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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00632
- Thesis Title
- Naturalism in Synthetic Aesthetics
- Author
- David Martinez-Moreno
- E-mail
- dmarti10 AT artic.edu
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- Low-Residency Masters in Fine Arts
- Year
- 07/2017
- Number of Pages
- 22
- University
- School of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Thesis Supervisor
- Tyler Coburn
- Supervisor e-mail
- tcoburn2 AT saic.edu
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Jens Hauser
- Language(s) of Thesis
- English
- Department / Discipline
- Art and Technology/Low-Residency MFA
- Copyright Ownership
- David Martinez-Moreno
- Languages Familiar to Author
- English/Spanish
- URL where full thesis can be found
- vufind.carli.illinois.edu/vf-sai/
- Keywords
- Bonsai, BioArt, Synthetic Aesthetics, Nature, Naturalism, Entropy, negentropy
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- This paper presents the thesis of Naturalism in Synthetic Aesthetics which hypothesize the aesthetics and ethics of living organisms as works of art.
The term Synthetic Aesthetics is taken from the projects and consequent book with the same title. The work associated with Synthetic Aesthetics is based on the scientific paradigm of engineering biological machines. Naturalism in Synthetic Aesthetics incorporates this new paradigm and scrutinizes what it means to author a nature through the Biotechnological means that empower Naturalism as code.
To define Naturalism in Synthetic Aesthetics it is necessary to frame it from an art historical account of Naturalism which appropriates forms, textures, colors, from the cultural conception of Nature and utilizes those elements to construct a frame for artworks. A parallel is drawn between Renaissance Naturalism and the biotechnological paradigm of DNA as a code for the assembly of living cultural objects.
The Aesthetics proposed in this paper draw from the Japanese craft of Bonsai. The social construction of Nature in the west is contrasted with the Japanese term of atarimae, which considers an alternative ethical position in favor of the cultural living organism.
Progressing from the atarimae aesthetics, Naturalism in Synthetic Aesthetics addresses the ethical question of authoring Nature and the instrumentalization of organisms by offering an alternative definition of life. This new definition of life is proposed as negentropy. In continuation, it is argued that the negation of entropy as life incorporates culture as a living organism.
Lastly, Naturalism in Synthetic Aesthetics Naturalism in Synthetic Aesthetics is juxtaposed within the context of the expanding field of what could be considered BioArt; in an effort to join the conversation of current Art and Biotechnology practices.