Cybernetic-Existentialism: Freedom, Systems, and Being-for-Others in Contemporary Arts and Performance

335 Pages·2019·34.402 MB·English

by  Steve Dixon

CYBERNETIC-
EXISTENTIALISM
FREEDOM, SYSTEMS, AND BEING-FOR-OTHERS IN
CONTEMPORARY ARTS AND PERFORMANCE
Steve Dixon
Cybernetic-Existentialism
Cybernetic-Existentialism: Freedom, Systems, and Being-for-Others in
Contemporary Arts and Performance offers a unique discourse and an original
aesthetic theory. It argues that fusing perspectives from the philosophy of
Existentialism with insights from the ‘universal science’ of cybernetics provides
a new analytical lens and deconstructive methodology to critique art.
In this study, Steve Dixon examines how a range of artists’ works reveal
the ideas of Existentialist philosophers including Kierkegaard, Camus, de
Beauvoir, and Sartre on freedom, being and nothingness, eternal recurrence,
the absurd, and being-for-others. Simultaneously, these artworks are shown
to engage in complex explorations of concepts proposed by cyberneticians
including Wiener, Shannon, and Bateson on information theory and ‘noise’,
feedback loops, circularity, adaptive ecosystems, autopoiesis, and emergence.
Dixon’s groundbreaking book demonstrates how fusing insights and
knowledge from these two fields can throw new light on pressing issues
within contemporary arts and culture, including authenticity, angst and
alienation, homeostasis, radical politics, and the human as system.
Steve Dixon is President of LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore,
one of Asia’s leading arts institutions. He is co-founder and Advisory
Editor of the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media
(Routledge), and author of the award-winning 800-page book Digital
Performance: A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance
Art and Installation. He was co-founder and co-Director of the Digital
Performance Archive and has published on subjects including theater, film,
performance studies, digital art, science fiction, and robotics.
hhttttpp::////ttaayylloorraannddffrraanncciiss..ccoomm
Cybernetic-Existentialism
Freedom, Systems, and Being-for-Others
in Contemporary Arts and Performance
Steve Dixon
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2020 Steve Dixon
The right of Steve Dixon to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-14249-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-03089-5 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon LT Std
by Thomson Digital
To my love, Prue
and our remarkable children
Sophie, Amelia, and Florence
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1. Introduction: cybernetics and Existentialism in arts
and popular culture 1
PIERRE HUYGHE, ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG, MARCUS HARVEY,
GORDON PASK, NAM JUNE PAIK, PETER DOIG, MARTIN HONERT,
DENNIS OPPENHEIM
[Films:] On the Beach At Night Alone, Frozen. [Exhibitions:] Cybernetic
Serendipity, Information, Open Systems, Electronic Superhighway (2016-1966),
I Am A Problem, The Artist’s Voice
2. Visual art: the aesthetics of systems
and being-towards-death 34
HANS HAACKE, MARINA ABRAMOVIC´, CLAUDE SHANNON,
MARTIN CREED, BILL VIOLA, ANISH KAPOOR, DAMIEN HIRST,
MARC QUINN, CORNELIA PARKER, DOUGLAS GORDON, URICH LAU,
HUANG YONG PING, AI WEIWEI, SUN YUAN AND PENG YU
3. Interactive art: communicating, controlling,
and being-for-others 68
WAFAA BILAL, AMALIA ULMAN, SOPHIE CALLE, JENNIFER RINGLEY
(JENNICAM), LOUIS-PHILIPPE DEMERS, SANTIAGO SIERRA
[Exhibition:] You, Other; I, Another
4. Participatory art: autopoiesis with strangers 107
BILLY KLÜVER, KIT GALLOWAY AND SHERRIE RABINOWITZ,
CLAIRE SHILLITO, GOB SQUAD, GILLIAN WEARING,
FLORENCE DIXON, BLAST THEORY, SUSAN COLLINS, PAUL SERMON,
THE CHAMELEONS GROUP
viii Contents
5. Theater art: staging cybernetics, dread,
and the existential crisis 149
THE WOOSTER GROUP, ROBERT LEPAGE, JOSEF SVOBODA,
MICHAEL KLIEN, SOCIETAS RAFFAELLO SANZIO,
THE BUILDERS ASSOCIATION, LA FURA DELS BAUS AND ENGLISH
NATIONAL OPERA, HEINER GOEBBELS
6. Performance art: actualizing science fiction
and invoking transcendence 178
STEVE MANN, ORLAN, GREY WALTER, EDWARD IHNATOWICZ,
STELARC, DANI PLOEGER, HAYDEN FOWLER, LAURA KIKAUKA
AND NORMAN WHITE, EDUARDO KAC AND ED BENNETT
7. Identity art: the adaptive system of the authentic self 203
JEFF KOONS, DANIEL J. MARTINEZ, JUDY CHICAGO, GILBERT AND
GEORGE, JOHN BALDESSARI, MICHAEL LANDY, JEAN TINGUELY,
APHIDS AND ALL THE QUEENS MEN, ADRIAN PIPER, JOSH
GINSBURG, ENTANG WIHARSO, GAVIN TURK, BILDERWERFER,
GUILLERMO GÓMEZ-PEÑA
8. Uncanny art: existential absurdity within cybernetic
environments 229
SURVIVAL RESEARCH LABORATORIES, RAFAEL LOZANO-HEMMER,
URICH LAU, THOMAS HIRSCHHORN, 0100101110101101.ORG,
ORON CATTS AND IONAT ZURR (TC&A), FRANCIS ALŸS,
JEFFREY SHAW AND SINAN GOO, NATALIE JEREMIJENKO,
JEREMY DELLER, SAMUEL BECKETT, JAKE AND DINOS CHAPMAN
9. Conclusion: the eternal return and being-in-new-systems 257
ILYA KHRZHANOVSKY, ANNE IMHOF, TEHCHING HSIEH,
WESLEY GOATLEY
[Conferences:] Artificial Tears: Singularity & Humanness—A Speculation,
Global Art Forum: ‘I Am Not A Robot’. [Exhibition:] Human + : The Future of
Our Species
Bibliography 280
Index 304
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank all my colleagues and friends at LASALLE College of
the Arts, Singapore, for their tremendous encouragement and support, and
in particular, Chairman Peter Seah and the Board of Directors, Dr. Venka
Purushothaman, Barbra Gan, Dominic Ang, Agnes Wan, Marcus Ngiow,
Dr. Wolfgang Muench, Milenko Prvacki, Aubrey Mellor, Nur Hidayah,
Professor Adam Knee, Professor Michael Earley, Bala Starr, Lee See Ee,
Dr. Stephanie Burridge, Daphne Foo, Catherine Ong, and Chia Boon Hee.
Special thanks to our inspiring Library Director, Malar Villi Nadeson,
and Library Manager, Ashalatha Krishnan, who personally assisted in
researching some of the literature reviews and securing important texts.
Particular thanks and admiration to my brilliant assistant, Elamathi
Vijaya Kumar, who has worked tirelessly in helping to bring the book to
publication. Ela has been exceptional in researching, requesting, and secur-
ing scores of images, and numerous copyright permissions for the many
quotations included in the book. I also offer sincere thanks to all the writers
I have read and referenced, whose work has informed my understandings
and helped inspire my own ideas and discourse; and to all the artists I have
examined here—and I beg their forgiveness should there be any inaccuracies
or misinterpretations.
Great thanks to my colleagues and friends at Routledge, including Barry
Clarke with whom I first discussed the idea and who encouraged me to take
it forward, and to my fantastic editor, Laura Hussey, who has overseen the
project with such positivity and enthusiasm. Many thanks also to everyone
involved in the editing and production process including Claire Margerison,
Dr. Sudhi Singh, and Daniel Fowler.
Finally, eternal thanks to my wife Prue for her patience, encouragement,
love, and inspiration; and for her expert eye in reading the various drafts
and giving so many insightful suggestions, as well as her ever wise guidance
on what to leave out. She has improved the book immeasurably.
Parts of the book have been published previously in different forms in the
following journal articles and chapters in edited books. They are reproduced
with the kind permission of the publishers.