Information Arts, Intersections of Art, Science and Technology
Stephen Wilson
In Chapter 2, “Biology, Microbiology, Animals and Plants, Ecology, and Medicine and the Body”, the author describes how biology has been a source of attention from artists since the Renaissance. In this chapter, the author describes the areas of biological research in the U.S. through the National Science Foundation. The NSF’s biology department, according to the author, is divided in four areas such as: biological infrastructure, environmental biology, integrative biology and neuroscience, and molecular and cellular bioscience. In addition, the NSF develops different projects such as: human genomic project, biodiversity studies, and microbial research. The author gives special importance to a workshop developed by NSF called “Impact of Emerging Technologies on the Biological Science”, in which the NSF “identified technologies that would shape the future of biological research and ultimately intervention”(p.56). The author summarizes these technologies as: bioinformatics (using a computer for analysis and data), computational biology (use of computers for research purposes), functional imagining of the chemical and molecular dynamics of life (spectroscopy and fluorescence), transformation and transient expression technologies (technology for the research of DNA), nanotechnology (to merge mechanical and biosensors). The author explains that some of these areas represent a good terrain for artistic exploration in biology and the body, although there are limitations imposed by researchers and moral standards in the development of these complex projects (bioethics). However, artists exploring these areas “can serve a useful function by being aware of the full range of research that may be culturally significant in the future”(p.59).
In this section, the author describes research focusing on the senses, and he emphasizes the importance of this scope of research for information technology, with the intention to design computers (sensors) and the possibility of developing software capable of performing these sense processes. This area, according to Wilson, represents a great opportunity for artists to explore; however, the artistic intervention in this area has been limited.
In the section “Theoretical Perspectives on Biology and the Body”, the author states the importance of questioning the established concepts and methodologies in biological research. The cultural theory demands a deep analysis of the ideology of science. He writes, “Deconstruct all aspects of life to understand how text, image, and narrative work to produce and reinforce behavior and ideology”(p.72).
In “Rethinking the Body and Medicine”, the author describes the interest of artists in the body as a subject matter. Later he refers to the text “Making of the Modern Body” in which the authors Catherine Gallagher and Thomas Walter Laqueur analyses the different ways the body has been explored and “represented”(p.79), in different cultural circumstances. One of the authors notes that there are several interpretations of the body depending of the point of view of analysis. The author refers to Michel Foucault as somebody who had great importance in the analysis of the body. The author notes that for Foucault “the body is the ultimate site of political and ideological control, surveillance and regulation”(p.80). And explains that Foucault claims that the body has been the center of the imposition of power.
The author describes how cultural theory analyses different concepts and technologies about the merging between the body and mechanical technology. He presents as an example the human genome as some kind of mechanization and the consequent reactions of the idea of seeing the body as a system able to be scanned or decoded in the computer and with this creating a space of power and control. To illustrate this point, the author refers to Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto” and he writes, “Haraway analyzes science’s fascination with domination and control. With the new technology it is possible to have access to images inside the body” and this, according to Wildon, represents a great opportunity for the artist, and that in the majority of cases, the artists use the same technology that the researchers use. But it is not just important to use the same technology - artists should use the deconstructive process to analyze science and technology’s concepts. Science and technology are defined by culture, and here the author claims that “the more information artists have about the research and its contexts, the more adequately they can respond”(p.88).
In the section “Impact on Cultural Frameworks”, the author explains how scientific research impacts “general cultural discourse”(p.89), and gives an example of the social response to the birth control pill, and how it changed important sexual and social behavior. These social reactions represent a great “advantage of artists”, since “artists are cultural producers”(p.89). In this section the author presents several artists who actually are working with different materials like chromosomes and genes. One of them is Suzanne Anker, who creates installations using chromosomes. In her work “Chromosome Chart of Suzanne Anker”, she works with her DNA to create a representation of herself using the print materials of the chromosomes. Other artists mentioned by the author in this section are Susan Alexjander and Dave Dareamer, who create music using their own DNA. Gail Wight creates work about scientific experiments. Using the same scientific resources, she creates installations, which analyze the social and moral involvements of scientific experiments.
In the section “Bodies, Technology, and Theory”, the author explains that the body has been used by artists in different areas, and, in some cases, the body itself is the principal form of expression, and in other cases it is the principal theme of the expression. Here the author gives us an example of video and film that regularly explore different expressions giving the opportunity to change our perception over “gender and identity”(p149). The author explains how scientific, medical and technological research has converted the body as the center of attention for “cultural discourse and artistic experimentation”(p149). The author refers to the body as something we all know and something we experiment with every day. However, the author explains, many of the characteristics that define us or feelings we perceive are “socially constructed”(p.149).
In the section “Extropian and Post-Human Approaches”, Wilson points out that some groups (Extropian and Post-Human) believe that we should be experimenting more and using the results of scientific and technological research, for example plastic surgery, artificial implantations, etc. However, the author warns us that there are other sectors of this movement that we need to be careful of in the use of new technology. The author points out that “for artists, the impact of the technologies on identity and concepts of self are of prime concern”(p.156).
In the section “Artist’s Experiments with Technological Stimulation”, the authors describe a great number of artists investigating through technology the body and its cultural discourse. In the first place the author points out an Australian artist, Stella, who merges the body and technology to play with the idea of the “post-human”, the super-powerful human, and the decadence of the human body.
Marcel Attunes Roca uses the computer as a tool to manipulate his face and other parts of the body - with the help of an audience - to control his pain or pleasure. He has several projects, among them one named Phantom Body, which examines the idea of missing organs.
Stahl Stenslie and Kirk Woolford, are exploring different functions of the body in “contemporary culture”(p.164). In the cyberSM project they use a special suit with sensors that the audience can manipulate to simulate touch. Another artist working with the same technology, and with interest in exploring the body are: Knut Mork, Kate Pendry, Stahl Stenslie, and Marius Watz. One of their projects consisted of wearing a bodysuit with sixteen sensors in different parts, and the user of the suit has, then, the feeling of being touched, and with the use of goggles the user can see virtual images representing the people they are touching.
Orlan is a French artist using plastic surgery as a medium to explore identity, as well as to show the relationship between the inside and outside.
In the section of “Body Modification”, the author mentions other artists like: Fakir Musafar, who bases his work on the idea that our body is ours, and rejects the imposition and control of the” Judeo-Christian body programming and emotional conditioning”(p.176). He believes that technology has been a determining factor for the body modification movement.
Between other artists included in this section are: Peras Kaul, working with “ 3-d words that are navigated by brainwaves”(p.182). David Rosenboom, working with nerves and music. Catherine Richards works with different technology, and the artist explores parts of the body, and at the same time challenges the possibilities of the technology.
In the section “The Psychological Processes of Perception, Cognition, Appreciation, and Creativity”, the author refers to artists working on different functions like Masayuki Towata and Yasuaki Matsumoto, who are interested in exploring senses. Paul Vanouse, through his project “A Corpus of Knowledge on the Rationalized Subject”, uses a bar-code reader, and invites people to scan parts of the body of a live model, localizing internal organs.
In the last part of this chapter, the author makes a brief review of other artists working with 3-D technologies, the concept of death, and the use of MRI and PET.
