The use of the body of the artist in movement and the machine in generative art

By: Adriana López Valentín

Image by Dmitri Posudin for Pexels

Image by Dmitri Posudin for Pexels

Introduction

The following essay deals with the body of the artist in movement and the machine and the use of an artificial language that is inserted in generative art. In generative art there is a close relationship between man and autonomous processes that can be machinic and come to be mediated by the development of an artificial language that becomes natural. Through this, the artist creates a set of rules which can be developed autonomously to give rise to his work.

These systems are mediated by mechanical objects, dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy defines the machine as: Object manufactured and composed of a set of pieces adjusted to each other that is used to facilitate or perform a particular job, generally transforming a form of energy into movement or work (RAE, 2017).

This fact makes us think about the role of art within this context; the body of the artist enters a system that becomes natural and is part of an impersonal world, where relations converge or are placed through the media, such as social networks, television, the press, the telephone cellular, among many others, which produce an alienation in the subject, and in turn focus attention on relationships and social rules. In today's globalized world, information technologies intervene increasingly in human social relations, because people are more dependent on media networks where their interpersonal interactions converge; Therefore, there is a strong saturation coming from the media.

As a consequence of the above, through its context, the artist directs the gaze towards situations immersed in culture, which provide knowledge through cultural objects belonging to the present (technological and analogous elements); these give an idea of he changing world and the relationships that are established in it; however, they not only show reality in space, but they also account for the background caused by the relationships between subjects and environments, space and time, as mentioned in the situationist manifesto:

"The artist as a producer intervenes, more and more, in the real time of the domain of experience, not in that of the deferred time of representation. This becomes all the more indisputable the more we understand the real time in terms of time of synchronization of experience, shared time and encounter between the subjects of knowledge and passion. Increasingly, the artist is a direct producer "(La Société Anonyme, 1997-2002).

Given the above, the works acquire value through the questioning of the fictitious reality that is lived and observed; art becomes independent and autonomous through artificial language. We should ask ourselves to what extent the artificial forms are static. It could be said that objects become generators of knowledge by approaching them while at the same time detonating the senses in humans. I interpret this as the way in which kinetic art proposes to see reality in different ways through objects that are fictions constructed from relationships with new media and process techniques; this is how fiction links the rational through the irrational, and vice versa, as happens in the natural and artificial environment.

The use of the body of artists in movement and the machine in generative art

Nowadays, many of the works are signified from the interaction they maintain with the spectators, in the manner of a kind of spatial construction of fictions. The artist is no longer limited to static support, but rather immerses himself in an aesthetic that is put into action and that proposes dialogue through objects that maintain increasingly artificial structures and become more opposed to the support analog that remains increasingly obsolete. This is how kinetic art is a branch of art that appears in acting and flows in an aesthetic of movement.

On the ephemeral attitude of things and material production, Bourriaud says: "What can not be commercialized is destined to disappear" (Bourriaud, 2008). This apparent singularity makes the subject standardized and trapped by the repetition of his actions, which day after day repeat the same patterns; incite to see an augmented reality or hyperreality; a collective consciousness and aesthetics. Given the above, it is possible to affirm that through the death of the idealist vision of modernity, the disintegration of a unique way of conceiving art and the attempt to reach a single reality in conjunction with the idea of rogress, is lost , since in the postmodernity, the excess reigns.

Therefore, it is important for me the approach of Philip Galanter on the idea of enerative art, because art itself has always entailed a system in its existence, since it involves a thought process that is materialized in a translated language and that In turn, it creates new languages nd ways of seeing reality. Also, Bourriaud talks about art that today "models possible universes", because it no longer requires a construction of the natural space (mimesis), but infinite practices where art becomes the search or encounter with action and the viewer, who Choose where to direct your gaze. The new aesthetic experience in art leaves behind the dominant and bureaucratic form that limited the vision of the works. The same author talks about the links that art allows, and that are made due to the symbolic relationship that images and objects maintain when they are recognized.

On the other hand, the encounter of the spectator with the relations of production that culminate in an independent work, is what generates possible connections and appreciations on the incorporation of new materials, such as software programs, machines, structures within the audiovisual field; in this clash join malleable thoughts that give the work a certain value and provoke different reactions, with which art becomes a state of encounter and movement. These encounters are also linked to the form, since it is exercised that it is exercised from the semblance of random elements that are contemplated, but at the same time they need to be executed, since they are oriented to action in movement and incubation of something beyond the exposed.

The spectator, like the producer, generates a certain semblance in the work.
Generative art is possible as the trigger or starting point that allows the viewer to open to questioning, to discover and realize the multiplicity of universes and new ways of observing and thinking reality or everyday life, all this through its introduction in the work, beyond mere contemplation. It is nothing more than presenting a form of confrontation through the relationships that are established and generated with the world.
On the other hand, the correspondence with the culture of saturation makes it possible for the social dynamic to go quickly, where production demands exceed and reach exaggeration. However, there is some repetitive renewal. Given that, we interpret that we do things for others, and yet we are products of others; the place and the space are in the subjects that are inserted in the social dynamics, that is why the object becomes a connector and link of the others, in this case of the social work.

With respect to the types of works that are included, there are the producers of chain relations.

Examples of this are the different works of Lyman Withaker; in them, the artist effects this dynamic by corresponding elements of the environment through mechanical sculptures driven by the wind, product of the fusion of a measurement process, the incorporation of mechanics and the use of different optimal materials for its creation.

The concrete artist and uses the media, whether people or devices to perform the work; the forms are obtained from the world. It is appropriate to think that art has become a semblance between different disciplines such as physics and engineering and, in turn, it is divided into different branches: programming, robotics and others. Finally, when talking about the inclusion of new languages, art relies on different surfaces and thematic productions.

Conclusions

It could be said that objects become generators of knowledge by approaching them while at the same time detonating the senses in humans. I interpret this as the way in which kinetic art proposes to see reality in different ways through objects that are fictions constructed from relationships with new media and process techniques; this is how fiction links the rational through the irrational, and vice versa, as happens in the natural and artificial environment.

Bibliography

Emiliano Causa Compilador. (2014).Invasión Generativa. Fronteras de la Realidad en las Tres Dimensiones, la robótica y la realidad aumentada. La Plata Buenos Aires, Argentina: AH.Bourriaud Nicolás. (2008). Estética Relacional. Buenos Aires, Argentina: AH. MESOGRAFÍA

La Societé Anonyme. (1997-2002). Redefinición de las prácticas artísticas. Tomado de Aleph La Societé Anonyme, en http://aleph-arts.org/lsa/lsa47/manifiesto.html. [03 de septiembre de 2015].