record

Thesis Info

LABS ID
00639
Thesis Title
Artistic Research in Experiments between Art and Technology. With the Examples of Experiments in Art and Technology, Performance Electrics, and Hexagone Scène Nationale Arts Sciences Meylan
Author
Maximilian Lehner
2nd Author
3rd Author
Degree
M.A.
Year
Number of Pages
134
University
University of Stuttgart
Thesis Supervisor
Catrin Misselhorn
Supervisor e-mail
Other Supervisor(s)
Daniel Hornuff
Language(s) of Thesis
German
Department / Discipline
Philosophy
Languages Familiar to Author
German, English, French, Italian
URL where full thesis can be found
Keywords
artistic research, art-technology cooperation, technology in the arts
Abstract: 200-500 words
Within history of modern art artists machine art plays an ambiguous role. Whereas the spheres of art, science, and technology are already differentiated in beginning 19th century, artistic approaches to machines can be considered between fear and reserved fascination—even Industrialization cannot change this difficult relation. After World War II more and more technology enters everyday life and changes it decisively. It is the time when artist such as Jean Tinguely and Robert Rauschenberg start to incorporate developments from engineering into their works productively. With the foundation of “Experiments in Art and Technology” in 1966—an idea by Rauschenberg and engineer Billy Klüver—an opportunity to get funding for cooperative projects in the fields of engineering and art is created for the first time. The thesis starts with this example and examines two more: “Performance Electrics”, founded by artist Pablo Wendel, a German (art) electricity supplier developing sculptures and installations generating electricity, and „Hexagone Scène Nationale Arts Sciences Meylan“, a French theater which has become a platform of exchange between industry and art under the current director Antoine Conjard. These examples show how cooperations between artists and engineers can create art as well as genuine technological innovation. The results correspond with the requirements of Artistic Research. Admittedly, they do not satisfy the formal criteria of knowledge production within art as the discussion demands. Especially the discourse in the German-speaking countries is problematic as it focusses strongly on the concept of a specific artistic knowledge which is valid for all fields of art. E.A.T.‘s, Performance Electrics‘, and L’Hexagone’s work shows that Artistic Research is more in the field of applied (mode 2) research, which is permeable toward other sciences and practices. Furthermore, the examples prove that art needs this freedom of methodology to subsist as art within a research context.