preface
My machines
do not know whether they want to be considered art. All they know is
that they want to function without interruption, and they are not
bothered about where this happens. Usually they produce tangles of lines
that can stream out mile upon mile before your eyes.
They get along with your phone and with e-democracy, which they use to
hook up with the public, but they cannot stand hi-tech. What they have
in common with new media art is the fact that we are part of an
epoch-making technological upheaval whose implications need to be
understood. However, they have nothing to do either with digital
activism or with technological experimentation as an end in itself.
They also have little to do with virtuality. The flow of images they
have been generating without interruption for twenty years is
non-material but real, and it has an existence independent of the
observer. They are self-operating devices, machines programmed to
operate at a minimum, in an abstract, empty way, reduced to the
essence.
Arguably this makes them similar to conceptual research, although even
this definition may seem inadequate, since here the medium and the
theoretical object of the research are the same thing – and this opens
up a new situation.
The book brings together some conversations about art and the new
technologies, conducted between 2004 and 2011. Some are published here
for the first time, others have already been published, though not in
English.
In the main section there are conversations with curators and art
historians (such as Simonetta Lux, Domenico Scudero, Terri C. Smith and
Sandra Solimano) about my work as an artist, and also included are
extracts from critical essays and documentation relative to some of my
installations.
Another section of the book is comprised of some conversations that are
not about my work, but which offer a broader perspective on the
relationship between art and technology; involved in these other
conversations are several leading players in the fields of research and
experimentation, namely, Roy Ascott, Mario Costa, Eduardo Kac, Richard
Stallman and Gerfried Stocker.
My special thanks go out to all.
MB
October 2011
back cover
The book brings together some
conversations about art and the new technologies, conducted by Maurizio
Bolognini between 2004 and 2011. In the main these are conversations
with curators and art historians (including Simonetta Lux, Domenico
Scudero, Terri C. Smith and Sandra Solimano) about Bolognini’s artistic
work. These conversations bring out an interesting and unusual angle of
vision on neo-technological art, which the author describes as a vast
and heterogeneous area of research, part of which appears to be closer
to conceptual art.
Another section of the book includes some conversations which offer a
broader perspective on the relationship between art and technology.
Involved in these conversations are several leading players in the
fields of art research, art theory, and technological activism,
including Roy Ascott, Mario Costa, Eduardo Kac, Richard Stallman and
Gerfried Stocker. |
