The Metamorphic Role of the Artist Across the Digital Technology Timeline

The intersection of art and technology has reached unprecedented heights, with digital technologies emerging as novel tools and collaborators in the realm of artistic creation. How do artists navigate the intricate web of challenges (concerns of authenticity, authorship, and copyright) while embracing the potential of digital collaboration and appropriation? From ‘isolated genius’ to ‘entrepreneur’, the fusion of art and technology has redefined what it means to be an artist, with tasks such as coding, digital rendering, data analysis, as well as social networking, becoming as crucial as traditional craftsmanship. Through a chronological exploration of pivotal moments, Jelena Guga will uncover how artists have not merely reacted to digital trends but actively forged new pathways, redefining their identity and impact and unveiling a narrative of adaptability, innovation, and reflection.Information on the symposium, here: https://ulus.rs/blog/iaa-europe-symposium-arts-and-robots/?lang=en Recording of the symposium, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UNUyesqlY

In the Machine We Trust: Cyborg Body of Philosophy, Religion and Fiction

The idea of mind uploading shows that in the philosophical sense, we are still deeply embedded in Cartesian dualisms and Newtonian mechanical ways of thinking. Moreover, this idea neglects our material existence, i.e. our embodied reality, no matter how obsolete or imperfect or unable to cope with exponential technological advancements it may be. In this paper I will attempt to step out of Eurocentric and anthropocentric thought in two ways. Firstly, by introducing the Chinese philosophical concept of Tao - through the etymology of the written character Tao I will comparatively analyze it with the concept of the Machine-God. Secondly, the desire to leave the meat behind emerging from the body-mind split will be criticized through the concept of embodied consciousness. In order for a mind or any other immaterial phenomena to be uploaded into a machine, it first has to be measured, pragmatically proven and materialized. This shows the discrepancy between our mechanical hardware / the inert matter and dynamical wetware / living bodies. The paper will be an attempt to provide a platform for more inclusive, anti-essentialist ways of thinking and debating the complex and intimate relations with our machines and their potential to shape possible posthuman futures

Coding Architecture: Digital Urbanities in New Media Art

Throughout the history, cities have always been regarded as sites or centers of accumulation of political, economic, cultural, social and material resources. Today, in the age of ubiquitous computing, information and communication technologies have radically changed the role of cities as centers, transforming them into multiple nodes in the networks of dynamic data and communication flows, or into overexposed cities (P. Virilio). In other words, cities have entered a new mode of existence as non-geographic entities or “meta-cities” (W.Gibson) in which buildings are hardware and software is the way of life. In this paper, I will show how the convergence of digital and material spaces has affected the notions of architecture and urbanism and collapsed the boundaries between urban and rural, public and private, center and margin, near and far, here and there, etc. Through several examples of futuristic architectures in SF as well as through new media art practices which directly affect urban landscapes, I will discuss the notions of liquid or trans-architecture (M. Novak), relational architecture (R. Lozano-Hemmer) and living architecture (R. Armstrong) which, unlike traditional architectural practices, open up a space for renegotiations and newly emergent couplings between, reality and virtuality as well as between nature and artifice

Cyborg: From Science Fiction to Social Reality

The emerging technological developments across various scientific fields have brought about radical changes in the ways we perceive and define what it means to be human in today’s highly technologically oriented society. Advancements in robotics, AI research, molecular biology, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, medicine, etc., are mostly still in an experimental phase but it is likely that they will become a part of our daily experience. However, human enhancement and emergence of autonomous artificial beings have long been a part of futures imagined in SF and cyberpunk. While focusing on the phenomenon of cyborg as a product of both social reality and fiction, this paper will attempt to offer a new perspective on selected SF and cyberpunk narratives by treating them not only as fictions but as theories of the future as well

Telo i identitet u digitalnom prostoru

Upotreba digitalnih tehnologija u svim aspektima svakodnevnog života otvorila je do sada nezamislive mogućnosti kao što su trenutni pristup informacijama, prisutnost na bilo kojoj tački planete, multipliciranje i menjanje identiteta, ali i reartikulacija i rekonstrukcija telesnosti. U cyberpunk književnosti, novomedijskim umetničkim praksama, sajber teorijama, SF filmovima i stripovima kao i naučnim istraživanjima, na različite načine prisutna je težnja ka napuštanju smrtnog fizičkog tela i pohranjivanju besmrtnog uma u digitalne baze podataka gde možemo biti šta i ko god poželimo. U odnosu na savremene tehnologije, biološko telo je često smatrano sekundarnim, zastarelim i kao takvo nije „osposobljeno“ da se nosi sa eksponencijalnom brzinom tehnoloskog razvoja. Otud ne čudi što mnoga istraživanja, bilo stručna ili popularna, ostavljaju problem telesnosti po strani fokusirajući se više na pitanja identiteta, svesti i obestelovljenja u digitalnim svetovima. Stoga ću ovoj disertaciji pokušati da ukažem na i predstavim one teorije koje su fokusirane na pitanja telesnosti te ću kroz njih u diskusiju o novomedijskim fenomenima i njihovom uticaju na društvenu realnost uvesti i fizičko telo. U izradi disertacije poći ću od tvrdnje da bez fizičkog tela ne postoji ni virtuelno ni realno, a sa ciljem da upravo ukažem na značaj fizičkog tela u biološko-tehnološkim interfejsima, odnosno na načine na koje se menja uloga tela i telesnosti u okruženju opšte virtuelizacije, i samim tim na načine na koje te promene funkcije tela utiču na ontološki opstanak čoveka kao biološke jedinke. Problem konstruisanja identiteta i procesa identifikacije će kroz antiesencijalistički teorijski okvir biti praćene kroz dve različite, ali međusobno povezane faze evolucije globalnog umrežavanja, a to su Web 1.0 i Web 2.0 platforme. Dok su Web 1.0 platforme bile zasnovane na tekstualnoj reprezentaciji i igri identitetima u smislu da možemo biti sve ono što nismo u fizičkoj realnosti, Web 2.0 platforme zasnovane na društvenim mrežama transponuju identitete iz fizičke realnosti u domen virtuelnog. Ipak i ti realni identiteti u virtuelnom okruženju pokazuju se kao konstrukti, s obzirom da su zasnovani na selektivnoj reprezentaciji idealizovanog jastva. Povratnom spregom, to dalje pokreće pitanje ne samo kvaliteta uspostavljanja međuljudskih odnosa i komunikacije, već i načina na koje doživljavamo i definišemo sebe u fizičkom okruženju. Brisanje granice između realnog i virtuelnog, privatnog i javnog, povlači jedno osnovno pitanje na koje će ovaj rad pokušati da odgovori, a to je: Šta znači biti čovek u današnjem svetu opšte ekranizacije i digitalizacije kada je prelivanje digitalnih interakcija u fizičko okruženje koje se ogleda u društvenim, kulturalnim i političkim aktivnostima, intervencijama, subverzijama, učinilo razdvajanje „realnog“ i „virtuelnog“ prostora kao i dualističko definisanje jastva zastarelim konceptom. Da li je u sajber svetu išta više virtuelno i da li sajber svet uopšte postoji ako se zbog „virtuelne“ aktivnosti kao što je, na primer, post na društvenoj mreži Fejsbuk, može izgubiti posao ili je korporacija ta koja individuama diktira i definiše dozvoljenu manifestaciju digitalno konstruisanog identiteta? Pored svega toga, ono što nam još uvek ipak pruža privid sigurnosti i diferencijacije realnog i virtuelnog jeste površina ekrana kao interfejs, odnosno granica gde prestaje realno a počinje virtuelno. Sve što je sa druge strane ekrana, poput iskrivljenog ogledala, dopušta nam da racionalizujemo i simplifikujemo granicu između onoga što nas definiše u fizičkoj realnosti i onoga kako sebe konstruišemo u onlajn interakcijama. Ali, šta kada se ekran, to crno ogledalo razbije i kada naše telo kao interfejs postane odgovorno za to drugo Ja ili digitalni alter ego? S tim u vezi, posebna pažnja biće posvećena konceptu napuštanja ekrana i novim vrstama interfejsa koji reartikulišu odnose korporealnosti i virtuelnosti. Gestualni interfejsi kao novi miš, novi klik, ili novi dodir ekrana bez ekrana, kao i hologramske projekcije koji ulaze u svakodnevnu praksu, otvoriće mnogo dalekosežnija pitanja psihosomatske prirode: Ako na primer, jedni drugima budemo prisutni, odnosno teleprisutni putem holograma koje pak pokrećemo telesnom gestikulacijom, da li će to značiti diferencijaciju stepena telesnosti u smislu valorizacije i hijerarhije telesnosti, i kako ćemo biti u stanju da odredimo šta je vrednije, prisutnije i stvarnije, projekcija ili realno telo? I da li će uopšte biti razlike između telesno manipulisane projekcije i samog tela koje već prolazi kroz procese kiborgizacije? Rečima Vilijema Gibsona, budućnost je već ovde, samo nije ravnomerno raspoređena.The ubiquitous use of digital technology in all aspects of daily life has opened up the unprecedented possibilities such as immediate access to information, (tele)presence at any place on the planet, multiplication and modification of identity, as well as rearticulation and reconstruction of embodiment. In cyberpunk literature, new media art practices, cyber theories, SF films and comic books, and scientific research, there is often a tendency to leave the mortal physical body behind in order to upload the immortal mind into the vast realm of the digital where one can be whatever or whomever she/he wants. In relation to modern technology, the biological body is often regarded as obsolete for not being "equipped" to cope with the exponential speed of technological development. Hence it is not surprising that many studies leave aside the problem of embodiment by focusing more on the issues of identity, consciousness and disembodiment in digital worlds. Therefore, this dissertation will attempt to bring attention to and represent those theories that focus on embodiment in technologically mediated environments, thus reintroducing the physical body into discussions of new media phenomena and the ways they affect social reality today. In this dissertation I will start from the hypothesis that without the physical body there is no virtual or real. The aim is to underline the significance of physical body in biotechnological interfaces and discuss and analyze the ways in which the role of body and embodiment changes in ubiquitous virtual environments, as well as to map the ways in which technology alters bodily functions thus affecting ontological survival of humans as biological species. The issues of constructing identities and identification processes will be observed through antiessentialist theoretical framework and mapped through two different but mutually intertwined phases in the evolution of global networks – Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 platforms. While Web 1.0 platforms were based on the textual representations and identity play allowing us to become everything we are not and can never be in the physical reality, Web 2.0 platforms that are specific for social networking delegate identities of physical reality in the virtual domain. However, presumed “real” identities manifest themselves as constructs in virtual environment since they are based on a selective representation of an idealized self. Through feedback loop, this phenomenon further highlights the question of not only the quality of interpersonal relationships and communication, but also the way that we perceive and define ourselves in the physical environment. Dispersion of boundaries between real and virtual, private and public, entails a fundamental question that this dissertation will attempt to answer: What does it mean to be human in today's world of digitalization when the explosion of digital imagery and interactions into the physical environment has so profoundly affected social, cultural and political activities, interventions and subversions, turning both the distinction between "real" and "virtual" spaces and dualistic ways of defining the self into rather obsolete concepts. Is anything at all “virtual” in cyberspace, i.e. can cyberspace be defined as virtual at all when, for example, because of an activity such as posting on Facebook one can lose a job or has to let corporation dictate and define what is and what is not appropriate in one’s digitally constructed identity? Nevertheless, we are still comforted by the illusion that our screen as interface separates the real and the virtual, functioning as the boundary or line marking the end of real and the beginning of virtual. Everything situated on the other side of the screen, like distorted mirror, allows us to rationalize and simplify existence of the boundary between what defines us in physical reality and what we are as constructs in online interactions. But what happens when the screen, that black mirror, breaks into pieces thus enabling the body as interface to become responsible for the other Self or the digital alter ego? In this regard, special attention will be given to the concept of abandoning the screen and turning to the emerging new interfaces that rearticulate the relation between corporeality and virtuality. Gestural interfaces as a new mouse, a new click, or a new touch screen without a screen will, coupled up with holographic projections that have already found their way into the physical public spaces, open up a multitude of far-reaching questions of psychosomatic nature: If, for example, we are present/telepresent to one another via holograms animated via corporeal gestures, would it mean the differentiation of degree of corporeality in terms of valorization and hierarchy of embodiment? How will we be able to determine what is more valuable, more present and real – projection or materiality of the body? And finally, will there be any difference at all between gesturally manipulated projection and the real body that is already deeply caught in the process of cyborgization? In William Gibson’s words, the future is already here - it's just not very evenly distributed

Procedural Aesthetics and the Emergence of NeuroArt

Although Neuroart is related to the concept of Neuroaesthetics (S. Zeki), which is based on a scientific approach to aesthetic perception of art, and to the concepts of Neuroplastic arts (G. Novakovic) and Neuromedia (J. Scott) endorsing collaboration between artists and neuroscientists, it is at the same time distinct from them. We are using the term literally to refer to those artworks that are based on neural / brain waves signals and the use of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) or more specifically, EEG headsets in the production and display of artworks. We focus on EEG-based sound art, visual arts, interactive installations, and performance arts, and we identify Neuroart as a novel, emerging form or sub-genre of new media art. However, we do not limit Neuroart to human-generated artworks only. Given that Neuroart applies to detection or inspection of neural electric signals, we claim that the electric nature of those signals also applies to processes inherent in machine processing or neural computing such as Google Deep Dream and other generic platforms that lay the foundations for computer and/or AI generated art forms including database art, software art, visualization art, sonification art as well as those artworks that result in material artifacts presented in traditional exhibition format. We additionally claim that regardless whether the artworks of Neuroart are driven by a human or machine, they can have the same aesthetic discursive value, but within a context of a newly defined discipline of aesthetics that is Procedural Aesthetics. The Procedural Aesthetics (or the aesthetics of signal), can be understood as the discursiveness of the very process of signals (intensities) emission before they enter the sphere of conscious cognition. It is a pre-receptive and pre-semantics phenomenon. It deals with the processes otherwise not available to human perceptive apparatus, trying to reveal them, unmask them, by offering them to interpretation as cultural artifacts. And in order to do this, it relies heavily on technology and technical equipment allowing us the access to these ‘invisible’ processes through visualization, sonification, textualization, mapping and other forms of interpretable representations displayed as artworks

Utelovljenje Metaverzuma kao arificijelnog života: na preseku medijskih i 4E kognitivnih teorija

In the last decades of the 20th century we have seen media theories and cognitive sciences grow, mature and reach their pinnacles by analysing, each from their own disciplinary perspective, two of the same core phenomena: that of media as the environment, transmitter and creator of stimuli, and that of embodied human mind as the stimuli receiver, interpreter, experiencer, and also how both are affected by each other. Even though treating a range of very similar problems and coming to similar conclusions, this still has not brought these two disciplines closer together or resulted in their interdisciplinary approach. They did coalesce in regards to traditional media such as film, but more points of connection are needed for untangling interactive and immersive media environments and their effects on human cognition, action, and perception. With the rise of VR and VR-like systems, especially as they start to evolve into the Metaverse as their main platform of interconnectivity, the tissue of the body becomes almost physically intertwined with that of the virtual surrounding it inhabits through immersion. Simultaneously, the interest in these disciplines arises anew, and especially the need to use their concepts in an interdisciplinary way. This paper’s main interest is to bring these disciplines together in problematising the position of a physical body and its sensory-motor capabilities and their development within synthetic surroundings as Metaverse and anticipate potential downsides of Metaverse’s uncontrolled growth. We will do so also by looking into Metaverse as an artificial-life-like phenomenon, following artificial-life rules and evolving a completely new ‘corporeality’, a body which is completely adapted to virtual spaces. We call this body the Dry Body, an entity sharing cognitive resources with the physical body it is not a physical part of, but has to extend to.U poslednjim decenijama 20. veka videli smo kako medijske teorije i kognitivne nauke rastu, sazrevaju i dostižu svoje vrhunce analizirajući, svaki iz svoje disciplinske perspektive, dva srodna osnovna fenomena: medije kao okruženje, prenosioce i kreatore stimulusa i otelovljeni ljudski um u dinamičnoj interakciji sa okruženjem, kao i načine na koje mediji i um utiču na i transformišu jedno drugo. Iako tretiraju čitav niz veoma sličnih problema i dolaze do sličnih zaključaka, to ipak nije dovoljno približilo ove dve discipline niti je rezultiralo njihovim interdisciplinarnim pristupom rešavanju ovih pitanja. Pomak je napravljen kroz kognitivne teorije medija u kojima je fokus uglavnom na tradicionalnim medijskim formama poput filma. Ipak, potrebno je uspostavljanje više tačaka povezivanja za rasplet interaktivnih i imerzivnih medijskih okruženja i njihovih efekata na ljudsku kogniciju, akciju i percepciju. Sa usponom sistema virtuelne realnosti (VR), posebno u trenutku kada počinju da evoluiraju u Metaverzum kao svoju glavnu platformu povezivanja, tkivo tela postaje gotovo fizički isprepleteno sa tkivom virtuelnog okruženja u kom egzistira kroz uranjanje. Istovremeno sa Metaverzumom, iznova se javlja interesovanje za ove dve discipline, a posebno potreba da se njihovi koncepti koriste na interdisciplinaran način. Cilj ovog rada je da spoji ove discipline u problematizaciji položaja fizičkog tela i njegovih senzorno-motoričkih sposobnosti i njihovog razvoja u sintetičkom okruženju kao što je Metaverzum, kao i da predvidi potencijalne negativne strane nekontrolisanog rasta Metaverzuma. Metaverzum ćemo posmatrati kao fenomen veštačkog života, prateći pravila veštačkog života i razvijajući potpuno novu „telesnost“, odnosno telo koje je potpuno prilagođeno virtuelnim prostorima. Ovo telo nazivamo Suvim telom. Ono je entitet koji deli kognitivne resurse sa fizičkim telom čiji nije fizički deo, već se na njega proširuje. Polazimo od premise da svaka nova, inovativna tehnologija u svom razvoju sledi pravila algoritama rasta, što znači da se njeno konačno ‘krajnje stanje’ nikada ne može znati ili predvideti unapred, kao ni promene koje ona donosi u postojeći svet i njegov ekosistem. Što je veća inovacija, to je veći uticaj i promena na stvarni stvarni svet i naša biološka tela u njemu. Metaverzum, kao krajnja tehnička inovacija u oblasti virtuelnosti i manifestacija veštačkog života koji evolutivno prioritizuje „suva tela“, nosi sa sobom značajne i nepredvidive načine na koje se naša biološka tela dalje koriste i razvijaju. Konačno, naglašavamo važnost kontrolisanog, praćenog i doziranog kognitivnog učešća u Metaverse-u, kako bi se uspostavio i sačuvao kognitivni balans između suvih tela i bioloških tela

Divine Genius, Subversive Hero, or Creative Entrepreneur? Exploring Various Facets of the Artist as a Mythical Figure

People have always related art to the creation and transmission of myths. While myth as a theme in art has been thoroughly addressed, research about the “mythic” nature of the artist figure is far less common. The 20th and 21st centuries brought challenges to the status of art and artists in society, historically situated archetypes and stereotypes that we associate with the figure of the “artist” still survive to this day (e.g. “genius”, “subversive artists”, “child prodigy”, “eccentric”, etc.). In this paper, we set out to analyze various tropes used persistently to describe artists and explore how relevant the resulting myths are in (self) perceptions of Serbian contemporary artists. Our multidisciplinary approach to this topic combines a historical­theoretical and empirical perspective. Through historical research of the relevant literature, we described and mapped the key tropes of the (mythical) artist figure as it developed in Western culture. In the theoretical analysis we address the inseparability of digital culture with everyday life of people today, which we call postdigital. We explore how the transition into contemporaneity affects the determination of the “artist­figure”, i.e., how it impacts the contemporary process of myth­making. Following our historical­theoretical analysis, we conducted five in­depth interviews with contemporary Serbian artists to understand better how relevant the artist­ myth tropes are for their self­perception.Tema broja - Hit I identitet: kroskulturalni I intertemporalni pristup (ur. Đurđina Šijaković Maidanik) / Topic of the Issue - Myth and Identity: A Cross-Cultural and Intertemporal Approach (ed. Djurdjina Šijaković Maidanik)