Machine Art in the Twentieth Century by Andreas Broeckmann

This chapter discusses the ways in which twentieth-century artists have engaged with the aesthetic dimensions of algorithms and machine autonomy. It extends the narrative on the history of machine art from the previous chapter, beyond the program of Hultén’s 1968 “Machine” exhibition. It explains how the dialogue between art and cybernetics has evolved from the 1950s cybernetic artworks of Nicolas Schöffer, through the 1968 exhibition “Cybernetic Serendipity” and Jack Burnham’s concept of Systems Aesthetics, to the more contemporary software and robotic artworks of Max Dean, Seiko Mikami, and others. A focus is placed on the work of Canadian artist David Rokeby who has explored the aesthetics of the human encounter and interaction with technical systems since the 1980s. The analysis aims at adding two further aspects of the aesthetics of machines to the list of five such aspects developed in the previous chapter: one is the aspect of “interactivity”, which adds the dimension of a charged dialogue and exchange between human and machine; and the other is the aspect of “machine autonomy”, which becomes a determining factor in the human experience of increasingly independent and self-referential technical systems.

Download Full-text

Introduction: The Phantom of “Machine Art”

Machine Art in the Twentieth Century ◽

10.7551/mitpress/9780262035064.003.0002 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Andreas Broeckmann

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

The Other ◽

Human Relations ◽

Psychological Phenomena ◽

General Conception ◽

Machine Art ◽

Technical Systems ◽

Gender Specific ◽

Gender Aspect

This introductory chapter maps the conceptual context for the treatment of machine art that follows in the other chapters of the book. The chapter first presents the most important, partly conflicting definitions of the term “machine art” that have been deployed by different authors in the twentieth century, including Vladimir Tatlin, Alfred Barr, Bruno Munari, and the Berlin Dadaists. The chapter then outlines the most important concepts of the “machine”, a notion that has been used to denote technical, sociopolitical as well as psychological phenomena. The author proposes a general conception of the “machine” as a particular type of relation between individuals and the structures, or apparatuses, that bring about human subjectivities. The introduction concludes with a section on the gender aspect of human relations with technology, using the myths of the bachelor machine and the cyborg to describe supposedly gender-specific forms of access to the construction and usage of technical systems.

Download Full-text

Machine Art in the Twentieth Century

10.7551/mitpress/9780262035064.001.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Andreas Broeckmann

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

First Century ◽

Comprehensive Treatment ◽

Cultural Meaning ◽

Visual Artists ◽

Early Twenty ◽

Machine Art ◽

Historical Developments ◽

Machine Aesthetics ◽

Fundamental Shift

This book deals with the ways in which visual artists have reflected on the cultural meaning of technology, and the particular aesthetic of machines, throughout the twentieth century. It is the first comprehensive treatment of Machine Art and covers the most important historical developments as well as the key concepts of machine aesthetics. The book examines a variety of twentieth- and early twenty-first-century artworks that articulate people’s changing relationship with technical devices and infrastructures. It traces historical lineages that connect art of different periods, looking for continuities that link works from the end of the twentieth century to developments in the 1950s and 1960s and to works from the avant-gardes of the 1910s and 1920s. The investigation focuses on four specific domains of artistic engagement with technology: algorithms and machine autonomy; image, vision, and the advent of technical imaging; the human body in its relation to machines; and ecology. The book argues that systems thinking and ecological theories have brought about a fundamental shift in the cultural meaning of technology, which has also caused a change in the way technology impacts the formation of human subjectivity. This changing relationship between technology and subjectivity has been articulated by the different types of "machine art" throughout the twentieth century.

Download Full-text

Capitalist Development in the Twentieth Century: An Evolutionary-Keynesian Analysis. By John Cornwall and Wendy Cornwall. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. 269. $59.95.

The Journal of Economic History ◽

10.1017/s0022050703542462 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 63 (3) ◽

pp. 927-928

Author(s):

GEOFFREY M. HODGSON

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Twentieth Century ◽

Capitalist Development ◽

Cambridge University

Download Full-text

Some Polish Composers of To-Day

Tempo ◽

10.1017/s0040298200053596 ◽

1948 ◽

pp. 25-28

Author(s):

Andrzej Panufnik

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Fertile Soil ◽

Early Twentieth Century ◽

Progressive Group ◽

Karol Szymanowski

It is ten years since KAROL SZYMANOWSKI died at fifty-four. He was the most prominent representative of the “radical progressive” group of early twentieth century composers, which we call “Young Poland.” In their manysided and pioneering efforts they prepared the fertile soil on which Poland's present day's music thrives.

Download Full-text