How NFTs Are Driving the Latest Evolution of Art from Physical to Digital in a Pandemic Age.

Prior to 2014, the art industry did not know a lot about NFTs and the benefits of blockchain technology. That is because when the technology was created in 2008, it had nothing to do with art. In fact, it was primarily developed as a way to decentralize a broken financial system.1 And, even when the art industry began successfully using the technology in 2017, it was the digital art world and not traditional artists, galleries, auction houses, or dealers who first recognized the benefit of using digital tokens to represent ownership of a unique asset. So why now are NFTs getting so much attention with more traditional art segments? You may have heard the phrase, “necessity is the mother of invention.” Loosely interpreted, there are times in life, like during a crisis, that you need to find innovative ways to survive. For many in the art industry the latest crisis began in 2020 when Covid-19 single-handedly, and without much warning, caused art galleries across the globe to close their physical spaces, lay off employees, and cancel art fairs and exhibits for the unforeseeable future. The outlook was dire. Then, within a year, a ray of hope emerged in the art world in the form of Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs). This paper will illustrate how NFTs became the latest in a long line of technology innovations to breathe new life into the business of creating, selling, and buying art just when the world was shutting down. Not only did interest in NFTs explode during the past two years among collectors, but NFTs also gave artists and galleries a new way to meet the demand of current clients, reach a whole new audience of buyers, and protect the true value of their work at the same time. My research shows that the Covid-19 pandemic was the catalyst for a new generation of innovation in the art sector, and a turning point for the previously digital adverse art community. I will also provide evidence to support how Non-Fungible Tokens became the latest disruption in the business of creating, showcasing, owning, and trading art in a way that will have lasting and positive

O beijo da morte e o seu contexto cultural e social: uma introdução à emergência da arte tecnológica ou digital

Neste texto, averiguamos a emergência das práticas artísticas englobadas pelo termo Arte, Ciência e Tecnologia (ACT) nos Estados Unidos e na Europa. Normalmente reconhecida pelos rótulos de Arte Digital ou Tecnológica, a ACT é uma designação generalista que discutivelmente engloba as práticas artísticas preocupadas com a adoção, teorização e difusão das novas tecnologias oriundas do pós-guerra. Não obstante, argumentamos que é a configuração institucional que melhor demarca a fronteira da ACT. Por meio de uma leitura despreocupada em legitimar essa produção, recordamos o contexto social e cultural que possibilitou o seu surgimento. O resultado é a constatação de uma prática isolada, com alto grau de especialização e, principalmente, com um alto grau de autonomia em relação à arte contemporânea. In this text, we investigate the emergence of the artistic practices designated by the term Art, Science and Technology (AST) in the United States and Europe. Usually recognized by the labels Digital or Technological Art, AST is an umbrella term that arguably includes artistic practices concerned with the adoption, theorization and diffusion of new postwar technologies. Nevertheless, we argue that it is the institutional configuration that best delimits the boundaries of AST. Through an investigation unconcerned with the legitimation of this production, we review the social and cultural context that made the AST possible. Regarding its relation with contemporary art, our results ascertain an isolated, highly specialized and mainly autonomous artistic practice.&nbsp

Redefining Leadership in the 21st Century: the view from cybernetics

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Cybernetic melancholia: Chris Ware’s Building Stories and cultural informatics

Chris Ware’s formal and stylistic inventiveness in his 2012 graphic narrative, Building Stories, presents a challenge to traditional theories of the form. This essay argues, however, that Ware’s experimentation can be understood through the descriptive language of cybernetic thought. Whilst the use of informatics may suggest a neutral or affectless register, Building Stories in fact presents a convergence between cybernetics and the affect of melancholia. Indeed, this is a convergence already suggested by Freud’s model of the melancholic, which functions analogously to a reflexive feedback system. Having located Ware’s graphic narrative within a longer trajectory of the exchanges between informatics and post-war literature, this essay identifies three concepts from that tradition – homeostasis, autopoiesis, and digitality – to understand Building Stories’ formal properties. The term, ‘cybernetic melancholia’, is proposed to describe the convergence between such properties and the register of melancholic affect; a convergence which, it is argued, represents a significant means of expressing the experience of a contemporary moment in which information systems are an epistemic ubiquity and melancholia is a prevalent affective register

Arte, estética e robôs: uma filosofia da interação

The concept of interaction is key in the contemporary development of social robotics. We do discuss, however, the convenience of a definition that prioritizes the robot’s programming successes and threatens to undermine its integration as an elemental dimension of human nature. Based on a definition from analytical philosophy, in which the definitely human horizon of the concept of interaction is not devalued, we carry out a «search in the field of robotic art» as a harmless territory for experimentation in which aesthetic regulations are applied. independently, therefore, of other interests related to utility or industrial application. Special attention is paid to those cases oriented to machine / human interaction, and we finally apply a hierarchy of levels of interaction, which is followed by a series of provisional conclusions.El concepto de interacción es clave para el desarrollo contemporáneo de la robótica social. Se discute, sin embargo, la conveniencia de una definición que atienda los éxitos de programación del robot y amenace con menoscabar su integración como dimensión elemental de la naturaleza humana. Conforme a una definición proveniente de la filosofía analítica, en la que no se devalúa el horizonte definitivamente humano del concepto de interacción, se realiza un rastreo del arte robótico como territorio de experimentación inocuo en el que se aplica la normativa estética, con independencia, por lo tanto, de otros intereses relacionados con la utilidad o la aplicación industrial. Se presta atención particular sobre aquellos casos orientados a la interacción máquina/humano, y se aplica, finalmente, una jerarquía de niveles de interacción a la que sigue una serie de conclusiones provisionales.O conceito de interação é uma das chaves para o desenvolvimento contemporâneo da robótica social. No entanto, a conveniência de uma definição que aborda os sucessos de programação do robô e ameaça minar sua integração como uma dimensão elementar da natureza humana é discutida. A partir de uma definição da filosofia analítica, em que o horizonte definitivamente humano do conceito de interação não é desvalorizado, examinamos o campo da arte robótica como um território de experimentação inócua em que regulações estéticas são aplicadas, independentemente, para portanto, de outras. interesses relacionados com a utilidade ou a aplicação industrial. É dada especial atenção aos casos orientados para a interação máquina / humano e, por fim, é aplicada uma hierarquia de níveis de interação, seguida de uma série de conclusões provisórias

A contribuição de exposições de arte, ciência e tecnologia a partir de 1968 para a historiografia da arte contemporânea

Tese (Doutorado) – Instituto de Artes da Universidade de Brasília, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Arte, 2015.A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo desenvolver uma análise crítico-reflexiva sobre a contribuição de algumas exposições de “Arte, ciência e tecnologia” (ACT) ocorridas a partir de 1968 até o ano de 2012, para tornar viável a construção de uma historiografia da arte contemporânea (HAContemp). Desse modo, estrutura sua abordagem em cinco capítulos, em que o capítulo 1 discute dissensos conceituais a respeito das terminologias “arte contemporânea” e ACT, trazendo o conceito de ciberespaço, que funciona como um conceito operacional para o desenvolvimento da pesquisa. O capítulo 2 trata sobre a curadoria e suas particularidades nas mostras de ACT, e discute a inserção da produção de ACT no campo da arte, a partir de três exposições e seus projetos curatoriais. O capítulo 3 apresenta duas bienais brasileiras com mostras específicas de ACT e a busca pelo seu processo de legitimação, tomando como base os projetos curatoriais. No capítulo 4, defende-se o processo de consolidação da produção artística de ACT, a partir de duas situações expositivas e seus discursos curatoriais. Por fim, o capítulo 5 retoma os questionamentos da pesquisa, respondendo-os a partir da abordagem sobre as exposições de ACT, apresentando essa produção sob o entendimento do que fora denominado no contexto dessa tese, de conceitos revisitados e conceitos instaurados no campo da arte. Apresenta também, argumentos e situações sobre o modo como a produção de ACT se relaciona com o sistema da arte contemporânea, a partir das publicações “Historicizar Arte e Tecnologia: fabricar um método, estabelecer um cânone” (2009) e New Media, Art-Science, andContemporary Art: Toward a HybridDiscourse (2011),de Edward A. Shanken, com o objetivo de defender uma historiografia da arte contemporânea (HAContemp) que compreenda a produção de ACT em seu discurso poético e teórico.This dissertation aims to develop a critical and reflexive analysis of the contribution of a number of “Art, science and technology” (ACT, in the Portuguese acronym) exhibitions that took place from 1968 to 2012, with a view to enabling the creation of a historiography of contemporary art. In this context, the approach is structured into five chapters, the first of which discusses conceptual dissents over the “contemporary art” and ACT terminologies, introducing the cyberspace concept, which is used as an operational concept in the development of the research. Chapter 2 focuses on curatorship and its aspects in the ACT exhibitions, discussing how ACT production is inserted in the art field, based on three exhibitions and its curatorship projects. Chapter 3 presents two Brazilian biennial international exhibitions with specific ACTsegments and the pursuit of their legitimation process based on the curatorship projects. Chapter 4 upholds the process of consolidation of ACT art production, relying on two expository situations and their curating discourses. Lastly, chapter 5 reviews the research questions, providing answers based on the approach to ACT exhibitions, featuring such production in the light of the understanding of the conclusions of this dissertation, of revisited concepts and of established concepts in the art field. It also presents arguments and situations related to the way ACT production is linked to the contemporary art system, based on Edward A. Shanken’s publications “Historicizar Arte e Tecnologia: fabricar um método, estabelecer um cânone” (2009) and “New Media, Art-Science, and Contemporary Art: Toward a Hybrid Discourse” (2011), with the aim of supporting a historiography of contemporary art that encompasses ACT production in its poetic and theoretical discourses

The Socio-Temporary in Architecture: Territories of Second-Order Cybernetics

The temporary in architecture is a state of territorial instability that emerges out of interactions between transdisciplinary narratives and architectural theory and its practice. This article extends this notion to the socio-temporary, which is a state arising from constant synergies between the social context and worldmaking. Such narratives were originally influenced by the field of cybernetics and later on by second-order cybernetics reflected in the emergent participatory art practice of the mid-twentieth century through transdisciplinary research. Derived from the theoretical underpinning of this article a simulation is exhibited, which illustrates theoretically elements of Varela and Maturana’s autopoietic system behaviour and its close relation to temporality in the worldmaking of architecture. This is a theoretical article – with an element of practice – that seeks to highlight the temporality of the process of worldmaking in architecture

Technoscience Art: A Bridge between Neuroesthetics and Art History?

One of the recent and exciting developments in mainstream art history is its confrontation with the cognitive sciences and neurology. This study is based on the problems these disciplines face before they can contribute to each other. We inspect several critical issues resulting from this encounter, especially in the context of the recently developing field of neuroesthetics. We argue that it is the language barrier between the disciplines, rather than any fundamental conceptual divison, that causes the lack of understanding on both sides. Shared terms in arts and neuroscience are elusive, and the different connotations of extant terms in these separate disciplines must be addressed. We propose technoscience art as a ground where joint terminology may be developed, an audience familiar to the concerns of both sides can be formed, and a new generation of scientifically-knowledgeable artists and scientists can interact for their mutual benefit

Conversational Environments Revisited

Designers do not require the use of the most advanced electrical, mechanical & computational engineering to build highly sophisticated interactive devices, art & architecture. Instead what is crucial is that the conceptual framework within which they are conceived has a thorough understanding of interaction. A common current misconception fostered by so called 'human computer interaction' design is that by giving functional devices, or aesthetic works of art & architecture, the ability to 'React' in some way to the stimuli of a 'User', qualifies this artefact as 'Interactive'. Such an over simplification trivialises the powerful & productive quality of interaction. This paper insists on Interactivity as a more productive & advanced form of Reactivity, & explains the process of interaction as a conversational activity between participants. The conversational model is examined through this authors recent art installation & reflects on the powerful precedent Gordon Pask provides for understanding interaction through the experimental machines that he built to embody his Conversation Theories