Behaviourist Art and the Cybernetic Vision

People living in the digital age are bombarded by media left and right. It is no surprise that an age of art would come out of that dynamic. Roy Ascott seems to have been ahead of his time when he wrote his article. I find very similar ideas in the reading New Directions for New Media (or something like that) that we did for Fall semester 2008 History and Theory of Digital Art. Both readings touch on the idea that in the digital age, the person is the last element in art. To a degree conceptual art follows this path also, but the interaction is what is key now.

I was particularly interested in the idea of feedback. Really, it makes perfect sense in the digital age. Digital art pieces A) Do not exist for themselves and B) They do not exist by themselves. In between these two postulates lies the possibility for feedback. It is a very attractive idea that, myself as an artist, can create a digital art piece that can react dynamically to people. People see this piece and react to it. Their reaction is their 'output' and that output can become the 'input' for the artwork. That interaction has the potential to make the art piece dynamic, very personal, and infinite in its states and forms.

After our talk I recalled Kelly's VJ performance last semester in our Digital Art 2 class (I am by the way excited to see what Kelly comes up with this semester in class as well as the A/V performances outside of class). His videos could have existed solely by themselves after he started them, but his performance was dynamic in the sense that he was continually changing the inputs and parameters in which this piece as time went on, and as he reacted to it. The idea of chance and unpredictability is also very attractive in this age of art, which is what I felt Kelly was executing and playing with. I am unsure if Kelly had in fact rehearsed that very closely, or if much of that was on the fly, but either way it was very well done.

Exciting times in digital art.