Technological Imagination
Much early artistic activity with computers focused on their capabilities as manipulators of images and sound, probably because these were closest to historical forms of the arts. Current audiences marvel at the special effects and transformations of reality enabled by computers. Interactive media and immersive virtual reality engage contemporary artists working within the traditions of image and media. Ironically, the review of the theories presented later in this chapter will consider some that are skeptical about the “revolution”—placing computer imaging in a direct line stretching from Renaissance perspective through painting, photography, cinema, and television, to the present moment. In this analysis, the computer is not a radical breakthrough but rather a continuation of narratives emphasizing the unitary point of view, the controlled frame, and the manipulation of desire through image. It is a mistake, however, to focus on only one area of activity in trying to understand the underlying meaning of computers, their impact, and their relationship to culture and art. Computers and their associated technologies represent the culmination of many techno-cultural streams. The recognition of this diversity of historical lines of technological imagination can be useful in understanding future trends in the expansion of research and artistic activity. 1. Cybernetics/automatic control: how machines and animals can use information to control behavior, including examples such as Egyptian pneumatic sculptures, Tivoli Garden fountains, and steam engine and weapon control systems 2. Automata and robots: mechanical simulations of human and animal life. 3. Calculation and statistics: machines that could calculate and organize information, including slide rules, Babbage’s analytical engine, IBM’s business machines. 4. Image and sound machines: machines for recording, manipulating, and presenting, such as Egyptian water-activated instruments, Eastern and Western puppets, Renaissance camera obscura, Athanasius Kirshner’s slide projector, and nineteenth-century devices for telecommunications and image and sound presentation. Current theoretical discourse often identifies some aspect of these histories as the key to understanding the cultural meaning of computers and related technologies, for example, military weapons development, corporate and governmental desires for surveillance and control, or image manipulation and mass media as the
reinforce of cultural narratives. But there is also a danger in reducing the totality of techno-cultural development to these themes. The analysis validly deconstructs techno–self-delusion, but it runs the danger of discounting the role of true invention and inquiry. Contemporary cyber culture did not develop only out of military and corporate control contexts, but also out of religion, entertainment, science, and art. Its motivations include power, domination, economic acquisitiveness, fascination with surface, and also play, wonder, spiritual quests, and free-floating curiosity. One cannot understand contemporary research or technological art without acknowledging these diverse frameworks. This section previews frontier research agendas in digital technology fields such as new interfaces, artificial intelligence, and information visualization. It also analyzes theoretical speculation on cultural and aesthetic implications and reviews artistic experimentation in a variety of computer-related areas: digital video installation, interactive multimedia, virtual reality; installations that sense motion, gaze, facial expression, and touch; artificial intelligence, speech, surveillance, and information visualization. The focus on computers in these chapters is somewhat artificial.