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Art, science, technology in late 20th century - A revisionist view of a revolution that never was

Lecturer: Paul Brown (Freelancing artist, author, lecturer, researcher from London, UK, and Brisbane, Australia )

Paul Cezanne saw a form of semiotics as a future framework for the visual arts. Charles Biederman in 1948 suggested that art is an ongoing exploration and revelation of visual cognition. By 1968, Jack Burnham suggested that one future for the arts was the creation of autonomous, self-evolving agents. Such observations from the recent history of art build the background for the main thesis of the lecture.

It is common belief that the ideologies of modernity and postmodernity are for the most part contradictory and mutually incompatible. The rift between them is considered historically relatively abrupt. Brown’s hypothesis, by contrast, suggests that this is not and never was the case. He argues for a reinvestigation of the period of transition with the aim of building bridges that will reunite these perceived ‚foes’, discover compatibilities and demonstrate historical mergence and emergence. Both the modern and postmodern appear as concurrent, valid, often complementary although at times divergent interpretations of the same phenomenon. ‚Difficult’ instantiations, like early computer art, can better be acknowledged and restored to their correct historical place.

Paul Brown is Chair of the Computer Arts Society. He is on the Editorial Advisory boards for LEA (Leonardo Electronic Almanac) and Digital Creativity. He is currently artist-in-residence of compArt | Center of Excellence Digital Art.
See http://www.paul-brown.com

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