New Visions and New Technologies in the Art of the Next Millennium.
Abstract:
New technologies offer new visions, but do they make a difference or do they just make things
different? Awareness of this distinction is essential in preparing for the next millennium.
At the beginning of this millennium, artists incorporated new media inventions into their perceptual
awareness of art. The invention of pictorial perspective revolutionized the way we see the cosmos and our
human relationship to it. The invention of photography in the 18th century offered an even different cosmology.
Painters dared to break with Renaissance reality. In the hands of an artist, the photograph, became another way
of creating images for inner/outer reflection. MuybridgeÕs experiments in motion and the invention of film
opened up even greater possibilities. The artist no longer had to rely on the implied motion of the still canvas/sculpture.
Literal motion could be speeded up or slowed down revealing nuances never before seen. As media technologies
advanced, artists continued to use them as tools of expression. Animated images, projections, live action
film and video appeared in the gallery setting. Today the technological skills that once separated different
media are now merging into a common digital format, the computer. Artists are exploring the new perspectives
offered by the digital computer. Yet no tool is neutral. It carries imbedded within it unique symbol systems
that profoundly affect our perceptions of reality. (Postman, 1992)
At the beginning of the millennium new technology might take centuries to pervade society as a whole.
When our century started, it was taking decades. Now technology is in constant flux and its impact is
even more immediate. To prepare art students, artists, and the gallery audience, for the technologies used
in the art of the next millennium, new courses of study need to be developed. Research indicates a need
for a knowledge base which transfers regardless of technological changes. This knowledge base should not just
include technological skills but how technology impacts society and the world of ideas. Specific content
involves discourse in symbol systems, cognitive psychology, media theories, and theories of visual design
(Barnhurst, 1991) The following are examples of how this course of study can be implemented.
Making the Invisible Known
The biological tools of a living organism whether the beak of a heron, or the long neck of a giraffe,
adapt that animal to its very specific kind of environment. A drastically different environment would
lead it to extinction. On the other hand the tools invented by the human animal create new environments,
new visions, new cosmologies which are attached psychologically rather than biologically (Hall, 1976).
Language is one of our most powerful tools of thought and communication. A totally different and equally
valid cosmology can be determined upon whether our language emphasizes nouns and objects, as in Western
European languages, or emphasizes verbs and internal processes, as in Native American language.
(Whorf, 1968). Western European thought concentrates on a universe. Native Americans see a multiverse
(Highwater, 1982). Marshall McLuhan's statement, "the medium is the message," revealed that within the
organizational structure of any medium is a hidden message that assumes a particular reality. Media technology
shapes our basic assumptions of human association as well as extends our perception of the world. (McLuhan, 1964).
What is the hidden message within the organizational structure of a particular technology? This is
the most important question to ask when dealing with any human invention. If we are unaware of how a
medium or technology constructs reality, we are in danger of mistaking the technology for the
perception it is extending and no longer see it as a lens or device which allows a unique view
point (Hall, 1976). Ted Nelson who coined the phrase, "hypertext," conceived this technology for
the sociological purpose of human freedom, the freedom to overview and understand. He also felt that
in order to achieve this human purpose of freedom, the interconnective structure of the information
system should be revealed. Yet many hypertext programs being designed today do not adhere to this
philosophy. Just as the Hollywood film engages the consumer in an illusion of reality that makes
the camera invisible, so are we in the process of designing information environments where the
computer/machine is obscured into transparency (Ulmer, 1992). In his epigraph for Literary Machines,
Ted Nelson cites Annie Dillard: "Whenever a work's structure is intentionally one of its own themes,
another of its themes is art." One of the purposes of using technology in the arts is to take us
beyond the obvious and make the invisible known. By making a medium strange, the artist exposes
the invisible seams of the technologiesÕ inner structure.
Understanding Symbol Systems
Nelson Goodman proposed:
...."There is no one way that things really look, or any
one way that the world really is; rather the world is as many ways as can be accurately described.
In other words the fidelity of a symbol system depends upon the accuracy of the information about
the world that can be obtained from knowing how to use and understand the system"
....(Gardner, Howard, & Perkins, 1974, p35)
There are three aspects of a symbol system: (a) syntax,
(b) semantics, and (c) pragmatics. Syntax is the rules of organization.
Semantics involves a symbol's meaning. Pragmatics is the purpose or context in which symbols
are used. Understanding the underlying symbol systems inherent in a technology can assist the artist
in using the technology for a different purpose, challenging its organizational rules, or creating new
meanings in new contexts.
Linear and Nonlinear symbol Systems.
According to McLuhan, print is a linear medium and film/video is nonlinear (McLuhan, 1964).
"Nonlinear" refers to the symbol system not to be confused with the technology of "nonlinear"
digital editing equipment. Prior to the invention of the printing press, writing in Medieval
times built a mosaic of collaborating points of view. Gutenbergs printing press coincided with the
invention of linear perspective in the Renaissance. Over the next 500 years the two ideas combined along
with an emphasis on logic and reasoning. The printed book brought concepts of authorship, original work,
individualism, and the fixed point of view. Events in print are experienced sequentially. In printed
dialogue one must first read the speakerÕs voice before getting the reaction of the listener. In a
film/video you can hear the speaker, see the listener's reaction, plus experience sound effects and music
for emphasis. As a visual medium film/video is information rich. It orchestrates several ideas into
simultaneous wholes. The cause and effect chain of events in the "Mechanical Universe" gives way to a
web of interconnected events similar to an "eco system." Hypertext actually brings us full circle to
building a mosaic of collaborating views.The difference is the merging of the video/film technology
within the computer format. Words are no longer restrained to linear sequence. Visual images with
sound and motion create integrated whole patterns. Like the sound bites of the video medium, hypertext
has produced the use of text bites.
Animated Motion as a Symbol System.
By using a camera or computer, animation brings to life and motion that which is normally
motionless. This can be drawings, photographs, objects, cutouts, sand, paint, clay, and anything
else the artist can think of. This also includes manipulating time (slowing down or speeding up)
to accomplish normally impossible movement or perceptual conditions. Animation is an art form
that combines visual symbols with the symbols of motion and time.
The problem of time and motion was studied even by the ancient Greek philosophers. One philosopher,
Zeno, could have demonstrated his theory, the "Paradox of Motion," with an animated film if he
had access to the technology. He saw motion as basically an infinite number of frozen positions
in space. Using logic he proved that motion is impossible and only an illusion. He asserted that
an object can only move where it is or where it is not. It canÕt move where it is because it's at rest.
Since a thing doesnÕt exist where it is not, it canÕt move there either. So motion is an illusion. (Zettl, 1990).
In 1912 the first paper written by Max Werthiemer on Gestalt Psychology dealt with the perception
of motion as seen in the "Zoetrope," a simple animation machine. The perception of the whole
(movement) is different from our perception of its component (static images). Thus, "the whole is
greater than the sum of it's parts." Gestalt psychology is the basis for the organizing principles of
visual design.
Approaches to Using Technology in the Fine Arts
Technological changes are now so rapid it is important to review what we have learned from
former technologies before we embrace the new emerging ones. It was only in the 1960Õs when
the first video port-a-pack was invented. This gives us an opportunity to reflect on how artists
approach an invention when it is brand new on the market. Video the New Wave by Electronic Arts
Intermix demonstrates four approaches to the new video medium used by artists : (a) as social commentary,
(b) as documentation of concept art and happenings popular in the art of the time, (c ) as explorations
of the symbolic attributes unique to the medium, (d) as optical illusions and manipulation of electronic
imagery reflecting the "op art" of the time. TV-TV turns the video camera on mainstream television during
the Democratic Convention. Peter Campus uses the mediumÕs unique ability for instantaneous feedback to create
reflective illusions. Nam June Paik combines live action footage with special effects and performance.
It was the electronic manipulations of the video medium which ultimately resulted in the advances in graphic
computers, (Brown, 1993).
Summery
New courses that prepare artists, students, and the general public for the technology use in the arts
involves a knowledge base that transfers regardless of technological change. Understanding media
theory and cognitive psychology enable artists to expose the inner structure of the technology.
Awareness of the impact of technology on society allow artists to use it for social commentary.
Symbol systems theory inform artists of the symbolic attributes unique to each technology creating
new meanings in new contexts. With such preparations the philosophical tradition of the artist on the
cutting edge of understanding the technological, sociological, and ideological implications of their
age will continue on into the next millennium.
Paper presented at Southeastern colleges of Art Conference on October 28, 1999.
EPhilpot