ART oe aeAs accessibility and understanding of electronic media grows, its use by artists
has become both widespread and increasingly instrumental in the latest
developments in contemporary art.
Art and technology scholar Edward A. Shanken gives a lucid, engaging
evaluation of the subject, contextualizing it in a broader art-historical and
political framework. A comprehensive, timely international survey that
addresses the relationship between art and electronic technology, this volume
explores the presence and meanings of mechanics, light. graphics, robots,
virtual reality and the Web in the art and visual culture of the last hundred years.
The volume also considers the reaction, development and future of artistic
practice in the face of new technology.ars}
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CODED FORM AND ELECTRONIC
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CODED FORM AND ELECTRONIC
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CHARGED ENVIRONMENTS page 213
NETWORKS, SURVEILLANCE,
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BODIES, SURROGATES, EMERGENT
SYSTEMS page 247
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AUTHORS’ BIOGRAPHIES page 290
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INDEX page 296
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS page 304WORKS page 54 CHARGED ENVIRONMENTS page 96
MOTION. DURATION, ILLUMINATION
CODED FORM AND ELECTRONIC
PRODUCTION page 78 NETWORKS, SURVEILLANCE,
SoMa eA CULTURE JAMMING page 120COMMUNITIES, COLLABORATIONS,
EXHIBITIONS. INSTITUTIONS,
page 182
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DOCUMENTS pase 190
MOTION, DURATION, ILLUMINATION |
page 193NETWORKS, SURVEILLANCE,
CULTURE JAMMING page 228
BODIES, SURROGATES, EMERGENT
SYSTEMS page 247
EXHIBITIONS, INSTITUTIONS,
COMMUNITIES, COLLABORATIONS‘Artists have always used the most advanced materials and techniques to create their work. When their visions required
‘media and methods that did not exist. they invented what was needed to realize their dreams. Sometimes. as with oil
paint in the 1400s and with photography five centuries tater. a new technology became so widely adopted that it gained
‘acceptance as a conventional artistic medium. In our own time, electronic technologies have become so pervasive that it
is hard to imagine contemporary music produced without electric instruments or to imagine an author writing or an
architect designing without the aid of a computer. Yet, with few exceptions, electronic art has remained under-
recognized in mainstream art discourses. This is true despite the deeply entwined histories of technology and art, and.
the impressive accomplishments of contemporary artists whose practices have both embraced and contributed to the
development of emerging technologies. That lack of recognition has begun to change.
This book aspires to demonstrate the formidable albeit short history of artistic uses of electronic media. ahistory that
parallels the growing pervasiveness of technology in all facets of life. Over two hundred artists and institutions from
‘more than thirty countries are represented. Seven thematic streams organize nearly a century of extraordinarily diverse
‘material, de-emphasizing technological apparatus and foregrounding continuities across periods, genres and media,
‘The centrality of artists as theorists. critics and historians is reflected inthe focus on artists’ writings in the Documents.
section. The goal is to enable the rich genealogy of art and electronic media in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to
bbe understood and seen - literally and figuratively ~ as central to the histories of art and visual culture.The serious artist
is the only person
able to encounter
technology with
impunity, just
because he is an
expert aware of
the changes in
sense perception.washing machines and refrigerators, came to market in the
1910s. The market for radios exploded in the 1920s together
with the growth of commercial broadcasting. Technologies
that were developed during the lean years of the Second
World War precipitated another outpour of electronic
consumer goods during the prosperity of peacetime.
Television became wildly successful in the 1950s, while the
1960s and 1970s brought hi-fi stereo sound-systems, video
cameras, remote controls, cable television and satellite
telecasts. In the 1980s and 1990s, the advent of personal
computing, public access to the Internet and the multimedia
capabilities of the World Wide Web, along with broadband
Internet and cellular mobile phones, sparked the E-commerce
boom and fuelled globalization, flooding world markets with
an unprecedented deluge of consumer electronics.
This nutshell history only begins to scratch the surface
of the wondrous and ingenious devices that have inspired
artists to expand the ability to see the present and to envision
and create the future. Indeed, artists use, re-purpose and
invent electronic media in ways that delight the senses, baffle
the mind and offer profound insights into the implications —
both positive and negative — of techno culture. Although
electricity has become so ubiquitous as to be mundane,artists continue to discover its poetic significance, ifnot magic. In doing so, they
simultaneously humanize and mythologize electronic media, transforming it through
artistic alchemy to stretch the imagination, expand consciousness and inspire others
to new levels of creativity and invention
Motion, Duration, Illumination
Traditional visual artis static: it captures or represents a moment in time. Moreover,
it typically depends on a light source for illumination. Electronic media facilitate the
liberation of at from conventional stasis and provide a means for it to consist of light
itself. Since the early twentieth century, artists have used neon, fluorescent, laser and other
forms of electric light as bona fide artistic media, often in ways that incorporate motion
and time. Paralleling the intrinsic temporality of music and cinema, artists increasingly
have set art in motion in such a way that the work can only properly be perceived as a
. durational experience. Indeed,
eer ae the traditions of experimental
Vd Ce a} a § music and film, along with the
sean use of sound and moving
Q images, have become
Mie = ae
contemporary art practices,
particularly those involving electronic media.
Since the paleolithic cave paintings of deer hunts at Lascaux (c. 15,000 BC), artists have
used static media to suggest and represent the vitality of entities in motion, Drawing on
the physiological phenomenon known as persistence of vision, eighteenth and nineteenth
century inventions such as zoetropes and kinetoscopes animated a sequence of drawings,
enabling the viewer to perceive motion smoothly unfolding over time. Photographer
Eadweard Muybridge, who experimented with such stroboscopic devices, accomplished
the reverse in the 1870s through high-speed chronophotography. His stop-action
techniques — like those of contemporaries, Etienne Jules Marey and Thomas Eakins ~
captured motion as a sequence of still images, metaphorically freezing time and enabling
perception of micro-temporal instants beyond the capacity of the naked eye.
The Cinematographe, an integrated recording and projection device invented by Louis
Lumiere in the mid-1890s, enabled the registration and playback of moving images forlarge audiences, laying the foundations for cinema. inthe
9305, Harald ‘Dec!
vith ahighsintensty electronic
dgerton synchronized 2 camera's shutter
sh unit, which enabled
1s in Milk Drop Coronet
Sigifcanly faster shutters
(0938). These technological developments, occurting in a
broad range of ats, sient and commercial contexts
hhave widely influenced atin the twentieth and twenty fest
centuries, including cubist and futurist painting and sculpure,
Kinetic art, performance, video and mare contemporary time
based media
[Metaphors fom chronophotography and cinema were
employed by philosophers Henri Bergson and Henry James
to theorize vitality and duration with respect to human
perception and consciousness. In particular, Bergson’s Matter
and Memory (1896) and Creative Evlution (1907) have been
singularly influential philosaphicl texts among artists,
specially many associated with Cubism and Futurism. Given
dramatic increases inthe speed of production, transportation
and the general lx of dal lif,
‘questions pertaining to the nature and
perception oftime, space, motion and
light form a nexus at which the inquires
‘fart, science and philosophy have
become increasingly interwound.
Rapid advances in computing,
telecommunications, nanotechnology
and genomie science hint at further conceptual shits at this
comple interdisciplinary crossroads
Alongside the visual exploration af motion and time, artists
have studied the way light alls on objects creating shadows,
a5 well as the way light illuminates artworks in the particular
settings where they ae installed, The chiaroscuro technique
flight and dark shading that reached maturty during the
Renaissance emulates three-dimensionaliy on a two
dimensional plane by mimicking how light falls on solid
‘object. In The Conversion oft. Paul on the Way to Damascus
(060), Caravageio depicts the instant ofthe saint's epishany
upon falling rom bis horse as ifiluminated by a sudden burst,
farm of
‘ofdivine light, His technique, a high-cont
chiaroscuro known as tenebroso, achieves effets that beat
an uncanny resemblance to Edgerton’ highspeed ash
photography, Berrini designed the Festasy oft. Theresa
(0647-52) so that gided branze rays would shimmer in natural
light that shines through a small window above the altar inthe
CCornaro Chapelin Rome, Actuallight thus becomes an
integral part of the work, functioning a8 a protagonistin
A combination of technological and scien
‘opments inthe nineteenth
tury resulted in new
understandings oflight and visual peception, provoking
signicant changes in art. Amidst the popularization of
photography, many atss shite focus from rendering
likenesses of abjects andthe effects oflight on them to
capturing and giving visual form ta the sensate experience
of how light affects the human eye. Impressionist painting,
for example, as bound upin contemporary views onthe
physiology and phenomenology of perception that
emphasized the mediation of vision through the eyes and
brain, suggesting an element of subjectivity. Combined with
the faddish sucess of stereo photography in the 18708 and
180s, the popular understanding ofvision shifted from a
simple v1 correspondence between an objet and its
perception by the viewer toa conception of vision as the result
flight reflecting offan objec, entering each ofthe viewers
eyes from slightly diferent angles and being processed by their
brains into a single, ompositeimage that offered a sense
of depth. In this way, Impressionism, and later, Poitilism,
demanded that viewers play an active rlein the perception
fart, a prevailing ethos of contemporary interactive at.
Similarly contemporary artists including Olafur Eliasson,
Rober Irn, Ulf Langheinrch and james Turell have created
work that examines the perceptual limits ofthe human visual
Despite this preoccupation wit ight and motion, itwas
‘not until around 1920 that artists made works that moved or
that
sources oflight, Such kinetic artworks extended the
frame of ar by breaking with two forms of stasis: spatial and
temporal. Art no longer stood stilin space or time. Freed of
fameand pedestal, animated by electricity itcould move
about in the space ofthe viewer or the environment, modulate
between various states or take ona new identity that required
four dimensions to envision and experience Artists who
seized upon electic ight as an artiste medium similarly
liberated art rom is dependency on external ight sources
and made tthe source fits own illumination
‘Whereas cubist and futurist art theories sought to draw the
viewer into an aesthetic experience that implied movernent
and time, around 1920 Thomas Wied, Marcel Duchamp,Naum Gabo and Lasel6 Moholy Nagy began using electronic
clements to make motion and duration explicit and essential
characterises oftheir work Suiling on an enduring
fascination with synaesthesia and ligh-organs, notably those
of precursor Louls-Bertrand Castel inthe eighteenth century,
the fist public demonstration of Wilre’s Clavilxin 1922 was
performed using a keyboard that contoled sx pojectorsané
an array offletors, enabling te artist to modulate the
movement, hue and intensity of light onthe screen, Wired
later created and sod individual Lumia cabinets, the visual
equivalent of player-ianos, that displayed predetermined
arrangements ofcoloured light that he composed, such as
Aspiration, comprised of 397 variations witha total duration
of 2 hours, 14 minutes and 9 seconds These devices
anticipated te kinetic paintings of Abraham Paatnik and
Frank Malinain the 1955, light shows at rock concerts
beginning in the 1960s and visualization software that
transforms MP3 fies into urdulating patterns on PCs inthe
Gabo's
Kinetic
Construction
(0920)
produced 3
vietual volume
only when
activated, thereby making mation a necessary feature ofthe art
‘object and further emphasizing temporality. Indeed, the term
Kinetic was rstused in connection with visual at by Gabo
and his brother Anton Pevsner in thelt Realitic Manifesto
ating fom the same year (Documents, 93)-Duchamp's
Nude Descending a Staircase (192) and Bicycle Wheel (1913)
Anticipated subsequent research onthe perception of actual
motion inthe 1208. Powered by an electric motor, his Rotary
less Pats (Precio Optic (1920) incorporated a series of
five painted glass plates mounted on a motorized shat
Spinning 2 high speeds, treated the appearance of.
concentric circles ona single plane when viewed a a distance
of one mete, The work thus required motion and time to
produce this perceptual eect inthe viewer. Electric motors in
Moholy-Nagy’s Light Space Modulator (1323-30; Work, 55) set
the shiny steel sculpture in motion while electrical ilumination
inthe gallery reflected light offt and into its surroundings.
‘The Ligh Prop, a italsois known, not only pushes the
temporal dimensions of at but expands its spatial dimensions
into the entie environment, including the viewer, who
becomes a surface onto which igh is elected, In The New
Vision (1928), Mohol-Nagy advocated pushing art beyond
static forme and introducing kinetic elements in which the
ionshins ae vitval ones, i, resulting mainly
‘rom the actual movement of the contous, rings, rods, and
other objects. othe three dimensions ofvalume, a fourth
movement ~(inather words, times added). With respect to
ight, he noted that “ight ~astime-spatial energy and its
jection is an oustanding zd in propeling kinetic
sculpture andin attaining vitual volume.’ He continued
Eversinge the introduction of the means of producing high
powered, intense antficio ight, i hasbeen ane ofthe elemental
{factors inart creation, though it has not yet been elevated tots
legate place... The reflectors and neon tubes of advertisements
the linking etter of store fons, the rotaing colored elec
bulbs, the brood strip ofthe let news bulletin are elements ofa
ew field of expresion, which wil probably not hove to wait much
longer forits creative artis
Vladimir Tatlin’ design forthe Monument tothe Third
Intemational 1979-1920) proposed a. 4oo metre spiral
structure comprised ofthree levels revohing at different
speeds: cube-shaped conference centre turning atthe ate of
‘one revelation a year a pyramid for administrative offices
revalving once a month; and an information centre cylinder
completing one revolution per day. This duratonal aspect of
Kinetic arthas been taken to an extremein the work of Tatsuo
Miyajima, whose Clock for 300 Thousand Years (1987; Works,
72) will continuously count offa seeming ety.
Theidea of putting arin motion began to spread inthe
eatly 19305, when Alexander Calder’s mobiles were st
ehibited in Pare and New York. By the 1950s and 19608
its throughout North and South America and Eastern and
Western Europe began experimenting with duration, ight and
‘motion. 1955 bore two important exhibitions: Man, Machine,
ard Motion’ curated by artist Richard Hamilton atthe
Institut of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London and Le
Mouvement, curated by KG. Pontus Hultén atthe Galerie
Denise Renéin Pars and including work by highly diverse
group of ars from around the wold, such as Duchamp,
Calder, Victor Vasarely, Agar, Pl Buy Jesus Rafael Soto, Jean
Tinguely, Gyorgy Kepes and Robert Bret. The later exibition
‘was also the occasion forthe publication by Vasarely and
vHulten ofthe Yellow Monifsto, which played an important role
in popularizing the term, Kinetic Ar, to
‘Le Mouvement’ exemplifies the considerable global
exchange between artists, curators and institutions engaged
in the cteation and presentation of works that examined the
istic frontiers of motion, uation and light inthe 19405,
19505 and 19605. Originally fom Hungary Mohoy-Nagy,
Bauhaus master rom 1923-28, emigrated from Germany to
Chicago tod
the New Bauhaus in 1937. Kepes also
Hungarian, assisted Moholy in Berlin and London between
1930-37 and joined the New Bauhaus as head ofthe Light and
sor of Visual
Color Department. In 1946, Kepes became P
Design at MIT and ina
founded the Center for Advanced
Visual Studies, subsequently directed by German artist and
ZERO co-founder Otto Piene from 974-93. Working in
Czechoslovakia, Zdenek Pesinek made perhaps the frst work
cofartemploying neon in 1936 and Gyula Kosice began working
yi
with neon in Argentina in 1948. n
who had begun working with ight and motion in 1949,
cahibited a ‘inechromatic artwork atthe First International
Biennial in Sao Paulo in v9.
The growing acceptance of electric light as an attic
‘medium can be observed through an exploration ofecent art
history. From Neo-Constuctvism and New Tendency to Ate
Povera, Postminimalism and Conceptual An, atsts have used
the vernacular of neon to wield thee
ing brilliance of
the Las Vegas strip, asin Kepes’ commissions for Radio Shack
(0950) and KLM (2959; Works, 8), Fontana'scelling
installation at the Ninth Milan Tiennale in 1959 (Works 8,
Joseph Kosuths Five Words in Blue Neon (1965), Bruce
Nauman’s The Tue Aatist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic
Truths (1967) and Mario Me's Gap’ igloo (1969: Works, 6).
(On the symbolic significance of neon as an artistic medium,
Merz wrote Ligh is nevertheless technological energy nthe
‘mokig, fist be controlled by electric igh, itis essed up,
where sf is uncon
le and noked, Upht isa
comprehensible representation ofthe human mind, whereos flame
‘sincomprehensible ond hence dif to eprezen. So the
use neon represents the possibly of mental contro.
Artists have energized public spaces with ight and sound
as in PULSA's Boston Gardens Demonstration (1968; Works,
100), and also employed lasers to connect vast urban areas,
asin Rockne Krebs Walker Night Passage (971: Works, 68) in
downtown Minneapolis and Horst Baumann's Lover
imenta 6 in Kassel. More recently
ronment (3577) for De
lighthas been used as an artistic medium tilluminatea
metaphorical passage between the earth and the heavens,
asin Jaume Plens's Blake in Gaesheod (1996) a the BALTIC
Cente for Contemporary
sin England andin julian
Laverdiere and Paul Myoda's memorial tthe vitins of
September, 200, atthe former it ofthe World Trade Cente,
Tibut in Light (2002) Exploring the perceptual eelationship
between light and sound by eliminating the forme, Yolande
of Girls (or
Pharolgy) (2005), translates the
rotating field f illumination that
emanates from lighthouselooms
into a3-D sound installation
inwhich the viewer triggers and
experiences only the sonic spectre
oflight
revolves around.a central ai, chan
sits audible apparition
in tesponse to
Developments in science and engineering deeply
influenced the
cork of artists exploring the potential of motion
andligh. The interdisciplinary scence of eybernetics, which
conceived ofboth animals and machines as ystems of.
interconnected feedback loops, became a model for kinetic art
‘that was responsive to its environment. Nicola Schéffer's
CYSP! (2955; Works, 2) was developed in collaboration with
Dutch electrons corporation Philips. An electronic bain
sensors, controls and motors enabled the work to interact with
its environment by physically responding to sound and
‘movement. The viewer thus became an activ participator in
the experience ofthe work, Schafer later incorporated these
concep into monumental architectural structures, ineluding
the Spotiodynamic Twerin Liege (196%), filty.two-metre
tower that incorporated sity four revolving mirors, seventy
projectors, 120 coloured spotlights, five haléhour musiccording, along with a varity of sensors that enabled the
computercontalled struct
10 respond tits environment
These early interactive wos were important precursors toa
broad range of contemporary practices involving robotics,
responsive environments and intligent architecture
Artists have used kinetics and ight to explore parallels
between a
rani technology and natural energetic
phenomena and to consider the relationship between creation
and destruction, Greek artist Takis fist exhibited his un
electrified kinetic ‘Signals series atthe Hanover Gallery in
London in 958 (Works, 63). He employed electromagnetism
in his Telesculptures'of1959 and added blinking lights to his
‘Signals Mukiples' of 1966. Filipino artist David Medslla, who
created his first bi-kinetie sculptures in 1963, opened the
Signals Gallery in London in 1984 and edited the Signals
Newsbulletn From 1964-8, both of which were inspired by
Takis and dedicated ta kinetic and ligt art, ln 1959, German:
bom artist Gustay Metager published Auto-Destmctive At, the
frst of several related manifestos, including proposals for
integrating art with science and technology and using
cybernetics and computes to create slf-destructng cvc
monuments that would exist from a few minutes to twenty
years. In 1960, German-born at historian Peter Sel, then
chief curator at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, invited
Swiss anistJean Tinguely to construct Homage to New York, 3
mechanical work af art that sel destructed in the museum's
sculpture garden on 17 March, 1960. Dr Bil Kluver, 2 aser
researcher at Bell Labs in nearby Murray Hil, New Jersey,
cellaborated with Tinguely on the technical aspects ofthe
work, and American artist Robert Rauschenberg added 2
component that hteraly threw money from the sculpture
Several important exhibitions tok place in the eatly and
smid-19608, exposing popular audiences in Europe and the US
toelectronic art employing motion and light "Bewogen
Beweging’ (Moving Movement), was argenized by Hultén,
‘Tinguelyand Romanian/Swiss alist Daniel Spoer atthe
Stedeli Museum in Amsterdam in 1961. The show's
Stockholm incarnation, ‘Rére!
| Konsten’ (tn Motion
at the Moderna Musee, where Hulten was directo, included
several additonal works by American artists selected by Klovey,
2 fellow Swede. Azo in 1961, the Gallery of Contemporary Art
in Zagreb organized the frst of seven New Tendencies
ethibitons, including kinetic andlight works by Otto Plene and
Heinz Mack of ERO, the italian Gruppe N and Julio Le Pare
representing the Groupe de Recherche da Visuel (GRAV)
American atist Dan Flavin had his fist solo exhibition of
exclusively Fluorescent workin 1984 atthe Green alley in
New York. In 965, the Jewish Museum in New York organized
the exhibition "Tivo Kinetic Sculptors: Nicolas Scher and
Jean Tinguely. The Stedlic Van Abbe-Museum in Eindhoven,
Netherlands organized the fist major international exhibition
flight art ‘Kunst Licht Kunst’ (A ight A) in 1986, with 2
catalogue essay by Fench at historian Frank Popper, whose
comprehensive book, Origins and Development of Kinlc At
‘was publishedin French in 1967
and translated into English in
1968. Kinetic Art and light at not
only became identified as,
‘movements, but motion and light
transcended stylistic categories
and were employed by artists
round the world
Sharing an affinity with Wild's Claviluxand eighteenth
and nineteenth century experiments with ight organs, the
desire to combine sound and image to create the experience of
symaesthesia reached a culminating pointin the mid96os,
when it became popular fare at rock concerts. Scotish artist,
Mark Boyle produced his rst public Liquid Light shows in 984
(Works, 142) In 1967, he and joan Hills formed the Sensual
Laboratory and began collaborating with The Sof Machine,
Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix n 965, Metzger began
producing his Liquid Crystal Light Projections, which were used.
aslightshows for rock bands Cream and The Who in London
Light shows in connection with concerts and Happenings were
also taking place in the US, including the Trips Festival in San
Francisco in 1966 (produced by Stewart Brand and featuring
the Grateful Dead), Andy Warhol's
hich toured withthe Velvet Underground in 1966-7, and the
Joding Plastic inevitable
‘indexpanding, communal multimedia environments
created by USCO. These psychedelic experiments lsd thefoundstion for early video performances and laserlight shows
inthe 19708 and 1980s and were ceincarnated in the rise of is
{the video equivalent of DJs, or disk jockeys in ave-cultue in
1980s. n this lineage, she American Museum of Natural
History teamed with MTV ta produce SoncVision (2003),
which joins popular music and digital animation in an
immersive multimedia spectacle for domed theatres.
Of rg6os events, 's evenings: theatre & engineering
generated the mast excitement about the use af electronic
media in art and has eteted the most enduring infuence.
‘Spearheaded by Kliver and Rauschenberg in Octaber, 1966,
this legendary seves of technalogiealy enhanced
performances in New York City included work by ten ates,
composers and choreographers associated with a variety of
uaus, Bell Labs
engineers assisted the artists in realizing theie performances
avant-garde practices ranging from Pop to
‘9 evenings was the maiden voyage ofthe organization
Experiments in Art and Technology (EAT), which played
1968 was a watershed year fr electronic an involving
‘mation, ight and time, especialy wih respect to publications
and exhibitions. ack Burcham published his seminal Beyand
(Modem Sculpture: The Efects of Science and Technology on the
Sculpture of Our Time, which incladed chapters on automata,
‘ineticism, light and robotics. Artis scientist Frank Malina
launched intermational publication of Leonardo, which remains
the premier peer-reviewed journal for scholarship on the
creative intersections of art and science, Hutén curated "The
Machine: As Seen a the End ofthe Mechanical Age’ at The
Museum of Modern Artin New York, which include ten artist
engineer collaborations, suchas Jean Dupuy's Hear Beats
[ATLAt the Brooklyn
Museum of rt, LAT. organized ‘Some Mare Beginnings’ an
‘Dust, part ofa competition overseen by
ethibiton of over one hundred ofthe collaborative projects
from the competition that could not be included in The
‘Machine! The Nelson Gallery in Kansas City organized Magic. ™
‘Theater’ an exhibition that supported collaborations between
artists and
ngineersJasia Reichardt curated "Cybernetic
Serendipity, an internationally influential exhibition a the ICA
in London, and the exhibition subsequent traveled tothe
Corcoran Glleryin Washington, DC and the Exploratorum in
‘San Francisco. On the fagade ofthe NAMA department store
in Zagreb, Vladimir Bonaéié installed his computerized light
installation, DIN21, and the Galley of Contemporary Artin
sgreb published the ist issue ofthe journal Bt iterational
By the 19705, motion, light and time had become
increasingly mainstream elements of atistic expression.
Artists, drawing on a ange ofsjlistcinfuences, have
continued to explore ther potential asthe means and subject,
oftheir work One ofthe most interesting developments over
the ast four decades hasbeen the use of electronic media by
artists totransform or translate between various forms of
energy — what Robert Millay referred tain 1969 as
transductiveart (Documents, p 203). Dupuy's
Heart Beat Dus (1968) translates one's pulse
into kinetic energy that vibrates a membrane,
causing fine ed dust to dance. In Gary Hil’s
video Soundings (1979; Works, 70), 8
loudspeaker is subjected tothe effects offre,
cath, si and water, revealing transformations
ofits sonic and visual presence in elation toa
spoken tet Inthe tration of physicist Ernst Chladns late
eighteenth century experiments in visualizing harmanic
vibrations and physician Hans Jenny's studies of wave
phenomena or ‘mati’ rom the 19605, Carsten Nicolas
‘Mil (2000) reveals how various frequencies of sound energy
alter patterns of disturbances they caused ina vat of milk.
Silay in Prtrude/Flow (2001) by Sachiko Kodama and
Minako Takeno, sounds inthe exhibition space, including
those ofthe audience, iteratively transform three
dimensional patterns in black magnetic Rui, which appears
to be choreographed tots sonic environment,
Light has been the primary force in several intriguing
transductive works. By focusing ultra high-intensity lightin &
vacuum chamber, Shawn Brsey and Laura Knott's Photon Voie
(0986; Works, 71) made graphite particles levitate and form
kinetic sculptures, altered by a dancer, whose movement brake
‘he ight. In Paul DeMaris’ Edison Effet (1980-93; Works,
73).alaserbeam shone through a fishbowl and onto an Edisoncolnder, a nineteenth century recording device, The beam of
ight relayed the sound encoded in the cylinder to a computer,
which translated the information fim analogue to dial then
repraduced the analogue sound, intertupted sporadicallyby
the ish, thi occasionally crossed the beam.
Exploring the entropic effects oflight, Mary Lucir’s Dawn
‘Bur (1975) pushed the physical limits of video equipment
Videotapes of seven successive sunvises, each played on 2
separate monitor revealed how the sun's intensity slowly
overshelmed the recording apparatus, causing a progressively
expanding burn overtime in the series of tapes. Jochen Gers
video performance Prometheus 1975) echoed the myth ofthe
“Titan who stole ie from Zeus and gave tohumarkind. Gere
used a handheld miror to reflect sunlight into the camera's
lens, slowly overloading the camera's sensor and causing its
demise, Using electronic media in innovative ways that invoke
the luminous, kinetic and temporal dimensions of at, artists
explore the potential ofthese qualtes to expand aesthetic
experience and to enhance human perception
Coded Form and Electronic Production
Animpartant precursor ta digital computing debuted in France
in \Bo1~ the Jacquard Loom, invented by joseph-Marie
Jacquard. Itemployed wooden slats, encoded wth instructions
like computer punch-cards, te automate weaving of complex
pattems. Although workers ted agsinsttheloom's
Introduction, which threatened to replace humans with
‘machines, the mechanical production of goods through
encoded information offered great financial opportunities for
industry an resulted in lower cost items, which benefited
consumers as wel Reflecting on this technological histon,
artist Eve Andrée Laramée’s installation, Permatonal
Unfolding (1998), ineluded an antique jacquard loom, woven
textiles and other petiod and non-perodic elements to
demonstrate parallels between this early programmable
machine and digtal computers, both afwhich operate on
binary code.
NNottobe outdone by the French, British Industriaiss
supported by Prince Albert organized the Gres Exhibition of
185) m London atthe Crystal Palace, an architectural and
technalogical marvel designed by joseph Paxton. Symbalizing,
the superior economic and technological strength of Great
Britain, the displays intended to demonstrate oa rapidly
growing urban middle lass that mechanically manufectured
goods met or exceeded the quality ofhandmade products, ata
fraction ofthe price. For mary vistors, these mass produced
items were satisfactory and affordable; indeed, the exhibition
was a great financial success, However, some accounts ofthe
merchandise suggest that nat only was the quality mediocre
but the designs lacked taste, One such detractr, Wiliam
‘Morris, sought to retain the virues of handerafting established
by medieval guilds butt update them with contemporary
design principles. Although Morris was an exceptionally
talented designer and.a major force in the Arts and Crafts
‘maverent, is products were outside the financial reach
‘ofthe masses In contrast, Bauhaus designers in the
1920 following the spirit of architect Walter Gropius's
maxim (Art and technology: new unity, attempted to
join the highest contemporary aesthetic values with
industrial production in order to create stylish goods that
‘were affordable toa wider public. The tension between
handcrafted fiery and machine produced objects that are
finely designed persists with respec to electronic ar.
The long and diverse history of the mechanical production
and reproduction of artworks includes using technological
media, such asthe camera obscura and photography to
render convincing likenesses, various printing methods from
‘wood-bioks to rapid-protolyping machines to output two- and
threesdimensional multiples, anda range of algorithmic
techniques to generate form from mathematical formulae,
genetic algorithms and other coded relationships. These
approaches to image production have affected the working
processes of artists and transformed the end result and impact
oftheir wark on visual culture
Images were relatively scarce in private homes prior tothe
invention ofthe printing press. The advent of photography and
the mediur's popularity inthe late nineteenth century
provided the masses with convincing likenesses ofloved ones,
erotic destinations and other subjects that wee far more
affordable than portraits or scenes drawn or painted by hand.Images became dally fodder for mass audiences after
the development ofthe rotary pres
round 850 and
improvements inthe halftone processin the 1890s, which
‘enabled the cheap and rapid repraducion of photographs and
drawings in newspapers, The Neoding of daly life with objects
and images is, therefor, aclativly recent occurrence in
hich technologies of preduction and reproduction have
played a major role
In The Work
(0936), Waker Benjamin argued that technologically
sin the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
reproduced images lacked the ‘aura of an individually
handcrafted original. At the same time, he recognized the
potential of technological repreduction to enable the
democratization of imagery 2 condition that he hoped would
offer a means of resisting Fascism and premoting democratic
values” In the wake ofthe individualistic bravura of Abstract
Expressionism, by the late 19506 artists began to critically
examine the distinctive, gestural signature that implied 2
symbolic connection between the hand af the artist and the
surface of canvas Taking the Ideological cluster of gesture,
authenticity and originality s his fl, in the mid 960s artist
Roy Lichtenstein cariatured the abstract expessionisic
brush-stroke ina cartoon style with a background comprised
‘of Ben-Day dots ~ a printing technique used by newspapers
te reproduce cartoons, Paradoxically, he initially mocked this
‘eviscerated but iconic signifier in a series of unique paitings,
only later reproducing them as sergraphs. Pushing this
lineage futher, Roman Verostko made the fist obotic bush
strokes in 1g, using custom sofware and sumi brush
‘mounted on a plotter to achieve remarkable gestural
spontaneity fiom a series of algorithms
Using closed-loop video to reflect on Benjamin's critique
lof mechanical reproduction, in Richard Kresche's video
performance Tains (1377) two identical wins in separate
rooms read The Work of Ar.
was.a moniter dsplaying lve video ofthe other anda slightly
‘Adjacent to each performer
modified quotation from the ext, The reproduced art.vark
(person) becomes toan ever increasing degree the reproduction
cofan art. work (person) that is designed to be reproduced.
Parallel assaults on originality and reproduction were mounted
byatists such as Shertie Levine, whose re photographed
images of Walker Evans’ photographs for the US Works
Progress Administration (WA), towhich she signed her
hibited in New Yorkin
1981. By the early 1980s art erties proclaimed that the ideal
name, spurred much debate when &
of originality associated with avant-garde artwas a myth
LUpping the ant, in 2001 artist Michael Mandliberg
created the twin Websites, AfenallerEvans.com and
After Sherebevne com (2001), offering fee downloads of high
resolution digital les ofthe twenty five Evans images that
Levine rephotographed, Each site contains the same image
files, distinguished only by their tiles, which correspond tothe
images’ Website address or Uniform Resource Locator (URU)
‘After downloading the desired image and printing and framing
itaccording to instructions
‘onthe Website, one may sign
downloadable cericste of
authenticity that declares it
tobe an authentic work ofart
by Mandiberg.Athoughit
may nothave the cache ofan
‘original’ work by Evans or
Levine, nether does it carry the price-tg. While Levine's work
and the artwotld discourses sutrounding it intended tring the
eath knell of oxiginlity, with few exceptions, the critics who
chanted ths characteristic mantra of post-mader art and
theory fled to address how concutrent developments in
offered equally potent
critiques of eriginalty authenticity, institutions and cultural
electronic art, such as Kiesche'
hegemony. As Margot Lovejay has pointed out, ‘Electronic
‘media challenge older [modernist] modes of representation
New media have created postmodern conditions and have
changed the way at itselfis viewed
Indeed, artist utilizing electronic tals to produce form
by duplication, or by using algorithmic and other generative
approaches, have challenged conventional notions of
ovginality creativity and atitsel. Suc
ists recognized and
‘exploited the potentials of electronic signal processing,
‘computer graphics and electronic photocopying inthe 1950s
and 19608 and high-resolution digital photography, printing,video and rapid-prototyping since the 1980s,
Important parallals and advances took place in music.
Following the introduction ofthe electronic musical
Instruments, such asthe theremin andthe ondes Martenot
Inthe 1ga0s, Pierre Schaeffer's Cing nudes de Bruits (1948)
expanded the sonic palette and compositional strategies of
‘music by employing multiple turntables, tape loops, four
channel mixer and an echo chamber. Theterm electronic
rusic'was coined atthe Cologne radio station Northwest
German Broadcssting (NWOR) in the eal 19505, where
composers including Karlheinz Stockhausen synthesized
‘music using purely electronic means. In 1936, Lejaren Hiler
and Leonard Issacson wrote the Hlige Suits, so-named forthe
computer that was used to algorithmically generate the
composition for string quartet. Louis and Bebe Barton relied
cuclusivly on custormbult electronic circuits to compose the
score forthe fs Forbidden Pane! (1956), spreading electronic
‘music to broad, popular audiences. Electronic sythesizers
and sequences made their debut in the late 19505, vastly
expanding the possiblities of music composition and
performance, There was, moreover, significant cross
Fertliztion between electronic musie and art, exemplified by
the callborations 3 Bll Labs in the 1960s. These early
‘experiments demonstrated the flenbility of electronic
technologies to produce hybrid forms of multimedia,
Electron techniques fr producing and reproducing
sounds and images have afected the ways artists elect on
teaditiona aesthetic concems and have expanded the creation
and distribution ofan, including is manifestations as code, a5,
san image ona monitor and as an object. Itemains to be seen
ubether or not the potential of digital production and
Aistibution technologies wil esultin a the democratization
and appreciation of fine art suggested by Benjamin, Attempss
by atts to sell inexpensive limited licenses for works of
software art via the Internet have net been commercially
successful, What constitutes the work is enigmatic: digital
files might be simultaneously the orginal and the copy, a work
‘of artand the code that generates it. Just as photography was
not recognized asa bona fide artistic medium unt the mide
‘wenteth century, so the acceptance of digal forms of
production and reproduction may not occur immediately.
‘Avthe same time, Apple's Tunes Music Store has succeeded
in seling digital music files for under a dolar each, and brisk
cottage industries have grown up around the praduction and
sale of mobile phone ringtones and of avatars, fashion and
accessories for Sims and Second Life enthusiasts, As digital
devices increasingly saturate the cultual landscape and as
technologies advance, perhaps there willbe greater interest in
software art. Indeed, paralleling the economic and social shifts
from industrial production to service industries, meaning and
value have become less embedded in goods and more
Aispersedin the flow and exchange of signs. Similarly, in
experimental art since the 1960s, partculaly that involing
electronic media, the conventional aesthetic privileging of
precious objects has been increasingly supplanted by amore
‘ephemeral aesthetics of information
Given thelong tradition of artists’ use of technologies to
mechanically eproduce works ofa, from wood-cut to offset
Drintng it's not surprising that atsts eagerly embraced
lectrastatie photocopying techniques (ve. xerography) when
the fist commercial machine, the Haliod Xerox 914, 2s
released in 1980. eary 351962, Ray Johnson, who founded
the New York School of Correspondence Ar in 1968, used
photocopiers as a tol for propagating images. Photocopiers
were used as wellby artists associated with Flasus and
Conceptual Art, One ofthe rst artists o exploit the formal
potential of photocopying machines was Italian futurist Sune
‘Munari whose Machine Art Manifest’ of 1938 anticipated his
series ‘Kerogafie Original begun in 1964. Munari's work
concentrated onthe atit's gestural act of moving objects over
the glass during the copying cycle, collaborating or performing,
vith the machinein order to capture motion and time on a two
imensional surface. Taking @ more conceptual approach,
German artist Timm Ulichs’ Die Photokopie der Photakopie der
Photokopie (1967) pushed the limits of these new machines
‘while questioning conventional notions of the original versus
‘the cap. Ulrichs photocopied an encyclopedia entry about
photocopying, then copied the copy through ninety-nine
suecessive generations, revealing the intrinsic qualities ofthe
process, Was the original image degraded? Or was the whole
process an original work of ata parallel conversation
‘metadiscourse on electronic reproduction that embodied both
‘description and a demonstration ofit? In any case, such work
could not have been conceived or produced without electronic
‘media, which were both the inspiration and means forthe
creation of nnovative forms of expression
For artist Sonia Sheridan, photocopiers made it possible to
_generate copious amounts of visual information, the processof which became her primary goal As an artist in residence at
5M Corporation in 1959 and again in 1976, she was given cate
blanche to explore the creative possibilities ofthe company's
Colorin-Color photocopying machine (Works, 86}. Compared
te colour phatacopiers made available tothe public decades
later at printing shops, the original 3M machinebad adjustable
focus and depth of fel, a5 wellas variable voltage to regulate
the electrostatic process by which the toner was fused onto the
surface ofthe copy. With contol over the quantity and quality
of pigment applied ta the surface, she created thick and velvety
textures and richly saturated colours. Although innumerable
has
prints coulé be made of any given image, eae
cor aura ofan original and in Sheridan's cas
‘monotypes. Indeed, because the process took only say
seconds, Sheridan used the capacity ofthe machine to rapidly
igenerateimages in order to fee her creativity from the
temporal burden of érawing or painting by hand, She chose to
assemble variations of elements directly onthe glass platen,
\which enabled the production of hundreds ofimages and
‘variations in the time itwould have taken to complete one
traditionally crafted work
Drawing on this experience, Sheridan developed her
concept of generative art and founded the Generative Ans
programme at the School ofthe Ar Institute of Chicago in
1970. Some ofthe experiments she and her students
undertook involved the use of early facsimile machines, which
carried information encoded inaudible signal. They would
record the fx tones and then manipulate these sonic codes
in order toslter the coresponding images and vice-versa
-Apartcularly precocious student, John Ounn, developed the
EASEL computer-graphics system, which Sheridan used to
advance her generative at practic in the gos.
Some ofthe earliest electronically generated images
include Ben Laposty’s'Qscillon’ high-speed photographs
of abstract patterns the American artist mathematician fist
produced on an oscilloscope in 1950 by usinga range of
manually contrlled, analogue devices. Inthe early 19505,
German anist/theoris
Franke independently created
tlectranic images using osciloscopes as well In 953-4, ify
of Laposky's Oscillons were the subject ofthe exhibition
Electronic Abstractions’, another term Laposty used fr his
work which opened a the Sanford Museum in Cherokee, lowa
and travelled to thiteen other venues across the US. In 135,
the exhibition “Experimentale Asthetk, atthe Museum of
Applied Artin Vienna, displayed Oscillons and other eaely
electronically generated images. Although Laposky and Franke
did not employ digital computers in these early works, heir
use of algorithmic signals to programme and control imagery
‘onan oscilloscope's cathode ray tube -an electronic screen
similar t0aTV monitor was animportant precursor to
computer at.
Much of the early development of computer graphics
was undertaken by engineers and mathematicians. 11961,
clectrical engineer Ivan Sutherland began doctoral esearch
at MIT onthe fis interactive computer gr
the process of creating the Sketchpad system, Sutherland aso
developed objectoriented programming, which revolutionized
not oniy the field ofcomputer graphics but the discipline of
computer science in general. Bel Laboratories inthe suburbs
‘of New York City was a hotbed of eomputer graphics and
electronic music development inte early 19605, driven by
staffres
archers, often in collaboration with ars." Stttgort,
ity.
hen called the Technische
nany was the European centre of cutting-edge
tthe University of Stuttgart
Hochschule, Ph. students Frieder Nake (Probability Theory
1967; Works, 80) and Georg Nees (Philosophy, 1963) were
eeply influenced by philosopher Max Bense, a co-founder
with Abraham Moles ofinformation aesthetic, Bense
eveloped an influential theory of generative aesthetics that
the galvanizing force behind the socalled Stuttgart or
ense school of computer art and he coined the term ‘artificial
ar torefer to this new il‘The frst exhibitions of computer art took place in 1963
‘Generative Computergrafi’, consisting of work by Nees at
the Studiengaleriein Stuttgart (February 5-10) Computer
Generated Pictures’ featuring work by Noll and Bela Julesz
sat Howard Wise Gallery, New York (April 6-24}: and
“Computergrafik, including work by Nake and Nees atthe
Galerie Wendelin Nielich in Stuttgart (November 5-26)"
German art students antagonized Nees's work, just as art
cities dismissed the work shown in New York as ‘old and
soulless’ and having about s much appeal asthe “notch
patterns found on IBM cards,” Nonetheless, one work at
Howard Wise Gallery, Nol's Gaussian Quadratic (1963), won
the fist computer art competition, sponsored bythe journal
Computers and Automation, in 1965, and Nake won in 1966 for
his work employing random number generators 13/9/%5 Nt 5
Distributions of Elementary Sign (1985)
Although eatly computer graphics may have failed to
enchant some art audiences, the philosophical aesthetic and
ee
Saale
Se
ee ke
‘mathematical underpinning ofthis work ften were highly
complet and shared much in common with other tendencies
in conternpoary art. Nake considered the computera
“Universal Peture Generator’ capable of producing all
possible variations ofa given combination of elements Fellow
‘German artist, Manfed Mor, employed the mathematics of
combinatorics programmed ona computer t derive and plot
varitions ona cubein his ‘Cubic Limit sels (1972-76)
{similarly systematic approach art-making characterizes
conceptual artist Sol LeWit's manual produced Incomplete
Open Cubes (1974), wherein variations ona cube ae translated
inta a variety ofrmeia and scales, exemplivingthe deployment
of asingl ida to become, in LeWit's words, "2 machine that
makes thea Such an algorithmic approach oimage
production was a catalyst fo Casey Reas's (Sofware
‘Statues (2004) and jn F- Simon e's Ever cn (1997).
‘Thelatter consists ofa personalized java applet, avaiable for
purchase from Amazon.com for $20, that explores all1.8x 10!
possible permutations of black and white squares in a32 32
‘rid, task that wil take hundreds oftilins ofyears to
‘complete at arate of 100 icons per second on a typical desktop
‘computer fram that ea,
‘Aalst also used computers in order to create images that
could not have been imagined or produced using traditional
‘media, Working in France, Hungarian artis Vera Molnar one
ofthe founders of GRAY, envisioned computers as aay
‘produce combinations of forms never seen before, either in
nature orin museums, to create unimaginable images"
Even before she had access to computers, Molnar created @
‘machine imaginaire'~ essentially a set of programmed
behaviours ~ and followed ther, ina machineJike manner,
in order to generate randomness inher at." In 1979, polymath
Benoit Mandelbrot, working a the IBM Research Laboratory,
produced a complex computer generated image that could not
have been imagined from its simple constituent parts. Known
as the Mandelbrot Set, ths algorithmic visualization spurred
a
aa
Cae
galas)
enalaa
‘tremendous intrest in facal geometry and complesity theory
and inspired a wide range of artistic exploration. In Scott
Draves's Electric Sheep (2001), for example, when a computer
goes to sleep, an open-source, peer-to-peer, screen-saver
connectsit with other silcon somnambulist via the Internet,
sharing the work of generating fractal animations known as.
‘sheep’, Tiled in homage to Pili K. Dick's novel, o Andes
Dream of Electe Shep?, users design their own digital
livestock and vote on their favorites, thus enabling the most
popular electric sheep tole longer and reproduce —an
afc form of evolution resulting in what the artist describes
a5 2 collective “android dream
In addition ta these algorithmic abstractions, computers
have been employed to generate likenesses or emulate
traditional works of rt. n the mic-1960s, Noll developed
algorithms that produced images very similar in appearance
to the work of DeStil artist Piet Mondrian and Op anist
Bridget Riley and Nake did the same withthe work of Paul KleeWorking together at Ohia State University, Chases Csuri and
ames Schaffer produced Sine Wove Man (1367) by coding
selected coordinates roma line drawing ofa portrait and
subjecting them to mathematical modifications known as
is work won the Computers and
Fourier transforms. T
annual competition in 1967 and was included in
the exhibition ‘Cybernetic Serendipity (1968). Kenneth
Knowlton and Leon Harmon's “Studies in Perception’ series,
begun in 966, includes images ofa reclining female nude
(Works, 8) 2 gargoyle, a telephone and seagulsin fight,
generated from photographs that were digitize. This series
which shares similares with ancient mosaic techniques, also
has inspired mare recent work, including Andy Deck’s Ghphit
(2001), an interactive, Web-based telematic artwark that allows
participants around the wrld to collaborate inthe endless
process of creating and ecreating images.
Inthe lineage of eal twentieth century experimental
animators inelading Viking Eggeling, Hane Richter,
3) slows down Alfed Hitchcock's 109-minute masterpiece
toa creeping pace that lasts twenty: four hours.
Michael joaquin Grey's Rereentry (2005), imensionalizes,
syncopates and interweaves two videos displayed side by
each comprised of hundreds of miniature videos ofthe othe,
a process the ats cefers to as celular einer,
Inthe 19908, advances in computeraided 3D design
software (CAD-30) and rapid prototyping technology (RP)
have provided atists with tals to digitally encode and
produce three dimensional objects. RP an be thought of as,
three-cimensional printing. ltnough cutent
the process is
neither as rapid nor as affordable as making a photocopy or
ted tent as art schools
printing outa page of computer ger
increasingly tain students to use CAD and as RP becomes
cheaper and faster, one can anticipate grester artistic
experimentation with this medium. Some ofthe frst works
of ato us this technology were Gametes by Michae! Joaquin
Grey and Randolph Huff and Forbidden Fis by Masaki
Fchinger and Len lye the advent of computers led to
development of new methods for animation and flmmaki
beginning in the 1960s. Athough produced without a
computer james Whitney's Yontra (1950-7; Wodks, 80,
embodies acomplex symmetry that anticipates digital
animation In 938, hisbrother john Whitney Sr. cobbled
together salvaged military components to create an analogue
computer that produced the animations in Catalog (1961). As
an artistinstesidence at 10M from 1
9, Whitney Sr. gained
access to digital computers, which he used to produce films
such as Peemutatons (1968). Csuri and Knowlton were also
deeply engaged in developing computer animation, Csuri's
Hummingbird (1966; Works, 80}, incorporated morphing
techniques similar to those used today, while Knowlton
collaborated with atts including Stan VanDerBeek and Ulan
Schwarte ding award winning work at Bel Labs inthe 19605
and1970s, More recently artists have joined computers and
fim or video in myciad ways. Douglas Gordon's 24-Hour Psycho
Fujhata, both produced in 1990 using stereolithography
Since the ealy 19908, atsts have expanded the potential of
this medium, Robert Lazzarii's ‘Skil series (2003) and
-AD and RP to evolve
s. The 3-D RP models were
Payphone (20025 Works, 95} us
distortions of recogrizable bj
then used as templates to fabricate the final artworks, which
could not have been executed otherwise. Michael Rees has
used the CAD environment to develop infinite variations of
virtual -D forms, much as Sheridan used photocopiers
‘apidly explore variations of2-D designs. The CAD environment,
moreover, enables the creation of works
can beoutputas
stllimages, animations and 3-0 objects and tobe produced a
varius scales, rom the minuscule to the monument
the case of Rees's Puto 2 2 x (2005; Werks, 93), which is
nearly ive metres {sateen fet tll
(Charged Environments
‘Arthas aivays been implicitly interactive, in the sense thatitdemands acts of perception and cognition on the pat ofthe
viewer 8y emphasizing the durational aspect of perception
and thereby making explicit the process of encountering works
ofa, artists began to challenge and alter traditional
conceptions regarding the relationship between viewer and
artwork In rt as Experience (1934), philosopher John Dewey
stressed the viewer's olen the production of meaning inant.
Sila, Marcel Duchamp stated in 1957 that, "The creative
acts not performed by the ats alone; the spectator brings
the workin contact with the extemal word, and thus adds his
contribution to the creative act™
As atist increasingly created kinetic works that
reconfigured themselves or could be modified in response
tothe viewer's behaviour traditional distinctions between
viewing subject and art objec, and between artist, artwork
and audience, began to erode. No longer could the artist be
considered the enigmatic reato ofcoded messages to be
decoded by clever viewers. Semiotican Umberto Eco's
theorization ofthe
“open ark’ in 1962
parallels the
explorations ofartste
working with
Imeractve media and
audience participation,
whe inereasingly came
to think of themselves as offering audiences open-ended
possibilities forthe production of unpredictable mesnings
Roy Ascott drew astrking parallel between participatory art
and quantum physics, citing physicist JA, Wheelers
contention that, To describe what has happened one has to
cross out that old word “observer and putinits place
“pattcipator In some strange sense the universe is2
participatory universe. Electronic media have made possible
an extraordinary range of interactive potentials for observers
to became active participators who navigate charged
environments along a varity of possible trajectories,
‘This mid-century aesthetic shift took place internationally
and involved artists associated with kinetic art, new tendency,
Pop Art, Happenings, performance and other genres. In
addition 1 participating in‘9 evenings’ and co-founding
EAT, pop artist Robert Rauschenberg collaborated with Billy
Xaver on several artworks, including Soundings (1967), an
Imeractive electronic environment that responds to sound by
activating splits that become increasingly luminous as the
audience grows louder (se pages 2-3). Carolee Schneemann,
‘one ofthe pioneers of performance art and experimental
cinema, created an interactive electronic environment for het
‘multimedia performance, Snows, which premiered in 1967
(Works, 98) Engineered by EAT, the seats ofthe theatre were
wired so that the audience's response triggered various light
and sound effects. The work of anather artist known primarily
for feminist performance inthe 1960, Barbara Smith's Field
Piece (1968-71) was activated by the movement of viewers
amidst so tinted translucent resin columns, each three
metres tal, which generated changing paterns oflight ane
sound inthe immersive environment, German atst Wolf
Vostel, co-founder of Fusus and a primary progenitor of
Happenings in Europe, proposed using television as an artistic
medium as early 2s 1958. He joined electronic media with
happenings i his 1963 installation, Television Decllage, in
New York and in his renowned spectacle, Electronic D-olfage
Hppening Room (Homage to Dire, tthe Venice Biennale in
1968, Hans Haacke, associated with ZERO in Germany before
he came to the US in 1965, created Photo-Elecrc Viewer
Programmed Coordinate Sytem (1968), which he described
as a responsive, realtime system that merges withthe
‘environment ina relationship thats better understood as
“system” ofinterdependent processes. In Cybemetc
Sculpture (1968), a collaboration between kinetic artist Wen
Ying Tei and engineer Frank. Turner, therate ofthe
straboscopic lighting responds to sound, gving the viewer the
sense that the trembling ofthe rods translates his/her voice
Some ofthe earliest electronic environments emerged from
‘or overlapped with music, sound art and architecture. Perhaps.
the most spectacular ofthese was the Potme Eectroique,
created by architect Le Corbusier in collaboration with
polymath lanis Xenakis and composer Edgard Varese for
the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Word Fir in Brussels. This
gesamtkunstverk, or total work ofa, integrated architecture,
light, lm and sound." For Expo 67 in Montreal, the Czech
pavilion featured the Kinautomat, a form of interactive cinema
invented by Raduz Cincera Tald from two opposing points of
view that were projected side by side, at certain moments of.
dramatic tension the audience was invited to decide in which
direction the narrative path would unfld. The Pepsi Pavilion,
engineered by EAT. forthe 1970 World Fir in Osaka,
incorporated a mirtored dome celing, fog machines,electronic music, 2 programmable fourcolour krypton laser
that generated patterns in response to sound, anda complex
sound system
at enabled one to regulate the movement of
live sound throughout the space. The same year, Russian
collective Ovizhenige (‘Movement’), drawing on ract in
Constructivism and performance, created ther Kinetic rtfcal
Environment for an industrial exibition ia Moscow. Building
‘on prior experiments with cybertheatr’ theorized by founding
interactive installation
member Lev Nusberg, this mass
filled 660 square metres (over 7000 square fet} with
‘multimedia elements including light, sound and film that
could be triggered by various sensors
The 1970 exhibition, ‘Sofware — Information Technology
Its New Meaning fr At also incorporated architectural and
sonic elements in electronic environments. Curated by att
historian Jack Burnham forthe Jewish Museum, it included
‘SEEK’, created by Nicholas Negroponte and the MIT
Architecture Machine Group (1969-70; Works, 185) and Ted
Soler Audio Window Installation (1965-70; Works
102). The former, 3 computercontralle rbotic environment,
could, at leastin theory reconfigure itslfin response tothe
behaviour ofthe gerbils that inhabited i, In Victoria's
installation, solar panels powered ten radios, which were
connected to contact speakers placed on the windows of the
building, turning the Jewish Museum into gant, faintly
sudible sound syste and information outlet, Because the
cs no louder than a whisper and could be heard only
byplacing one's ear vey close to or against a window the
audience was drawn to atively interact with the architectural
body ofthe museum
‘The radio waves transmitting content to Victorias
installation are a form of electromagnetic radiation that,
lie television, satelite and microwave transmissions, were
«driving fore for artist Tom Sherman's Foraday Cage (972)
and Catherine Richard's Curiosity Cobine forthe End ofthe
Milenrium (1995; Works, 2). These habitats, ike the
original described by Bish physicist Michael Faraday in »
1836, shield their inhabitants from the invisible assault of
slectromagnetic radiation, a growing concern given the
proliferation of wireless devices, Conversely, the work of oyce
Hinterdng (Works, 13} and of Radioqualia has employed VLF
(Very Low Frequency) receivers to capture and sony cosmic
nergy allowing usta hear sounds generated billions ofyears
again distant galacies,
Such work builds onthe idess of American composer
Joh Cage, who emphasized the importance of focused
listening tothe ambient sounds of ore's environment, Indeed,
itis hard to overestimate Cage's contribution to electronic art
Not only did he employ electronics for camnposition andin
performance, buthis aesthetic theories advocated their use
to suppor aleatory (chance) methods, indeterminacy and
‘mutability ado emphasize the unique sonic features of
found objects and environments. Inthe tradition of italian
futurist Luigi Russola's 1913 manifesto ‘Art of Noises’, Cage
‘wrote in 1937 tha, the use
‘of nize to make music wll
continue and increase until we
reach a music produced
through the aid of electrical
instrament which will make
available for musical purposes
any andall sounds that ean
be heard»
In 939, Cage composed his first workto use electronic
‘media, moginor Landscape No (Werks, 99), one of five
imaginary landscapes! composed between 1939-52 In this
piece, dampened piano and cymbal were performed along with
‘multiple phonographs that played Radio Corporation of
Ameria (RCA) pure electronic testtones. Imaginary Landscape
No.4 (9st) was scored for twelve radios, each controlled by
two performers. Changes in tuning frequency, amplitude and
tone ofeach radio throughout he composition were
determined by chance, drawing on the tration of Oada
artists, who had been inspite by Stéphane Mallarmeé's 1897
oem Un coup de des jamais abi le hazard (A throw ofthe
dice will never abolish chance). To establish values for variable
parameters, Cage consulted the | Ching, an ancient Chinese
system of knowledge, wherein prophecy is accessed by casting
coins oryarrow-stalks. The piece created an unpredictable
pastoral of sounds, culled from the ethereal environment ofthe aw
and produced on the most commen of
consumer electronic devices. Drawing on Dada traditions of
‘employing found objects as artistic media, Cage's use of radios
conflates electronic devices designed to reproduce sound with
scoustie devices designed to produce music Similarly the use
of sound carried by a given radio Frequency as sonic content
conflates remotely ransmitted sound, static (between
Stations), and the immediacy of ive music performance
Growing out fis enigmatic 433" (1952), piano
composition thathad na notes bu invoked the ambient
sounds ofth
by Cecil Coker for EA's '9
evenings’ used as sound sources, only those sounds which
content, Cage's
Variations Vi (1966), engineered
arein the airatthe moment of performance, picked up via the
communication bands, telephone lines, microphones.” The
performers revealed these ambient sounds by processing
therm witha variety ofhousehold appliances and frequency
generators" Cage's publications and his lectures atthe New
School, New Yor, influenced numerous visual artists, whose
work impacted the histry of electronic arty experimenting,
vith audience participation and interactivity, thus challenging
traditional boundaries between artist, atwork and audience.
‘These include Allan Kaprow, who staged his first happening in
956; George Brecht and Yoko One, members of Fluxus, whose
ceventscores ofthe late 19fos anticipated conceptual art: and
Nam june Pak, a pioneer of video, robotics and other
cronic media.
Pais eal electronic environments include his landmark
1963 exhibition, Exposition of Music Electronic Television at the
Galerie Parnassin Wuppertal, Germany Inspired by Cage's
technique of composing for ‘prepared plana’ (modified by
inserting objets, suchas nuts, bolts or pices of rubber,
lodged!
slterits sound), Pall’ exhibition consisted of four prepared
tween and entwined around the strings in order to
pianos, twelve prepared TV sets, mechanical sound objects
and record and tape installations. Expanding Cage's vision,
Paik intended for his audience to interact with the prepared
of which altered TY
broadcasts and revealed the internal electronic properties of
pianos and televisions, the at
cathode-ay tubes, In one of these, Potipoton TV (1963-6),
an integrated microphone responded to sounds inthe
environment, altering the television's output. When portable
video-recorders became available to consumers in 1965, Paik
vias one ofthe statist t acquire one. In addition this
collaborations with engineer Shuya Abe, with whom he created
‘one ofthe fist video synthesizers, Pak also used closed loop
video systems, in which a video image is fed directly toa
‘monitor without an intervening broadcast network, t0 create
selfcontained electronic environments. ln TV Buddha (1374),
an ironic aggregetion af spirituality, cybernetics and pop
culture a statue of Buddha gazes at his own video image on
a television, which eturns its gazein an endless, mantic
Cybernetics, information theory andthe circularity of
feedback inherent in closed: loop video were at the theoretical
and formal core of many imparant early interactive electronic
environments in the 19608 and 19708. In Espanded Cinema
{1970}, Gane Youngblood documented the challenges posed
by eatyinteractive vdeo installations tothe uni-dectionaliy
cof commercial mea, providing a conter for two-way creative
exchanges, Art istrian Inke Ames has described such ve
use of broadcast media in situatianist terms, a5 form of
détournement, in which the (mis}=ppropriation and
repurposing of conventions praduce shifts in socal
consciousness.” Along these lines, in works lite rs (1968) and
Contact: A Cybemetic Sculpture (3965; Works, 103} by Levine,
and Wipe el (965; Works, 100) by Gillette and Schneider,
video cameras captured various images of viewers, which were
fed back, often with time delays or ather distortions, onto 2
bank of monitors. As Levine noted, leis turns the viewer into
Information... Contacts a system that synthesizes man with
his technology..the people are the software's Schneider
amplified this view of interactive video installation, stating
that, ‘The most important funetion..was to integrate the
audience into the information” Gillette described how Wipe
Cycle was related to satelite communications: you're 35 much
4 plece of information as tomorrow morning's headlines ~ 353
Viewer you take 2 satelite relationship tothe information. And
the satelite which s you is incorporated into the thing which s
being sent backto the satellite!" The 1969 exhibition, TV asCreative Medium’, atthe Howard Wise Galleryin New York,
presented 2 variety of electronic environments, including Wipe
(jel, Palk’sPoticipation TV and performances by Paik and
CChatlotte Moorman of TV Bea for Living Sculpture (see page 4)
‘At the time, these installations offered the public an
unprecedented opportunity to see itslfas the content of
television, to become integrated into the electranie
‘environment of mass median other words, to establish a
unity between subject and objec, viewer and viewed.
Bruce Nauman, who was sceptical af participatory at,
approached closed-loop video italy rom a different angle,
with ano less jarring effect. His Live Taped Video Condor (1970
‘Works, 105) prescient suggested a more haunting and
increasingly ubiquitous aspect ofthis technalogy: surveillance.
Inthis instalation, one walks down a dlaustrophebieally
narrow corridor towards two stacked video monitors, the
bottom ofwhich displays one's video image (captured in real
time from the rear) growing progressively smaller As Dare
Zbikowski has noted, the feling of alienation induced by
walking away from yourselfis heightened by your being
‘enclosed ina narrow corridor. Here, rational orientation and
‘emotional insecurity lash with each other. Aperson thus
‘monitored suddenly slips into the ole of someone monitoring
their... own activities’ Silay, Peter Webel’ Observation of
the Observation: Uncenainty (973; Works, 106), incorporates
juntapositions of thre video cameras and monitors such that
viewers cannot see themselves from the frant-the angle
‘rom which one typically sees oneself, This perceptual prison
restricts selfobservaton tothe oblique angles from which one
's typically seen only by others.
Peter Campus’ Interface (1972; Works, 104) used closed
loop video to turn things on theirhead, metaphorically Setin
darkroom, a vides records from behind apiece of
transparent glass while the image it records projected on the
front- Two images are produced: the viewer's reflection onthe
las and the other unreverse, created by the projector.
Depending on where the observer stands in the piece the
images can appear to look at each othe, be separate or
coverap, invoking feelings of uncertainty and playfulness. Dan
Gaham’s Present Continuous Past() (1974: Works, 196) joins
sed-oop video and mirors with electronic delays in order
to create an endless regression in space and time, Reflecting
‘on Jeremy Bertham’s eighteenth century theories of prison
design, Stein's Al Vision (1976) isan electronic panopticen.
rmeras, set atthe ends ofa crossbar,
Two opposing vide
‘ace a mirtored sphere in the midele, The whole assembly
slowly rotates around the centre axis, Since each camera
‘surveys half ofthe environment refeced in the sphere, the
whole space becomes observable simultaneously fom
changing perspectives on two video monitors
Building onthe sort of aesthetic experiences, both
interactive and self-contained, enabled by closed circuit video
and other media, atsts have used emerging and evolving
technologies to explorea wide range of electronic
environments.
Daniel Roz’
Wooden Miror
(999) incorporates
(of 830 wooden slats.
Each of physiel
pinelsis set ona
‘motorized pivot that theoretically enables 255 greyevels tobe
generated, A video camera hidden inthe centre captures
motion in font ofthe screen, whichis then ‘elected!’ bythe
‘wooden piel, Silty Kelly Heaton’s Reflection Lop (The
Pool (2001) incorporates a 400 pine screen ofeprogrammed
components culled from Furby alls, which, when activated via
video camera, mirror the motion of viewers in their midst
Electricityhas been used by artists as a medium in and of
itselftocreatehighly charged experiences 2s well as more
subtle meditations on the electrical foundations of Me. In
collaboration with Barry Schwartz the Arterial Group created
the ste speci multimedia performance, Eektostatic
Interference (2001; Works, 109), at the Brisbane Powerhouse
“Turbine Mall in Australia, The piece
porated Schwarta's
renowned elecro:pyotechnies, using highwolage current as
a medium to creatlightnng ike effects wherein bolts of
lectricity jumped nervous, snapping and cracking fom one
trode to another. This spectace famed Arterial Group'ssociological analysis ofthe electrical power industy andits
workforce, with special attention to health and environmental
issues, Privately commissioned and permanently instaled
Jn New Zealand, EricOn's Eletrum (1998), created in
collaboration with engineer Greg Leyh, consists ofa 130,000
watt Tesla Coil the largest ofits kind inthe word atthe time.
Born in Croatia, Nikola Tesla, the Serbian inventor and Edison
fival, sought to develop a means forthe wireless transmission
of electricity. Applying Tesla’s theories, Elecrum produces
phenomenal effects as arcing tongues of electricity leap
between the coils, producing loud sonic zaps, and generating,
an energetic eld powerful enough t illuminate fluorescent
lights held by members of the audience. Quietly exploring the
conceptual relationship between electricity networking and
communication, in Vitor Grippo's Analogia | (1970-7)
hundreds of potatoes are wired toa voltmeter that displays the
amount of current generated by this unlikely battery oftubers,
suggesting that ll living things are interconnected and
animated by immaterial energy.
Networks, Surveillance, Culture Jamming
‘The growing interest in creating interactive contests for
esthetic encounters dovetailed withthe increasing
predominance of electronic telecommunications, particularly
radio and television, as arbiters of contemporary cultural and
values This, ofcourse, made such media an important locus
of rtcal artistic exploration The theoretical roots of artists
use oftelecommunications for bi-rectional exchanges may
betraced to German dramaturge Bertolt Srecht's manifesto,
“The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication’ (19325
Documents, 228), which has offered ongoing inspiration to
artists working witha wide range of interactive media.” AS
artist Peter DAgosting has noted, recht sought to change
radio rom its sole function as a distribution medium toa
‘chil of communication [wit] two-way send)receive
capability.» Beecht’s essay proposed that media should
let the isener speak aswell as hear. bring him into
‘eltionship instead of slain him, On ths principe the radio
should step out ofthe supply business and orgoize ts isteners as,
supplies. ust ilow the prime objective of tuning the
uence not only into pupils but int teaches Its the radio's
formal task o give these educatiogal operations on interesting
‘ur, to ensure tho these interests interest peopl, Such on
attempt by the rai opt ts instruction nto an aise form
would link up with the effosof modern atts to pve art an
ingtuctive character
Indeed, many artistic experiments with television, video
and other mass media have been motivated by a Brechtian
desire to wrest the power of representation from the contro}
‘oF corporate media and make it avalabe tothe public. Inthe
ridg70s, Douglas Davis nated that, "Brecht... pointed out
thatthe decision to manufacture radio sets as receivers only
was political decision, not an economic one. The same's.
true oftelevsion itis a conscious (and subconscious)