Kiosque
Livres 3
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S. Anker and D. Nelkin
The molecular gaze: art in the genetic age
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. 2004
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M. Whitelaw
Metacreation
Art and artificial life
MIT Press. 2004
Artificial life, or a-life, is an interdisciplinary science focused on artificial systems that mimic the properties of living systems. In the 1990s, new media artists began appropriating and adapting the techniques of a-life science to create a-life art; Mitchell Whitelaw's Metacreation is the first detailed critical account of this new field of creative practice.
A-life art responds to the increasing technologization of living matter by creating works that seem to mutate, evolve, and respond with a life of their own. Pursuing a-life's promise of emergence, these artists produce not only artworks, but generative and creative processes: here creation becomes metacreation.
Whitelaw presents a-life art practice through four of its characteristic techniques and tendencies. "Breeders" use artificial evolution to generate images and forms, in the process altering the artist's creative agency. "Cybernatures" form complex, interactive systems, drawing the audience into artificial ecosystems. Other artists work in "Hardware," adapting Rodney Brooks's "bottom-up" robotics to create embodied autonomous agencies. The "Abstract Machines" of a-life art de-emphasize the biological analogy, using techniques such as cellular automata to investigate pattern, form and morphogenesis.
In the book's concluding chapters, Whitelaw surveys the theoretical discourses around a-life art, before finally examining emergence, a concept central to a-life, and key, it is argued, to a-life art.
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R. Burnett
How images think
MIT Press. 2004
Digital images are an integral part of all media, including television, film, photography, animation, video games, data visualization, and the Internet. In the digital world, spectators become navigators wending their way through a variety of interactive experiences, and images become spaces of visualization with more and more intelligence programmed into the very fabric of communication processes. In How Images Think, Ron Burnett explores this new ecology, which has transformed the relationships humans have with the image-based technologies they have created. So much intelligence has been programmed into these image-dependent technologies that it often seems as if images are "thinking"; ascribing thought to machines redefines our relationship with them and enlarges our ideas about body and mind. Burnett argues that the development of this new, closely interdependent relationship marks a turning point in our understanding of the connections between humans and machines.
After presenting an overview of visual perception, Burnett examines the interactive modes of new technologies -- including computer games, virtual reality, digital photography, and film -- and locates digital images in a historical context. He argues that virtual images occupy a "middle space," combining the virtual and the real into an environment of visualization that blurs the distinctions between subject and object -- part of a continuum of experiences generated by creative choices by viewers, the results of which cannot be attributed either to images or to participants.
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W Lefèvre, ed.
Picturing machines
1400-1700
MIT Press. 2004
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Picturing Machines 1400-1700
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G. Didi-Huberman
L. Mannoni
Mouvements de l’air
Etienne Jules Marey, photographe des fluides
Gallimard
Réunion des Musées Nationaux
2004
Catalogue de l’exposition du Musée d’Orsay avec toutes les images des fumées de Marey. Singulières images qui proviennent d’une fascination pour le mouvement, propre à Marey, sans être accompagnées d’une analyse scientifique. Situation surprenante si l’on pense que ces images sont contemporaines de la ‘Théorie des tourbillons’ d’Henri Poincaré et des ‘Recherches sur l’hydrodynamique’ de Pierre Duhem. Plus surprenant encore si l’on rappelle que Marey côtoyait à l’Académie des Sciences l’un des plus grands hydrodynamiciens de son temps Joseph Boussinesq (1842-1929). Que dire encore si l’on comprend que les volutes de fumée prennent l’aspect tourbillonnaire de par l’agitation des molécules d’air et que quelques années plus tard seulement Albert Einstein et Jean Perrin vont montrer que l’analyse du mouvement brownien permet d’affirmer l’existence des molécules. La plus grande révolution scientifique des temps modernes. Derrière les volutes de fumée se cache une des réalités les plus importantes de notre univers. Des images phénoménologiques à la Marey sur les formes fluides seront popularisées par Theodor Schwenk (1910-1986) dans son livre : ‘Le chaos sensible. Création de formes par le mouvement de l’air et de l’eau’ (1962 ), qui sera un livre de chevet de bien des mathématiciens engagés dans l’étude du ‘chaos déterministe’.
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Gallimard
2004
Pour mieux comprendre le sens des nouvelles images numériques ou scientifiques.
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C. Maar, H. Burda, Hrsg.
DuMont. Köln.
2004
Une anthologie
D.K. Washburn and D.W. Crowe, eds
Symmetry Comes of Age: The Role of Pattern in Culture
University of Washington Press, Seattle
2004
Reviewed by Rob Harle (Australia)
This book is a companion volume to Symmetries of Culture: Theory and Practice of Plane Pattern Analysis by the same authors. Washburn and Crowe with colleagues from varied disciplines applied the method of ‘symmetry analysis’ to actual case studies from a number of disparate cultures. The essays in this book discuss their rather remarkable findings. It "is dedicated to a discussion of the application of the principles of geometric symmetry to the study of decorated artifacts, and to the exposition of cultural insights gained from such study" (p. 3).
Symmetry analysis is an academic process or tool used to explain how artworks reflect patterns of human behaviour and fundamental values. It is especially useful in analysing symmetrical designs belonging to tribal, folk, and ancient cultures. It is not difficult to see why this book won the George Wittenborn book award as it is an extremely well researched scholarly investigation and is highly readable as well.
The book is well illustrated with black and white photographs and drawings, together with a sprinkling of colour photographs. There is a List of Contributors, a good Index, a fascinating Introduction by Washburn and Crowe, and ten chapters that, for the most part, cover a specific case study.
The Introduction stresses just how important pattern and symmetrical design are in virtually all cultures and how specific designs characterize individual cultures, yet some elements and motifs are found in the works of other societies which are isolated from each other geographically.
Chapter One––explains the technical aspects of pattern analysis and that this analysis deals with plane symmetries and how variation occurs within the confinements of such a plane.
Two––looks at periodic ornamentation and how it is expressed in Peruvian fabrics.
Three––explains how symmetry is created on a weaving loom with a detailed discussion of the way a four-shaft loom produces this symmetry.
Four––investigates the interplay between cultural values and mathematical-technical possibilities using woven mats by the Yombe women of the Lower Congo as a case study.
Five––looks at the interaction of colour and pattern in Zulu beadwork and how this represents continuity and change.
Six––discusses the embroideries of the Nasca in Peru from the perspective of symmetry as animator, classifier, and syntax.
Seven––investigates how the Andean weavers explore the structure of the world through woven cloth.
Eight––delves into the Ica-Inca interactions through analysis of the Ica Valley ceramics.
Nine––looks at the role of symmetry in Shamanic Therapy in the Upper Amazon.
The last chapter discusses cognitive structures and body metaphors in the aesthetic and everyday discourse of Turkish-Yörük Weavers.
Whilst this last chapter, concerning Turkish nomadic weavers, does mention Islamic religious influences, I think it does so all too briefly. In fact, if I have any criticism of this book, it is that it does not adequately deal with religious influences on symmetrical pattern design. Islamic culture and art is especially relevant here as its restriction to non-figurative representation has developed abstract symmetrical pattern design to an extraordinarily high level. Also, the mandalas of Tibet are complex and wonderful examples of symmetrical pattern that represent this cultures’ spiritual belief system. Perhaps a third volume could address this specific issue in more detail?
To be fair, the book does not make any claims regarding comprehensive representation of all cultures. This approach would result in an impossibly large volume or, alternatively, allow only a very superficial discussion of each culture. As the editors remark, "Readers will now have a broad range of studies of cultural symmetries to draw upon as clues and guideposts for the development of models [my emphasis] of past cultural principles and practices" (p. xiv). Possibly the most profound contribution Symmetry Comes of Age: The Role of Pattern in Culture makes, is as a reference work for future scholars to use in further analyses of those cultures not already discussed.
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F.C. Rose
Neurology and the arts
Painting, Music, Literature
Imperial College Press.
2004
D. Zaidel
Neuropsychology of art
Neurological, Cognitive and Evolutionary Perspectives
Imperial College Press.
2005
K.M. Heilman
Creativity and the Brain
Psychology Press
2005
L. Poissant et E. Daubner, eds.
Art et biotechnologies
Presses de l’Université du Québec
2005
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M. Emmer, ed.
The visual mind II
MIT Press.
2005
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L’oeil moteur
Art optique et cinétique
1950-1975
Catalogue d’exposition
Editions des Musées de Strasbourg
2005
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L'ŒIL MOTEUR
L’ŒIL-MOTEUR Catalogue |
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Lumière-Couleur
Dialogues entre art et science
Catalogue d’exposition
Cloître des Cordeliers. Paris
C2RMF. Paris. 2005
J. LAFAIT, M. MENU et J.P. MOHEN. La couleur, la lumière. Brève rencontre entre arts et sciences. L’entretien infini.
S. BERTHIER, G. DUPUIS, J. LAFAIT et M. MENU.
Qu’est ce que la couleur ?
La physique et les couleurs structurales.
Techniques d’analyse physico chimique appliquées aux objets du patrimoine culturel.
P. WALTER et A. ROUVERET. La redécouverte d’une palette antique : les stèles peintes d’Alexandrie.
M. AUCOUTURIER………La polychromie métallique, un héritage antique : l’encrier romain de Vaison la romaine.
W. WHITNEY et B. DEVOLDER. Reconstitution de “La Bannière des lépreux”.
L. SIMONOT. La Renaissance de la couleur : les glacis flamands expliqués par l’optique.
M. AUCOUTURIER…… Les lustres : antiques reflets d’une collaboration artistique et scientifique.
S. COLINART. Une alternative à la peinture : un triptyque en mosaïque de plumes.
B. LAVEDRINE et J.P. GANDOLFO. L’autochrome :la couleur restituée.
S. BERTHIER. Les couleurs iridescentes des Morphos.
L. SIMONOT et G. AYATS. La couleur entre lumière et ombre.
M. PAYSANT et T. BOREL. Projet Skp-tra.
Œuvres contemporaines. F. MORELLET. Y. TOMA. L. SAKSIK.
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J.P. Changeux, ed.
La lumière
au siècle des Lumières et aujourd’hui
Art et Science
Catalogue de l’exposition
La lumière au siècle des Lumières et aujourd’hui.
Art et science : de la biologie de la vision à une nouvelle conception du monde.
Nancy.
Odile Jacob. Paris. 2005
Préface
D. ROCHE. Science, lumières et société.
Introduction
J.P. CHANGEUX. De la science de la lumière à une nouvelle conception du monde.
La peinture lorraine
B. CHAVANNE. La lumière dans la peinture lorraine des XVII° et XVIII° siècles.
La théorie de newton sur la lumière
M. BLAY. Lumière et couleurs newtoniennes.
J.P. LUMINET. Newton et l’astronomie au siècle des Lumières.
L’œil et le cerveau
M. IMBERT. Le visible et la vue de l’Antiquité au Moyen Age.
P. BUISSERET. Les Lumières, une vision artistique de l’anatomie.
S. SCHMITT. « L’infiniment petit », Buffon et les origines de la biologie.
P. BUISSERET. Electricité nerveuse, histoire d’une torpille.
P. BUISSERET. Les Lumières, les drogues et la société.
L’optique et la perception visuelle
S. SCHMITT. L’optique de Descartes à Newton.
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F. Vannucci
Marcel Proust à la recherche des sciences
Editions du Rocher. 2005
Marcel Proust avait-il une culture scientifique ?
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Sous la direction de
Mario Borillo
APPROCHES COGNITIVES
DE LA
CRÉATION ARTISTIQUE
MARDAGA Editeur
Bruxelles, 2005
Montrer comment l'interrogation scientifique commence à pénétrer certains des processus mentaux, des activités sensori-motrices, qui sont au cœur de la conception et de la production de l'œuvre d'art - et aussi , sous d'autres formes, de sa jouissance - tel est le propos de cet ouvrage.
Bien entendu, une telle ambition procède du développement des sciences de la cognition dont elle est inséparable. Celles-ci associent dans un vaste projet transdisciplinaire l'observation des diverses modalités par lesquelles se manifeste l'activité cognitive - de son substrat neurologique à ses manifestations comportementales et langagières. Du point de vue théorique, ces recherches s'inscrivent dans un cadre formel de nature logique, mathématique et computationnelle, qui articule ces différents domaines empiriques, en donnant leur cohérence conceptuelle et leur pleine signification aux données observationnelles.
Se tournant vers la sphère de l'art, la recherche cognitive dessine une mosaïque de problèmes philosophiques et scientifiques inédits qui va des processus neuropsychologiques propres à la perception de l'œuvre d'art jusqu'à l'émergence de la signification dans les systèmes symboliques qui la construisent, en passant par les diverses modalités sociétales qui entrent dans la formation de la sensibilité, de l'émotion et de la culture. Quel est le rôle de tel constituant biologique ou symbolique de notre système cognitif dans la création et/ou la jouissance de l'œuvre d'art? Comment l'isoler? Comment le décrire? Comment se compose-t-il éventuellement avec d'autres constituants dans la réalisation ou la contemplation de l'oeuvre? Quelles sont les relations/interactions entre esthétique, signification et émotion? … Autant de questions délicates aujourd'hui ouvertes.
Sur un front aussi large d'interrogations et de savoirs émergents, le propos de ce livre est de donner la plus grande intelligibilité à la rigueur de la démarche scientifique et philosophique. Une ouverture sur de nouveaux territoires pour l'esprit.
SOMMAIRE
Mario Borillo: Pour entrer dans ce livre…
Partie I
Balises pour un territoire émergent
Pierre Livet : Les émotions esthétiques
Jacques Morizot : Invention plastique et modes de symbolisation
Nicolas Bullot, Roberto Casati, Jérôme Dokic, Pascal Ludwig : Art et cognition : deux théories
Henri Prade : Monde (s) et représentation (s)
Jacques Leenhardt : Modalités de prise en charge du cognitif dans l'art. Chemins que cela esquisse pour une recherche des sciences de la cognition sur l'expérience esthétique.
Catherine Gadon: Une culture à la confluence des représentations artistiques et scientifiques. Quelques pas à l'Université Paul-Sabatier
Partie II
Explorations cognitives de processus créatifs
Bernard Thon et Marielle Cadopi : Penser le mouvement
Kitsou Dubois : Relation entre l’espace du corps en apesanteur et sur terre : quelle représentation du mouvement ?
Philippe Joly: Propositions pour la description automatique des mouvements du corps humain
Sandrine Vieillard, Stephen McAdams, Emmanuel Bigand et Roger Reynolds : Création et perception d'une œuvre de musique contemporaine:" The Angel of Death" de Roger Reynolds
André Holley : Sur la création de formes olfactives
Mario Borillo, Jean-Pierre Goulette: Le langage, l'architecte et l'automate. Du "Vocabulaire de l'Architecture" au calcul des processus créatifs
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R. Pouivet
Le réalisme esthétique
PUF. Paris. 2006
Les réalistes en métaphysique, qui soutiennent qu’il existe un monde indépendant de nous que nous pouvons connaître, ne s’intéressent généralement pas aux conséquences d’une telle thèse pour l’esthétique, domaine jugé sans doute trop périphérique pour mériter leur attention. Les réalistes en esthétique, qui pensent que les propriétés esthétiques sont réelles et qu’il est possible de les attribuer correctement aux choses, notamment aux œuvres d’art, se limitent la plupart du temps à une ontologie des propriétés esthétiques et à une épistémologie du jugement esthétique : ils peuvent dès lors laisser l’impression trompeuse que l’esthétique est un domaine métaphysique à part, déconnecté du reste de la réalité. C’est un des grands mérites du livre de Roger Pouivet que d’inscrire sa défense du réalisme esthétique dans le cadre plus large du réalisme métaphysique et d’en fournir l’épistémologie complète – en l’occurrence une épistémologie des vertus. Sa thèse est la suivante : notre appréhension des propriétés esthétiques témoigne de notre capacité plus générale d’appréhender les choses telles qu’elles sont, cette capacité étant elle-même garantie par l’exercice des dispositions typiquement humaines que sont les vertus épistémiques, morales ou encore esthétiques. Le réalisme esthétique ne doit donc pas un être lu comme un simple livre d’esthétique ou de philosophie de l’art, mais bien comme un livre de métaphysique, d’épistémologie et d’esthétique, exprimant une vision d’ensemble de la réalité et de la nature humaine.
Dans la lignée d’Aristote, de Thomas d’Aquin, de T. Reid et en s’appuyant sur une lecture de Wittgenstein inspirée par le thomisme analytique, l’auteur expose dans le premier chapitre une métaphysique du sens commun : celle-ci consiste à défendre l’idée que le monde existe indépendamment de nous et que la connaissance que nous pouvons en avoir n’est pas difficile. Une métaphysique du sens commun est particulariste : elle part du constat de croyances irrésistibles qui ne peuvent être justifiées ni fondées, à moins de sombrer dans une circularité vicieuse, et qui témoignent d’une forme d’harmonie entre le monde tel qu’il est et l’esprit humain. Le particularisme s’oppose au méthodisme en métaphysique : selon cette conception, issue principalement de la philosophie cartésienne, nous devons d’abord nous doter d’un critère de connaissance avant d’accepter comme justifiée n’importe quelle croyance. Comme le montre ce chapitre avec clarté, non seulement le méthodisme conduit à des absurdités, mais il mène également tout droit au scepticisme et à l’anti-réalisme métaphysique, c’est-à-dire à l’idée que le monde n’est que le produit de nos représentations. Contre le représentationalisme généralement associé au méthodisme, autrement dit contre l’idée que notre accès au monde est médiatisé (et menacé) par nos représentations ou autres états mentaux, l’auteur défend un réalisme direct, c’est-à-dire le principe thomistico-aristotélicien de l’identité du connu et du connaissant. Bien loin d’être une position naïve, le réalisme direct explique l’existence de croyances irrésistibles et impose l’idée que la connaissance rationnelle du monde tel qu’il est, est le mode d’être spécifique de l’humain.
Le deuxième chapitre du livre est consacré à la défense d’une épistémologie des vertus, telle qu’elle a été développée depuis quelques années par des philosophes comme E. Sosa, J. Greco ou L. Zagzebski, dans le but de répondre aux difficultés d’une conception déontologique ou seulement fiabiliste de la connaissance justifiée. Soit, nous serions faits pour connaître les choses telles qu’elles sont. Mais que devons-nous faire pour étendre notre connaissance au-delà de nos croyances irrésistibles ? Selon une conception déontologique, nous ne devons croire que ce qu’il est permis de croire, autrement dit nous avons besoin de normes a priori capables de justifier les croyances que nous aurions alors le droit d’entretenir. Selon le fiabilisme, nos croyances sont garanties, et non justifiées, dans la mesure où elles sont causées par un processus normal d’acquisition, c’est-à-dire quand nos facultés fonctionnent correctement dans un environnement approprié. L’avantage de cette naturalisation de l’épistémologie est qu’elle fait de la connaissance un processus naturel et non plus un exercice mystérieux exigeant l’étrange gymnastique déontologique de l’examen réflexif de nos états mentaux. Le problème est qu’elle ne rend pas compte de la dimension normative de la connaissance. L’auteur montre alors la supériorité d’une épistémologie des vertus, capable de rendre compte de la connaissance en termes de nature et de normativité : la garantie de la connaissance provient de l’exercice des vertus intellectuelles comme dispositions acquises à développer notre nature rationnelle spécifique. Dans la suite de ce chapitre, l’auteur développe minutieusement le rapport entre vertus intellectuelles et vertus morales, et montre également, suivant en cela Aristote, que les vertus peuvent être identifiées à des émotions appropriées, rejetant par là même le clivage traditionnel entre émotion et connaissance. Ce qui pourrait n’apparaître que comme un long détour, est en fait le cadre métaphysique et épistémologique indispensable pour que le réalisme esthétique, qui occupe les deux derniers chapitres du livre, puisse être pleinement défendu.
Dans L’ontologie de l’oeuvre d’art (2000), R. Pouivet avait déjà jeté les bases d’une défense du réalisme esthétique. Ici, il ne se contente pas d’une simple reprise argumentative, mais développe une défense nouvelle (et originale, si l’on en juge par les stratégies habituellement développées par les réalistes esthétiques). En utilisant les analyses de T. Reid, il tente en effet de montrer que l’anti-réalisme esthétique, que ce soit sous la forme du subjectivisme ou du relativisme, est contraire au sens commun et à notre pratique linguistique effective. L’affirmation peut paraître surprenante et même contre-intuitive dès que l’on considère le caractère banal aujourd’hui de l’idée selon laquelle les énoncés esthétiques n’ont pas de véritables conditions de vérité : ils ne feraient en effet qu’exprimer les états du sujet de l’expérience esthétique. Pourtant, les arguments sont très convaincants et laissent penser que le « bon sens » anti-réaliste n’est peut-être qu’un sens commun corrompu par une métaphysique représentationaliste dont il a été montré qu’elle n’était pas inévitable. Cependant, l’auteur ne se contente pas de cette défense « en creux » du réalisme esthétique : la fin du troisième chapitre expose de manière positive la nature des propriétés esthétiques, expliquant notamment la possibilité pour une propriété d’être à la fois extrinsèque et réelle.
Le quatrième et dernier chapitre est consacré à l’idée de vertus esthétiques : il discute la possibilité d’émotions appropriées nous permettant d’appréhender les propriétés esthétiques réelles des choses et jouant donc un rôle fondamental dans la compréhension et l'appréciation des œuvres d’art. Même s’il n’en est pas directement question, on a là les bases métaphysiques et épistémologiques de toute théorie objectiviste de l’interprétation des œuvres et la critique d’art y trouverait sa meilleure légitimation. Enfin, dans la mesure où l’émotion est évaluative et conative, il est inévitable de s’interroger sur le rapport entre émotion esthétique et moralité : rejetant toute théorie causale brouillant la frontière entre fiction et réalité, l’auteur suggère cependant que si les fictions peuvent jouer un rôle bénéfique dans l’acquisition des vertus et donc dans le développement de notre nature spécifique, on ne doit pas non plus négliger leur impact négatif pour notre vie morale – ce qui est bien une façon de prendre l’art au sérieux
Sébastien Réhault
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C. Martindale, P. Locher and V. Petrov, eds.
Evolutionary and neurocognitive approaches to aesthetics, creativity and the arts
Baywood. 2006
You can read the Preface for free right now, just click here.
In this book, well-known scholars describe new and exciting approaches to aesthetics, creativity, and psychology of the arts, approaching these topics from a point of view that is biological or related to biology and answering new questions with new methods and theories. All known societies produce and enjoy arts such as literature, music, and visual decoration or depiction. Judging from prehistoric archaeological evidence, this arose very early in human development. Furthermore, Darwin was explicit in attributing aesthetic sensitivity to lower animals. These considerations lead us to wonder whether the arts might not be evolutionarily based. Although such an evolutionary basis is not obvious on the face of it, the idea has recently elicited considerable attention. The book begins with a consideration of ten theories on the evolutionary function of the arts, and this is followed by several chapters that consider the possible evolutionary function of specific arts such as music and literature. The theory of evolution was first drawn up in biology, but evolution is not confined to biology: genuinely evolutionary theories of sociocultural change can be formulated. That they need to be formulated is shown in several chapters that discuss regular trends in literature and scientific writings. Psychologists have recently rediscovered the obvious fact that thought and perception occur in the brain, so cognitive science moves ever closer to neuroscience. Several chapters give overviews of neurocognitive and neural network approaches to creativity and aesthetic appreciation. The book concludes with two exciting chapters describing brain-scan research on what happens in the brain during creativity and presenting a close examination of the relationship between genetically transmitted mental disorder and creativity.
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P. Locher, C.Martindale and L. Dorfman, eds.
New directions in aesthetics, creativity and the arts
Baywood. 2006
You can read the Preface for free right now, just click here.
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The contributing authors to this book, all preeminent scholars in their fields, present their current thinking about the processes that underlie creativity and aesthetic experience. They discuss established theory and research, and provide creative speculation on future problems for inquiry and new approaches to conceptualizing and investigating these phenomena. The book contains many new findings and ideas, never before published or new by virtue of the novel context in which they are incorporated. Thus, the chapters present both new approaches to old problems and new ideas and approaches not yet explored by leading scholars in these fields. |
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Tony Robbin
Shadows of Reality: The Fourth Dimension in Relativity, Cubism, and Modern Thought
Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2006
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Eduardo Kac, Editor
Signs of Life: Bio Art and Beyond
The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2006
Signs of Life: Bio Art and Beyond combines the examination of timely issues with a scholarly research that is simultaneously prospective and retrospective. Carefully edited, rigorous, yet comprehensive and instigating, the book addresses a wide-range of pressing artistic, philosophical, ethical, and cultural issues related to the biotech revolution. It helps fulfill a central need for reflection on new directions for contemporary art, on what it means to be human in an age that questions the very notion of species, on the continuum between humans and non-humans, and on our ever-changing relationship to nature.
In addition to key contributions to the field of bio art, the book also expands the historiography of contemporary art by examining the usually unexplored connections between biology and modernity as well as biology and visual culture. Organized in four parts—Biotech Culture; Bioethics; Bio Art; and Biology and Art History—the book opens with an exceptional introduction by Eduardo Kac titled “Art That Looks You in the Eye,” which sets the tone, the depth and breadth of the research that defines this volume—from ethical issues related to the manipulation of life to human reproductive technologies, evolution, and the symbolic imaginary of hybrid beings and chimeras.
Part one, titled “Biotech Culture” includes contributions by Eugene Thacker, who explores the connection between computer science and biology through open source DNA and bioinformatics bodies. The chapter by Gunalan Nadarajan analyses the historical and philosophical background of the concept of ornament by asking: “What happens when the ornament is natural?” Bernard Andrieu addresses the mythological and scientific notions of the chimera and the monstrous, and their relationship to identity. Richard Doyle’s chapter reflects on what he calls “transgenic involution” and new evolutionary practices. The first part concludes with a chapter by Louis Bec, a longtime European advocate of a literal art of life. Bec collaborated in 1987 with Vilém Flusser illustrating the book Vampyroteuthis Infernalis, which bypassed the philosophical problem of separating reality and illusion. Vampyroteuthis explored science as fiction while subverting our anthropocentric point of view through the examination of the life of a deep-sea squid that turned out to be our complete Other in sensory and cognitive terms. In Signs of Life, Bec articulates transdisciplinary principles unique to an art of life.
Part two, dedicated to issues of “Bioethics” includes chapters by Cary Wolfe who focuses upon philosophical and theoretical questions such as: What is life? What differentiates human and non-human animals? What is the role of ethics in ontology and vice versa? Dorothy Nelkin discusses the ethical and cultural meanings of blood as a commodity in the genetic age. From a perspective other than that of a critic or art historian, attorney and professor Lori Andrews considers legal and ethical implications of public policy by offering a panorama of artworks that employ biological materials either as theme, substance, or medium, thus contributing to differentiate the actual from metaphorical manipulations of processes of life. The philosopher and ethologist Dominique Lestel focuses his essay on the intersection of aesthetics and animality, and addresses the difficult question of life creation and manipulation in the context of contemporary art.
In a perfect segueway, part three, “Bio Art,” is written by contemporary artist’s who manipulate the processes of life in vivo. It comprises 14 chapters: artists such as Marc Quinn, Regina Trindade, and davidkremers explore bacteria, proteins and genes. George Gessert, Natalie Jeremijenko, Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey manipulate plants. Oron Catts/Ionat Zurr and Marion Laval-Jeanter/Benoît Mangin explore tissue culture. Artists such as Brandon Ballengée develop breeding projects and Marta de Menezes works with somatic modifications. Paul Vanouse and Paul Perry subvert laboratory apparatuses and devices. Adam Zaretsky explores biological irreverence and Eduardo Kac creates new life through transgenesis.
Part four focuses on “Biology and Art History.” The chapters include essays on pioneer artistic accomplishments often neglected by art history. Visionary modernist examples include for instance Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, who Kac points out deserves the same recognition as Picasso, Duchamp, and Kandinsky. The revisionist chapter by Oliver A. I. Botar about Moholy-Nagy’s German career underlies the artist’s involvement with the biocentrism of the Jugendbewegung [Youth Movement] and it’s associated communes, such as Barkenhof and Loheland. Botar’s chapter offers truly fascinating research and insight, along with the claim that rather than a rational formalist, Moholy-Nagy’s Vision in Motion needs to be understood in the context of his pedagogy of organic functionalism and biological harmony. Among the early pioneers is Alexander Fleming who discovered penicillin in 1928 and was also the creator of what he termed “germ paintings”—drawn with invisible bacteria directly on paper and later soaked in a culture medium to be grown in an incubator. Edward Steichen’s visionary botanical work is examined by Ronald J. Gedrim who focuses upon Steichen’s exhibition of Delphinium blooms at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1936, when Steichen’s art of flower breeding was, unfortunately, received as gardening rather than art. Another visionary is the philosopher Vilém Flusser whose column in Artforum in the 1980s titled “Curie’s Children” first published his essay “On Science.” This short chapter is a lighthearted examination of the possibilities of biotech art and continues to be as provocative today as it was when it was first published in 1988. Barbara Maria Stafford’s essay reflects upon metaphors such as networking and bioengineering in relation to the historiography of contemporary art. Closing the book with a word of caution is Yves Michaud’s chapter, which contextualizes bio art within an “aesthetics of existence.” He considers how biotechnology today, in contrast to the impact of scientific discoveries of other eras, has the potential to affect the world in unprecedented ways.
Amply illustrated and clearly written, this book contributes not only to historicize pioneer artworks under a new light but also to contextualize the innovative dimensions of bio art (as opposed to, for example, representational uses of biotech themes in painting). The book accomplishes the fundamental task of addressing the difficult ethic/aesthetic debate directly, while preserving the visceral and transgressive aspects of bioart. Making no compromises, the book examines cultural break-downs, challenges, fears, errors, delusional fantasies as well as the fictional dimension of science and of the history of life-giving, life-altering technologies in all their excesses.
From holopoetry to the aesthetics of telecommunications, from participatory networks to bio art—Kac has examined how technology-mediated environments structure our perception and cognition. Among the few artists who can lucidly speak about aesthetic concepts in relation to other disciplines including science, technology, and poetry, Kac’s voice has contributed to debunk the fantasy that studio work does not involve either theory or research, thus grounding artistic creation both in experiment and debate. By engaging public debates, not shying away from controversies, and expanding the historiography of contemporary art, Kac’s book refuses to domesticize the pressing challenges of our post-human future. Signs of Life is certainly a highlight of the Leonardo Book series and a major reference for years to come.
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Cretien van Kampen
The Hidden Sense. Synesthesia in Art and Science
The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2007
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Gregor Jansen and Peter Weibel, Editors
Gerard Caris: Pentagonismus/Pentagonism
ZKM / Museum für Neue Kunst Karlsruhe. Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther Koenig, Koeln, 2007
Exhibition catalogue with essays
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Gerard Caris and Theresia Kiefer
Gerard Caris: Art and Mathematics. New Reflections on the Pentagon.
Kunst und Mathematik. Neue Reflexionen ueber das Fuenfeck
Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Kuenstler und Autoren / Artist and authors, Germany, 2007
Catalogue d’exposition
Tekeningen / Drawings S M A Cahiers.
by Gerard Caris
Bilingual: Dutch / English
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Artist and the Authors, 2007
Pentagonisme / Pentagonism. S M A Cahiers
by Gerard Caris
Bilingual: Dutch / English
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Artist and the Authors, 2007
Essais
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Bruce Wands
L’Art à l’ère du numérique
Thames & Hudson
2007
L'impact des technologies du numérique sur la création artistique contemporaine est immense. Non seulement des disciplines dites classiques, comme la peinture ou la sculpture, ont été profondément transformées par le numérique, mais celui-ci a également donné naissance à des formes radicalement nouvelles telles que l'art internet, le Software art, le Database art ou la réalité virtuelle. Cet ouvrage présente le travail de plus d'une centaine d'artistes du monde entier, des artistes animés par la volonté d'expérimenter, de repousser toujours plus loin les frontières de l'expression artistique. Après avoir retracé la genèse de l'art numérique, ce livre se propose d'en considérer les principales catégories, des images et sculptures numériques à l'art internet, en passant par les créations de réalité virtuelle et les formes nouvelles d'installations, sans oublier les oeuvres filmiques (vidéo numérique ou animation de synthèse).
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Juan Romero and Penousal Machado (Editors)
The Art of Artificial Evolution: A Handbook on Evolutionary Art and Music
Springer - Natural Computing Series
November 2007
http://art-artificial-evolution.dei.uc.pt/
http://www.springer.com/computer/information+systems/book/978-3-540-72876-4
While improvements in computer performance are dramatically changing the computer-generated art industry, scientists in natural computing have teamed up with artists to examine how bioinspired systems can influence art, technology and even aesthetic appreciation.
This comprehensive book gives an up-to-date survey of the relevant bioinspired computing research fields - such as evolutionary computation, artificial life, swarm intelligence and ant colony algorithms - and examines applications in art, music and design.
The editors and contributors are researchers and artists with deep experience of the related science, tools and applications, and the book includes overviews of historical developments and future perspectives.
This authoritative book, complete with DVD containing image, video and music samples, as well as source code and demonstrations, offers readers an exhaustive and eye-popping introduction to the area.
Table of Contents :
Part I Evolutionary Art
1. Evolutionary Visual Art and Design
Matthew Lewis
2. Evolutionary Search for the Artistic Rendering of Photographs
John P. Collomosse
3. Evolution and Collective Intelligence of the Electric Sheep
Scott Draves
Part II Evolutionary Music
4. Evolutionary Computation Applied to Sound Synthesis
James McDermott, Niall J. L. Griffith, Michael O'Neill
5. Swarm Granulation
Tim Blackwell
6. Evolutionary Computing for Expressive Music Performance
R. Ramirez, A. Hazan, J. Mariné, X. Serra
Part III Real World Applications
7. Evolutionary and Swarm Design in Science, Art, and Music
Christian Jacob, Gerald Hushlak
8. Genr8 : Architects' Experience with an Emergent Design Tool
Martin Hemberg, Una-May O'Reilly, Achim Menges, Katrin Jonas, Michel da Costa Gonçalves, Steve R. Fuchs
9. Evolving Human Faces
Charlie D. Frowd, Peter J. B. Hancock
10. Evolutionary Reproduction of Dutch Masters: The Mondriaan and Escher Evolvers
A.E. Eiben
Part IV Artistic Perspectives
11. Artificial Art made by Artificial Ants
N. Monmarché, I. Mahnich, M. Slimane
12. Embedding of Pixel-Based Evolutionary Algorithms in My Global Art Process
Günter Bachelier
13. Evolving Structure in Liquid Music
J. J. Ventrella
14. A Survey of Virtual Ecosystems in Generative Electronic Art
Alan Dorin
15. Complexism and the Role of Evolutionary Art
Philip Galanter
Part V Future Perspectives
16. The Evolution of Artistic Filters
Craig Neufeld, Brian J. Ross, William Ralph
17. Co-evolutionary Methods in Evolutionary Art
Gary R. Greenfield
18. Experiments in Computational Aesthetics
Penousal Machado, Juan Romero, Bill Manaris
19. Facing the Future: Evolutionary Possibilities for Human-Machine Creativity
Jon McCormack
Digital culture has been characterized by neo-Darwinist tones (at least) since Richard Dawkins’ highly influential texts from the 1970s on. His later Biomorph software summed up some of the ideas by showing how the powers of evolution can be harnessed as part of digital creativity in visual design. However, if one looks at several of the art pieces made with genetic algorithms, one gets quickly a feeling of not “nature at work” but a Designer that after a while starts to repeat himself. There seems to be a teleology anyhow incorporated into the supposed forces of nature expressed in genetic algorithms. Or, as I think Manuel Delanda wrote somewhere, one gets the feeling the Nature ran out of ideas after a while of watching genetic art pieces that branded the imaginary of cyberspace and the emerging digital culture of the 1990s.
The Art of Artificial Evolution, edited by Juan Romero and Penousal Machado is a recent attempt to collect key ideas from this Neo-Darwinist wave around digital design. It promises to be a “handbook on evolutionary art and music” both offering some historical contextualisation and chapters on recent practical work on swarms, evolutionary algorithms and digital design.
The book is divided into five parts: I) Evolutionary art, II) Evolutionary Music, III) Real-World Applications, IV) Artistic Perspectives and V) Future Perspectives. Matthew Lewis’ introductory chapter “Evolutionary Visual Art and Design” starts from the usual suspects of Dawkins, Karl Sims and William Latham and offers a quick overview of different projects until recent times. He concludes the chapter addressing the problem mentioned above: how to make sure the possibility space for evolution in the evolutionary programs remains open and is not reduced to the human being doing the selection of what is the fittest (i.e. most suitable for the present purposes) of the alternatives calculated. What is revealed is a field far from forces of evolution running wild, and instead a handy tool for automating certain patterns in visual design or for example furniture. Indeed, there has been a continuous gap between the utopian promises of cyberculture discourse and the everyday work with evolutionary algorithms and swarm patterns. Through a narrative production, the meticulous design work has been turned into a paradigmatic mode of digital culture as a metaphorical ecology of a kind. In chapters such as Christian Jacob’s and Gerald Hushlak’s the use of ideas of evolution is introduced exactly in the context of creating e.g. chairs and other examples of “blob furniture” – and other interfaces with “real world” interaction, for instance in swarm installations. The chapter is an enjoyable read.
The Art of Artificial Evolution keeps its feet on the ground, and understands “art” mostly as the craftsmanship with digital tools. The chapters deal with evolutionary algorithms in rendering of photographs, The Electric Sheep project commenced in 1999 that works as an online collective and distributed intelligence/design piece (that for participants expresses itself as a screen saver), and for example with swarm granulation (in sonic arts). Chapters such as Tim Blackwell’s on swarm granulation are good examples of the subtle exchanges between various spheres of sensation and relationality. The chapter discusses swarm algorithm interactions with both sonic and non-sonic participation; for example the coordination of users’ bodies with swarm simulations. Such examples from the sonic sphere work best to illustrate the underlying radical temporality of digital culture (the chapter also addresses live algorithms), and flag how necessary for any cultural theory of sound and vision it is to understand the material modes of production of phenomenological events. Popular cultural transpositions of swarms into human phenomenology are familiar from examples such as Batman Returns (1992) and the Lion King (1994).
Embodied interaction with algorithmic swarms is also addressed e.g. in Alan Dorin’s chapter on virtual ecosystems and the already mentioned Jacob and Hushlak chapter which predicts the emergence of “future evolutionary design systems” that “will become hybrids of interactive, human-directed evolution and design ‘ecologies’ where design solutions compete for survival in an ecosystem that implicitly defines the constraints of the design spaces.” (p.164). Jon McCormack extends in his chapter some of the considerations in the book towards “software as a performance instrument” which is a nice way to frame the idea of evolutionary software intertwined with human agency.
What is at times troubling in some of the texts is the vague characterisation of art. It is too often mentioned only as the “subjective element” in the design ecologies or through references to aesthetically pleasing products – as something “interesting” or “beautiful.” In a way, the book demonstrates a very Kantian approach in the sense Kant articulated in his Critique of Judgment: “There is no science of the beautiful, but only critique.” Even though the algorithmic, neo-Darwinian processes are embedded in algorithmic and scientific discourses, the “art” element in the book remains undeveloped. Also the Neo-Darwinian element is very emphasised, and such approaches as Greg Lynn’s endosymbiotic models of parallel evolutionary algorithms are not discussed (for a stimulating critique of Neo-Darwinism from such a perspective, see Luciana Parisi’s chapter in The Spam Book, forthcoming from The Hampton Press.) In addition, some of the references to cultural theory (e.g. Galanter’s discussion of “postmodernism”) rely on generalisations and some troubling inaccuracies.
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Nicoletta Sala, ed.
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David Edwards
Artscience: Creativity in the Post-Google Generation
Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA,
2008
Reviewed by Amy Ione
I rarely see a definition of creativity that captures its mystery, magic, and promise. More commonly, I find myself puzzling over the morass of definitions that conclude: creativity, while transformative, is indefinable. This is not to say that interested parties have not tried to add more substance to the puzzle. Some fill this vacuum with analogies. One I’ve always found appealing is found in Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland, where he both reminds us of the need to think creatively and pokes fun at how we approach this need. The episode that comes to mind has Alice, who recognizes that she has become too small, derives an excellent plan to remedy the situation. She then admits to herself that although her plan is very neatly and simply arranged, she has no idea how to set it in place. In the book, after creatively solving problem after problem, Alice continues onward, addressing a litany of events she can neither control nor understand; and the process is presented over and over and over again. Alice’s adventures are not only fun, but they also bring to mind why some people dislike the correlation of creativity and problem solving, feeling that problem solving misses the spontaneity, emotional attachment and passion we bring to successful, creative projects. It should be noted that Alice’s challenges in Wonderland allowed Lewis Carroll, an English author, mathematician, logician, and photographer, to poke fun at British education.
Many academics and interested parties continue to weigh in on the creativity conundrum. I would guess that even non-specialists who are drawn to the subject have encountered popular psychological studies like Csikzentmihalyi’s flow or Gardner’s idea of multiple intelligences. Those who have looked for in-depth research, perhaps in cognitive neuroscience, have no doubt wrestled with how researchers who design studies that test a subject’s ability to solve problems the investigators have already answered can portend to speak to the kind of innovation a genuinely creative person expresses when bringing something no one thought of before into being. There are also thinkers in related fields (like education and philosophy) who wrestle with the tension between theory and application. Then, of course, there are the many artists and scientists who offer no theories of creativity; they are instead predisposed to explore experientially, which means that creativity is implicit in their work even if never explicitly defined.
Working with this complicated matrix over the years, I have concluded that case studies of actual creative development offer the best approaches for navigating the amorphousness creativity terrain. This preference drew me to David Edwards’ new book, Artscience: Creativity in the Post-Google Generation, where he introduces a number of people to walk us through idea translation (how those who use the art/science combination put their ideas together in cultural institutions, academia, humanitarian causes, and industry). The cast of characters include Diana Dabby, who wanted to pioneer in music composition, started as a pianist and then returned to get a degree in electrical engineering as she translated her ideas into her innovative theories of music composition. She is currently a music professor at Olin College, a new liberal arts and engineering college outside of Boston. Julio Ottino, a chemical engineer, developed a new theory of fluid mixing that benefited from his experience with creative painting and a doctoral degree in chemical engineering. Wolf Peter Fehlhammer, a German Chemist, became the director of The Deutsches Museum, the largest and oldest museum in Germany devoted to the history of science and technology. This museum ranks with the great technical museums of the world: the Science Museum in London, the Conservatoire national des arts et metiers in Paris, and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. According to Edwards, Fehlhammer was concerned with how to engage artists so that the museum would provide an environment that could disrupt the way the public viewed science. He wanted to both empower artists within the museum and have them challenge and disturb the minds of visitors in ways that would generate a dialogue and encourage people to think more deeply about science, technology, and art.
Edwards himself is the founder of Le Laboratoire, a new artscience center in Paris, and the Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Biomedical Engineering at Harvard University. In Edwards’ view, institutional environments are notorious for limiting transdisciplinary thinking due to the way departments and requirements are structured. He turned to what he calls artscience to convey that in using a combination of the processes we conventionally characterize as either art or science we can allow creators to more easily propel ideas over traditional disciplinary and institutional obstacles. Encouraging interdisciplinary interweaving, Edwards believes, will provide a catalyst for innovation, particularly if artscience laboratories are able to give the power to control and design projects back to the creators. In the artscience laboratory, as discussed below, creative people can accelerate idea development for cultural, educational, social and industrial projects. Thus, the lab serves as an idea accelerator and a kind of experimental art center that puts industry, society, and research and education partners in dialog with the public through continual artscience experimentation.
Four kinds of programming foster participant creativity and bolster the lab’s value as a resource. One kind of programming moves ideas between cultural and social quadrants of activity, one between educational and cultural quadrants, and one between industrial and cultural quadrants. The fourth program moves ideas from the lab to the public---and back. Since culture is the quadrant of creative activity common to all lab programming, this fourth lab program, in Edwards’ view, is not only cultural, it also reflects the other three areas of focus. It is easy to understand his case when he talks about idea translation as a key component of artscience because it requires some commonality of process and why the interweaving of the art and science methodologies is the backbone of artscience. More difficult to grasp is why Edwards is offering what he sees as a paradigmatic methodology since he acknowledges that creators rarely follow it. In any case, the paradigm proposes that proponents: (1) passionately espouse some idea that they aim to realize in the arts or sciences; (2) study deeply and open themselves to invigorating new experience in science (if trained in the arts) or the arts (if trained in the sciences); (3) struggle against stiff resistance from colleagues and sometimes even their intended audience; (4) repeatedly test and frequently see their original idea evolve in unexpected ways in this new environment; and (5) throughout it all maintain a determination to arrive at an original artistic or scientific expression.
Although an enjoyable read, Artscience is not a scholarly work. Rather, it is a long, passionate essay: loosely researched, lacking in-depth scholarship, and at times misleading. For example, one case study introduces us to Maurice Bernard, a scientist who became the director of the research laboratory at the Louvre. Edwards’ says that Bernard’s x-rays studies were initially treated as an auxiliary to the work of the art historians. This changed after his x-ray work on Rubens’ Descente de Croix, in the 1990s, exposed details of Rubens construction of the piece that art historical analyses could not have discovered without the technological tools that revealed what was beneath the painted surface. Edwards’ presentation gives the impression that Bernard’s work was transformative because it allowed scientists to have more input into the analyses of works of art. While this story is no doubt true, it is not an accurate depiction of the field-at-large. Art conservation laboratories have been using x-ray analysis for decades. The National Gallery in London (NGL), for example, appointed a Scientific Adviser in 1934. This individual was charged with carrying out pioneering work in X-Ray photography of pictures and establishing a Physics Laboratory at the Gallery.
Similarly, when Edwards applauds the entry of art into scientific institutions, one gets the impression that this is a new thing, which is not the case. To be sure, fashions change, and the contemporary models are more interactive, but public education and disciplinary mixtures have a long history in museum environments. Art and science have been living under the same roof at least since it was the primary impetus of the Renaissance. In the Western hemisphere, for example, a key moment was when the resourceful, versatile and passionate artist and showman, Charles Willson Peale (1741--1827) opened his Peale Museum, the American Museum or simply as The Museum in 1783. This institution took hold during a period when people were so eager to see his mastodon fossil illustrations that he founded the museum to make this work more available to the public. His museum initially brought art and natural history together, a reflection of his individual inclinations. Although Peale’s emphasis was more a product of his time than ours, it is now seen as a product of the Enlightenment; it did serve as a home for his art while also serving the then new American republic as an instrument of scientific discourse and of public education. Another notable historical example, this one more an individual case study, was Samuel Morse, the inventor of Morse code and one of the most notable portraitists of the Revolutionary era.
Some aspects of Artscience limit its value. For example, when historical examples are mentioned, they are presented in a somewhat superficial fashion. Jan van Eyck’s “invention” of oil paint comes to mind. Edwards asserts that van Eyck invented the technology. This is a popular myth that grew out of van Eyck’s mastery of the technology. Research has shown, however, that the oil paint technology was actually developed over several centuries of experimentation. [Giotto to Durer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery (1991) by Jill Dunkerton et. al. includes some discussion of the history of oil painting. X-ray research from the NGL is also contained in this book.] The breeziness of the historical presentation, like the omission of indices, bibliographies, and notes, makes it clear that the Artscience book is intended more for generalists than scholars. I mention this because, since there was no index, I am unable to easily confirm that Edwards never mentions the journal Leonardo (or the Leonardo community) in his discussion of organizations and venues that encourage dialogue among art and science. Suffice it to say that I cannot recall a single mention. [He does mention places like the MIT Media Lab, organizations like ASCI, Inc, etc.] Also, the book’s title, Creativity in the Post-Google Generation, is a misnomer. At the beginning of the book Edwards explains that the title comes from an argument put forth by Richard Florida’s 2002 book, Rise of the Creative Class. Florida argues that idea generation development and realization depend on a particular mix of art and science that is a familiar feature of the post-Google era. There is little in the Edwards book to suggest it offers a “post Google” perspective. Many of the people presented have had long careers and the robust chronologies used to outline individual stories suggest these individuals began their creative pursuits long before Google was born in on the 7th of September 1998.
Easy to read and clearly a depository for David Edwards’ passion for creativity, Artscience is a book that has more promise than punch. All in all, the stories Edwards presents are well told and evince a passion that recommends the volume. I enjoyed reading the text and even found it refreshing at times, although the sum total was disappointing. The title led me to infer there would be more discussion of Leonardo types, who increasingly see the conjunction of art, science, and technology as an approach whose time has come; rather than one still struggling for recognition. Also, the laboratory chapter does not include success stories from Edwards own lab, an omission that is accentuated by a comment on the last page: “Artscience does not need a laboratory to thrive . . . . I would not create a laboratory for any of the artscientists whose stories I have told in this book” [p. 194]. I would add that creative people do not necessarily need a laboratory, although I suspect that organizational support can help transform an idea into something viable and/or wonderful. I further believe that Edwards, like many of the people who read Leonardo, and interdisciplinary people in general, understand the need and desire to break out of formulaic responses. How we best speak across boundaries and attract others to take roads less traveled is a part of the creative equation addressed by the Artscience book. The spirit Edwards brings to the question outweighs many of the limitations of this book. While I would keep in mind that Artscience is not exemplary on all counts, I believe that anyone interested in creatively will find much to chew on in this volume
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Louis José Lestocart
Entendre l’esthétique dans ses complexités
L’Harmattan, Paris, 2008
http://www.mcxapc.org/atelier.php?a=display&ID=36#biomembres
Un bréviaire Art et Science sur l’origine des formes dans la culture non linéaire.
Le développement de la théorie des systèmes dynamiques et le néo-mécanisme qui en découle sont à l’origine d’une vision du monde qui se cristallise en une véritable culture non-linéaire. Une culture qui intègre profondément l’idée qu’une petite cause peut avoir un grand effet disproportionné et que l’effet peut rétroagir sur la cause. Une culture de l’émergence et de la complexité.
D’où naissent les formes ? Et, au-delà, qu’est-ce que l’acte de percevoir, de penser, d’écrire ou de créer et surtout d’interpréter ? La science, depuis Aristote et Leibniz, s’est beaucoup penchée sur la question de la naissance des formes (Goethe, D’Arcy Thompson, Turing, Thom, Prigogine, Crutchfield). Ces études ont été à la fois à l’origine de nouvelles techniques et de nouvelles pensées – comme la science des systèmes, l’auto-organisation –, et de nouvelles valeurs fondamentales (rétroaction, récursivité, downward causation).
Ces découvertes prenant leur essor à la fois dans le champ mathématique, physique, informatique, biologique et épistémologique, ont cependant très tôt côtoyé des préoccupations esthétiques. Tout au long de l’histoire du XX° siècle, des artistes aussi différents que Duchamp, Kandinsky, Valéry, Schwitters, Cage, Rauschenberg, jusqu’à des artistes plus récents, se sont nourris à ces découvertes ou, même, quelques fois, les ont anticipées. C’est cette histoire qui veut être contée ici. Elle s’entend via la Complexité et ses formes d’émergences. L’enjeu étant de tracer l’idée d’une inséparabilité, au moins épistémologique, entre Art et Science : Unitas multiplex selon Valéry.
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Sean Caulfield and Timothy Caulfield, Editors
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Imagining Science: Art, Science and Social Change
Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher Biotechnology is everywhere. One of my university colleagues was recently faced with the decision of a mechanical or pig heart valve replacement. Biotech has also served as both inspiration, and medium, for a variety of artists’ practices. Sean Caulfield is an artist and Professor of Printmaking in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta. His brother Timothy Caulfield, a lawyer and professor, is involved in social issues of biotechnology. The two of them collaborated in the planning on an exhibit at the Banff Centre, and the production of this book. |
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Agnès Guillot et Jean-Arcady Meyer
La bionique. Quand la science imite la nature
Editions Dunod
2008
De tout temps, l’intelligence humaine a exploite l’intelligence de la nature pour perfectionner ses inventions. De tout temps également, l’homme s’est équipe de structures artificielles pour augmenter ses capacités ou compenser ses handicaps. La Bionique, officiellement née en 1960 au cours d’un congres américain pour fédérer les seules recherches d’inventions technologiques inspirées de la nature, englobe aujourd’hui un champ de recherche beaucoup plus important. Elle concerne les inventions bioniques, les robots inspires des animaux et les hybrides bioniques (systèmes artificiels équipés d’organes vivants et animaux et humains équipés de structures artificielles). Cet ouvrage expose quelques exemples appartenant a ces deux domaines, ainsi que leurs retombées fondamentales et appliquées: conception des ailes de machines volantes, matériaux copiant la soie d’araignée, automates destinés à comprendre l’anatomie humaine, animaux artificiels autonomes, programmes informatiques prétendant simuler le cerveau humain, neuroprothèses traduisant la pensée en mouvements, prothèses «intelligentes» …
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John Gage
Couleur & Culture – Usages et significations de la couleur de l’Antiquité à l’abstraction,
Thames & Hudson, Paris
2008
Fruit de trente ans de recherches, cet ouvrage, considéré par Michel Pastoureau comme « le livre le plus important jamais écrit sur l’histoire des couleurs », a été unanimement salué par la presse et les historiens de l’art
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John Gage
La couleur dans l’art
Thames & Hudson, Paris
2009
Au cours des siècles derniers, des disciplines aussi variées que la physique, la chimie, la physiologie, la psychologie, la linguistique et la philosophie se sont penchées sur le phénomène complexe de la couleur mais, paradoxalement, ceux qui l’abordent de la manière la plus intime qui soit – les artistes – ont rarement été sollicités pour s’exprimer sur ce sujet omniprésent et pourtant mystérieux.
Dans cet ouvrage, l’éminent historien d’art britannique John Gage se propose de combler cette lacune en abordant le thème de la couleur à travers la pensée et la pratique des artistes. La Couleur dans l’art s’intéresse à l’histoire de la couleur, mais ce n’est pas pour autant un panorama historique. En effet, chaque chapitre analyse le sujet par le biais d’une thématique précise – le langage de la couleur, la psychologie de la couleur, la symbolique des couleurs… – en se fondant sur les propos et les œuvres d’artistes aussi variés que Van Gogh, Kandinsky, Mark Rothko ou Anish Kapoor.
La synesthésie, la théosophie, la mise en scène théâtrale, la chromothérapie et la chromophobie font partie des très nombreux sujets abordés dans cette étude magistrale, à l’érudition lumineuse, qui permet de mieux appréhender, à travers l’inépuisable créativité des artistes, le rôle fondamental que joue la couleur dans l’art comme dans la vie.
Ancien directeur du département d’histoire de l’art de l’université de Cambridge, John Gage est membre de la British Academy. Spécialiste mondialement reconnu de l’histoire de la couleur et des peintres Turner et Constable, il est notamment l’auteur de Couleur & Culture – Usages et significations de la couleur de l’Antiquité à l’abstraction, publié en 2008 aux Éditions Thames & Hudson.
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Rudolph Arnheim
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The Power of the Center: A Study of Composition in the Visual Arts, 20th Anniversary Edition Reviewed by Giovanna Costantini |
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Francisco J. Ricardo, Editor
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Cyberculture and New Media Reviewed by John F. Barber In his 1984 novel Neuromancer, William Gibson described cyberspace as "a consensual hallucination" (67), a different, separate place where computer telecommunication technologies facilitated interactions between and with human beings, vast collections of data, artificial intelligences, and quasi-spiritual mythforms. Since then, cyberspace has come to signify exponential growth in the capacity of computer, intelligence, and virtual reality technologies into a global network of computer hardware and software linked through communications infrastructures that facilitate interactions between distant actors. Cyberspace is inseparable networks within networks that immerse users in interactive, visual, artificial, computer-generated environments. Once an optional extension of digital media, cyberspace has become a central site for online, computer-mediated language, creative, learning, recreational, and political interactions—activities known as cyberculture—which in turn may affect more mainstream culture. |
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Sabine E. Wildevuur
Invisible Vision: Could Science Learn from the Arts
Bohn Stafleu Van Loghum, Uitgever, NL, Reviewed by Stephen Wilson Invisible Vision: Could Science Learn from the Arts is an intriguing book that will be of interest to many Leonardo readers. It was written by Sabine E. Wildevuur. She is programme manager/ Healthcare at Waag Society in Amsterdam. (For readers who might not be familiar, the Waag Society is a Dutch cross disciplinary organization that "develops creative technology for social innovation" and "acts as an intermediate between the arts, science and the media.") |
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Stephen Wilson
Art + Science
Thames & Hudson, Paris
2010
Au XXIe siècle, certaines des œuvres d'art les plus passionnantes sont créées non pas dans des ateliers mais au sein de laboratoires où des artistes s'intéressent aux questions culturelles, philosophiques et sociales liées à la recherche de pointe dans les domaines scientifique et technologique. Leurs travaux sont à la croisée de disciplines aussi diverses que la microbiologie, les sciences physiques, les technologies de l'information, la biologie et les systèmes vivants, la cinétique et la robotique, l'eugénisme, la climatologie, la réalité virtuelle ou encore l'intelligence artificielle.
Première étude illustrée sur le sujet, ART+SCIENCE propose un panorama complet de ce nouveau courant de l'art contemporain largement méconnu du grand public. Les œuvres les plus emblématiques créées depuis 2000 par près de 250 artistes sont illustrées et commentées à travers 8 chapitres, chacun consacré à un champ particulier de la recherche scientifique.
Les projets présentés vont du body art à la bio-ingénierie des plantes et des insectes, de la musique, de la danse et des performances vidéo pilotées par ordinateur à des installations visuelles et sonores de grande échelle. Ils interrogent de manière originale notre relation à la science, à la technologie et au monde qui nous entoure et nous permettent de prendre pleinement conscience de la façon dont la recherche scientifique et les innovations technologiques influencent aujourd'hui la création artistique.
Stephen Wilson, grande autorité sur le sujet, résume avec beaucoup de clarté les dernières recherches scientifiques et propose à ceux qui désirent en savoir plus une bibliographie et des sources d'information précieuses notamment sur les musées, festivals, centres de recherche et programmes universitaires qui promeuvent l'art créé dans ce nouveau domaine hybride.
Stephen Wilson est professeur d'art conceptuel et d'art de l'information à la San Francisco State University. Egalement auteur et artiste, il s'intéresse particulièrement aux implications culturelles des nouvelles technologies. Ses installations et performances interactives ont été montrées dans le monde entier dans des galeries, expositions et festivals dont SIGGRAPH, Ars Electronica, BEAP et V2. Il a été artiste en résidence aux Xerox PARC et NTT Research Labs. Parmi ses nombreuses publications sur le dialogue art/science, on peut citer Using Computers to Create Art (1986) et Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science and Technology (2002).
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Carl Schoonover
Portraits of the Mind
Visualizing the Brain from Antiquity to the 21st Century
Abrams
2010
Pickled in a jar or quivering under the anatomist's blade, the brain reveals very little of itself. In order to understand the organ, generations of scientists have pioneered increasingly sophisticated ways of examining it -- first by feeling its weight, shape, and color, then by cutting into it, magnifying its daunting muddle of cells, initially without much to tell them apart. And as they investigated the form and workings of the brain, neuroscientists have invented new ways of seeing. Our modern perspective relies entirely on technologies developed, or adapted, to scrutinize it -- chemical stains, state-of-the-art genetics, x-rays, MRIs, protein tagging. The resulting data reveal subtle variations in shape, intensity, and color, enabling scientists to pinpoint exactly what they seek to unveil and ignore the surrounding clutter.
Over the decades, the undifferentiated, monochrome swath of cells under the microscope's lens has bloomed into glorious Technicolor. In the new book Portraits of the Mind: Visualizing the Brain from Antiquity to the 21st Century, Columbia neuroscience PhD student Carl Schoonover curates and comments on a selection of images of neuroscience data generated in laboratories all over the world -- many of which have never been seen outside of the research community. Along with a foreword by Jonah Lehrer, and essays contributed by leading scientists, the book accounts for the tremendous sense of hope and anticipation that is shared by many in the field today, as an avalanche of innovative technologies arrives onto the scene. The set of images in this slideshow represents more than one hundred years of techniques that have been employed by scientists to expand our understanding of the way the brain is built and how it functions.
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Robert Seve
Science de la couleur
Aspects physiques et perceptifs
Chalagam. Marseille
2010
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Sommaire du livre "Science de la couleur - Aspects physiques et perceptifs " |
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