moore's law on the exponential growth of the computing power, but also by the change of technological paradigms substantiating it. The list of such paradigms, based on the five generations of the counting devices, is given by Ray Kurzweil: electromechanics, relay devices, electronic valves, transistors, integrated circuits etc. Every time the next paradigm exhausts its potential, it is replaced by the next one, starting from the point where its predecessor is "used up". Thus, at the beginning of the 20th century mankind was doubling the computing power every three years, while at the start of the 21st century we are doubling it every year. The redundancy level in this area (as well as in a whole series of other areas) can be described as the transition to nanotechnologies, operating fundamentally new properties of structures that are on the brink of merge between the smallest of man-made devices, and the biggest molecules of living organisms.



The "new" biology will be forced to assess the development of the new entities by their economic, not evolutional, success.

6. Secondly, this is the revolution in biology bringing forth by means of biomedical technologies (genetic engineering, implantology, stem cell engineering, cloning etc.) the flexibility of the very species of "homo sapiens". The evolutionary potential contained in this trend secures not only the euhominid's breakaway from some of his primarily inorganic biological properties, but also his acquisition of features of "inhuman" character, and, consequently, - the modification of the very anthropomorphic pattern of the civilization. This tendency is radicalized by means of man's practical mastering of the transfer from the pro-creative position in generation of homothetic (and other living) creatures, which still preserved a play field for spontaneous natural forces, towards a rationally controlled techno-biological production. As for the redundancy of this trend, it can be characterized not only by the growing evolution speed of techno-biological individuals, who are by-passing the natural selection in the ecosystem, but also by the "qualitative" change of the very definition of evolution. The "new" biology will be forced to assess the development of the new entities by their economic, not evolutional, success.

7. Despite of the evolutionally imminent and historically "positive" character of the inceptive aromorphosis (i.e. the system's transition onto a more complicated level), both of these long-term trends, the informational and the biological, are equally catastrophic. At least because from the point of view of the said "ordinary" perception they carry a practical systemic novelty, incompatible with the realities of yesterday. In order to eliminate such disbalance, the system needs an enhancement of humanitarian technologies, which is accompanied by intensive simulation of physical technologies losing their systemic properties.






Image 4-5. To what extent do the artists' technological metaphors differ from the scientific models?

8. This very type of models in the sphere of contemporary art is represented by artworks generated with the help of biomedical and information technologies. In order to describe them, let's use the following "style" definition. We understand the Third Moderne as the general name for art tendencies which declare new constructive approaches, consolidating qualitative and quantitative characteristics of artefacts through organization, simulation or consideration of impact of the metabolic processes. In biology, metabolism, as is known, is understood as the exchange of substance, energy, and information. When we note that the main systemic requirement of the Third Moderne is metabolism of artworks, we thus speak of the necessity to provide embodied artefacts with the properties of growth, variability, self-preservation, and reproductivity. All these qualities of metabolas help to proceed from observation of discrete objects in a discrete area to the description of materialized dynamic systems in the area of relations.





The main systemic requirement of the Third Moderne is metabolism of artworks (the properties of growth, variability, self-preservation, and reproductivity).

9. Important to note is the fundamental distinction of techno-biological artworks from biological organisms. The main criterion to distinguish a biological organism is his possession of the information on self-reproduction that exists in the genotype inseparably from the individual. As is known, this allows biological organisms to evolve at a low rate set by the "blind" nature of the interspecific informational (natural) selection. The nature of selection in this case is defined by the absence of a rational agent, and its rate is set by the physical inseparability of the genotype (information on the species) from the individual.

10. The techno-biological artwork combines the features of both a living organism, and a technical product. It means that, on the one hand, an artwork possesses the information on self-reproduction, in-built in its genotype, while, on the other hand, it has the "genetic" information, physically separated from it and existing as a document. The combination of these properties brings forth multi-dimensional and interdisciplinary artistic approaches, which earlier, in the context of the previous stages in art history, were totally unrealizable. Interaction with the living as technical (variability) allows to perform an elementary act of the workpiece selection at the level of documentation (at the information level, with no physical realization). Interaction with the technical as living (responsibility) creates a certain moral and ethical attitude towards the technological individual, adopting man to it likewise to a living entity. Finally, interpretation activity (involvement) is the integration of this entity into a certain social framework by describing the origin of "life" created by the artist.





We are rapidly moving from the manipulation of more or less inanimate objects to the generation of more or less living organisms.

11. The paradoxical combination in a techno-biological artwork of properties of a living organism and of a technical object brings us, at least, to the following conclusions:
- It makes no sense any more to oppose the notions of the "artificial" and "natural" life, just as strive for further combining of life and art. With the emergence of a whole series of techno-biological artworks this debate is given a count-down. As David Kremers said, "… we are rapidly moving from the manipulation of more or less inanimate objects to the generation of more or less living organisms."
- Since the technology implanted into organic substance on the basis of symbiosis generates a new type of evolutionary synthesis, techno-biological creatures are no longer bound to "reflect" life, or "represent" it. What they are supposed to do is to participate pari passu with us in its impetuous flow.
- We have to learn to perceive techno-biological artworks "flowably". It means that the differences between authenticity and falsification, reality and virtuality will now be of impulsive character, depending only upon us. Thus we find ourselves in the situation of an elaborate and unceasing game which localizes new correlations of mobility in granting and withdrawal of the gift of authenticity, and hence - the gift of existence.





The technology implanted into organic substance on the basis of symbiosis generates a new type of evolutionary synthesis.

The author would like to record his gratitude to the artists who granted the rights for publishing their works in Russia; and also the Kaliningrad Branch of NCCA for informational and creative support.

Dmitry Bulatov (1968, Kaliningrad, Russia)

Artist, researcher, art theorist. His research activities focus on different aspects of interdisciplinary sci-art media (robotechnics, bio- and genetic engineering, nanotechnology, etc.). Author of more than 30 articles on contemporary art published in Russia and abroad, also of such books and anthologies as "Ex-poetry" (Malbork, 1996), "Point of View" (Olsztyn, 1998), "Homo Sonorus" (Kaliningrad, 2001; republished: Mexico, 2004), "BioMediale" (Kaliningrad, 2004). His artworks were shown at more than 100 exhibitions, among them are such as the "Bunker Poetico" (49 Venice Biennial, Venice, 2001), "Davaj! Russian Art Now" (Berlin-Vienna, 2002), "Brain Academy Apartment" (50 Venice Biennial, Venice, 2003), "3durch3" (Kassel, 2004), "Art of Tortures and Executions" (Kaliningrad, 2005), "Eastern Neighbours" (Utreht, 2006), "Victory over the Sun" (Moscow, 2007) and others. Participated in such fest-programs as XXIII International Film Festival (Moscow, 2001), "Contemporary Art in the Traditional Museum" (St. Petersburg, 2002), "Radiotopia" (ORF, Ars Electronica Festival, 2002), Off-Beats Festival (Berlin, 2003), Quinta Bienal Internacional De Radio (Mexico, 2004), "Up to date" Art-Technology festival (Santiago, 2006), and others. Joined international conferences on the issues of contemporary art, delivered courses of lectures at various institutions in Russia (incl. The State Hermitage Museum, The State Tretyakov Gallery, The National Centre for Contemporary Arts), USA, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, and Hong Kong. He is Little Booker prize diploma-winner for literature (short-list, 2000), organizer and curator of more than 20 international art projects. Member of the Editorial Board "DOC(K)S" magazine (France). Since 1998 has been Senior curator at the Kaliningrad Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Art (Ministry of Culture, Russia).


BIBLIOGRAPHY

The part is a selected list of publications covering both scientific theories of the last 20 years, which make for a more integrate cultural and historical background of the present researches, and the issues approached within this project. While compiling the bibliography, special attention was paid to the books on contemporary art and new technologies interrelations (general problems) and to the list of articles and books on artificial life, robotics, genetic engineering, etc. A separate subsection includes publications concentrating on analysis on the meeting ground of science, art, ethics, and aesthetics.

Cognition issues
Chomsky, N. Language and the Problems of Knowledge (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988)
Crick, F. The Astonishing Hypothesis (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994)
Dawkins, R. The Blind Watchmaker (London: W.W. Norton, 1986)
Dennett, D. Sweet Dreams (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2005)
Dyson, F. Infinite in All Directions (New York: Harper and Row, 1988)
Edelman, G. Neural Darwinism (New York: Basic Books, 1987)
Feyerabend, P. Killing Time (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995)
Gell-Mann, M. The Quark and the Jaguar (New York: W.H. Freeman, 1994)
Gould, S.J. Wonderful Life (New York: W.W. Norton, 1989)
Hawking, S. A Brief History of Time (New York: Bantam Books, 1988)
Kauffman, S. At Home in the Universe (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995)
Lotman J. Universe of the Mind (London and New York: I. B. Tauris & Co Ltd., 1990)
Mamardashvili, M. Aesthetic of Thinking (In Russian, Moscow: MSPR, 2000)
Margulis, L., Sagan, D. What is Life? (New York: Peter Nevraumont, Inc., 1995)
Maturana, H., Varela, F. The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding (Boston: Shambhala, 1992)
McGinn, C. The Problem of Consciousness (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1991)
Penrose, R. Shadows of the Mind (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994)
Prigogine, I., Stengers, I. Order out of Chaos (New York: Bantam, 1984)
Weinberg, S. Dreams of a Final Theory (New York: Pantheon, 1992)
Wheeler, J. At Home in the Universe (Woodbury, NY: American Institute of Physics Press, 1994)

Artificial Life & Evolutionary Design
Adami, C. Introduction to Artificial Life (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1998)
Alexsander, I. How to Build a Mind: Toward Machines with Imagination (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001)
Bedau, M. et al. (eds.) Artificial Life VII (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000)
Boden, M. (ed.) The Philosophy of Artificial Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996)
Brooks, R. Cambrian Intelligence: The Early History of the New AI (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1999)
Dorin, A., McCormack, J. (eds.) First and Second Iteration Conference on Generative Processes in the Electronic Arts Proceedings (Melbourne: CEMA, 1999-2001)
Dulbecco, R. et al. (eds.) Frontiers of Life (Academic Press, 2001)
Floreano, D. et al. (eds.) Advances in Artificial Life (Heidelberg: Springer Verlag, 1999)
Forbes, N. Imitation of Life: How Biology is Inspiring Computing (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004)
Heudin, J. (ed.) Virtual Worlds: Synthetic Universes, Digital Life and Complexity (New York: Perseus Books, 1999)
Holland, J. Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992)
Krueger, M. Artificial Reality II (Reading: Addison-Wesley, 1991)
Langton, C. (ed.) Artificial Life (Redwood City, CA: Addison-Wesley, 1989)
Langton, C. et al. (eds.) Artificial Life II (Redwood City, CA: Addison Wesley, 1992)
Langton, C., Shimohara, K. (eds.) Artificial Life V (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1997)
Levy, S. Artificial Life: The Quest for a New Creation (New York: Random House, 1992)
Negnevitsky, M. Artificial Intelligence: A Guide to Intelligent Systems (Harlow: Addison Wesley, 2002)
Todd, S., Latham, W. Evolutionary Art and Computers (New York: Academic Press, 1992)
Waltz, D. (ed.) Natural and Artificial Parallel Computation (Philadelphia: SIAM Press, 1996)
Whitby, B. (ed.) Artificial Intelligence: A Beginners Guide (Oxford: Oneworld Pulications, 2003)

Robotics
Astashev, V. et al. Dynamics and Control of Machines (Vienna-New York: Springer Verlag, 2000)
Bekey, G. Autonomous Robots: From Biological Inspiration to Implementation and Control (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005)
Breazeal, C.L. Designing Sociable Robots (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002)
Brooks, R. Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us (New York: Vintage, 2003)
Brugali, D. (ed.) Software Engineering for Experimental Robotics (Vienna-New York: Springer Verlag, 2007)
Goldberg, K. (ed.) The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of Internet (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000)
Holland, O. (ed.) Machine Consciousness (Exeter, U.K., and Charlottesville, VA.: Imprint Academic, 2003)
Khalil, W., Dombre, E. Modelisation et Commande des Robots (Paris: Herm?s Science Publication, 1988).
Menzel, P., D'Aluisio, F. Robo Sapiens: Evolution of a New Species (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000)
Minsky, M. The Emotion Machine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006)
Montemerlo, M., Thrun, S. FastSLAM. A Scalable Method for the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Problem in Robotics (Vienna-New York: Springer, 2007)
Moravec, H. Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990)
Moravec, H. Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000)
Nolfi, S., Floreano, D. Evolutionary Robotics: the Biology, Intelligence, and Technology of Self-organizing Machines (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000)
Pires, J. et al. Welding Robots: Technology, System Issues and Application (Vienna-New York: Springer, 2005)
Sciavicco, L., Siciliano, B. Modelling and Control of Robot Manipulators (Vienna-New York: Springer, 2000)
Siciliano, B., Khatib, O. (eds.) Springer Handbook of Robotics (Vienna-New York: Springer, 2008)
Siciliano, B., Villani, L. Robot Force Control Series (Vienna-New York: Springer, 2000)
Siegwart, R., Nourbakhsh, I. Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004)
Stramigioli, S. Modeling and IPC Control of Interactive Mechanical Systems - a Coordinate-Free Approach (Vienna-New York: Springer, 2001)

Technobody modification, WearComp, Biomechatronics, Implantology
Akey, M. (ed) Wiley Encyclopedia of Biomedical Engineering (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2006)
Bar-Cohen, Y. (ed.) Biologically Inspired Intelligent Robots (Bellingham, W: SPIE Press, 2003)
Dennis, R., Herr, H. Engineered Muscle Actuators: Cells & Tissues, Biomimetics Mimicking and Inspired by Biology (Bar-Cohen, Y.: CRC Press, 2005)
Featherstone, M. (ed.) Body Modification (London: Sage, 2000)
Goldberg, K., Siegwart, R. (eds.) Beyond Webcams: An Introduction to Online Robots (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001)
Gray, C.H. (ed.) The Cyborg Handbook (London: Routledge, 1995)
Haraway D. Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991)
Kurfess, T.R. (ed.) Robotics and Automation Handbook (Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2005)
Lazinica, A. Mobile Robots Towards New Applications (Vienna-Berlin: ARS/plV, 2006)
Mann, S. Cyborg: Digital Destiny and Human Possibility in the Age of the Wearable Computer (New York: Randomhouse Doubleday, 2001)
McCorduck, P. Machines Who Think (Massachusetts: AK Peters, Ltd., 2004)
Parasuraman, R., Rizzo, M. (eds) Neuroergonomics, the Brain at Work (Oxford University Press, New York, 2006)
Selzer, M. at al. (eds.) Textbook of Neural Repair and Rehabilitation (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
Warwick, K. I, Cyborg (University of Illinois Press, 2004)
Warwick, K. March of the Machines: The Breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence (University of Illinois Press, 2004)
Warwick, K. QI: The Quest for Intelligence (Piatkus Books, 2001)
Webb, B., Consi, T.R. (eds.) Biorobotics: Methods and Applications (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001)
Wermter, S. et al. (eds.) Biomimetic Neural Learning for Intelligent Robots (Vienna-New York: Springer, 2005)
Zhang, M., Nelson, B. Life Science Automation: Fundamentals and Applications (Boston, MA: Artech House, 2006)
Zylinska, J. The Syborg Experiments. The Extensions of the Body in the Media Age (London - New York: Continuum, 2002)

Neuroengineering
Baars, B. Essential Sources in the Scientific Study of Consciousness (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003)
Bear, M.F. at al. (eds.) Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain (Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2002)
Cabeza, R., Kingstone, A. Handbook of Functional Neuroimaging of Cognition (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001)
Chapin, J.K., Moxon, K.A. (eds.) Neural Prostheses for Restoration of Sensory and Motor Function (Methods and New Frontiers in Neuroscience) (Boca Raton: CRC, 2000)
DiLorenzo, D.J., Bronzino, J.D. (Eds) Neuroengineering (Boca Raton: CRC, 2007)
Eliasmith, C., Anderson, C. Neural Engineering: Computation, Representation, and Dynamics in Neurobiological Systems (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004)
Freed, W. Neural Transplantation (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999)
Gluck, M., Myers, C.E. Gateway to Memory (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000)
He, B. (Ed.) Modeling & Imaging of Bioelectrical Activity: Principles and Applications (Bioelectric Engineering) (New York: Springer, 2004)
Iida, F. at al. (eds.) Embodied Artificial Intelligence (New York: Springer Verlag, 2004)
Kandel, E.R. at al. (eds.) Principles of Neural Science (Norwalk, CT: Appleton & Lange, 2000)
Kosslyn, S.M. Image and Brain (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996)
Lungarella, M. at al. (eds.) Artificial Intelligence Festschrift: The next 50 years (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2006)
McNeil, D., Frieberger, P. Fuzzy Logic (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993)
Principe, J.C. at al. Neural and Adaptive Systems: Fundamentals Through Simulations (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley and Sons, 2000)
Red'ko, V. "Evolution of Cognition: Towards the Theory of Origin of Human Logic," In: Foundations of Science, Vol. 5, No. 3 (2000)
Rumelhart, D., McClelland, J. Parallel Distributed Processing: Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition (2 Vols., Cambridge, MA: Bradford Books/MIT Press, 1986)
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Yuste, R., Konnerth, A. (eds) Imaging in Neuroscience and Development: A Laboratory Manual (Cold Springs Harbor: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2005)

Bio- and Genetic Engineering
Alters, S., Alters, B. Biology: Understanding Life (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2005)
Brakmann, S., Schwienhorst, A. Evolutionary Methods in Biotechnology (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2004)
Clark, D. Molecular Biology - Understanding the Genetic Revolution (New York: Academic Press, 2005)
Coen, E. The Art of Genes. How Organisms Make Themselves (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999)
Critical Art Ensemble. The Molecular Invasion (Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 2002)
Hogg, S. Essential Microbiology (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2005)
Keller, E.F. Refiguring Life: Metaphors of Twentieth-Century Biology (New York: Columbia UP, 1995)
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Tissue and Stem Cells Engineering
Bronzino, J.D. Tissue Engineering and Artificial Organs (Boca Raton: CRC/Taylor & Francis, 2006)
Freshney R.I. Culture of Human Stem Cells (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2007)
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Yagasaki, K. at al (eds.) Animal Cell Technology (New York: Springer Verlag, 2004)

Nanotechnology, Nanoengineering
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Contemporary Art and Technobiology
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O'Bryan, C.J. Carnal Art: Orlan (Minnesota, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2005)
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Stocker, G., Sch?pf, C. (eds.) Ars Electronica 1999: LifeScience; Ars Electronica 2000: Next Sex; Ars Electronica 2005: Hybrid - Living in Paradox (in German and English, Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 1999; 2000; 2005)
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Wilson, S. Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology (Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, 2001)
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Socio-aesthetic aspects of new technologies, ethics
Ascott, R. (ed.) Reframing Consciousness: Art, Mind and Technology (Exeter: Intellect Books, 1999)
Broadhurst D., Cassidy, E. Virtual Futures: Cybernetics, Technology and Post-Human Pragmatism (London: Routledge, 1998)
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Conte, R. L'art Contemporain au Risque du Clonade (In French, Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2002)
Critical Art Ensemble. Flesh Machine: Cyborgs, Designer Babies and New Eugenic Consciousness (Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 1998)
Deitch, J. Post Human (New York: DAP, 1992)
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Foster, H. Prosthetic Gods (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004)
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Judin, B., Ignat'ev, V. Bioethics: Principles, Rules, Problems (In Russian, Moscow, 1998)
Kac, E., Ronell, A. Life Extreme (Paris: Dis Voir, 2007)
Kelly, K. Out of Control: The Rise of Neo-Biological Civilization (Reading: Addison-Wesley, 1994)
Lewontin, R. Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA (New York: Harper-Collins, 1992)
Lotringer, S. (ed.) Flesh-Eating Technologies (New York: Semiotext(e), 2002)
Nelkin, D., Lindee, S. The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon (New York: W.H. Freeman, 1995)
Rifkin, J. The Biotech Century (New York: Tarcher/Putnam, 1998)
Shiva, V. (ed.) Biodiversity: Social & Ecological Perspectives (New Jersey: Zed Books, 1991)
Thacker, E. The Global Genome, Biotechnology, Politics and Culture (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005)
Tischenko, P. Bio-Power in the Age of Biotechnologies (In Russian, Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences, 2001)

Think carefully- Chinese new Cultural Revolution by contemporary Art

Think carefully, where have you been yesterday?
SYU022
SHI Yong
Think carefully, where have you been yesterday?
2007

视频 | 多路 |

code: SYU022 / id:7732

Shi Yong’s extensive video project “Think Carefully, Where Were You Yesterday” (2007 – ongoing) deals with the ‘politics of representation’: The videos have deep personal perspectives and consist of interviews conducted with minorities that seldom have a voice of their own in China’s public realm. Neglected and ignored identities such as AIDS victims, prostitutes, political activists, homosexuals and drug addicts are being thoroughly questioned about their existence, their desires and defeats. Contrasting the disturbing narratives of exclusion, the aesthetic and the visual language of the videos consist of calm b/w close-ups focusing on every little expression of the inter-viewees. The outcome is a touching non-judgmental documentation of marginalized realities in today’s China.

Think Carefully, Where Have You Been Yesterday?, a video work by the Shanghainese artist Shi Yong, uses interrogation methods employed by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution to question three characters from modern China: a young gay man, a civil servant involved in a corruption case, and a poet jailed for drug use. The results are both revealing and discomforting. At the smaller Universal Studios gallery, Qiu Anxiong has created an atmospheric installation using a whole train carriage filled with video screens; footage from modern Chinese history plays on these, including disturbing scenes from the Cultural Revolution.


Related Texts:
仔细想想，昨天你究竟干嘛去了- 2008
Think carefully, where have you been yesterday- 2008

Related Exhibitions:
INVOLVED


Ai Weiwei über Tibet
„Es ist Zeit für die Wahrheit“


Die chinesische Gesellschaft ist etwas für die Erfolgreichen und Mächtigen, glaubt Ai Wei Wei

30. März 2008 Der chinesische Konzeptkünstler Ai Wei Wei fordert ein Ende der Zensur in seinem Land. Hass und Wut könnten nur durch den freien Zugang zu Informationen besiegt werden, sagte er im Gespräch mit der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung. Mit ihm sprach Mark Siemons.

Ai Wei Wei, wie haben Sie die Ereignisse der letzten Wochen in Tibet und die westlichen Reaktionen darauf wahrgenommen?

Als einem Beobachter will mir scheinen, als wären beide Seiten in gewisser Weise falsch unterrichtet, sowohl im Westen wie in China. Es gibt keine tiefergehende Berichterstattung darüber, was eigentlich die Unruhen verursachte. Es gibt keine wirkliche Kommunikation, außer dass beide Seiten mit dem Finger aufeinander zeigen und anderen die Schuld geben. Das ist sehr schade gerade in diesem Augenblick unserer Geschichte. Was China betrifft, hat das vor allem damit zu tun, dass es keine öffentliche Diskussion gibt. Wir leben immer noch in einer Gesellschaft, die streng von Ideologie kontrolliert ist, insbesondere bei all den Themen, die mit ethnischen Minderheiten zu tun haben. Es lässt nicht gerade auf eine Lösung der Probleme hoffen, wenn ein Großteil der Han-Chinesen diese Minderheiten einfach für Sklaven hält, die sie befreit hätten. Die Realität ist viel komplexer. Sie haben ihre eigene Religion, ihre eigene Art der Entwicklung, ihre eigene Mentalität. Die Tibeter werden jetzt einfach als gesetzlose Menschen beschimpft. Ich glaube nicht, dass das die Probleme lösen kann. Es erzeugt nur Hass zwischen den Han-Chinesen und den Minderheiten, vertieft die Kluft zwischen ihnen noch mehr.

Und was könnte die Kluft überwinden?

Am wichtigsten wäre ein wirklicher Respekt gegenüber den Minderheiten und ein Eingeständnis der Fehler, die an ihnen in der Vergangenheit begangen worden sind. Denn dieser Aufruhr zeigt doch auf jeden Fall das Scheitern der Minderheitenpolitik. Uns ist es nicht gelungen, ihre Religion und Lebensweise zu verstehen. In der Geschichte haben wir viele ihrer Tempel und Statuen zerstört. Das sind die Basisfakten. Jetzt haben sie Häuser zerstört und Menschen angegriffen. Aber man muss fragen: Woher kommt diese Wut? Oder wollen wir eine Gesellschaft sein, die völlig ihre Rechte ignoriert und dabei behauptet, alles sei in Ordnung? In einer demokratischen Gesellschaft müssen die Rechte und Unterschiede der verschiedenen Gruppen respektiert werden. Das Problem muss gelöst werden. Wenn man es nicht löst, ist man mit seiner Politik gescheitert. Man muss den Dialog suchen. Es nützt nichts, Leute anzuklagen, dass sie die Nation spalten würden. Wir bilden nun einmal verschiedene Gruppen mit verschiedenen Sprachen, verschiedenen Überzeugungen, verschiedenen Lebensstilen, verschiedenen Mentalitäten. Also: Respekt und Toleranz und Verhandeln und Gespräch!

Weshalb meinen Sie, dass der Westen falsch unterrichtet war?

Falsche Annahmen entstehen immer dann, wenn eine Seite vertuscht, so dass man von außen nichts sehen kann. Wenn man etwas verbirgt, dann blühen die Spekulationen. Grundsätzlich glaube ich, das Missverstehen und der Hass unter den Leuten, zwischen Nationen oder Ideologien, West und Ost, Tibetern und Chinesen, kommen vom Vertuschen, dem Mangel an Transparenz, an Zugang zu Informationen. Das verursacht der Gesellschaft so viele Kosten. China im Ganzen hat begonnen, sich in dieser Hinsicht zu ändern, aber in manchen Gebieten herrschen noch die alten Strukturen und das alte Denken vor. Ich glaube, Tibet ist typisch dafür. Der Mangel an Tatsachen oder sogar das absichtliche Verbergen der Wahrheit wird zu einem Haupthindernis im Kampf des Denkens. Das ist eine ganz essentielle Sache, auch wenn es sich naiv anhört. Die Art und Weise, wie man versucht, die Wahrheit in Erfahrung zu bringen, markiert einen fundamentalen Unterschied zwischen den Gesellschaften. Ganz im Anfang des Kommunismus versuchte man die absolute Wahrheit aus dem gesellschaftlichen Kampf heraus zu erlangen. Was dann in der Wirklichkeit des Kampfs passierte, war, dass man den normalen Bürgern nicht zutraute, dass sie die Wahrheit tragen könnten. Die Wahrheit ist zu gefährlich, als dass sie das Volk kennen dürfte. Das ist ein wirklich altes Denken, weil es sich nur darum dreht, wie man die Macht behalten kann. Ich frage mich oft, warum können wir nicht eine Gesellschaft mit besseren Medien ohne Zensur haben? Was wollen wir eigentlich verbergen? Was ist an der Wahrheit so gefährlich? Natürlich, wenn die meisten Menschen nur begrenzte Information haben, ist es einfacher, sie zu manipulieren. Information ist Macht. Aber bevor man entscheidet, wer hat recht, wer hat unrecht, sollte man zuerst alle Fakten kennen. Das ist immer notwendig. Wir hatten das vorher nie, und es ist Zeit, dass wir es haben. Sonst guckt man immer nur zurück, und die ganze Welt gibt einem die Schuld - denn selbst wenn man nichts Böses getan hat, bleibt immer die Frage: Warum verbirgt man es? Ich glaube daher insgesamt, die Medien haben nicht übertrieben. Wirklich verheerend wäre, wenn es gar keine Berichterstattung gäbe über das, was passiert, niemanden, der beobachtet, achtgibt auf das, was mit den Leuten passiert. Viele Chinesen schimpfen jetzt auf den Westen. Ich glaube, das kommt auch von der langjährigen Propaganda her, so dass man denkt: Der Westen ist der Feind, der versucht, China zu übervorteilen. Das ist ein Produkt des Missverstehens.

Als auf der Documenta in Kassel seine Installation „Template” einstürzte, freute er sich über die Verbesserung

Viele Chinesen wundern sich jetzt auch, warum sich die Leute im Westen überhaupt so sehr um Tibet kümmern. Umgekehrt könnte man fragen: Warum gibt es eigentlich so wenige Chinesen, die sich um Tibet kümmern?

Weil die Chinesen nicht die Tradition haben, für die Schwachen zu kämpfen. Die Schwachen, die Verwundeten, haben in dieser Gesellschaft keinen Stand. Das ist eine Gesellschaft für die Erfolgreichen und Mächtigen. Es gibt wenig Empathie. Im Westen ist das anders. Da nimmt man automatisch für die Schwachen Stellung. Die meisten Chinesen halten Tibet einfach für ein Reiseziel mehr, einen Ort für Besichtigungstouren; diese unschuldig-dummen bourgeoisen Boheme-Menschen aus Schanghai oder Peking machen dort gern ein paar Tage Urlaub. Aber sie verstehen die Menschen nicht. Sie haben mit ihnen keine wirkliche Kommunikation.

Wie denkt man in der chinesischen Kunstszene über die Sache?

Ich glaube, die Leute sind verwirrter geworden. Ich höre die Leute oft sagen: Was ist da falsch? Was will der Dalai Lama wirklich? Sie sind vollständig verwirrt. Die Buddhisten sind friedliche Menschen. Aber auf der anderen Seite gibt es die Bilder, auf denen sie Messer haben, die Flagge verbrennen, Fenster herausbrechen, junge Buddhisten mit wirklichem großem Zorn in sich. Aber gibt es eine Möglichkeit, sie zu fragen, dass sie sich aussprechen? Könnte man sie einladen in den CCTV (den chinesischen Staatssender), um darüber zu diskutieren, was in ihrem Kopf vorgeht, anstatt sie nur Kriminelle zu nennen? Ich frage mich: Warum eigentlich nicht? Wer hat diese Trennwand des Missverstehens hochgezogen? Und warum? Sehen wir sie immer noch als Barbaren, als Wesen unterhalb der Möglichkeit der Verständigung? Das Resultat ist, dass die Spannung, der Zorn und der Hass zunehmen. Weil man will, dass andere Menschen verschwinden, nicht physisch, aber mit ihrer mentalen Welt. Ich glaube, das ist brutal.



Text: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, 30.03.2008, Nr. 13 / Seite 25
Bildmaterial: AFP, Helmut Fricke - F.A.Z.


Die Installation vor und nach dem Sturm

20. Juni 2007 Das documenta-Kunstwerk „Template“ des chinesischen Künstlers Ai Wei Wei ist eingestürzt. Der zwölf Meter hohe Holzturm brach am Mittwoch nach einem kurzen Unwetter über Kassel zusammen. Laut documenta soll das Objekt wieder aufgebaut werden. „Template“ besteht aus Türen und Fenstern alter Häuser, die dem Bauboom in China zum Opfer gefallen sind. Erst am Samstag hatte Bundespräsident Horst Köhler das Werk besucht.

We are the people

Sam Durant
Installation view
"We Are the People," Project Row House, Houston, TX, 2003


Cultural Confinement


" Cultural confinement takes place when a curator imposes his own limits on an art exhibition , rather than asking an artist to set his limits. Artists are expected to fit into fraudulent categories. Some artists imagine they've got a hold on this apparatus, which in fact has got a hold of them. As a result, they end up supporting a cultural prison that is out of their control. Artists themselves are not confined, but their output is. Museums, like asylums and jails, have wards and cells- in other words, neutral rooms called "galleries." A work of art when placed in a gallery loses its charge, and becomes a portable object or surface disengaged from the outside world. A vacant white room with lights is still a submission to the neutral. Works of art seen in such spaces seem to be going through a kind of esthetic convalescence. They are looked upon as so many inanimate invalids, waiting for critics to pronounce them curable or incurable. The function of the warden-curator is to separate art from the rest of society. Next comes integration. Once the work of art is totally neutralized, ineffective, abstracted, safe, and politically lobotomized it is ready to be consumed by society. All is reduced to visual fodder and transportable merchandise. Innovations are allowed only if they support this kind of confinement.

Occult notions of "concept" are in retreat from the physical world. Heaps of private information reduce art to hermeticism and fatuous meta-physics. Language should find itself in the physical world, and not end up locked in an idea in somebody's head. Language should be an ever developing procedure and not an isolated occurrence. Art shows that have beginnings and ends are confined by unnecessary modes of representation both "abstract" and "realistic". A face or a grid on a canvas is still a representation. Reducing representation to writing does not bring one closer to the physical world . Writing should generate ideas into matter, and not the other way around. Art's development should be dialectical and not metaphysical.

I am speaking of a dialectics that seeks a world outside of cultural confinement. Also, I am not interested in art works that suggest "process" within the metaphysical limits of the neutral room. There is no freedom in that kind of behavioral game playing. The artist acting like a B.F. Skinner rat doing his "tough" little tricks is something to be avoided. Confined process is no process at all. It would be better to disclose the confinement rather than make illusions of freedom.

I am for an art that takes into account the direct effect of the elements as they exist from day to day apart from representation. The parks that surround some museums isolate art into objects of formal delectation. Objects in a park suggest static repose rather than any ongoing dialectic. Parks are finished landscapes for finished art . A park carries the values of the final, the absolute, and sacred. Dialectics have nothing to do with such things. I am talking about a dialectic of nature that interacts with the physical contradictions inherent in natural forces as they are - nature as both sunny and stormy. Parks are idealizations of nature, but nature in fact is not a condition of the ideal. Nature does not proceed in a straight line, it is rather a sprawling development. Nature is never finished. When a finished work of 20thcentury sculpture is placed in an 18th-century garden, it is absorbed by the ideal representation of the past, thus reinforcing political and social values that are no longer with us. Many parks and gardens are re-creations of the lost paradise or Eden, and not the dialectical sites of the present. Parks and gardens are pictorial in their origin - landscapes created with natural materials rather than paint. The scenic ideals that surround even our national parks are carriers of a nostalgia for heavenly bliss and eternal calmness.

Apart from the ideal gardens of the past, and their modern counterparts - national and large urban parks, there are the more infernal regions - slag heaps, strip mines, and polluted rivers. Because of the great tendency toward idealism, both pure and abstract, society is confused as to what to do with such places. Nobody wants to go on a vacation to a garbage dump. Our land ethic, especially in that never-never land called the "art world" has become clouded with abstractions and concepts.

Could it be that certain art exhibitions have become metaphysical junkyards? Categorical miasmas? Intellectual rubbish? Specific intervals of visual desolation? The warden-curators still depend on the wreckage of metaphysical principles and structures because they don't know any better. The wasted remains of ontology, cosmology, and epistemology still offer a ground for art. Although metaphysics is outmoded and blighted, it is presented as tough principles and solid reasons for installations of art. The museums and parks are graveyards above the ground- congealed memories of the past that act as a pretext for reality. This causes acute anxiety among artists, in so far as they challenge, compete, and fight for the spoiled ideals of lost situations."




Text excerpted from ROBERT SMITHSON: THE COLLECTED WRITINGS, 2nd Edition, edited by Jack Flam, The University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California; University of California Press, LTD. London, England; 1996
Originally published: The Writings of Robert Smithson, edited by Nancy Holt, New York, New York
University Press, 1979
ISBN # 0-520-20385-2

Spiral Jetty: Smithson

"SPIRAL JETTY"
ROBERT SMITHSON

Rozel Point, Great Salt Lake, Utah
April 1970
mud, precipitated salt crystals, rocks, water coil 1500' long and 15' wide
Collection: DIA Center for the Arts,
New York

RELATED WORKS:

DRAWINGS:
Spirals n.d. circa 1970
Spiral Jetty in Red Salt Water n.d. circa 1970

FILM:
Spiral Jetty, 1970



UPDATE on proposed drilling near SPIRAL JETTY

In February 2008, Dia learned of an application by Pearl Montana Exploration for exploratory drilling in the Great Salt Lake approximately five miles from Robert Smithson’s iconic Spiral Jetty, 1970. The drilling itself, and any potential subsequent oil extraction, could disrupt the artwork’s viewshed; upset the area’s isolated character; and degrade the natural environment of the lake. In the case of a toxic spill, the proposed operation could further cause irreparable damage to the lake environment and threaten the physical integrity of Smithson's extraordinary sculpture.

The public comment period for this drilling application ended on February 13, 2008. By that date, the State of Utah received over 3,100 emails and letters, as well as 300 phone calls, from concerned parties in the United States and abroad.

Subsequently, Dia met with Utah State officials to discuss the long-term preservation of Spiral Jetty. Together we are pursuing the creation of a buffer zone around the sculpture that will help protect the artwork for future generations and fit within the lake's mixed-use resource plan. On August 7, 2008, the State returned Pearl Montana’s application, and while this means there will be no immediate drilling, the permit request can be re-filed at a later date. Dia remains committed to preserving Spiral Jetty and ensuring the experience of internationally renowned artwork for future generations.

An article by Kirk Johnson in The New York Times addresses the complexity of the issues at Spiral Jetty and reflects the national and international attention the issue has drawn.

Dia sincerely appreciates the public response to this situation, and will keep our website up-to-date with the latest information about drilling near Spiral Jetty.


Overview

Robert Smithson's monumental earthwork Spiral Jetty (1970) is located on the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Using black basalt rocks and earth from the site, the artist created a coil 1500 feet long and 15 feet wide that stretches out counterclockwise into the translucent red water. Spiral Jetty was acquired by Dia Art Foundation as a gift from the Estate of the artist in 1999.


Rozel Point Journal
Plans to Mix Oil Drilling and Art Clash in Utah
Tom Smart for The New York Times

Robert Smithson’s work of rocks and earth, “Spiral Jetty,” juts into the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Plans by the state would allow for oil drilling about five miles across the lake.

Published: March 27, 2008

ROZEL POINT, Utah — Will McMillin and Liz Wing walked more than three miles of rutted, muddy road on a recent afternoon carrying a bicycle wheel, a wooden stool and a golf club.
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The New York Times

Following directions they had gleaned from art Web sites and small road signs, they arrived here at a remote spot on the shores of the Great Salt Lake.

“We felt like we had to go, and that this was the time to do it,” Mr. McMillin said.

Their goal (more later on what they did with their props; think about the Dadaist/Surrealist artist Marcel Duchamp) was “Spiral Jetty,” a 1,500-foot curved construction of rock and earth by the artist Robert Smithson that juts into the lake.

A fierce debate, with equal parts art, environmentalism and economics, has erupted over a plan by the state to allow oil drilling about five miles across the lake. The owner of “Spiral Jetty,” the Dia Art Foundation in New York, in an alliance with a conservation group called Friends of Great Salt Lake, says the oil rigs would harm the work’s aesthetic experience.

Led by their drumbeat of protest, more than 3,000 e-mail messages, mostly against the drilling plan, were received by the state during a public comment period last month. A decision by the state about whether to let the drilling go forward is expected in April.

The face-off reflects a profound shift in attitudes about the Western landscape since Mr. Smithson, an earthwork artist, came here with an artistic vision and a dump truck in 1970. Then, these desolate, salt-soaked shores were loved or visited by almost nobody.

Now the soaring price of oil, a new environmental appreciation of the lake’s ecological niche and a tourist boom in bird-watching on the vast wetland fringe have coalesced into a fabric that Mr. Smithson, who died in a plane crash in 1973, never knew.

“Like everywhere in the West, the lake is being discovered and people want to protect it and people want to use it,” said John Harja, director of the Governor’s Public Lands Policy Coordination Office.

What Mr. Smithson might have thought about the drilling plan is among the issues in dispute. State officials and some art historians, pointing to Mr. Smithson’s own writing about the “Spiral Jetty,” and the film he made about its construction, said he reveled in the juxtaposition of industrialism and beauty, decay and rebirth, rot and permanence.

“The sense of ruined and abandoned hopes interested him,” said Lynne Cooke, the curator at Dia. “He didn’t look for beautiful places, but rather despoiled landscapes where industry and the wild overlap.”

State officials say that Rozel Point has always offered a fine tableau of the despoiled and the natural. A natural seep of oil sludge is right down the beach from the “Jetty,” harvested since pioneer days. And oil drilling was also under way, they say, in view of the “Jetty” in 1970, though it proved economically unviable. The new drill rigs, they say, are much farther away than the ones Mr. Smithson knew, and that can be glimpsed briefly in his movie.

“One of the things we’re having a hard time figuring is what the impacts will be,” said Dick Buehler, the director of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.

The deputy director at Dia, Laura Raicovich, agreed that Mr. Smithson had chosen his site carefully and loved some things that others might call ugly. But Ms. Raicovich said he had also been ambivalent about the context of the “Jetty.” He wrote about the rotting pier and the shacks that lined the shore, but in his photographs, she said, he kept the focus on the wild backdrop of the lake.

And the proposed drilling plan is different, Ms. Raicovich added, “because it’s a new addition and it’s pretty fair to say that it’s not desirable — on an aesthetic level it alters the physical experience.”

The executive director of Friends of Great Salt Lake, Lynn de Freitas, said an alliance of artists and environmentalists was also something of a new pattern on the lake. In 2005, when the state first proposed issuing offshore drilling leases, Ms. de Freitas’s group protested and raised the issue of “Spiral Jetty.” Few artists seemed to take notice then, she said. But when she learned in January that new applications for drilling had been filed, she alerted Mr. Smithson’s widow, the artist Nancy Holt, and an expert on the “Jetty,” Hikmet Sidney Loe. This time, the global arts community took the ball and ran with it.

“In my mind, it was one for all and all for one,” Ms. de Freitas said.

Ms. Raicovich said the deeper question raised by the drilling plan was how to protect deliberately remote art. She also worries, she said, that more people drawn to the site by its newfound attention could become a problem, since the jeep road to the “Jetty” crosses private land. The owner could close off access at any time, she said.

Which takes us back to the beach and Mr. McMillin and Ms. Wing, both of whom were drawn here by the controversy; he from Brooklyn, she from San Francisco. Proceeding down to the foot of the “Jetty,” they inserted the section of the bike frame into a hole in the top of the stool — echoing Duchamp’s famous sculpture “Roue de Bicyclette.” Then they positioned their creation with “Spiral Jetty’s” rock — black and white and rimed with salt — as the backdrop.

Mr. McMillin swung his club while Ms. Wing, 29, who is pursuing her master’s degree in museum studies at Harvard, snapped the pictures: earth-art, Dadaism and golf.

“It was sort of idiotic,” said Mr. McMillin, 28, an artist who lives in Greenpoint section of Brooklyn. “And the Duchamp reference was, in retrospect, totally pretentious.”

But he also called their four-hour “Jetty” experience “mind-blowing” and said that he and Ms. Wing were both left unsure what to think about the drilling plan. They have read about Mr. Smithson and the impulses that shaped his work. They both gazed out and tried to imagine what might be seen across the water and how it might change things.

Underwater Art

Creator of the world’s first underwater sculpture park, Jason de Caires Taylor has gained international recognition for his unique work. His sculptures highlight ecological processes whilst exploring the intricate relationships between modern art and the environment. By using sculptures to create artificial reefs, the artist’s interventions promote hope and recovery, and underline our need to understand and protect the natural world.

The sculptures are sited in clear shallow waters to afford easy access by divers, snorkellers and those in glass-bottomed boats. Viewers are invited to discover the beauty of our underwater planet and to appreciate the processes of reef evolution.

Tactical Biopolitics

Tactical Biopolitics: Art, Activism and Technoscience

by Beatriz da Costa and Kavita Philip

Popular culture in this "biological century" seems to feed on proliferating fears, anxieties, and hopes around the life sciences at a time when such basic concepts as scientific truth, race and gender identity, and the human itself are destabilized in the public eye. Tactical Biopolitics suggests that the political challenges at the intersection of life, science, and art are best addressed through a combination of artistic intervention, critical theorizing, and reflective practices. Transcending disciplinary boundaries, contributions to this volume focus on the political significance of recent advances in the biological sciences and explore the possibility of public participation in scientific discourse, drawing on research and practice in art, biology, critical theory, anthropology, and cultural studies.

After framing the subject in terms of both biology and art, Tactical Biopolitics discusses such topics as race and genetics (with contributions from leading biologists Richard Lewontin and Richard Levins); feminist bioscience; the politics of scientific expertise; bioart and the public sphere (with an essay by artist Claire Pentecost); activism and public health (with an essay by Treatment Action Group co-founder Mark Harrington); biosecurity after 9/11 (with essays by artists' collective Critical Art Ensemble and anthropologist Paul Rabinow); and human-animal interaction (with a framing essay by cultural theorist Donna Haraway).

Contributors: Gaymon Bennett, Larry Carbone, Karen Cardozo, Gary Cass, Beatriz da Costa, Oron Catts, Gabriella Coleman, Critical Art Ensemble, Gwen D'Arcangelis, Troy Duster, Donna Haraway, Mark Harrington, Jens Hauser, Kathy High, Fatimah Jackson, Gwyneth Jones, Jonathan King, Richard Levins, Richard Lewontin, Rachel Mayeri, Sherie McDonald, Claire Pentecost, Kavita Philip, Paul Rabinow, Banu Subramanian, subRosa, Abha Sur, Samir Sur, Jacqueline Stevens, Eugene Thacker, Paul Vanouse, Ionat Zurr.

About the Editors

Beatriz da Costa does interventionist art using computing and biotechnologies. She is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Irvine.

Kavita Philip studies colonialism, neoliberalism, and technoscience using history and critical theory. She is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Irvine.


June 2008
The MIT Press
A Leonardo Book
ISBN:0-262-04249-5
540 pp., 48 figures

BildRhetorik1: Darstellungstil als bild-rhetorische Kategorie eine Vorüberlegung. Von Klaus Sachs-Hombach, Jörg R. J. Schirra

Darstellungsstil als bild-rhetorische Kategorie. Einige Vorüberlegungen

Authors: Klaus Sachs-Hombach, Jörg R. J. Schirra
[published in: Bild-Stil: Strukturierung der Bildinformation (Themenheft zu IMAGE 3)]

Schlagwörter: Bildstil, Bildrhetorik, Illokution, perzeptueller Realismus

Disziplinen: Philosophie, Rhetorik

If we consider pictures (or at least sets of pictures) as symbol systems, it seems reasonable to describe them (analogue to the speech act theory) as imbedded in the broader context of sign acts. They would consequently have an illocutionary role and could serve, for example, to warn against something, to inform about something, or to ask someone to do something. But since pictures are characterized by several particularities, an easy transfer of linguistic categories is problematic. Even if we are justified to describe many applications of pictures as forms of communicative actions, it should be examined in detail to what extent we have to modify the categories of the speech act theory while applying them to pictures. This will be pursued in the following article concerning the relation between pictorial style and functions of pictures.

Abstract in Deutsch:

1. Einleitung

Mit Bildern können wir jemanden vor etwas warnen (z. B. den Postboten vor dem Hund), über etwas informieren („Dies ist die Tür zur Herrentoilette“) oder zu etwas auffordern (etwa im Rahmen einer Bedienungsanleitung). Derart in den Kontext von Zeichenhandlungen eingebettet, können wir ihrer Präsentation folglich eine illokutionäre Funktion zuschreiben. Einen bildpragmatischen Ansatz, der auf diese Weise die performativen Komponenten der Bildverwendung betont, halten wir für theoretisch ergiebig; da Bilder aber vor allem im Vergleich mit sprachlichen Äußerungen zahlreiche Besonderheiten besitzen, sollte im Einzelnen geprüft werden, inwieweit die zur Anwendung kommenden Kategorien der Sprechakttheorie im Kontext der Bildkommunikation nicht doch modifiziert werden müssen.

Bildkommunikation darf dabei im Übrigen nicht zu eng verstanden werden. So ist damit durchaus auch an den Fall gedacht, dass sich jemand selbst ein Bild zeigt – wenn er etwa alleine eine Galerie besichtigt. Auch dieser Fall kann (und sollte) als Zeichenverwendung verstanden werden, also als eine Handlung, bei der jemand (der „Sender“) jemandem (dem „Empfänger“) etwas mithilfe eines Zeichens zu verstehen gibt. Nur dass in diesem Fall – ähnlich einem Monolog – Sender und Empfänger verschiedene Rollen sind, die dieselbe Person, ganz im Sinne G. H. Meads, simultan einnimmt. Die illokutionäre Funktion, die sich prinzipiell zwischen zwei Beteiligten aufspannt, wird hier also wirksam zwischen dem Betrachter und einem internalisierten alter ego.

Eine relativ direkte Übertragung von Searles Sprechakttheorie auf bildliche Zeichenakte wurde bereits 1978 von Kjørup (vgl. Kjørup 1978) vorgeschlagen. Allerdings besteht in der Wahrnehmungsnähe von Bildern eine wesentliche Auszeichnung, die deutliche Modifikationen der Sprechakttheorie nahe legt. Mit dem Ausdruck „Wahrnehmungsnähe“ möchten wir hierbei den Sachverhalt zum Ausdruck bringen, dass wir zur Interpretation von Bildern unwillkürlich auf (kulturell durchaus modifizierte) Kompetenzen der (visuellen) Wahrnehmung zurückgreifen: Sie prägen auch unser Bildverständnis zumindest teilweise. So erkennen wir etwa deshalb mit großer Leichtigkeit in einer bildlichen Darstellung bestimmte Gegenstände – so möchten wir behaupten –, weil wir mit der Wahrnehmung dieser Gegenstände bereits in unserer Alltagswelt Erfahrung haben.konkrete Wahrnehmungserfahrung gemacht wurde, sondern die Erfahrung des Sehens eines solchen Gegenstands lediglich erwartet wird; ich muss wissen wie ein Hephalump aussehen würde, wenn ich denn eins zu Gesicht bekäme, sonst kann ich auch kein Bild davon anfertigen oder als solches erkennen (siehe auch Dürers 1515 entstandene Zeichnung eines Rhinozeros, einer Tierart, von der er noch kein Exemplar gesehen hatte und der er irrtümlich statt Hautfalten Panzerplatten zuschrieb.).'; displayPopup(event);" border="0"> Bei der elementaren Identifizierung der Bildgegenstände können wir daher auf schon bestehende Klassifikationsmechanismen zurückgreifen.

Ist diese Ansicht, die eher ähnlichkeitstheoretisch und nicht verwendungstheoretisch inspiriert ist, zutreffend, dann wäre die Hypothese nicht unplausibel, dass es auch für den bildhaften Ausdruck einer illokutionären Funktion neben den konventionellen Mitteln (etwa roter Balken als Verbot) bildspezifische, perzeptuell verankerte Mittel gibt. Das schließt nicht aus, dass wir konventionelle Mittel der „Bildsteuerung“ oft verwenden. Wir möchten die Mittel, die gewissermaßen illokutionäre Marker zu setzen erlauben, allgemein als bild-rhetorische Mittel bezeichnen. Rhetorisch sind es primär die unterschiedlichen Darstellungsweisen, die die Rezeption des Bildes unterstützen und lenken. Ein skizzenhafter Linienstil kann etwa dazu dienen, die Vorläufigkeit einer Gebäudezeichnung zu betonen. Alternativ hierzu ließe sich auch mit der Farbintensität ein entsprechender Effekt erreichen. Hier sind deshalb vor allem Konventionen zu vermuten. Dagegen scheint das Verständnis z. B. von einer extremen Untersicht unmittelbar auf unsere Wahrnehmungskompetenz bezogen zu sein.

Die These, die wir genauer untersuchen möchten, lautet also, dass die zur Steuerung des Bildverstehens wichtigen stilistischen Elemente zumindest teilweise nicht rein konventionell sind, sondern in enger Relation zu den jeweiligen Wahrnehmungsvermögen des Bildbetrachters stehen. Bevor wir diese These eingehender plausibel machen (3.) und an dem konkreten Beispiel einer sozialkritischen Fotografie mit naturalistischem Darstellungsstil veranschaulichen (4.), möchten wir zunächst einige Erläuterung zum Begriff der Bildrhetorik (2.) vorbringen.

2. Was ist Bildrhetorik?

Unter „Rhetorik“ wird gegenwärtig die Theorie und Praxis der menschlichen Beredsamkeit verstanden (vgl. Knape 2000). Soll es der Rhetorik in diesem Sinne ganz allgemein um die Möglichkeiten der Erzeugung oder Änderung von Überzeugungen (bzw. um die entsprechenden Theorien hierzu) gehen, dann wird auch der Präsentation eines Bildes niemand rhetorische Aspekte absprechen wollen. Denn bekannter- und erwiesenermaßen wird mit Bildern etwas in uns bewirkt. Entsprechend prägen Bilder (oft in unmittelbarer und affektiver Weise) unsere Meinungen. Die Bemühungen um eine Bildrhetorik haben dennoch erst in jüngster Zeit eingesetzt (vgl. Knape 2005). Hierbei lässt sich, anknüpfend an die genannte Definition von Rhetorik, unter dem Ausdruck „Bildrhetorik“ die Theorie und Praxis des Einsatzes bildhafter Mittel zur Verstärkung der menschlichen Überzeugungsfähigkeit verstehen. Primär wird es der Bildrhetorik um eine Reflexion des Einsatzes und der gezielten Gestaltung von Bildern in persuasiven Kontexten gehen.

Hierbei ist es hilfreich, einige Grundunterscheidungen einzuführen. Bei der Bestimmung der rhetorischen Mittel sollte zunächst unterschieden werden, ob es sich primär um Bildkommunikation oder primär um sprachliche Kommunikation handelt (vgl. hierzu Harms 1990 oder Heitmann & Schiedermair 2000). Der zweite Fall, bei dem das Bild etwa zur Illustration sprachlich vorgegebener Sachverhalte verwendet wird, ist sicherlich gebräuchlicher. Unter Umständen wird man hierbei bereits die Tatsache, dass überhaupt ein Bild (als Beleg oder zur Illustration) gezeigt wird, selbst als rhetorisches Mittel werten. Hierbei handelt es sich aber nicht um genuin bild-rhetorische Verfahren. Innerhalb eines kommunikativen Kontextes können natürlich beliebige Gegenstände rhetorisch wirksam werden. So kann beispielsweise auch der Zeitpunkt, der Ort oder selbst ein zeitgleiches Ereignis an einem anderen Ort den Erfolg einer Rede beeinflussen. Von einem bildhaften rhetorischen Mittel im eigentlichen Sinn wollen wir nur dann reden, wenn ein Bild auf Grund seiner bildinternen Eigenschaften kommunikativ wirksam wird. Hier sind wir bereits im Grenzbereich zum ersten Fall angelangt: der Bildkommunikation nämlich, die bild-rhetorisch den interessanteren Fall liefert, weil das Bild nun eine (vom sprachlichen Kontext tendenziell unabhängige) eigenständige Funktion wahrnimmt und seine rhetorische Kraft mittels der bildeigenen Eigenschaften bzw. der jeweiligen Bildgestaltung entfalten muss.

Bildkommunikation ganz ohne jeden sprachlichen Bezug ist eher selten. Sie liegt am ehesten noch in den Werken der modernen Bildkunst vor. Die Übergänge sind allerdings fließend. Selbst wenn Bilder ohne Text erscheinen, stehen sie oft – wie etwa das Beispiel der sakralen Bildkunst zeigt – im Kontext eines sprachlichen Diskurses, so dass ihr Verständnis eine genauere Kenntnis der entsprechenden Texte voraussetzt. Liegt eine Text-Bild-Kombination vor, dann handelt es sich nur dann primär um Bildkommunikation, wenn nicht das Bild die sprachlichen Zeichen, sondern umgekehrt die sprachlichen Zeichen das Bild erläutern. Der Text dient in diesem Fall also lediglich zur Verdeutlichung der Bildmitteilung und könnte eventuell auch fehlen. Bei den klassischen Printmedien – wie dem Buch oder der Zeitung – dominiert sprachliche Kommunikation. Dagegen dominiert in den modernen „visuellen“ Medien – wie Fernsehen oder Video – Bildkommunikation.

Eine weitere wichtige Unterscheidung, die sich aus dem Gesagten bereits ergibt, besteht darin, ob die rhetorische Wirkung von dem Bild insgesamt oder von einzelnen Gestaltungselementen ausgeht. Einem Gestaltungselement messen wir dabei eine rhetorische Funktion bei, insofern es über die Darstellung eines Inhaltes hinaus zugleich zur Verdeutlichung der kommunikativen Intention und damit zur Verdeutlichung des Verwendungszwecks beiträgt. Diese Verdeutlichung ergibt sich also nicht aus dem Inhalt allein, sondern aus der Art und Weise, wie ein Inhalt präsentiert wird. Rhetorisch sind demnach primär die unterschiedlichen Darstellungsweisen, die (durch stilistische Marker verstärkt) das Verständnis eines visuellen Artefaktes unterstützen und lenken. Bei unseren weiteren Überlegungen wird es insbesondere um diese Mittel gehen, also um die dem visuellen Artefakt inhärenten Steuerungscodes.

Wenn der Rhetorikbegriff entsprechend weit gefasst wird, besagt die Rede von einer Bildrhetorik also, dass Bilder innerhalb kommunikativer Zusammenhänge kraft ihrer visuellen Eigenschaften bzw. ihrer visuellen Gestaltung persuasive Funktionen übernehmen können. Die konkrete Aufgabe einer Bildrhetorik liegt dann in der Erfassung der jeweiligen Gestaltungsmittel, die geeignet sind, in systematischer Weise Überzeugungen zu generieren oder zu modifizieren. Offensichtlich kann dies in überaus vielfältiger Form geschehen. Ein sehr einfaches Mittel ist beispielsweise die Hervorhebung bestimmter Inhalte durch Vergrößerung. Die Hervorhebung ist nur eines unter zahlreichen Mittel, das zudem sehr unterschiedlich realisiert werden kann, beispielsweise ebenfalls durch farbliche Kontraste oder durch eine spezielle Beleuchtungssituation. So wird etwa durch eine zusätzliche Ausleuchtung in Abb. 1 rechts der Eindruck der Räumlichkeit und Materialität des abgebildeten Objektes deutlich gegenüber der linken Fassung hervorgehoben (vgl. Hoppe & Lüdicke 1998).

Abb.1: Hervorhebung von Materialität und Tiefe durch Ausleuchtung (rechts)

Wichtig ist hierbei vor allem, dass sich bild-rhetorische Elemente aus der Art und Weise ergeben, wie ein Inhalt dargestellt wird, also aus dem Darstellungsstil. Wir verwenden den Ausdruck „Stil“ im Folgenden sehr allgemein und nicht im kunsthistorischen Sinne. Ist die Annahme richtig, dass der Darstellungsstil eines Bildes als Mittel zur Steuerung der Bildinterpretation dient, dann ergibt sich hieraus unmittelbar die Empfehlung, Bildstil und Bildfunktion aufeinander abzustimmen, da nicht jede Bildfunktion in derselben Weise angezeigt werden kann. Um beispielsweise die Funktionsweise des menschlichen Blutkreislaufes in einem medizinischen Lehrbuch zu veranschaulichen, ist eine fotografische Darstellung – und generell eine zu realistische Darstellung – eher ungeeignet. Wie etwas bildhaft dargestellt werden sollte hängt also entscheidend von dem Verwendungszweck oder von der Bildfunktion ab.

Schließlich erweist sich eine Gliederung der rhetorischen Wirkung eines Bildes in ihre kognitiven (strukturalen) Komponenten einerseits und ihre affektiven (motivationalen) Aspekten andererseits im Folgenden als hilfreich. Dass man „im Bild“ etwas sieht und diesen Bildinhalt mit bereits Gewußtem zu neuen Überzeugungen verknüpfen kann ist zunächst lediglich eine strukturale Möglichkeit, und zwar in der Regel eine unter mehreren. Tatsächlich müssen wir von einer prinzipiellen semantischen Unbestimmtheit des Bildinhalts ausgehen, die sich nicht nur daraus herleitet, dass sich vermutlich immer alternative Szenarien konstruieren lassen, die ein vergleichbares Wahrnehmungsmuster erzeugen würden (vgl. Sachs-Hombach 2003: 174 ff.). Bereits die der Inhaltsbestimmung vorausgehende Einteilung in Figur und Grund ist nicht eindeutig festgelegt und kann, abhängig von den aktuellen Verwendungsbedingungen, vielfältig variieren (vgl. Schirra 2005: 50 & 67).

Dass ein bestimmter Bildinhalt gesehen wird und darauf basierend ein kognitiv möglicher Schluss tatsächlich gezogen, eine bestimmte Meinung gebildet wird, hängt auch davon ab, dass eine entsprechende Motivation vorhanden ist. Es sind speziell die affektiven Wirkungen von Bildern, die wir in diesem Zusammenhang betrachten wollen, denn sie vor allem können die notwendige „Energie“ liefern, um eine struktural nur mögliche rhetorische Wirkung zu realisieren und damit einen bestimmten Bildinhalt und eine darauf aufbauende illokutionäre Rolle als aktuell relevant festzulegen. Unter Affekten versteht man eine Komponente der Verhaltenssteuerung, die im Wesentlichen spontan funktioniert, wenigstens in Grundzügen angeboren ist (vgl. Dornes 1995: 21) und recht unterschiedliche Aspekte aus der Verhaltenstheorie, der Physiologie und der Psychologie integriert. So gehören bestimmte Ausdrucksbewegungen (insbesondere Mimik) ebenso dazu, wie einige Bereiche des hormonellen und des vegetativen Systems, und schließlich gewisse Einfärbungen von Kognitionen (vgl. Krause 1995: 57). Uns interessieren hier insbesondere letztere: Bestimmte Wahrnehmungen sind angstbesetzt, andere füllen uns mit Lust; gewisse Vorstellungen lösen Wut aus, andere Scham. Dabei beeinflusst die affektive Einfärbung gesehener Gegenstände – und das ist unabhängig davon, ob diese Gegenstände realiter oder im Bild gesehen werden – deutlich die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass auf diese Gegenstände auch reagiert wird (ebenso: dass man sich an sie erinnert). Auf Bildpräsentationen bezogen heißt dies, dass deren illokutionäre Funktion von der Stärke der affektiven Einfärbungen abhängen sollte.

3. Illokutionäre Rolle und Darstellungsstil

Betrachten wir in Abbildung 2 zunächst ein relativ einfaches Beispiel aus der Computervisualistik (vgl. Strothotte & Strothotte 1997: 273 f.). Die drei dort dargestellten Gebäudeansichten basieren auf einem einzigen geometrischen Modell (d. h. dem abstrakten, rechner-internen Stellvertreter eines abzubildenden Gegenstands in der Informatik). Aus ihm wurden mit unterschiedlichen Algorithmen die verschiedenen bildlichen Darstellungen gerendert. Unter „Rendering“ wird in der Computergrafik der algorithmische Prozess verstanden, mit dem aus dem geometrischen Modell eine konkrete Ansicht relativ zum Betrachterstandpunkt und zur Beleuchtungssituation erzeugt wird. Allgemein bekannt sind sicher die sogenannten „photorealistischen“ Rendering-Algorithmen, deren Resultate etwa Version b entsprechen.

Inzwischen ist es allerdings durch das so genannte non-photorealistic rendering möglich geworden, auch eine Fülle anderer Darstellungsstile recht einfach mit dem Computer generieren zu lassen. So können beispielsweise unterschiedliche Linienstile als Parameter in das Rendering eingehen (Abb. 2 a und c).

Abb. 2: Computergenerierte Gebäudeansichten mit unterschiedlichem Abstraktionsgrad und Linienstil, Schumann et al. 1996

Bei Abbildung 2 liefert die Variante c eine Gebäudeansicht, die wir spontan als Skizze interpretieren, einer Darstellungsart also, die wir gemeinhin mit einer eher flüchtigen Produktions- und Rezeptionssituation in Verbindung bringen; die Darstellung in a erinnert hingegen eher an eine technische Zeichnung. Wichtig ist hierbei zunächst einmal, dass wir den speziellen Linienstil nicht dem dargestellten Gebäude zuschreiben, sondern ihn als stilistische Besonderheit der Darstellung verstehen. Zum Verständnis des kommunikativen Bildgehalts ist diese Besonderheit des Darstellungsstils wesentlich. Die Verwendung des skizzenartigen Darstellungsstils intendiert nämlich eine Vermittlung von speziellen affektiven und damit motivationalen Aspekten: Während nämlich die Darstellungsspielarten a und b bei der Präsentation den Klienten eines Architekturbüros gegenüber als abgeschlossen und unabänderlich wirken, signalisiert die flüchtige Skizze die Vorläufigkeit des Entwurfs. Ein Architekt kann also durch geschickte Wahl des Darstellungsstils entweder seine Autorität über die Entwurfsentscheidungen herausstreichen. Oder aber er kann den designerischen Entwicklungsprozess als wesentlich offener erscheinen lassen und so versuchen, seine Klienten stärker darin einzubeziehen. Weil zur Vermittlung des Bildinhaltes in der Regel recht abstrakte Darstellungsformen hinreichend sind, kann der Darstellungsstil also genutzt werden, um die jeweiligen kommunikativen Absichten manifest zu machen. Folglich dient der Stil, terminologisch gesprochen, als illokutionärer Indikator (vgl. auch Sachs-Hombach & Schirra 2002).

Wird Bildkommunikation mit Hilfe einer Bestimmung der illokutionären Rollen handlungstheoretisch beschrieben, dann lassen sich drei grundsätzliche Komplexitätsgrade unterscheiden. Auf der elementarsten Ebene veranschaulicht ein Bild lediglich als wesentlich erachtete Begriffsmerkmale bzw. den mit der Verwendung des Begriffs notwendig verbundenen Verhaltenskontext. Eine solche Veranschaulichung ist etwa für Bildwörterbücher typisch oder – etwas komplexer – in den grafischen Darstellungen geometrischer Theoreme wichtig, wie sie sich in mathematischen Lehrbüchern finden. Bei diesen Darstellungen handelt es sich durchweg nicht um die Darstellung individueller, konkreter Gegenstände, sondern um die Darstellung von Gegenstandsklassen oder von abstrakten Gegenständen. Daher könnte die Grundfunktion der Veranschaulichung auch analog zur charakterisierenden Funktion von Prädikaten aufgefasst werden.

Auf einer komplexeren Ebene kann mit einem Bild auch zu verstehen gegeben werden, dass es sich bei der Veranschaulichung um einen ganz bestimmten Gegenstand handelt, auf den Bezug genommen und dem bestimmte Eigenschaften zugeschrieben werden sollen: dass bestimmte Bildelemente also topische Funktion haben. Obwohl ihre kausale Entstehungsgeschichte jeweils eine bestimmte Referenz nahe legen mag, ist dies keine spezifische Eigenschaft von Fotografien. Soll die Referenz eines Zeichens bildhaft sichergestellt werden, dann muss sie über den jeweiligen Bildinhalt – über das, was wir in ihnen sehen – zustande kommen. Es gibt unseres Erachtens daher im Bildbereich kein Äquivalent für Eigennamen im engeren Sinne. Die Veranschaulichung konkreter Gegenstände erfolgt immer im Sinne von Kennzeichnungen, indem begriffliche Charakterisierungen derart kombiniert werden, dass sie sich in einem bestimmten Kontext zur Charakterisierung individueller Dinge eignen.

Ein weiterer Komplexitätsgrad liegt schließlich vor, wenn wir mit bildhaften Darstellungen die verschiedenen illokutionären Funktionen ausüben. Mit dem Präsentieren eines Bildes lässt sich beispielsweise eine Behauptung oder eine Aufforderung verbinden oder auch eine Einstellung einem Sachverhalt gegenüber vermitteln. Mit Bildern können wir also unter anderem etwas behaupten oder vor etwas warnen. Ob etwa die Präsentation eines Bildes normativ aufzufassen ist ergibt sich dabei nicht aus dem Bild selbst, sondern immer erst aus dem kommunikativen Kontext. Ein und dasselbe Bild erhält daher in der Regel relativ zu dem jeweiligen Handlungszusammenhang eine unterschiedliche kommunikative Bedeutung. Diese verschiedenen Formen der Bildkommunikation zu erfassen ist eine der wesentlichen Aufgaben einer sprechakttheoretisch inspirierten Bildpragmatik, die es bisher erst in Ansätzen gibt.

Kommen wir aber zu unserer Abbildung 2 zurück, in der die Vorläufigkeit der Darstellung durch einen skizzenhaften Linienstil zum Ausdruck gebracht wird. Die nahe liegende theoretisch interessante, aber nur sehr schwierig zu beantwortende Frage lautet nun: Inwieweit ist die jeweilige Wahl der Darstellungsmittel eine rein konventionelle Festlegung? Oder gibt es doch syntaktische Eigenschaften eines Bildes, die bestimmte Lesarten auf Grund spezieller perzeptueller Kompetenzen zumindest begünstigen? Gibt es, anders gefragt, eine in der Bildlichkeit selbst begründete Basis, auf deren Grundlage wir die jeweilige illokutionäre Rolle eines Bildes bestimmen können bzw. der gemäß wir sie gestalten müssen, um angemessen verstanden zu werden? Eine Beantwortung dieser Frage ist natürlich besonders für diejenigen Bilder wichtig, die ohne sprachlichen Kommentar möglichst unmittelbar wirken sollen.

In Sachs-Hombach & Schirra 2002 hatten wir untersucht, inwieweit ein Unterschied im Darstellungsstil innerhalb eines Bildes die Zuordnung von prädikativen (rhematischen) und topischen (thematischen) Funktionen zu entsprechenden Bildelementen beeinflussen kann. Im Folgenden möchten wir nun behaupten und an einem Beispiel verdeutlichen, dass auch bildhafte illokutionäre Indikatoren durchaus perzeptuell verankert sein können. Zu betonen ist hierbei aber, dass die perzeptuelle Verankerung nicht zu einer „natürlichen“ Bedeutung führt, ebenso wenig, wie die Zuordnung zu referentiellem Grund und prädikativer Figur durch eine entsprechende Unterscheidung im Darstellungsstil innerhalb eines Bildes völlig determiniert sein kann. Bilder sind nicht nur, wie oben erwähnt, semantisch unbestimmt. Zudem ist der Wahrnehmungsprozess selbst teilweise kulturell geformt. Beispielsweise haben sich unsere Kompetenzen, Filme anzusehen, über die letzen hundert Jahre enorm verändert. Schließlich bilden auch die Wahrnehmungsinhalte in der Regel soziale Artefakte, die wir natürlich nur darum angemessen erkennen und beurteilen können, weil wir mit ihnen in den entsprechenden lebensweltlichen Verwendungskontexten bereits umgehen.

4. Naturalismus als illokutionärer Indikator

Als Beispiel haben wir die bekannte Kriegsfotografie Napalm Bomb Attack von Nick Ut gewählt (vgl. Abb. 3). Wir möchten nun weniger auf die ikonografischen und ikonologischen Aspekte eingehen (vgl. dazu Blum 2005), sondern diese Fotografie als ein offensichtliches Beispiel für die bildhafte Appellfunktion nutzen. Warum, lautet dann die Frage, wirkt diese Fotografie in so unmittelbarer Weise appellativ? 1972 veröffentlicht hatte sie nicht unerheblich zur Kritik am Vietnamkrieg und vielleicht sogar zur Beendigung dieses Krieges beigetragen. Es steht also außer Zweifel, dass diesem Bild eine appellative illokutionäre Funktion zugeschrieben wurde. Mit welchen Mitteln wurde dies erreicht? Unsere These lautet, dass der hierbei zum Ausdruck kommende Naturalismus ein wichtiges Stilmittel dafür abgibt. Das schließt weder aus, dass dieser Eindruck sehr bewusst hergestellt wurde, noch schließt es aus, dass seine Wirkung sich im historisch-kulturellen Wandel auch verlieren kann.

Abb. 3: Nick Ut: Napalm Bomb Attack, Vietnam 1972.

Naturalismus verstehen wir als einen Darstellungsstil, bei dem ein möglichst hohes Maß an visuellem Realismus angestrebt wird. Damit ist nicht gemeint, dass die Darstellung in einem erkenntnistheoretischen Sinne realistisch ist, denn auch ein fiktiver Gegenstand kann perzeptuell realistisch dargestellt werden. Naturalismus und erkenntnistheoretischer Realismus dürfen also nicht verwechselt werden. Das erste ist als Darstellungsstil eine graduell variable Eigenschaft: So ist ein Farbfoto hinsichtlich der Farbwerte naturalistischer als ein Schwarzweißfoto. Der zweite betrifft hingegen das Verhältnis von Darstellung und Wirklichkeit: eine Darstellung kann entsprechend als wirklichkeitsgetreu oder nicht wirklichkeitsgetreu bewertet werden.

Uns geht es im Folgenden lediglich um den Einfluß, den die Formen der medialen Vermittlung haben. Paradoxerweise können diese durch entsprechende Verdichtungsprozesse sogar einen intensiveren Realitätseindruck entstehen lassen, als dies die unmittelbare Wahrnehmung realer Gegenstände erlauben würde („Hypernaturalismus“): insofern nämlich der Unterschied von bildlicher Darstellung zur kognitiven Vorstellung infolge der medialen Aufbereitung geringer sein kann als bei dem realen Ereignis. Der Eindruck größerer Wirklichkeitsnähe etwa einer Karikatur entsteht dann dadurch, dass bei der Gestaltung der bildhaften Darstellung Prinzipien der kognitiven Repräsentation genutzt werden, so dass die Darstellung für den Rezipienten in einem höheren Maße kognitiv kompatibel ist.

4.1 Die kognitive Komponente des Appells

Um den strukturalen Aspekt bei unserem Beispiel verständlich zu machen, ist es hilfreich, den mit der Fotografie verbundenen Appell als praktischen Syllogismus zu formulieren. Der Gedanke ist hierbei, dass ein Appell wesentlich eine Handlungsaufforderung beinhaltet. Formal lässt sich das als Du solltest X tun! bzw. Ich fordere Dich auf, X zu tun zum Ausdruck bringen. Wir sehen im Folgenden davon ab, wie dieser Appell konkret aussieht, was also im Einzelnen getan werden soll. Er könnte verstanden werden als Aufforderung, sich kritisch über den Vietnamkrieg zu äußern, oder als Aufforderung, gegen den Vietnamkrieg zu demonstrieren, oder auch als Aufforderung, eine bestimmte Partei zu wählen. Wichtiger als der Inhalt des Appells ist uns die interne Begründung, mit der ein solcher Appell unterstützt wird, und die als die kognitive Kraft des Appells gelten kann. Diese Begründungsleistung sehen wir als den Gehalt des praktischen Syllogismus an.

Der Begriff des praktischen Syllogismus geht auf Aristoteles zurück. In der neueren Philosophie wird er in der Regel als Ausdruck einer Zweckrationalität gefasst. Als Prämissen dienen daher zum einen eine Handlungsabsicht und zum anderen die Überzeugung, dass das mit der Absicht verbundene Ziel über ein bestimmtes Mittel erreicht werden kann. Die Konklusion besteht dann darin, dieses Mittel auszuführen. Ist eine der Prämissen jedoch ein Gebot, dann beschreibt der praktische Syllogismus eine moralische Verpflichtung, wie sie uns unter anderem im Appell begegnet.

Bei unserem Beispiel kann als grundlegende Prämisse die dem kategorischen Imperativ angelehnte Formulierung „Sei gerecht!“ dienen, die wir auch so verstehen können: „Nimm Stellung gegen Unrecht!“. Dies wäre eine implizite Forderung, auf die bei der Verwendung des Bildes nicht ausdrücklich Bezug genommen werden muss, weil sie bei den intendierten Bildnutzern als allgemein anerkannt vorausgesetzt werden kann. Zudem benötigen wir eine auf den Krieg bezogene Prämisse. Diese müsste bestimmte Kriege als Unrecht ausweisen. Etwa in der folgenden Formulierung: „Ein Krieg, der Unbeteiligte, insbesondere Kinder nicht verschont, ist Unrecht.“ Schließlich muss es eine auf das Bild bezogene Prämisse geben, mit der eine konkrete Einschätzung gegeben wird, etwa: „Im Vietnamkrieg werden Kinder nicht verschont.“ Aus diesen drei Prämissen lässt sich nun der Appellcharakter des Bildes erfassen:

(P1) Sei gerecht: Nimm Stellung gegen Unrecht!
(P2) Ein Krieg, der Unbeteiligte, insbesondere Kinder nicht verschont, ist Unrecht.
(P3) Im Vietnamkrieg werden Kinder nicht verschont.
_____________________________________
(K) Nimm Stellung gegen den Vietnam-Krieg!

Bei den ersten beiden Prämissen handelt es sich um moralische Gebote. Wir gehen davon aus, dass der Fotograf diese Gebote kennt. Zudem kann er sich darauf verlassen, dass sie allgemein anerkannt sind. Hinsichtlich (P2) ließen sich zwar komplizierte Diskussionen darüber anschließen, ob es nicht einen gerechten Krieg geben kann. Und dies wird ja, wie wir aus der jüngsten Zeitgeschichte in mehr als einem Fall wissen, auch ausgiebig zur Legitimation eines Kriege führenden Landes gemacht. Wir können hier auf diese Diskussion aber verzichten, weil wir davon ausgehen, dass die Fotografie ihre Appellfunktion in dem Maße ausübt, in dem (P2) von den Bildnutzern anerkannt wird. Wir konzentrieren uns also auf den Fall des gelungenen Appells. Immerhin zeigt der Einwand, dass eine Appellfunktion vom Kontext und insbesondere von den bereits vorher bestehenden Überzeugungen abhängt.

Für unseren Zusammenhang ist nun insbesondere (P3) wichtig. Während die ersten beiden Prämissen vom Bildverwender vorausgesetzt werden können, muss die dritte Prämisse „Im Vietnamkrieg werden Kinder nicht verschont“ vor allem durch das Bild vermittelt und plausibel gemacht werden. Das Bild ist eine unter üblichen Sichtbedingungen – Augenhöhe, passable Lichtverhältnisse, gute Schärfentiefe – geschossene Schwarzweißfotografie mit einer Horizontlinie im oberen Drittel der Bildfläche. Es handelt sich zudem um eine hoch-naturalistische Darstellung; lediglich das Fehlen von Farbe schränkt den Grad an Naturalismus etwas ein. In der Fotografie zeigt sich uns – zwischen anderen Kindern mit ähnlicher Mimik und Bewegung – insbesondere ein mageres, nacktes, vor Entsetzen oder Schmerz schreiendes Mädchen in der Bildmitte, das „nicht verschont“ wurde, da es mit allen Kräften einer tödlichen Gefahr zu entkommen versucht: Der Himmel im Hintergrund wird durch dunkle Rauchwolken verdeckt, deren Quelle im Fluchtpunkt der Straße zu liegen scheint, auf der die Kinder davonrennen. Entsprechend der These von der Wahrnehmungsnähe als Charakteristikum der Bilder lassen sich diese Bedeutungskomponenten unter Nutzung von in Wesentlichen denselben Wahrnehmungskompetenzen gewinnen, die wir auch für das Sehen der Szene selbst einsetzen würden, wären wir denn dort gewesen.

Für die weiteren strukturalen Aspekte benötigt das Bild Unterstützung durch den Kontext. Beispielsweise ist es sehr schwierig, nur mittels der Fotografie den Bezug auf Vietnam herzustellen. Klar ist, dass es sich um kriegerische Aktivitäten (bewaffnete Uniformierte im Hintergrund, Explosionswolke) in einem vermutlich asiatischen Land handelt. Aber könnte nicht auch ein Terroranschlag in Indonesien oder eine Brandkatastrophe in den Philippinen dargestellt sein? Um dies auszuschließen werden Fotografien im medialen Kontext in der Regel mit Bildunterschriften versehen, die als indexikalische Verankerung dienen. Dass die Gefahr, vor der die Kinder fliehen, in brennendem Napalm besteht, ist eine Information, die wir dem Bildtitel und wohl auch den damaligen Nachrichtensendungen entnehmen konnten. Außerdem kann der Fotograf den zeitgenössischen Informationskontext voraussetzen. Als die Fotografie veröffentlicht worden ist, war der Vietnamkrieg ein in den Medien ausführlich diskutiertes Ereignis. Allein diese Voraussetzung zeigt, dass die appellative Bildfunktion mit der geschichtlichen Entfernung unsicherer wird. Trotzdem wird jemand, der die Fotografie von Ut ohne die historischen Kenntnisse betrachtet, vermutlich noch emotional angesprochen werden, ohne aber doch den konkreten Anlass sowie den konkreten Appell zu verstehen.

Ein weiterer kognitiver Aspekt, der Kontextinformationen erfordert, liegt im Glauben an den indexikalischen Charakter von Pressefotos. Auch dies ist keineswegs selbstverständlich und wird im Zeitalter der digitalen Fotografie sogar zunehmend fragwürdig. Damit der dargestellte Syllogismus funktioniert, muss der Bildnutzer glauben, dass das Dargestellte tatsächlich stattgefunden hat, dass also der Bildzeichenakt authentisch ist. Die Fotografie an sich kann das in der Tat nicht sicherstellen. Nur unter der zusätzlichen Annahme, dass der kausale Herstellungsprozess der Fotografie unter bestimmten Bedingungen des Gelingens Realismus verbürgt und zudem die Institution der seriösen Presse richtig funktioniert, d. h. die Authentizität der durch sie vermittelten Zeichenakte garantiert, kann daher der Bildnutzer Prämisse (P3) in den Syllogismus einbeziehen (vgl. auch Schirra 2005: 76ff &179ff). Allerdings kann gerade der relativ hohe Grad an Naturalismus zumindest auch als ein bild-rhetorischer Hinweis darauf verstanden werden, dass diese Darstellung als eine authentische Darstellung zu interpretieren sei.

Prinzipiell lassen sich trotz aller Einschränkungen neben der Schlußfolgerung (P1, P2, P3) zu (K) aus kontextueller und bildkommunizierter Meinung gerade wegen der Wahrnehmungsnähe des Bildes noch sehr viele weitere struktural ableiten.Denn bei der Verwendung von Bildern muss man prinzipiell mit einer gewissen Offenheit ihrer Interpretation rechnen. Dass der hier vorgestellte Syllogismus als strukturale Basis der illokutionären Rolle unseres Beispielbildes tatsächlich verwendet wird, dass man sich ihm sozusagen kaum verweigern kann, das erfordert daher noch einen zusätzlichen Schritt, der allerdings die motivationale Komponente betreffen muss.

4.2 Die affektive Komponente des Appells

Der Fotograf zeigt uns, wie gesagt, im Bildmittelpunkt ein mageres, nacktes, vor Entsetzen oder Schmerz schreiendes kleines Kind, das mit all seinen Kräften einer im Hintergrund drohenden Gefahr zu entkommen versucht (Abb. 4). Es ist dieses vor Grauen verzerrte Gesicht des schutzlosen Mädchens im Zentrum des Bildes, dem wir uns kaum entziehen können. Hört man nicht fast ihre Schreie, ebenso wie das Schluchzen des gleichfalls verzweifelt weinenden, etwas älteren Jungen am linken Bildrand? Wie genau hängen diese Reaktionen mit der illokutionären Funktion des Bildes zusammen?

Die spontane Wirkung des Bildes ist eng damit verbunden, dass Mimik eine ausgesprochen wichtige Komponente des Affektausdrucks bei Menschen ist. Wenn wir unsere Mimik nicht – mit verhältnismäßig großer Anstrengung – bewusst kontrollieren, spiegeln sich unsere Affekte spontan im Gesicht. Dabei kommt den affektiven Ausdrucksbewegungen bereits bei Tieren auch eine kommunikative Funktion zu: Eine starke affektive Belegung eines gesehenen Fressfeindes mit Angst sorgt sicherlich zunächst für eine effektive Verhaltenssteuerung für das Individuum selbst. Wird darüber hinaus eine mit dem Affekt verbundene Ausdruckbewegung von Artgenossen entsprechend gedeutet und der Affekt auf sie übertragen, so kann das Wahrnehmen des Fressfeindes durch das eine Individuum direkt auch den anwesenden Artgenossen zugute kommen.

Abb. 4: Ausschnitt von Abb. 3 .....................................Abb. 5: E. Munch: Der Schrei. Lithographie, 1895

N. Bischof weist auf die Wirksamkeit dieser Form der Affektübertragung für den Menschen am Beispiel einer Lithographie von E. Munch hin (Bischof 1998: 133 f.; vgl. Abb. 5): „[Munch] konfrontiert den Betrachter mit der hilflosen Angst der kauernden Person, aber er tut dies auf eine Weise, die es dem, der sich auf das Bild einläßt, nicht erlaubt, Distanz zu wahren. Das Grauen bleibt nicht innerhalb der Grenzen des Gegenübers, ist über diese hinausgequollen, … . Die Angst wird hier zum Medium, sie wird allgegenwärtig, saugt den Betrachter ein und löst die Membran auf, hinter der sich seine eigene Seele schützen will. Man bezeichnet diesen Ansteckungseffekt als Stimmungsübertragung.“ In der Tat fallen mehrere formal-ästhetische Ähnlichkeiten als auch inhaltliche Unterschiede zwischen Munchs Lithographie und dem Zentralteil der Fotografie von Ut in der direkten Gegenüberstellung in Abb. 4 und 5 ins Auge, sollen hier aber nicht weiter thematisiert sein.

Interessant ist hier für uns allerdings, dass auch von den in der Fotografie abgebildeten Gesichtern eine starke Stimmungsübertragung ausgeht. Dass die Gefahr in brennendem Napalm besteht ist zwar eine Information, die wir dem Bildtitel entnehmen müssen. Aber auch ohne diese Kenntnis empfinden wir unmittelbar den Schrecken und die Bedrohung, die von den dunklen Rauchwirbeln im Hintergrund ausgehen. Wir verstehen sie als Gefahr vor allem deshalb unmittelbar, weil wir eine hohe Sensibilität bei der Interpretation von Gesichtsausdrücken besitzen und in der Lage sind, Gesichtszüge als direkten Ausdruck von psychischen Befindlichkeiten zu verstehen. Auch wenn wir diesen konkreten Gesichtsausdruck in unserem Alltag noch nicht erlebt haben sollten, so versetzt das Sehen dieser Gesichter – das Betrachten dieses Bildes – uns spontan in ihn hinein. Der Affekt bleibt zwar in der Regel rational kontrolliert – einem Bild gegenüber verhalten wir uns normalerweise mit mehr rationaler Distanz, als wir uns der dargestellten Szene direkt gegenüber verhalten würden. Aber als entsprechende Emotionen bleibt der übertragene Affekt durchaus nachempfindbar und wirksam.

Diese Stimmungsübertragung ist die wesentliche affektive Triebkraft, die wir – unter der kognitiven Prämisse, dass den ungeschützten Kindern in der Abbildung großes Leid angetan wird – dann als motivationale Komponente des Appells erleben, durch den der hier vorliegenden strukturalen Basis der entscheidende Impuls zur Folgerung gegeben wird. Es ist gerade die Wahrnehmungsnähe, die es auch bei Bildern möglich macht, dass sowohl das spontane Auslösen affektiver Reaktionen auf abgebildete Gegenstände oder Situationen erfolgt, wie auch die ebenfalls spontane Affektübertragung von bloß abgebildeten Personen auf den Betrachter.

Es ist darüber hinaus der recht hohe Grad an Naturalismus, der in Verbindung mit der unterstellten Objektivität der Fotografie eine starke affektive Aufladung im Beispiel auslöst, und der so zur Realisierung der oben angegebenen, struktural nur möglichen Schlußfolgerung (unter wahrscheinlich sehr vielen weiteren Möglichen) führt und damit letztlich dem Bild die illokutionäre Funktion des entsprechenden Appells liefert. Naturalismus ist wohl keine notwendige Bedingung des Appellcharakters. Er stellt zunächst nur eine Möglichkeit dar, den Appellcharakter zu markieren. Er wirkt, weil dieser Darstellungsstil die kognitive und affektive Komponente besonders gut miteinander integriert. Auf der strukturalen Ebene deutet er (trotz der oben erwogenen Einschränkungen) in hervorgehobener Weise auch darauf hin, dass das Gezeigte wirklich passiert ist. Die affektive Komponente für sich lässt sich durchaus auch anders realisieren. Die in der Abstraktion verdichtete Darstellungsweise kann dabei sogar den Effekt verstärken (siehe das Beispiel von Munch, dessen expressionistischer Darstellungsstil sicher nicht als naturalistisch gelten kann). Allerdings geht die Steigerung der spontan-affektiven Reaktion bei einer solchen „hypernaturalistischen“ Darstellung in der Regel auf Kosten der kognitiven Komponente: Der authentische Bezug auf die konkreten Ursachen des Leids wird deutlich abgeschwächt. Im Beispiel „Der Schrei“ bleibt der Grund für dieses ausufernde Leid entsprechend auch ganz unbestimmt, die Affektübertragung wird zur dominierenden Wirkung. Eine Appellfunktion darüber hinaus wird nicht gestützt. In der weitgehend naturalistischen Darstellung der Schwarzweißfotografie ergänzen sich hingegen der Authentizitätsanspruch des strukturalen Aspekts und die unmittelbare Wirkung der Stimmungsübertragung gerade wechselseitig und führen auf diese Weise gemeinsam zur untersuchten illokutionären Funktion.

5. Fazit

Die kommunikative Bedeutung eines Bildes in einer Präsentationshandlung wird nicht nur durch den Bildinhalt sondern auch durch seine illokutionäre Rolle bestimmt. Diese Rolle sollte dem Betrachter angezeigt werden. Im rhetorischen Kontext können hierbei stilistische Eigenheiten als Indikatoren dienen. Der Erfolg und die Effizienz bild-rhetorischer Verfahren verdanken sich dabei der zumindest partiellen perzeptuellen Verankerung der als illokutionäre Indikatoren dienenden stilistischen Marker sowie der spontanen affektiven Reaktionen, die die Wahrnehmungsnähe des Bildes auslöst. Die spezifische Wirkung des verwendeten Darstellungsstils besteht vor allem darin, die strukturale und die motivationale Wirkkomponente auf besondere Weise miteinander in Verbindung zu setzen.

Die hier wiedergegebenen Überlegungen sind tatsächlich nur als eine erste Annäherung an das Thema Darstellungsstil und bild-rhetorische Funktionen zu verstehen. So bleiben hier etwa komplexere Formen der emotionalen Wirkung von Bildern neben den verhältnismäßig einfachen affektiven Reaktionen unberücksichtigt. Auch die Rolle, die kunsthistorische Befunde, etwa die dem Ut-Bild eingeschriebene auf europäische Darstellungstraditionen verweisende Komposition (Mädchen und Jesus/Pietà), in bild-rhetorischer Hinsicht zu spielen vermögen, und deren Wechselwirkungen mit dem Darstellungsstil wurden nicht betrachtet.

Schließlich muss eine ausführlichere Untersuchung der Rolle, die die möglichen graduellen Abstufungen von Naturalismus – zwischen hypernaturalistischen Verdichtungen auf der einen, und den Naturalismus zunehmend abschwächenden Abstraktionen auf der anderen Seite – auf die illokutionäre Funktion einer Bildpräsentation haben, weiteren Untersuchungen vorbehalten bleiben.

Literatur

Bischof, Norbert (1998): Das Kraftfeld der Mythen. Piper: München.

Blum, Gerd (2005): Die Komposition des Schreckens. Hynh Cong „Nick“ Uts Fotografie „Terror of War“ und der interkulturelle Dialog. In: Freundschaftsspiel. Zeitgenössische Kunst im interkulturellen Dialog, hg von der Kunstakademie Münster, Münster 2005, 184-203.

Dornes, Martin (1995): Wahrnehmen, Fühlen, Phantasieren. In: Koch, Gertrud (1995) (Hg.): Auge und Affekt. Wahrnehmung und Interaktion. Fischer: Frankfurt/M., S. 15-38.

Harms, Wolfgang (1990) (Hg.): Text und Bild, Bild und Text (DFG-Symposium 1988). Stuttgart: Metzler.

Heitmann, Annegret & Schiedermair, Joachim (2000) (Hg.): Zwischen Text und Bild. Zur Funktionsbestimmung von Bildern in Texten und Kontexten. Freiburg im Breisgau: Rombach.

Hoppe Axel & Lüdicke K. (1998): Measuring and Highlighting in Graphics. In: Strothotte et al. (1998), Computer Visualization – Graphics, Abstraction, and Interactivity. Springer, Heidelberg, Chapter 7, 121-136.

Kjørup, Søren (1978): Pictorial Speech Acts. In: Erkenntnis 12, 55-71.

Knape, Joachim (2000): Was ist Rhetorik? Stuttgart: Reclam.

Knape, Joachim (2005): Rhetorik. In: Sachs-Hombach, Klaus (Hg.): Bildwissenschaft. Disziplinen, Themen und Methoden. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 134, 148.

Krause, Rainer (1995): Gesicht – Affekte – Wahrnehmung und Interaktion. In: Koch, Gertrud (1995) (Hg.): Auge und Affekt. Wahrnehmung und Interaktion. Fischer: Frankfurt/M., S. 57-72.

Sachs-Hombach, Klaus (2003): Das Bild als kommunikatives Medium. Elemente einer allgemeinen Bildwissenschaft. Köln: Herbert von Halem Verlag.

Sachs-Hombach, Klaus & Schirra, Jörg R. J. (2002): Selecting Styles for Tele-Rendering. Toward a Rhetoric in Computational Visualistics. In: 2nd International Symposium on Smart Graphics, Hawthorne (NY), USA, June 11-13, 2002, 102-106.

Schirra, Jörg R.J. (2005): The Foundation of Computational Visualistics. (Reihe Bildwissenschaft Band 14). Wiesbaden: DUV.

Schumann, J., Strothotte, T., Raab, A., Laser, S. (1996): Assessing the Effect of Non-Photorealistic Images in Computer-Aided Design“. In: Proc. SIGCHI '96: Human Factors in Computing Systems, Vancouver, 35-41.

Strothotte, Christine & Strothotte, Thomas (1997): Seeing Between the Pixels: Pictures in Interactive Systems. Berlin / Heidelberg / New York: Springer.

Tinbergen, Nikolaas (1951). The Study of Instinct. Oxford: Clarendon Press (1989 von Oxford University Press neu herausgegeben).

Science in the Making. Drawing,Diagrams, Reasoning with epistemic mediators I

The Max Planck Institute of History of Science(Prof. Rheinberger) in Berlin(Germany) is promoting a research area on drawing and writing as Research Techniques. As well the Center of Philosophy of Science at the University of Lisbon (CFCUL) is working in several fields on scientific drawings, diagramatic reasoning, visual modelling and the philosophy of the image in science and art. (http://cfcul.fc.ul.pt/projectos/projecto_imagem/projecto_imagem_equipa.htm)
The importance of tools as epistemic mediators in scientivic activities in the context of discovery was described by Hutchinson(1995): Cognition in the Wild.MIT Press. Important new research is done today in the field of diagrammatic reasoning and the use of diagrams in scientific reasoning and the process of science making coming from the philosophy of Charles Saunders Peirce: see e.g. Stjernfeld, F.(2007) Diagrammatology.
At the Berlin Akademy of Sciences the research gruop "Die Welt als Bild" is promoting an interesting research on fundamental questions and importance of the image today, and the DFG project on "Notational Iconicity": On the materiality, perceptibility and operativity of writing" is worth being followed in the next years as well:
http://www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de/v/schriftbildlichkeit/veranstaltungen/index.html

Inter-Institutional Research Initiative of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence (Max Planck Institute) | Funded by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung & the Max Planck Society

The stylus is one of the simplest and most economical instruments of scientific practice. Apparently unsophisticated though ubiquitous, it plays a constitutive role in the production of knowledge. In the context of scientific research, both drawing and writing involve much more than the recording of what was previously thought or observed. Rather, they produce effects of their own that are connected to the particular techniques of their use. Stylus, pencil, and pen have the power to mediate: they translate observations into two-dimensional, and thus easily reproducible, texts and images; they concretize cognitive processes and in this way open up an interaction between perception and reflection, between the securing of phenomena and the formation of theses. Many objects and phenomena become available and comprehensible only through drawn and written records. Moreover, the activity of writing and drawing constitutes one of the most critical steps in scientific research: the step from (potentially) ambiguous data to stable facts.

Writing and drawing have maintained their value even within the complex and abstract cultures of modern science and scholarship. From the late eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, the natural sciences and humanities were still as heavily dependent on graphic visualization and written records as they were on observation and experiments. Certainly their range of use was significantly modified. The targeted period – 1800 to 2000 – saw an intense competition between »old« and »new« media. Therefore the project will examine the tension between handwriting and drawing on the one hand and mechanical, photographic, or digital recording technologies on the other. The analysis of the various forms of their interaction will open up new perspectives on the relative utility of writing and drawing under the shifting epistemological and cultural conditions of modernity. Moreover, the epistemological approach of the project permits a direct comparison of the research methods of the natural sciences and the humanities. We will deal with graphic recording techniques in the natural and human sciences within a broad context that embraces both artistic and technical recordings. Attentiveness to the simplest instrument of scientific observation will reveal parallels between the two cultures of inquiry, in particular concerning their common »techniques of creativity.«

In the last decade, an interdisciplinary field of inquiry has emerged from the discussion of representational practices in the sciences. However diverse the subjects of those studies have been, most of them have shared a common premise: namely that the process of representing and the represented objects are interrelated in a nontrivial manner. Scientific representation was conceived as an active intervention that partly limits experience, partly enriches the observed phenomena and partly enables completely new experiences. The manifold forms of »paperwork« (Bruno Latour) used in the course of research projects are certainly no exception. Laboratory journals and research notebooks filled with protocols, lists, tables, scribbles, and sketches are not only indispensable instruments for organizing scientific everyday work, they constitute a genuine epistemic space from which knowledge emerges.

During the last twenty years, the handwritten recordings of scientific activity have had an impressive career in the history of science: They were used as primary sources for reconstructing research pathways, the intermediate stages of theoretical reasoning or the development of certain scientific instruments. However, only rarely have these writings and drawings been discussed as writings and drawings. Analyzing their contribution to the production of scientific knowledge seriously begins therefore with a simple inversion. Rather than using the material as a source for reconstructing the emergence of particular ideas and activities, we will focus on the writing and drawing practices themselves. In analyzing these techniques we aim at discerning regularities in the various operations performed on the paper’s surface. Attention is thus directed to the particular restrictions, capacities of organization, and strategies of discovery that characterize the potential of drawing and writing techniques to serve as »little tools of knowledge« in the context of scientific research.

Neuroaestetics I

From The Times Literary Supplement

April 9, 2008

The neuroscience delusion

Neuroaesthetics is wrong about our experience of literature – and it is wrong about humanity

Raymond Tallis

Not long ago A. S. Byatt published a TLS Commentary (“Observe the Neurones”, September 22, 2006) in which she purported to explain why, since she discovered John Donne’s poetry as a schoolgirl in the 1950s, she had found him “so very exciting”. She discussed some of his most compelling love poems and in places showed the kind of sensitive attention to the writer’s language and intention that we look for in a good, that is to say helpful, critic. This made it puzzling, indeed exasperating, that the primary concern of her piece was to explain the poems and their effect on her by appealing to contemporary neurophysiology. She took up this theme again in a shorter piece, on the novel, last year (November 30). The literary critic as neuroscience groupie is part of a growing trend.

We have become accustomed over the past half-century to critics sending out to other disciplines for “theoretical frameworks” in which to place their engagement with works of literature. The results have often been dire, the work or author in question disappearing in a sea of half-comprehended or uncritically incorporated linguistics, mathematics, psychiatry, political theory, history, or whatever. Why do critics do this?

For an academic, there are many reasons for going “interdisciplinary”. You can, as John Bayley once said, “rise between two stools”. Most of the time you will be selling your product to an audience that is not in a position to judge the correctness, the validity, or even the probable veracity of the claims you are making about the guest discipline you exploit. Ingenious, not to say flaky, interpretations will pass unchallenged. A new paradigm also means lots of conferences and papers, and other ways of enhancing the path to professional advancement. It may also help you to overcome a crisis of confidence in the value of what you are doing. To modify what Ernest Gellner once said, “When a priest loses his faith, he is unfrocked, when critics lose theirs, they redefine their subject”.

Approaches governed by very general ideas tend to bypass the individual work or author: understanding is replaced by what W. T. Mitchell called “overstanding”. The capacious frame of reference in which the work is located – evident to the critic but not to the author – places the former in a position of knowing superiority vis-à-vis the latter. The work becomes a mere example of some historical, cultural, political, or other trend of which the author will have been dimly aware, if at all. The differences between one author and another are also minimized. Like hypochondriacs, theory-led critics find what they seek: so Jane Austen and the Venerable Bede are alike in representing the hegemony of the colonizer over the colonized, the powerful over the powerless, or the voiced over the voiceless; or in their failure to acknowledge the fictionality of the bourgeois fiction of the self. The fashions have moved on. Structuralist, post-structuralist, psychoanalytical (Freudian, Lacanian), historical materialist, Marxist approaches look pretty dated. “Literary studies” at the cutting edge has woken out of some of its most ambitious appropriations, though they are still inflicted on students. Dreams of explaining or even overthrowing Western capitalism by unmasking its discourses of power through an embittered analysis of Shakespeare look simply daft. The reign of Theory seems to be over. Unfortunately the habit of approaching literature through ideas assimilated uncritically from other disciplines, and of examining individual works through an inverted telescope, has not yet been kicked.

A generation of academic literary critics has now arisen who invoke “neuroscience” to assist them in their work of explication, interpretation and appreciation. Norman Bryson, once a leading exponent of Theory and a social constructivist, has described his Damascene conversion, as a result of which he now places the firing of neurons rather than signifiers at the heart of literary criticism. Evolutionary theory, sociobiology and allied forces are also recruited to the cause, since, we are reminded, the brain functions as it does to support survival. The dominant model of brain function among cognitive neuroscientists is that of a computer, and so computational theory is sometimes thrown into the mix. The kinds of things critics get up to these days are illustrated by a recent volume, Evolutionary and Neurocognitive Approaches to Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, edited by Colin Martindale and others (New York, 2007), with chapter headings such as “Literary Creativity: A Neuropsychoanalytic View”, and a call for papers for a congress this year on “Cognitive Approaches to Medieval Texts” (cognitive science, neuroscience and evolutionary psychology all welcome); and the emergence of “Darwinian literary criticism” which approaches the Iliad and Madame Bovary through the lens of theories about the evolved brain. Evolutionary explanations of why people create and enjoy literature, “neurocognitive frameworks” for aesthetics, and neural-network explanations for the perception of beauty are all linked through the notion that our experiences of art are the experiences of a brain developed to support survival. Byatt’s approach to Donne’s poetry through neuroscience, therefore, is not unique, nor even unusual.

At first sight, the displacement of Theory, with its social constructivism and linguistic idealism, by talk of something as solid as “the brain” of the writer and “the brain” of the reader may seem like progress. In fact, it is a case of plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. The switch from Theory to “biologism” leaves something essential unchanged: the habit of the uncritical application of very general ideas to works of literature, whose distinctive features, deliberate intentions and calculated virtues are consequently lost. Overstanding is still on the menu. In many of the critical approaches that reached their apogee in the 1980s, there was a denial of the centrality of the individual consciousness of the writer; in approaches that purport to be neuroscience-based, the consciousness of the writer (and of the reader, as we shall see) is reduced to neurophysiology. Indeed, the reductionism of neuro-lit-crit is more profound. While aficionados of Theory regarded individual works and their authors as, say, manifestations of the properties of texts, of their interaction with other texts and with the structures of power, neuroscience groupies reduce the reading and writing of literature to brain events that are common to every action in ordinary human life, and, in some cases, in ordinary non-human animal life. For this reason – and also because it is wrong about literature, overstates the understanding that comes from neuroscience and represents a grotesquely reductionist attitude to humanity – neuroaesthetics must be challenged.

In fairness to Byatt, it should be said that hers is no mere hand-waving to a discipline that sounds impressive. She has read the theories of a very distinguished neuroscientist, Pierre Changeux, with care and attention. Changeux made his professional reputation with some exquisite studies of the stereochemistry of nicotinic receptors in the brain. He became famous among the wider public in the 1980s with the publication of Neuronal Man: The biology of the mind, in which he essentially explained humanity in terms of the biology of the central nervous system.

In Changeux, Byatt finds an explanation of the Donne who excited her as a schoolgirl. Yes, Donne is “a pattern-maker – with language”; but the effect of his verse is due to a certain kind of neuronal activity that Changeux has described. For Byatt, reading Donne’s poetry leads to the formation of “mental objects”, and the excitement induced by the poetry is due to the specific nature of the mental objects created in the reader. Byatt summarizes Changeux’s account of the construction of mental objects from the activation of a large number of neurones in different layers of the brain. His account is hierarchical. He distinguishes between: “the primary percept – a mental object constructed by direct contact with the outside world”; “the image” (an object of memory); “the concept” (memory with diminished sensory content, an “algebra” derived from the isomorphs of perceptual acts); and “linked or associated concepts”. These correspond to increasingly complex contents of consciousness physically realized in ever more complex linkages in the brain. While Byatt admits that “we are not yet within reach of a neuroscientific approach to poetic intricacy”, she reports that she was “convinced on reading Changeux that the neurones Donne excites are largely those of reinforced linkages of memory, concepts, and learned formal structures like geometry, algebra and language”.

She illustrates her theory with accounts of some of Donne’s most wonderful poems – “Air and Angels”, “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”, “The Cross”. Much of what she says about them could stand up as enraptured readings without reference to brain physiology. And the connection between the neurophysiology and her exposition of the poems strikes one as highly tendentious. For example, she claims that Donne, in playing with the idea of “crossing the heart” (in “The Cross”) is “making an elaborate graph, in Changeux’s terms, of images and connections with which to construct a world of ideas – derived oddly and distantly from percepts”. “Graph theory”, in fact, is a highly generalized mathematical model in neurobiology which links functional and anatomical development in the brain in response to experience and involves the deployment of complex matrix algebra. The very abstract and general nature of the graphs indicates at once that they could hardly account for something as specific as the effect of Donne’s verse. Even more tendentious is her explanation of why Donne’s poems are so easy to learn by heart, and convey “the feeling of thought”: their syntactical quirks – such as delaying the verb to the end of a line – gives them a hotline “to the deepest and strongest neuronal reinforced links, where the firing of cells is surest, most frequent, steadiest”. I find it impossible to make neuroscientific sense of this.

In short, I am not persuaded by the application of Changeux’s extremely broad-brush ideas to such a specific target as the particular excitement produced in a brilliant schoolgirl by Donne’s poems. Most of what Byatt says seems neurospeculation, not neuroscience. It would be interesting, given that she has embraced an empirical discipline, and that she is serious, to ask what experiments she might devise to support her theory.

The key point is this. The range of “mental objects” Changeux’s theory encompasses is hardly unique to mentally demanding and enriching experiences such as those associated with reading poetry. The processes leading up to mental objects – if they really do correspond to distinctive realities and are anything other than artefactual dissections of consciousness – are ubiquitous. Bellowing in a rage when one discovers that the toilet paper has run out, and someone has neglected to replace it, would involve the very same processes Byatt invokes to explain the particular impact of the poems of a genius, if such processes do occur. The mental objects constructed under such irritating circumstances also involve percepts, memory images, abstract concepts, and an extraordinary confection-by-association of them, as one justifies one’s rage and allocates blame, and deploys sophisticated neural algebras that simultaneously locate oneself in an unsatisfactory toilet and a careless world populated with thoughtless people.

That is, by adopting a neurophysiological approach, Byatt loses a rather large number of important distinctions: between reading one poem by John Donne and another; between successive readings of a particular poem; between reading Donne and other Metaphysical poets; between reading the Metaphysicals and reading William Carlos Williams; between reading great literature and trash; between reading and a vast number of other activities – such as getting cross over missing toilet paper. That is an impressive number of distinctions for a literary critic to lose. But that is the price of overstanding.

But there is something more important (and more worrying) in Byatt’s neuroaesthetics than its failure to explain the distinctive effect of certain poems. By locating aesthetic pleasure in the stand-alone brain, and indeed in small parts of such brains, and invoking data obtained in part from animal experimentation, she is performing a reduction that even the most hard-line Marxist literary critics might shrink from. In her discussion of “The Cross”, she argues that the comparison Donne makes between different crosses, including the crossed sutures in the skull containing the brain, “is nonsense at any level of logic except the brain’s pleasure in noticing, or making, analogies”. Note: the brain’s pleasure – not the poet’s pleasure. John Donne the poet is reduced to John Donne the brain and the latter to “Everybrain”.

I shall return to this, but first I want to make some brief observations about the (in)capacity of contemporary neuroscience to explain human consciousness. There is at present no adequate theory of qualia (the actual experience of things – such as the sensation of yellow, the feeling of warmth, the taste of wine); of the way different qualia are seemingly associated with activity in different nerve pathways – why optic nerves give the feeling of brightness and the auditory nerves the sound of sounds; of how experiences cohere into the meaningful unity of the present moment and the unity of the self over time; and of how things that are supposed to merge into unities are also kept apart, so that I can, for example, experience at the same time the sensation of yellow and the shape of a yellow object and a feeling of warmth on my arm, and worry about an exam that I am about to take, without these simultaneous memories and experiences merging into a general mush of awareness. Most fundamentally, there is not even the beginning of an explanation of our deepest sense that we are subjects transcended by objects that are “out there” and exist independently of us. Intentionality – the property the contents of consciousness have of being “about” something, so that when the light enters the brain by the usual causal mechanisms, the gaze looks back to its intermediate cause – remains mysterious. It is not a feature of material objects, which are “wired” causally into what surrounds them, to be aware of the things that impact on them and grant them independent existence. (And it is interesting to note that full-blown intentionality is confined to humans. Daniel Povinelli has pointed out, in Folk Physics for Apes: The chimpanzee’s theory of how the world works (Oxford, 2000), that our nearest animal kin do not form hypotheses about the invisible aspects of the world. Unlike us, they do not attribute intrinsic causal – and other – properties to the objects in their environment.) More specifically, Changeux’s theories of the epigenesis of neuronal networks by selective stabilization of synapses – upon which Byatt relies – remain hypothetical. And he himself has agreed, in his dialogue with Paul Ricoeur, that neurobiological models cannot account for ordinary creativity in everyday experience.

You would not guess how little we know or understand from the hyping of popular neuroscience in which some quite reputable neuroscientists seem to collude. We hear daily of how brain science is “explaining” happiness, love, moral judgement, and so on. It is worth looking at this because it may explain why neuroaestheticians fail to realize that their approach is, at the very least, a little premature. The hype has increased in the last few decades since functional neuro-imaging has enabled scientists to observe directly the activity in the brains of conscious subjects exposed to certain stimuli or engaging in different tasks. The consequent brain activity is taken to be identical with an experience, emotion, or disposition. Even more tendentiously, the areas that light up are regarded as “the centre” for that experience, emotion, or propensity. For example, the neural basis for love is, according to Semi Zeki and Andreas Bartels, “restricted to foci in the medial insula and the anterior cingulated cortex and, subcortically, in the caudate nucleus and the putamen, all bilaterally”.

Simply listing the fallacies that have led to some of the less cautious neuroscientists’ conclusions (especially when they talk to the general public) would take many pages. It is, however, worth noting that apparent localization of human feelings in bits of the brain is a kind of artefact. First, when it is asserted that such-and-such a part of the brain lights up in relation to a particular stimulus, this conclusion is arrived at by subtraction. Much more of the brain is already busy or lit up; all the scientist can observe is the additional activity associated with the stimulus. Minor changes noted diffusely are overlooked. Secondly, the additional activity can be identified only by a process of averaging the results of subtractions after the stimulus has been given repeatedly: variations in the response to successive stimuli are ironed out. Finally, and most importantly, the experiments look at the response to very simple stimuli – for example, a picture of the face of a loved one compared with that of the face of one who is not loved. But love is not like a response to a stimulus. It is not even a single enduring state, like being cold. It encompasses many things, including: not feeling in love at that moment; longing, indifference, delight; wanting to be kind, wanting to impress; worrying over the logistics of meetings; lust, awe, surprise, jealousy, anger; imagining conversations, events; imagining what the loved one is doing when one is not there; and so on. (The most sophisticated neural imaging, by the way, cannot distinguish between physical pain and the pain of social rejection: they seem to “light up” the same areas.)

When they are presented with such claims from respectable sources, it is hardly surprising that even intelligent, though scientifically naive, critics believe that the future of aesthetics is in neurology. If neuroscientists are claiming to find love among the neurones, one can hardly blame critics for being deceived into imagining that neuroscience can explain something as complex as reading or writing a poem, and that the experience of a poem, and the differences between the experiences of different poems, will be found in the tingling of a certain constellation of neurones. Little wonder they forget that different people read quite differently; or that there is a difference between reading a poem for a first, a second, or a hundredth time; or between reading it as a naive, delighted, or bored reader, and reading it as an erudite critic.

The appeal to brain science as an explain-all has at its heart a myth that results from confusing necessary with sufficient conditions. Experimental and naturally occurring brain lesions have shown how exquisitely holes in the brain are correlated with holes in the mind. Everything, from the faintest twinge of sensation to the most elaborately constructed sense of self, requires a brain; but it does not follow from this that neural activity is a sufficient condition of human consciousness, even less that it is identical with it. Although direct stimulation of the brain in the waking adult may generate quite complex hallucinations – even awaken elaborate memories – this occurs only because neural activity is associated with such experience under normal conditions. The experiences arrived at by the anomalous route are parasitic on those that are had in the ordinary way.

Under normal circumstances, experiences are had by a person, not by a stand-alone brain. The brain of an experiencing person is not isolated, like the famous “brain in a vat” of Hilary Putnam’s thought experiment: it is in a body. Corresponding to this is the fact that when, for example, I see something I like, or someone I love, my brain, or some small part of it, is not the only part of me to light up. My heart may beat faster, or more thickly; a smile may appear on my face; and my step may be a little jauntier. The effects do not stop there. My body is located in a currently experienced environment; and, since I am human, that environment is situated in a world that is extended in all spatial, temporal, cultural directions. This world, too, may be transformed by my encounter with the loved one’s face, and I may think differently about it. For the extraordinary thing about human beings – and what captures what is human – is that they transcend their bodies; that human experience is not solitary sentience but has a public face; it belongs to a community of minds. This is a process that has developed over many hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of years since hominids parted company from the monkeys. The neuromythologist, trying to find citizens and t