vol 20 no 2 book editors lanfranco aceti & paul thomas editorial manager çağlar çetin In this particular volume the issue of art as interference and the strategies that it should adopt have been reframed within the structures of contemporary technology as well as within the frameworks of interactions between art, science and media. What sort of interference should be chosen, if one at all, remains a personal choice for each artist, curator, critic and historian. ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 VOL 20 NO 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 1 LEA is a publication of Leonardo/ISAST. Editorial Address Leonardo Electronic Almanac Copyright 2014 ISAST Sabanci University, Orhanli – Tuzla, 34956 Leonardo Electronic Almanac Istanbul, Turkey Volume 20 Issue 2 April 15, 2014 Email issn 1071-4391 info@leoalmanac.org isbn 978-1-906897-32-1 The isbn is provided by Goldsmiths, University of London. leonardo electronic almanac, Volume 20 issue 2 Web » www.leoalmanac.org lea publishing & subscription information » www.twitter.com/LEA_twitts » www.lickr.com/photos/lea_gallery Editor in Chief Lanfranco Aceti lanfranco.aceti@leoalmanac.org » www.facebook.com/pages/Leonardo-ElectronicAlmanac/209156896252 book editors lanfranco aceti & paul thomas Co-Editor Özden Şahin ozden.sahin@leoalmanac.org Copyright © 2014 Leonardo, the International Society for the Arts, Managing Editor Interference Strategies Sciences and Technology John Francescutti john.francescutti@leoalmanac.org editorıal manager çağlar çetin Leonardo Electronic Almanac is published by: Art Director Leonardo/ISAST Deniz Cem Önduygu deniz.onduygu@leoalmanac.org 211 Sutter Street, suite 501 San Francisco, CA 94108 Editorial Board USA Peter J. Bentley, Ezequiel Di Paolo, Ernest Edmonds, Felice Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA) is a project of Leonardo/ Frankel, Gabriella Giannachi, Gary Hall, Craig Harris, Sibel Irzık, The International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technol- Marina Jirotka, Beau Lotto, Roger Malina, Terrence Masson, ogy. For more information about Leonardo/ISAST’s publica- Jon McCormack, Mark Nash, Sally Jane Norman, Christiane tions and programs, see http://www.leonardo.info or contact Paul, Simon Penny, Jane Prophet, Jefrey Shaw, William isast@leonardo.info. Uricchio Leonardo Electronic Almanac is produced by Cover Passero Productions. Deniz Cem Önduygu Reposting of this journal is prohibited without permission of Leonardo/ISAST, except for the posting of news and events listings which have been independently received. The individual articles included in the issue are © 2014 ISAST. 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 20 NO 2 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 22 6 - 10 VVO OLL 21 0 9 NO 4 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 3 The Leonardo Electronic Almanac The publication of this book is graciously supported by acknowledges the institutional support for this book of The book editors Lanfranco Aceti and Paul Thomas would especially like to acknowledge Su Baker for her continual support of this project and Andrew Varano for his work as conference organiser. We would also like to thank the Transdisciplinary Imaging at the intersection between art, science and culture, Conference Committee: Michele Barker, Brad Buckley, Brogan Bunt, Edward Colless, Vince Dziekan, Donal Fitzpatrick, Petra Gemeinboeck, Julian Goddard, Ross Harley, Martyn Jolly, Daniel Mafe, Leon Marvell and Darren Tofts. 4 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 20 NO 2 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 VOL 20 NO 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 5 C O N T E N T S C O N T E N T S Leonardo Electronic Almanac Volume 20 Issue 2 10 13 72 Lanfranco Aceti INTERFERENCE STRATEGIES: IS ART IN THE MIDDLE? IMAGES (R)-EVOLUTION: MEDIA ARTS COMPLEX IMAGERY CHALLENGING HUMANITIES AND OUR INSTITUTIONS OF CULTURAL MEMORY INTERFERENCE STRATEGIES Oliver Grau Paul Thomas 16 86 THE ART OF DECODING: n-FOLDED, n-VISIONED, n-CULTURED Mark Guglielmetti 26 96 THE CASE OF BIOPHILIA: A COLLECTIVE COMPOSITION OF GOALS AND DISTRIBUTED ACTION 114 CONTAMINATED IMMERSION AND THOMAS DEMAND: THE DAILIES 122 GESTURE IN SEARCH OF A PURPOSE: A PREHISTORY OF MOBILITY 132 HEADLESS AND UNBORN, OR THE BAPHOMET RESTORED INTERFERING WITH BATAILLE AND MASSON’S IMAGE OF THE ACEPHALE LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 20 NO 2 TOWARDS AN ONTOLOGY OF COLOUR IN THE AGE OF MACHINIC SHINE Mark Titmarsh 146 TRANSVERSAL INTERFERENCE Anna Munster Leon Marvell 6 A ROBOT WALKS INTO A ROOM: GOOGLE ART PROJECT, THE NEW AESTHETIC, AND THE ACCIDENT OF ART Susan Ballard Darren Tofts & Lisa Gye 60 MERGE/MULTIPLEX Brogan Bunt David Eastwood 50 INTERFERING WITH THE DEAD Edward Colless Mark Cypher 36 INTERFERENCE WAVE DATA AND ART Adam Nash ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 VOL 20 NO 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 7 I N T R O D U C T I O N I N T R O D U C T I O N Interference InterferenceStrategies: Strategies: Is IsArt Artin inthe theMiddle? Middle? tion tionof of‘degenerate ‘degenerateart’ art’produced producedby by‘degenerate ‘degenerateartart- and andmodalities modalitiesof ofengagement. engagement.ItItshould shouldbe be--to toquote quote ists.’ ists.’Art Artthat thatwas wasnot notaadirect directhymn hymnto tothe thegrandeur grandeur Pablo PabloPicasso Picasso--an aninstrument instrumentof ofwar warable ableto tointer-feinter-fe- of ofGermany Germanycould couldnot notbe beseen seenby bythe theNazi Naziregime regimeas as rio: rio:“No, “No,painting paintingisisnot notdone doneto todecorate decorateapartments. apartments. anything anythingelse elsebut but‘interfering ‘interferingand andhence hencedegenerate,’ degenerate,’ ItItisisan aninstrument instrumentof ofwar warfor forattack attackand anddefense defense since sinceititquestioned questionedand andinterfered interferedwith withthe theideal idealpurity purity against againstthe theenemy.” enemy.” 22 of ofTeutonic Teutonicrepresentations, representations,which whichwere wereendorsed endorsed and andpromoted promotedas asthe theonly onlyaesthetics aestheticsof ofthe theNational National IfIfart artshould shouldeither eitherstrike strikeor orbring bringsomething somethingisispart part Socialist Socialistparty. party.Wilhelm WilhelmHeinrich HeinrichOtto OttoDix’s Dix’sWar War of ofwhat whathas hasbeen beenaalong longaesthetic aestheticconversation conversationthat that IfIfwe welook lookat atthe theetymological etymologicalstructure structureof ofthe theword word and andintentio intentioauctoris auctoriswith withintentio intentiolectoris), lectoris),as asUmberUmber- Cripples Cripples(1920) (1920)could couldnot notbe beaamore morecritical criticalpainting painting preceded precededthe theAvant-garde Avant-gardemovement movementor orthe thedestrucdestruc- interference, interference,we wewould wouldhave haveto togo goback backto toaaconstruct construct to toEco Ecowould wouldput putit.it.Those Thosefamous famousbreeches breechesappear appearto to of ofthe theBody BodyPolitic Politicof ofthe thetime, time,and andof ofwar wariningeneral, general, tive tivefury furyof ofthe theearly earlyFuturists. Futurists.InInthis thisparticular particularvolume volume that thatdeines deinesititas asaasum sumof ofthe thetwo twoLatin Latinwords wordsinter inter be beboth: both:aaform formof ofcensorship censorshipas aswell wellas asinterference interference and andtherefore thereforehad hadto tobe beclassiied classiiedas as‘degenerate’ ‘degenerate’and and the theissue issueof ofart artas asinterference interferenceand andthe thestrategies strategiesthat that (in (inbetween) between)and andferio ferio(to (tostrike), strike),but butwith withaaparticular particular with withMichelangelo’s Michelangelo’svision. vision. condemned condemnedto tobe be‘burnt.’ ‘burnt.’ ititshould shouldadopt adopthave havebeen beenreframed reframedwithin withinthe thestrucstruc- attention attentionto tothe themeaning meaningof ofthe theword wordferio feriobeing beinginterinter- tures turesof ofcontemporary contemporarytechnology technologyas aswell wellas aswithin within preted pretedprincipally principallyas asto towound. wound.Albeit Albeitperhaps perhapsetymoetymo- Interference Interferenceisisaaword wordthat thatassembles assemblesaamultitude multitudeof of Art Artininthis thiscontext contextcannot cannotbe beand andshould shouldnot notbe beanyany- the theframeworks frameworksof ofinteractions interactionsbetween betweenart, art,science science logically logicallyincorrect, incorrect,ititmay maybe bepreferable preferableto tothink thinkof ofthe the meanings meaningsinterpreted interpretedaccording accordingto toone’s one’sperspective perspective thing thingelse elsebut butinterference; interference;either eitherby bybringing bringingsomesome- and andmedia. media. word wordinterference interferenceas asaacomposite compositeof ofinter inter(in (inbetween) between) and andideological ideologicalconstructs constructsas asaameddling, meddling,aadisturdistur- thing thingininbetween betweenor orby bywounding woundingthe theBody BodyPolitic Politicby by and andthe theLatin Latinverb verbfero fero(to (tocarry), carry),which whichwould wouldbring bring bance, bance,and andan analteration alterationof ofmodalities modalitiesof ofinteraction interaction placing placingsomething somethingininbetween betweenthe theperfectly perfectlyconstrued construed forward forwardthe theidea ideaof ofinterference interferenceas asaacontribution contribution between betweentwo twoparties. parties.InInthis thisbook, book,there thereare areaaseries series rational rationalmadness madnessof ofhumanity humanityand andthe thesubjugated subjugated all, all,remains remainsaapersonal personalchoice choicefor foreach eachartist, artist,curator, curator, brought broughtininthe themiddle middleof oftwo twoarguments, arguments,two twoideas, ideas, of ofrepresentations representationsof ofthese theseinterferences, interferences,as aswell wellas asaa viewer. viewer.An Anelement elementthat thatinterferes, interferes,obstructs obstructsand and critic criticand andhistorian. historian. two twoconstructs. constructs. series seriesof ofquestions questionson onwhat whatare arethe thepossible possiblecontemcontem- disrupts disruptsthe thecarefully carefullyannotated annotatedand andcarefully carefullychocho- porary poraryforms formsof ofinterference interference--digital, digital,scientiic scientiicand and reographed reographeditinerary itinerarythat thatthe theviewers viewersshould shouldmeekly meekly IfIfI Ihad hadto tochoose, choose,personally personallyI Iind indmyself myselfincreasingly increasingly ItItisisimportant importantto toacknowledge acknowledgethe theetymological etymologicalroot root aesthetic aesthetic--and andwhat whatare arethe thestrategies strategiesthat thatcould couldbe be follow. follow.InInthis thiscase caseinterference interferenceisissomething somethingthat that favoring favoringart artthat thatdoes doesnot notdeliver deliverwhat whatisisexpected, expected, of ofaaword wordnot notininorder orderto todevelop developaasterile sterileacademic academic adopted adoptedininorder orderto toactively activelyinterfere. interfere. corrupts, corrupts,degenerates degeneratesand andthreatens threatensto tocollapse collapsethe the what whatisisobvious, obvious,what whatcan canbe behung hungon onaawall walland andcan can exercise, exercise,but butininorder orderto toclarify clarifythe theideological ideologicalunderunder- be bematched matchedto totapestries. tapestries.Nor Norcan canI Iind indmyself myselfable able vision visionof ofthe theBody BodyPolitic. Politic. pinnings pinningsof ofarguments argumentsthat thatare arethen thensummed summedup upand and The Thecomplexity complexityof ofthe thestrategies strategiesof ofinterference interferencewithin within characterized characterizedby byaaword. word. contemporary contemporarypolitical politicaland andaesthetic aestheticdiscourses discoursesapap- InInthinking thinkingabout aboutthe thevalidity validityof ofinterference interferenceas asaastratstrat- under underaaveil veilwith withthe thename nameof ofart artrepeatedly repeatedlywritten written pears pearsto tobe besummed summedup upby bythe theperception perceptionthat thatinterinter- egy, egy,ititwas wasimpossible impossiblenot notto torevisit revisitand andcompare comparethe the inincapital capitalletters lettersall allover overit.it.That Thatdoes doesnot notleave leavevery very This Thisbook, book,titled titledInterference InterferenceStrategies, Strategies,does doesnot not(and (and ference ferenceisisaanecessarily necessarilyactive activegesture. gesture.This Thisperception perception image imageof ofPaul PaulJoseph JosephGoebbels Goebbelsviewing viewingthe theEntartete Entartete ininall allhonesty honestycould couldnot) not)provide provideaaresolution resolutionto toaacomcom- appears appearsto toexclude excludethe thefact factthat thatsometimes sometimesthe thevery very tothe themany manyimimKunst Kunst(Degenerate (DegenerateArt) Art)exhibition exhibition to plex plexinteraction interaction--that thatof ofartistic artisticinterferences interferences--that that existence existenceof ofan anartwork artworkisisbased basedon onan aninterfering interfering ages agesof ofpompously pompouslystrutting struttingcorporate corporatetycoons tycoonsand and pre-established pre-establishedcontractual contractualoperative operativeframeworks, frameworks, has hasaacomplex complexhistorical historicaltradition. tradition.InInfact, fact,ititisisimposimpos- nature, nature,or oron onan anaesthetic aestheticthat thathas hascome cometo tobe beas asnonnon- billionaires billionairesininmuseums museumsand andart artfairs fairsaround aroundthe theglobe, globe, therefore thereforelosing losingits its‘interference ‘interferencevalue.’ value.’ sible, sible,for forme, me,when whenanalyzing analyzingthe theissue issueof ofinterference, interference, consonant consonantto toand, and,hence, hence,interfering interferingwith withaapolitical political not notto tothink thinkof ofthe theBreeches BreechesMaker Maker(also (alsoknown knownas as project. project. following followingaa1559 1559commission commissionfrom fromPope PopePaul PaulIV IVto to to tofavor favorart artthat thatshrouds shroudspropaganda propagandaor orbusiness business 11 much muchchoice choiceininaaworld worldwhere whereinterference interferenceisisno nolonlonger geracceptable, acceptable,or orififititisisacceptable, acceptable,ititisisso soonly onlywithin within glancing glancingwith withpride prideover overthe thepropaganda, propaganda,or or--better better --over overthe thebreeches breechesthat thatthey theyhave havecommissioned commissionedartartists iststo toproduce. produce. Daniele Danieleda daVolterra) Volterra)and andthe thecoverings coveringsthat thathe hepainted painted 8 What Whatsort sortof ofinterference interferenceshould shouldbe bechosen, chosen,ififone oneat at This Thisleaves leavesthe thegreat greatconundrum conundrum--are areinterferences interferences still stillpossible? possible?There Thereare arestill stillspaces spacesand andopportunities opportunities Interfering Interferingartworks, artworks,which whichby bytheir theirown ownnature naturechalchal- for forinterference, interference,and andthis thisvolume volumeisisone oneof ofthese theserere- ‘render ‘renderdecent’ decent’the thenaked nakedbodies bodiesof ofMichelangelo Michelangelo lenge lengeaasystem, system,were werethe theartworks artworkschosen chosenfor forthe theexex- Today’s Today’scontemporary contemporaryart artshould shouldbe beinterfering interferingmore more maining mainingareas, areas,but butthey theyare areinterstitial interstitialspaces spacesand andare are Buonarroti’s Buonarroti’sfrescoes frescoesininthe theSistine SistineChapel. Chapel.That Thatact, act, hibition hibitionEntartete EntarteteKunst Kunst(1937). (1937).The Thecultural culturaland andideoideo- and andmore morewith withart artitself, itself,ititshould shouldbe becorrupted corruptedand and shrinking shrinkingfast, fast,leaving leavingan anoverwhelming overwhelmingBaudrillardian Baudrillardian ininthe theeyes eyesof ofaacontemporary contemporaryviewer, viewer,was wasaawound wound logical logicalunderpinnings underpinningsof ofthe theNational NationalSocialist SocialistGerman German corrupting, corrupting,degenerate degenerateand anddegenerating. degenerating.ItItshould shouldbe be desert desertproduced producedby bythe theconspirators conspiratorsof ofart artand andmade made inlicted inlictedininbetween betweenthe therelationship relationshipcreated createdby bythe the Workers’ Workers’Party Partycould couldsolely solelyprovide providean anunderstanding understanding producing producingwhat whatcurrently currentlyititisisnot notand andititshould shouldcreate create of ofaamultitude multitudeof ofbreeches. breeches. artwork artworkand andthe theartist artistwith withthe theviewer viewer(intentio (intentiooperis operis of ofaesthetics aestheticsthat thatwould wouldnecessarily necessarilyimply implythe thedeinideini- aawound woundwithin withinart artitself, itself,able ableto toalter altercurrent currentthinking thinking LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 20 NO 2 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 VOL 20 NO 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 9 I N T R O D U C T I O N I N T R O D U C T I O N Interference Strategies: Is Art in the Middle? tion of ‘degenerate art’ produced by ‘degenerate art- and modalities of engagement. It should be - to quote ists.’ Art that was not a direct hymn to the grandeur Pablo Picasso - an instrument of war able to inter-fe- of Germany could not be seen by the Nazi regime as rio: “No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. anything else but ‘interfering and hence degenerate,’ It is an instrument of war for attack and defense since it questioned and interfered with the ideal purity against the enemy.” of Teutonic representations, which were endorsed and promoted as the only aesthetics of the National If art should either strike or bring something is part Socialist party. Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix’s War of what has been a long aesthetic conversation that If we look at the etymological structure of the word and intentio auctoris with intentio lectoris), as Umber- Cripples (1920) could not be a more critical painting preceded the Avant-garde movement or the destruc- interference, we would have to go back to a construct to Eco would put it. Those famous breeches appear to of the Body Politic of the time, and of war in general, tive fury of the early Futurists. In this particular volume that deines it as a sum of the two Latin words inter be both: a form of censorship as well as interference and therefore had to be classiied as ‘degenerate’ and the issue of art as interference and the strategies that (in between) and ferio (to strike), but with a particular with Michelangelo’s vision. condemned to be ‘burnt.’ it should adopt have been reframed within the struc- attention to the meaning of the word ferio being inter- tures of contemporary technology as well as within preted principally as to wound. Albeit perhaps etymo- Interference is a word that assembles a multitude of Art in this context cannot be and should not be any- the frameworks of interactions between art, science logically incorrect, it may be preferable to think of the meanings interpreted according to one’s perspective thing else but interference; either by bringing some- and media. word interference as a composite of inter (in between) and ideological constructs as a meddling, a distur- thing in between or by wounding the Body Politic by and the Latin verb fero (to carry), which would bring bance, and an alteration of modalities of interaction placing something in between the perfectly construed forward the idea of interference as a contribution between two parties. In this book, there are a series rational madness of humanity and the subjugated all, remains a personal choice for each artist, curator, brought in the middle of two arguments, two ideas, of representations of these interferences, as well as a viewer. An element that interferes, obstructs and critic and historian. two constructs. series of questions on what are the possible contem- disrupts the carefully annotated and carefully cho- What sort of interference should be chosen, if one at porary forms of interference - digital, scientiic and reographed itinerary that the viewers should meekly If I had to choose, personally I ind myself increasingly It is important to acknowledge the etymological root aesthetic - and what are the strategies that could be follow. In this case interference is something that favoring art that does not deliver what is expected, of a word not in order to develop a sterile academic adopted in order to actively interfere. corrupts, degenerates and threatens to collapse the what is obvious, what can be hung on a wall and can exercise, but in order to clarify the ideological under- be matched to tapestries. Nor can I ind myself able vision of the Body Politic. pinnings of arguments that are then summed up and The complexity of the strategies of interference within characterized by a word. contemporary political and aesthetic discourses ap- In thinking about the validity of interference as a strat- under a veil with the name of art repeatedly written pears to be summed up by the perception that inter- egy, it was impossible not to revisit and compare the in capital letters all over it. That does not leave very This book, titled Interference Strategies, does not (and ference is a necessarily active gesture. This perception image of Paul Joseph Goebbels viewing the Entartete in all honesty could not) provide a resolution to a com- appears to exclude the fact that sometimes the very Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition plex interaction - that of artistic interferences - that existence of an artwork is based on an interfering ages of pompously strutting corporate tycoons and pre-established contractual operative frameworks, has a complex historical tradition. In fact, it is impos- nature, or on an aesthetic that has come to be as non- billionaires in museums and art fairs around the globe, therefore losing its ‘interference value.’ sible, for me, when analyzing the issue of interference, consonant to and, hence, interfering with a political not to think of the Breeches Maker (also known as project. following a 1559 commission from Pope Paul IV to to favor art that shrouds propaganda or business 1 to the many im- much choice in a world where interference is no longer acceptable, or if it is acceptable, it is so only within glancing with pride over the propaganda, or - better - over the breeches that they have commissioned artists to produce. Daniele da Volterra) and the coverings that he painted 10 2 This leaves the great conundrum - are interferences still possible? There are still spaces and opportunities Interfering artworks, which by their own nature chal- for interference, and this volume is one of these re- ‘render decent’ the naked bodies of Michelangelo lenge a system, were the artworks chosen for the ex- Today’s contemporary art should be interfering more maining areas, but they are interstitial spaces and are Buonarroti’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. That act, hibition Entartete Kunst (1937). The cultural and ideo- and more with art itself, it should be corrupted and shrinking fast, leaving an overwhelming Baudrillardian in the eyes of a contemporary viewer, was a wound logical underpinnings of the National Socialist German corrupting, degenerate and degenerating. It should be desert produced by the conspirators of art and made inlicted in between the relationship created by the Workers’ Party could solely provide an understanding producing what currently it is not and it should create of a multitude of breeches. artwork and the artist with the viewer (intentio operis of aesthetics that would necessarily imply the deini- a wound within art itself, able to alter current thinking LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 20 NO 2 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 VOL 20 NO 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 11 I N T R O D U C T I O N I N T R O D U C T I O N In this introduction I cannot touch upon all the difer- with our guidelines to deliver a new milestone in the ent aspects of interference analyzed, like in the case history of LEA. of data and waves presented by Adam Nash, who argues that the digital is in itself and per se a form of Interference Strategies As always I wish to thank my team at LEA who made interference: at least a form of interference with be- it possible to deliver these academic interferences: my havioral systems and with what can be deined as the gratitude is as always for Özden Şahin, Çaglar Çetin illusory realm of everyday’s ‘real.’ and Deniz Cem Önduygu. you cannot measure its momentum. This is one of the Transversal interference, as in the case of Anna Mun- Lanfranco Aceti The theme of ‘interference strategies for art’ re- ster, is a socio-political divide where heterogeneity is Editor in Chief, Leonardo Electronic Almanac lects a literal merging of sources, an interplay be- main theories that have been constantly tested and the monster, the wound, the interfering and dreaded Director, Kasa Gallery tween factors, and acts as a metaphor for the interac- still remains persistent. The double slit experiment, element that threatens the ‘homologation’ of scientiic tion of art and science, the essence of transdisciplinary irst initiated by Thomas Young, exposes a quintessen- thought. study. The revealing of metaphors for interference tial quantum phenomenon, which, through Heisenberg “that equates diferent and even ‘incommensurable’ With Brogan Bunt comes obfuscation as a form of concepts can, therefore, be a very fruitful source of blurring that interferes with the ordered lines of neatly insight.” deined social taxonomies; within which I can only perceive the role of the thinker as that of the taxidermist operating on living ields of study that are in the pro- references and notes revealing them. ries of probabilities that enabled the Newtonian view of the world to be seriously challenged. The role of the publication, as a vehicle to promote If the measurement intra-action plays a consti- and encourage transdisciplinary research, is to ques- tutive role in what is measured, then it matters tion what ine art image-making is contributing to the how something is explored. In fact, this is born current discourse on images. The publication brings out empirically in experiments with matter (and tete Kunst,’” February 27, 1938, in the Das Bundesarchiv, together researchers, artists and cultural thinkers to energy): when electrons (or light) are measured Bild 183-H02648, http://www.bild.bundesarchiv.de/cross- speculate, contest and share their thoughts on the using one kind of apparatus, they are waves; if cess of being rendered dead and obfuscated by the very process and people who should be unveiling and 1 theory, demonstrates the quantum universe as a se- 1. “Reichsminister Dr. Goebbels auf der Ausstellung ‘Entar- With Darren Tofts and Lisa Gye it is the perusal of search/search/_1414849849/?search[view]=detail&searc strategies for interference, at the intersection between they are measured in a complementary way, they the image that can be an act of interference and a h[focus]=3 (accessed October 20, 2014). art, science and culture, that form new dialogues. are particles. Notice that what we’re talking about to diferent probings but being diferently. disruption if it operates outside rigid interpretative here is not simply some object reacting diferently 2. Herschel Browning Chipp, Theories of Modern Art: A frameworks and interaction parameters irmly set via Source Book by Artists and Critics (Berkeley and Los In October 1927 the Fifth Solvay International Confer- intentio operis, intentio auctoris and intentio lectoris. Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1968), 487. ence marked a point in time that created a unifying 2 seepage between art and science and opened the In the double slit experiment particles that travel It is the fear of the unexpected remix and mash-up gateway to uncertainty and therefore the parallels of through the slits interfere with themselves enabling that interferes with and threatens the ‘purity’ and artistic and scientiic research. This famous conference each particle to create a wave-like interference pattern. sanctimonious fascistic interpretations of the aura announced the genesis of quantum theory and, with of the artwork, its buyers, consumers and aesthetic that, Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. These priests. The orthodoxical, fanatic and terroristic aes- events are linked historically and inform interesting ex- The underlying concepts upon which this publication thetic hierarchies that were disrupted by laughter in perimental art practices to reveal the subtle shift that is based see the potential for art to interfere, afect the Middle Ages might be disrupted today by viral, a- can ensue from a moment in time. and obstruct in order to question what is indeinable. morphological and uncontrollable bodily functions. 12 The simple yet highly developed double slit experiment This can only be demonstrated by a closer look at the My very personal thanks go to Paul Thomas and the identiies the problem of measurement in the quantum double slit experiment and the art that is revealed authors in this book who have endeavored to comply world. If you are measuring the position of a particle through phenomena of improbability. LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 20 NO 2 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 VOL 20 NO 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 13 I N T R O D U C T I O N I N T R O D U C T I O N redirection of afect, or as an untapped potential for In response to the questions posed by the confer- The publication aims to demonstrate a combined repositioning artistic critique. Maybe art doesn’t have ence theme, presentations traversed varied notions eclecticism and to extend the discussion by address- to work as a wave that displaces or reinforces the of interference in deining image space, the decoding ing the current state of the image through a multitude standardized protocols of data/messages, but can in- and interpretation of images, the interference be- of lenses. Through the theme of interference strate- stead function as a signal that disrupts and challenges tween diferent streams of digital data, and how this gies this publication will embrace error and transdisci- perceptions. knowledge might redeine art and art practice. Within plinarity as a new vision of how to think, theorize and that scope lies the discourse about interference that critique the image, the real and thought itself. ‘Interference’ can stand as a mediating incantation that arises when normal approaches or processes fail, with might create a layer between the constructed image unanticipated results, the accidental discovery, and of the ‘everyday’ given to us by science, technologi- its potential in the development of new strategies of cal social networks and the means of its construction. investigation. Paul Thomas Mediation, as discussed in the irst Transdisplinary Figure 1. Diagram of the double slit experiment that was irst Imaging conference, is a concept that has become a In “[t]he case of Biophilia: a collective composition performed by Thomas Young in the early 1800’s displays medium in itself through which we think and act; and of goals and distributed action”, the probabilistic characteristics of quantum mechanical in which we swim. Interference, however, confronts lights the interference in negotiations between exhibit phenomena. the low, challenges currents and eulogizes the drift. organisers, and space requirements, and the require- 3 Mark Cypher high- references and notes ments for artist/artworks, resulting in an outcome When particles go through the slits they act as waves The questions posed in this volume, include whether that is a combination generated by the competition of and create the famous interference pattern. The con- art can interfere with the chaotic storms of data vi- two or more interests. As part of the inal appearance cept is that one particle going through the slit must sualization and information processing, or is it merely of Biophilia, the artwork itself contained elements of behave like a wave and interfere with itself to create reinforcing the nocuous nature of contemporary me- both interests, an interference of competing interests, the band image on the rear receptor. dia? Can we think of ‘interference’ as a key tactic for comprising a system in which the artist and the art- the contemporary image in disrupting and critiquing work are components, and the display a negotiated ity (London: Routledge, 2000), 45. 2. K. Barad, What is the Measure of Nothingness? Ininity, Virtuality, Justice, Documenta 13, The Book of Books, 100 Notes, 100 Thoughts, (Ostildern: Hatje Cantz, 2012), 646. 3. Mark Cypher, “The case of Biophilia: A Collective Compo- Interference Strategies looks at the phenomenon the continual lood of constructed imagery? Are con- outcome. Each element interferes with itself as it ne- sition of Goals and Distributed Action,” (paper presented of interference and places art at the very centre of temporary forms and strategies of interference the gotiates the many factors that contribute to the pre- at the Second International Conference on Transdisci- the wave/particle dilemma. Can art still ind a way same as historical ones? What kinds of similarities and sentation of art. In this sense the creation of the inal plinary Imaging at the Intersection between Art, Science in today’s dense world where we are saturated with diferences exist? appearance of Biophilia is the result of the distributed and Culture, Melbourne, June 22-23, 2012). images from all disciplines, whether it’s the creation action of many “actors” in a “network.” 4 (To put this Application of a process to a medium, or a wave to a in another form all actors are particles and interact images uploaded to social media services like Insta- particle, for example, the sorting of pixel data, liter- with each other to create all possible solutions but gram and Flickr, or the billions of queries made to vast ally interferes with the state of an image, and directly when observed, create a single state.) of ‘beautiful visualisations’ for science, the torrent of visual data archives such as Google Images? The con- gives new materiality and meaning, allowing interfer- temporary machinic interpretations of the visual and ence to be utilised as a conceptual framework for sensorial experience of the world are producing a new interpretation, and critical relection. acknowledgements Special thanks to researcher Jan Andruszkiewicz. In summing up concepts of the second Transdisciplinary Imaging conference, particularly in reference spoke of some of the aspirations for the topic, enter- ask if machines should be considered the new artists Interference is not merely combining. Interference of the 21st century. is an active process of negotiating between diferent taining the possibilities of transdisciplinary art as being forces. The artist in this context is a mediator, facili- a contested ield, in that many of the conference pa- The notion of ‘Interference’ is posed here as an an- tating the meeting of competitive elements, bringing pers were trying to unravel, contextualise and theorise tagonism between production and seduction, as a together and setting up a situation of probabilities. simultaneously. LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 20 NO 2 4. Ibid. to the topic of interference strategies, Edward Colless spectacle of media pollution, obliging the viewers to 14 1. David Bohm and F. David Peat, Science, Order and Creativ- ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 VOL 20 NO 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 15 E S S A Y E S S A Y Interference Wave DATA AND ART A B S T R A C T This article investigates the nature of digital data as a medium for art. Speciically, what are the qualities and speciicities unique to the medium of digital data, and how can artists working with this medium create work that cannot be created in any other medium? References are made to Friedrich Kittler, Mark B. N. Hansen, Marshall McLuhan, Gilles Deleuze, Anna Munster and Claire Colebrook to establish a bivalent ontological The organism that would be the supposed subject model of digital data. This bivalence is described in terms of ‘data’ and and intentional origin of forces is an efect of im- ‘display,’ where ‘data’ exists in an indeterminate state inaccessible to hu- personal potentials, and it is precisely the technical object that can expose the power of potentials to act beyond the organism’s capacities. — Claire Colebrook man perception until a determining operation is performed to modulate the data into a ‘display’ state, where ‘display’ does not necessarily imply 1 visual display. Such a model suggests, in McLuhanist and Deleuzean terms, a medium that retroactively virtualises all previous media. This model is DATA, DISPLAY, MODULATION by compared in detail to Gilbert Simondon’s ontological model of transductive The artist working in the digital medium must at- Ada m Na sh tend to the intrinsic qualities of the digital medium. adam.nash@rmit.edu.au ers, have all meditated on what I characterise as the Stiegler, Kittler, Manovich and Hansen, among oth- individuation. Finally, modulation - in the form of parameter selection - is presented as the deining work of the artist in the digital medium. separation between digital data and its display. These writers tend, broadly, to characterise this separation in terms of technics and media. Such a characterisahe sees them as comprehensible in McLuhanist terms, itself becomes content in the digital medium. nesis and hypomnesis. Kittler takes the dichotomy to where the content of one medium is always another this discussion of the role of art and interference in its extreme and posits that there are no longer any medium. The digital is singular, post-convergent, form- the digital era, it is important to recognise the distinc- media: “with numbers, everything goes [...] a digital less and plastic, and the diferentiation that consti- tion between plastic, formless, generic digital data tutes media occurs when digital data is modulated and speciic instances of display, where digital data is base will erase the very concept of medium.” 2 Kittler wants to move beyond the concept of the medium as into some display state. a result of digital convergence because it transcends 86 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 20 NO 2 3 So, for tion owes much to the Platonic concepts of amam- modulated from its state of data-as-data into a state of display, such as when a digital photograph is visually diferentiation between media, a diferentiation that This way of thinking about the digital can be of practi- displayed on a screen, or a digital audio recording is is constitutive of the concept of media. Without dif- cal use to the artist working with digital data. It has audibly displayed through speakers. Before this act of ferentiation between diferent media, there are no the advantage of unproblematically incorporating modulation into display, there is no possible distinc- media, and since the convergence of all media into the McLuhanist considerations - not only in what McLu- tion between the photograph and the sound, since digital removes any diferentiation between media, in han calls the “rear-view mirror” operations that con- they are both generic, formless digital data. This act of the digital era there are no media. Thus, when he con- stitute so much of digital culture today, but also in the modulation - between data and display - is the work of cedes that there ostensibly still are media in our world, sense that McLuhan’s concept of media-as-content the digital artist. ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 VOL 20 NO 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 87 E S S A Y E S S A Y Mark Hansen argues against Kittler’s extreme version being digitized, constituting a whole that is comprised make data and just as we please. Data is us. How- of the consequences of digitisation, seeing it as an of all prior media plus the digital excess, a whole that ever, this is not the pure freedom that it may seem, ing and proprioception. Virtual forces are vectors overly literal, or formalist, reading of Claude Shannon’s completes McLuhan’s project while ofering a new nor does it lead to any triumph of the will. This is that pulse through the contours and directions of matter. foundational work in information theory, where infor- medium that diferentiates itself through its own con- because data is only available to inite humans as mation is separate from meaning. Hansen is keen to stitutive, ontological, excess. iltered, as interpretation. These interpretations are, show that the diferentiation of media is a more complex assemblage involving what he calls embodiment, We can identify two elements and one principle that 7 precisely, inscribed in display (whether audio, visual, In a ine study of the nature of the relationship be- haptic, what have you). Whatever is inscribed tween the digital and the material, and the virtual and constitute the digital medium as a medium. The two in display is always already modulated, and this the actual, Munster talks of these inter-relationships elements are data and display, and the principle is modulation emerges from ‘a formless soup of as “actualizations of virtual subjectivity,” alternative theory of information, contemporaneous modulation. Working with digital data is a constant meaninglessness,’ that is, a hyperchaos of data. with Shannon’s, espoused by Donald McKay, where process of modulating data back and forth between in the sense of being “inseparable from the cognitive activity of the brain.” 4 In this, he relies partially on an 6 8 and en- courages us to see virtualisation as “an expanding and contracting ield of diferentiation.” 9 This is a what we might call the non-technical interpretation of a display state and the state of data-as-data. Display The invitation, therefore, for the artist working in the very useful tool for understanding the nature of the information is inseparable from its technical structure. does not necessarily mean visual display, but it may, digital realm, is to recognise that the work is modula- digital medium in relation to Kittler’s proclamation of But Hansen does not deny the technical fact of the and in this sense, ‘display’ may be thought of as ‘ex- tion. A signiicant factor in the work of modulation the movement beyond medium. Her convincing and levelling nature of digital data, and nor does he deny pression’, or perhaps even ‘actualisation’. is parameter selection. But this post-convergent nuanced argument can also be seen as extending medium virtualises everything, and so the concept of McLuhan’s famous extensions in a richer and more media. Rather, he is attendant to the framing, or sub- Any distinctions between discrete media and any parameter selection itself becomes a parameter to be practical way than Hansen or Kittler, and is particu- jectiication, that he sees as a necessary driver of the distinctions between discrete mediatic actions are selected, at the same time as retroactively highlight- larly useful for artists or practitioners of the digital consciousness that perceives the modulated display collapsed in the digital. All media are virtualised in ing the latent cruciality of parameter selection in all attempting to come to terms with its intensive, and the subsequent generic translatability of digitised of digitised data. In some ways, Hansen’s attitude can the digital, and then simulated in display, so that any prior media. This potentially overwhelmingly complex extensive, qualities and speciicities. Her argument be seen as extreme as Kittler’s, in that neither are distinction between them holds only in a nostalgic situation can elicit an extreme rear-view-mirrorism in allows us to comprehend the ostensible contradic- prepared to consider the digital medium as a medium sense, in the rear view mirror. Precisely because the practice, and such is the situation we often see with tion between the collapsing, or levelling, nature of in its own right – a move that would allow them to digital contains all prior media, virtualised as content, deterministic data visualisations and data-driven visual the digital and the speciic diferentiations required consider the formal and intensive qualities and impli- it is possible to analyse these media separately, but artworks. to interact with it. It does this by seeing all points of cations of the medium, using McLuhanist techniques only nostalgically, in a McLuhanist manner, and only to investigate what can be done in this putative new when modulated into a state of display, enacted as a medium that cannot be done in any prior medium. simulation of media. As Justin Clemens and I put it in Even though he, like Kittler, acknowledges that Thesis 4 of our Seven Theses on the Concept of Post- convergence into the digital renders all prior media Convergence: undiferentiable, Hansen’s privileging of the image is the digital - semantic sources, technical protocols and parameters, speciic display instances and subjectiication - as interdependently transformative negotia- VIRTUAL ART tions of lows rather than assimilations of one thing In calling on the concept of the virtual, I am not equat- into another. This may ofer an approach to thinking ing it with technology or the digital, though of course the capacities of the immanently digital entity that in the contemporary era it rings with echoes of popu- diferentiates both within and without its material perhaps why he doesn’t logically extend the McLu- ‘All that is solid melts into data.’ Alternatively: all is hanist gesture all the way to the conclusion that the data. This is evidently an ontological thesis. What lar usage in the sense of a ‘virtual friend’ or ‘virtual manifestation, that both is and is not digital, without a digital convergence not only profoundly enacts W. J. T. matters is data, but data isn’t actually anything. sex’ or ‘virtual environment.’ Rather, I am evoking the semantic material provenance. 5 Data is data. Data is absolutely not a phenomeno- Deleuzian sense that Anna Munster, in her book Mate- from the constitutive side instead of the “sensory mo- logical thing. It cannot be experienced as such, like rializing New Media, describes thus: dality” standpoint, but so totally incorporates all prior Aristotelian prime matter. Unlike Aristotelian prime media as to subsume the very concept of diferenti- matter, however, we can manipulate data with [T]he virtual dimension for corporeal experience Guattari’s concept of desiring machines to under- ated media into a recursive subset of itself, and, contra ease; in fact, it is integrally available as manipu- evoked here lies in the way it poses the potential stand the nature of the undiferentiated digital. She Kittler, it does this as a medium, contributing opera- lable. Marx claimed that human beings do indeed for embodied distribution as a condition of experi- writes: tions in excess of all the media and semantic sources make history, but not as they please; today, we ence for information culture (original emphasis) by Mitchell’s assertion that “there are no visual media,” 88 dislocating habitual bodily relations between look- LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 20 NO 2 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 In a similar vein, but in speciic relation to images and visual art, Claire Colebrook calls on Deleuze and ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 VOL 20 NO 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 89 E S S A Y E S S A Y It is naive and uncritical to see the analogue as a By transduction, we mean a physical, biological, is, if anything, more likely to see a machine in terms of de- and re-modulation, or what Simondon calls “recur- pure and continuous feeling or bodily proximity mental, or social operation, through which an the working of an organism. But this would be a gross rent causality,” that is then submitted to the quantiication of the activity propagates from point to point within a oversimpliication of Simondon’s ontological thinking, its internal and external milieu. digital, a digital that will always be an imposition domain, which is operated from place to place: which entirely rejects any form of dichotomous think- on organic and vital life. There is, however, an in- each region of the constituted structure serves as ing or substantialist division, along the lines of mind/ We might think of this, as alluded to in the title of this organic mode of the analogue that is not a return a principle of constitution for the next region. body or human/machine, whilst still being perfectly essay, as a constant process of interference, a stand- capable of acknowledging the diference between ing wave of interference. The artist hoping to work to a quality before its digital quantiication, but a 15 move from digital quantities or actual units to pure This aspect of Simondon’s philosophy can be a useful these things. quantities, quantities that are not quantities of this tool for analysing the operation of the digital, particu- tween biology and technology, rather they are a con- interference with the received values and standards of or that substance so much as intensive forces that larly in the post-convergent terms of data, modulation tinuation of each other. In this sense, there is a reso- their milieu, must attend very closely to this process enter into diferential relations to produce ields or and display. When existing as digital data, we can see a nance with McLuhan’s “extensions,” but Simondon is of modulation since it is the only action available to them that can truly be called “digital,” without rehears- 10 with the digital, and hoping to efect some kind of preindividual state from which a medium (e.g. a “pho- far more egalitarian, seeing no hierarchy where human tograph”) individuates or, in the terms we are discuss- activity is more important or genuine than technologi- ing pre-digital notions of art that scan only in the rear Both Munster and Colebrook are trying to think about ing, is diferentiated by being modulated into a display cal activity, a determinism which is perhaps implied in view mirror, and therefore are more likely to conirm the consequences of the digital in terms of Deleuze’s state. This state of display, though, has a “relative real- McLuhan’s notion of extensions as applied to media. rather than question the contemporary hegemony of concept of life beyond the organic. As Colebrook char- ity, occupying only a certain phase of the whole being acterises it, Deleuze thinks of “a technical or machinic in question,” Simondon’s philosophy is very concerned with what on pre-digital notions, particularly of the individual, with its digital milieu, comprised of all the conceptual we might call the recursive or even reticulated nature and encourages users to see the digital through the (protocols, software, etc) and physical (electrical, fer- of systems, i.e., that transduction is a constantly co- rear-view mirror. This is in order to distract from the the operations of the digital, without equating the romagnetic, etc.) interactions that go to make up a operative process where elements inluence and are Simondonian processes the hegemony itself engages digital with this putative potentiality. In this, they (and working digital system. inluenced by each other and their milieu in interac- with to exploit its worldwide workforce of individual tion, which is a genuine interaction, rather than a one users, bewitching them into tirelessly labouring to pro- spaces that can then be articulated into digits. potentiality that enbales organic life,” 11 and both she and Munster can see a relationship between this and 16 crucially in ongoing symbiotic relations Deleuze) are inluenced by the thought of Gilbert Si- libertarian digital capitalism. Such a hegemony relies mondon, whose philosophy of ontogenesis requires us As alluded to above, in the quote from Justin Clemens way line of cause and efect, each interaction both duce its commodity (digital data), not only for free, but to “understand the individual from the perspective of and myself, what is of interest to artists (and philoso- subject to and contributing to the nature of the sys- enthusiastically. This is of course exempliied by the the process of individuation rather than the process of phers) is that, with the digital, we are eminently able tem and thus the individual itself (and it is easy to see so-called personalisation movement, a drive towards to manipulate these systems of relations and individu- how such a philosophy appealed to Deleuze). So it is total solipsistic consumption-as-production. This of a preindividual state from which the individual being ation. More precisely, we are able to actively engage with modulation of digital data into a display state, a shows that the processes that Simondon identiies, emerges but, in its individuation, not only “does not with these systems. In this sense, we can see align- constantly recursive process of interaction between a and that are mirrored in the digital, are not necessar- exhaust the potentials embedded in the preindividual ments between Simondon’s concept of transduction myriad of physical (electricity, ferromagnetic particles, ily anthropocentric ideological processes, but can be and what I am calling modulation. plastic, metal, silicon, nervous system, hand, eye) and utilised towards any pre-digital anthropocentric ideol- conceptual (protocols, software, ideas, intentions) ele- ogy by engaging with its processes to exploit Carte- It is important to note that Simondon’s philosophy ments each engaging in a participatory process of in- sian subjectivity or any other duallist or substantialist is in no way a surrender to cybernetics or informa- dividuation. Digital data is constantly being modulated ideology that sees technics as external to the human Therefore, according to Simondon, being “does not tion theory, and by following Simondon we are able into a display state in order to engage with another experience. Such is the method employed mercilessly possess unity of identity which is that of the stable to avoid a crude reductionist view of the digital and element in the system, whether that element be hu- by contemporary global digital capitalists, with outra- individuation by means of the individual.” state,” 13 12 He talks but continues to exist in a state of relations with its milieu, a milieu that includes the preindividual state. state in which no transformation is possible: being its relation to life. As much as he was interested in man or technical, then remodulated back into digital geous hegemonic success. Thus it is beholden upon the thinking of the irst wave of cyberneticists, he data, only to be modulated into another display state artists, wishing to attempt to interfere with such hege- transductive unity, or transduction, is crucial to Simon- was equally alarmed at their attempt to rationalise all and so forth. With every modulation occurs a modi- monies, to investigate the implications of genuine en- don’s philosophy: life in terms of the working of the machine – such a ication, of every element, of the interaction itself, of gagement with these Simondonian digital processes, mechanistic view entirely goes against Simondon who the modulation itself, a recursive, reticulated system of inserting themselves by experimenting with param- possesses transductive unity.” 90 17 Simondon sees no opposition be- 18 crucially engaged with and engaging 14 This concept of LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 20 NO 2 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 VOL 20 NO 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 91 E S S A Y E S S A Y eter selection, thereby participating in the modulation cept the numerical, or mathematics, as simply another mantic material source. This is the question that my In this way, we are attempting to enact some of the process without succumbing to a subjectivist attempt parameter selection used to efect the modulation colleague, John McCormick, and I are investigating in possibilities raised by Simondon’s ontogenetic philoso- to determine the teleology of the work. between data and display, we may be able to com- our ongoing project called Reproduction. The work phy of technical being that is in a recurrently causal, prehend the move to pure quantities and even think involves experimentation in audiovisual, performative, constantly evolving, relationship with human beings In other words, since the digital opens up Simondon’s the relationship between the contemporary technical evolving, virtual entities spawning and reproducing in where, while remaining ontologically distinct, neither concepts of technical beings and individuation, the art- interdependence of virtual/material and the Deleuzian virtual environments, capable of intercommunication has primacy over the other. ist must try to enter into relations with this digital pro- interdependence of virtual/actual. In other words, we with the material world via various systems of mo- cess of modulation, allowing themselves, their ideas will have moved closer to Munster’s exhortation to tion and data capture. Loosely based on principles and their will to modulate – for example, through see the virtual as expanding and contracting ields of of artiicial evolution, the parameters that we as the there is life beyond the medium. The inter-relation- parameter selection – and be modulated. This means diferentiation. In the digital, we as artists may see a artists initially selected are, rather than the standard ships of lows investigated by Anna Munster, or the being mindful of avoiding any teleological impulses tool for consciously or explicitly engaging with Simon- artiicial evolution parameters like strength and itness, pure quantities posited by Claire Colebrook may be at towards an artwork, rather opening up the work don’s transductive process of individuation where the all audiovisual performative parameters like red, green, work in the emergent and evolving persistent perfor- process to the recursive afectivity of the digital, so individuated remains in dynamic interaction with the blue, opacity, rhythm, timbre, tempo, tone (pitch) and mance of Reproduction. Certainly, Munster calls very that the process of art in the digital is not formulated pre-individual, which is never exhausted. so on. The entities evolve, reproduce, live and die over explicitly for media artists to move beyond what she thousands of generations according to a constantly calls “the twin premises of disembodiment and ex- emergent evolution of these crude parameters that is tension in space.” informed, but not determined, by both their interac- to improvise in real time an enactment of these be- in terms of individual artworks. The process should be a part of the recursively relations-based nature of digital systems, engaged completely in the recurrently IMMANENTLY DIGITAL ENTITIES causal modulation process. In this sense, the artist’s process becomes a node in the reticulated process We have established that there is no longer any mean- 19 Accordingly, this work attempts tion with humans in the material world and with their yonds. And since we have established that the image interactions with each other. In other words the origi- cannot exist in the digital, perhaps we can leverage of modulated individuation that characterises the ingful diferentiation between discrete media, except nal parameter set becomes, after the irst generation, Colebrook’s thinking when she writes “we might aim digital process, constantly in changing, inluencing and as they relate to a display state. Now we can analyse virtualised content for the next emergent generation. to think beyond the body as an extended substance inluenced relationship with the process and its milieu, the display of digitised entities that have a recogni- All the while, the entities are organising (or perhaps receiving the world only in terms of its bounded actu- which in this case, since the artist’s process is an ele- sable material (non-digital) provenance. For example, socialising) and improvising movements and “songs” ality? An image can be experienced as such, not as a proper body or imperative.” 20 ment within the system, includes both the internal it is easy to see much contemporary data visualisation amongst themselves, whilst observing and improvising and networked workings of the digital system as well as a straight forward modulation of data into the visu- with any human visitors to their “space.” The space in as the artist’s own milieu, which presumably includes al display register using parameters selected along the this case means both their digital virtual environment Of course it is possible to rationalise any interac- the artist’s social context, history and desires – desires lines of McLuhan’s rear view mirror. Given that this act (accessible by humans via an online multi-user envi- tion with or display of these entities in terms of the both individual and social. of modulation is already a formalised kind of interfer- ronment) as well as the physical space of wherever original human-selected parameter set, but this is no ence, it is clear that to achieve the kind of interference the work happens to be exhibited. In the latter case, more meaningful than saying that any living material Colebrook’s very important point about the inorganic that might also be considered an artist-led disruption motion and data capture are used by the entities to organism is nothing more than its originary DNA com- mode of the analogue reminds us of the crucial dif- (itself a rear view mirror kind of concept), the artist perceive humans, while a modulated audiovisual dis- bination, and this is the potentially reductionist danger ference between the digital and the numeric or math- must take care to select parameters that cause the play allows humans to perceive the entities. Our desire, that informs some contemporary thinking around ematical. Kittler, Hansen and Deleuze all practice this modulated display to visually question its own display. as artists, is to engage - using sound, music, move- embodiment, framing and subjectiication, especially conlation of the digital and the numeric. In fact, the This might include questioning the veracity of the ment and dance - in what we might call a “genuine” in relation to the digital. This is where Simondon’s phi- digital is not numeric, it is purely binary, an enacted data’s provenance or the assumptions made in the improvisation with these digital entities, by which we losophy, on its own and in relation to its inluence over logic of switches. This widespread conlation is per- digitising of the data in the irst place, or the scale of mean the human and digital performers share equal Deleuze, Colebrook and Munster, can come in very petuated by the popular misconception of the digital the data and so on. responsibility and value in the emergence of the im- useful, so that there is a chance to rigorously examine provised performance, dynamically building a shared the potential, in our interactions with the immanently in fact simply a symbolic placeholder for the boolean But what of immanently digital entities? In other performative vocabulary by learning from each other’s digital, for the emergence of what Claire Colebrook logic of on/of or yes/no or is/is-not. Once we ac- words, digital entities that have no recognisable se- nuances, gestures and performative suggestions. calls “sense beyond the actual.” being constructed from “zeroes and ones,” which is 92 We might be asking, at the insistence of Kittler, if LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 20 NO 2 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 21 ■ VOL 20 NO 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 93 E S S A Y E S S A Y references and notes 1. Claire Colebrook, Deleuze and the Meaning of Life (London: Continuum, 2010), 126. 2. Friedrich Kittler, Gramophone, Film, Typewriter (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), 2. 3. Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, The Medium is the 14. Gilbert Simondon, L’individu et sa genèse physico-biologique (Presses Universitaires de France, 1964; Éditions Jérôme Millon, 1995), 30, quoted in Muriel Combes, Gilbert Simondon and the Philosophy of the Transindividual, trans. Thomas LaMarre (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2013), 6. Massage: An Inventory of Efects (Corte Madera: Gingko 15. Ibid., 30. Press, 2001), 75. 16. Gilbert Simondon, The Genesis of the Individual, 300. 4. Mark B. N. Hansen, New Philosophy for New Media (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004), 3. 5. W. J. T. Mitchell, “There Are No Visual Media,” Journal of Visual Culture 4 no. 2 (2005), 257-266. 6. Justin Clemens and Adam Nash, “Seven Theses on the 17. Thomas LaMarre, “Afterword: Humans and Machines,” in Muriel Combes, Gilbert Simondon and the Philosophy of the Transindividual, trans. Thomas LaMarre (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2013), 90. 18. Ibid., 95. Concept of ‘Post-convergence,’” the website of Australian 19. Anna Munster, Dematerializing New Media, 179. Centre of Virtual Art, http://www.acva.net.au/blog/detail/ 20. Claire Colebrook, Deleuze and the Meaning of Life, 128. seven_theses_on_the_concept_of_post-convergence (ac- 21. Ibid., 127. cessed June 20, 2012). 7. Anna Munster, Materializing New Media: Embodiment in Information Aesthetics (Lebanon, NH: Dartmouth College Press, 2006), 90. 8. Ibid., 114. 9. Ibid. 10. Claire Colebrook, Deleuze and the Meaning of Life, 124. 11. Ibid., 125. 12. Gilbert Simondon, “The Genesis of the Individual,” in Incorporations, ed. J. Crary and S. Kwinter (New York: Zone Books, 1992), 300. 13. Ibid. 94 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC VOL 20 NO 2 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 ISSN 1071-4391 I S B N 97 8 -1 - 9 0 6 8 97-3 2-1 VOL 20 NO 2 LEONARDOELECTRONICALMANAC 95 ocradst.org