Therefore it seems that for each specific “sign”, there is a precise meaning for each one of us, defining aspects of communication similar to a system of thought linked to our way of life – in which we need a thought object, a material sign and someone who interprets this sign.
But what happens when this interpreter seems to be embodied by a (or reads through a) computer?
–
Art, as a way to discover the world around us, allows to position an aspect of physicality (of embodiment) in the approach of a subject, because our environment can be viewed, represented, read, performed, touched, listened to or even tasted. Then, this empirical approach between the world and ourselves is based on a subjectivity that is hardly mesurable, as it would be the case in the establishment of a methodology – an essential postulate for disciplines related to science. However, when we explore the successive layers in the relationship to our environment, this sensitive aspect seems to be based on a physical and scientific structure – which becomes methodological by its structure itself. Therefore, these successive layers allow us to reflect on the ambivalence of our relationship to the world, between the sensitive-emotional feelings and the elementary scientific properties. This relevance can also be transposed in a language system.
Indeed, if writing and oral language are based on a very precise and logical structural grid (grammar – syntax – etc.), it is interesting to understand that this structure open to reverie, invention, at least a transversal and subjective reading or interpretation of words. Thus, from rigid development and logic can result an empirical way of seeing the world. Therefore it seems that for each specific “sign”, there is a precise meaning for each one of us, defining aspects of communication similar to a system of thought linked to our way of life – in which we need a thought object, a material sign and someone who interprets this sign.
But what happens when this interpreter seems to be embodied by a (or reads through a) computer? If the computer codes reside in an immanent structure, with no other references than itself, the notion of interpretation seems to have a double meaning here – by a broad referential field, a set of algorithms can interpret data by synthesis and giving a generalized conclusion and therefore not complete (since generalization delete the so-called insignificant aspects). On the other hand, human interpretation, through a computer, can be duplicated by this empirical subjectivity. If, through new technologies, humans have gradually convinced themselves that they can control everything – by collecting precise data – the hyper-object aspect leads to introduce the notion of successive layers into data information in general. This would suggest that the digitization of surrounding elements – such as climate change – does not allow us to control their content and that the only way would be to try to predict human behavior related to the study case. Therefore, this element opens to reflection about our reading of the data, which has always tended to control and not really predict, or act accordingly.
This observation commits us to understand that, through digital technologies, we should begin to conceive our daily lives in a different way, to act before controlling, in order to give ourselves time to discover, embody or even perform this environment, before imposing a dominant narrative guided by a rigid structure.
Original Researches by Yutong Xie and Jonathan Brandel
Text and research-development by Valérie Félix
–
References:
- ALLAHYARI, Morehshin, Daniel Rourke and Andrea Young (2015). “The 3D Additivist Manifesto”, Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence, https://additivism.org/manifesto. Consulted on December 10th 2019.
- BRANDEL, Jonathan (2019). Surface, Precision and Dissonance. Essential components of Kandinsky’s “science of art“. Request on demand.
- BRANDEL, Jonathan (2019). Collaborating with Kandinsky. Supercharging Kandinsky’s artistic practice with Tensorflow & the web. Request on demand.
- BRIDLE, James (2019). New Dark Age, Technology and the End of the Future, Brooklyn, London: Verso Books.
- BRIDLE, James. http://jamesbridle.com/new-ways-of-seeing. Consulted on December 10th 2019.
- CHOI, Taeyoon (2017). “Poetic Computation: Reader”, http://poeticcomputation.info. Consulted on December 10th 2019.
- DRULHE, Louise. “Critical Atlas of Internet. Spatial analysis as a tool for socio-political purposes”, http://internet-atlas.net. Consulted on December 10th 2019.
- Educational Video Library (2017). “Weather Forecasting: History, Instruments and Techniques – Educational Film”, YouTube, October 5 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_g4hbhL_qg&list=PLf83KnsYmsHCmkDpM0pzc1CoREgp-uPME. Consulted on December 10th 2019.
- FISHER, Mark (2017). The Weird and the Eerie, London: Repeater Books.
- GOLDSMITH, Kenneth (2011), “resources”, UbuWeb, All avant-garde. All the time, http://www.ubu.com/resources/. Consulted on December 10th 2019.
- KUO, Ryan (2018). “The Pointer”, Bitforms gallery, June 7 to August 5 2018, https://rkuo.net/The-Pointer-1. Consulted on December 10th 2019.
- MEHRABI, Tara (2018). “Affective Method”, New Materialism [On line], January 19 2018, http://newmaterialism.eu/almanac/a/affective-method.html. Consulted on December 10th 2019.
- MIT Media Lab (2018). “Wanderers Biologically-augmented 3D printed Wearables”, Mediated Matter, https://mediatedmattergroup.com/wanderers. Consulted on December 10th 2019.
- Oxford Mathematics (2014). “Mathematics: the next 100 years – Oxford Mathematics Alumni Lecture”, YouTube, September 26 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R9Raj8jOBg&feature=emb_title. Consulted on December 10th 2019.
- PLUOT, Sébastien (2016). Weather Systems, unknown Editor
- SCHERABON, Herwig. https://scherabon.com. Consulted on December 10th 2019.
- SCOTT CARD, Orson (1999). Ender’s Shadow, New York: Tor Books.
- SETA, Momoko. http://www.setomomoko.org/main.html. Consulted on December 10th 2019.
- STEYERL, Hito (2009). “In Defense of the Poor Image”, e-flux journal #10 [On line], Novembre 2009, https://www.e-flux.com/journal/10/61362/in-defense-of-the-poor-image/. Consulted on December 10th 2019.
- Webrecorder. https://webrecorder.io. Consulted on December 10th 2019.
- WILLIS, Holly (2016). Fast forward : the future(s) of the cinematic arts, London, New York: Wallflower Press.