Practicing Art/Science: Experiments in an Emerging Field

269 Pages·2019·14.335 MB·English

by  Philippe Sormani (Editor), Guelfo Carbone (Editor), Priska Gisler (Editor)

Practicing Art/Science
Over the last two decades, multiple initiatives of transdisciplinary collaboration
across art, science, and technology have seen the light of day. Why, by whom,
and under what circumstances are such initiatives promoted? What does their
experimental character look like – and what can be learned, epistemologically
and institutionally, from probing the multiple practices of “art/science” at work?
In answer to the questions raised, Practicing Art/Science contrasts topical posi-
tionsandinsightfulcasestudies,rangingfromthedetailedinvestigationof“artat
the nanoscale” to the material analysis of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and its cracked
smile. In so doing, this volume brings to bear the “practice turn” in science and
technology studies (STS) on the empirical investigation of multifaceted experi-
mentation across contemporary art, science, and technology in situ. Against the
background of current discourse on “artistic research,” the introduction not
only explains the particular relevance of the “practice turn” in STS to tackle the
interdisciplinary task at hand, but offers also a timely survey of varying strands
of artistic experimentation.
In bringing together ground-breaking studies from internationally renowned
scholars and upcoming researchers in sociology, art theory and artistic practice,
aswellashistoryandphilosophyofscience,PracticingArt/Sciencewillbeessential
reading for practitioners and professionals in said fields, as well as postgraduate
students and representatives of higher education and research policy more
broadly.
Philippe Sormani is Board member of the Science and Technology Studies Lab
at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and affiliated researcher at the Institut
Marcel Mauss, EHESS, in Paris, France.
GuelfoCarboneholdsaPhDinPhilosophyandHistoryofPhilosophy(Sapienza
University of Rome), and is a member of the Editorial Board of the philosophical
journal Pólemos. Materiali di filosofia e critica sociale.
Priska Gisler is head of the research cluster Intermediality at University of the
Arts, Bern, Switzerland, and board member of the Swiss Artistic Research
Network (SARN).
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Practicing Art/Science
Experiments in an Emerging Field
Edited by
Philippe Sormani, Guelfo Carbone and
Priska Gisler
Firstpublished2019
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Names:Sormani,Philippe,editor.|Carbone,Guelfo,1983-editor.|
Gisler,Priska,editor.
Title:Practicingart/science:experimentsinanemergingfield/editedby
PhilippeSormani,GuelfoCarbone&PriskaGisler.
Description:NewYork:Routledge,2018.|Includesbibliographical
referencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2017060793|ISBN9781138039414(hardback)
Subjects:LCSH:Scienceandthearts.|Interdisciplinaryapproachto
knowledge–Casestudies.
Classification:LCCNX180.S3P732018|DDC700.1/05–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2017060793
ISBN:978-1-138-03941-4(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-17588-1(ebk)
TypesetinGoudy
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Contents
List of figures vii
List of contributors x
Introduction: Experimenting with “art/science”? 1
GUELFOCARBONE,PRISKAGISLERANDPHILIPPESORMANI
PARTI
Positions 19
1 Engaging performative contradiction: Introducing the rhetorics
of practice and method to artist researchers 21
MICKWILSON
2 Contemporary art as a new paradigm?: An artistic revolution in
light of the history of science 45
NATHALIEHEINICH
3 Writing practices as experimental arenas at universities of
the arts 56
PRISKAGISLER
PARTII
Practices 79
4 Material play and artistic renderings: The production of
essentially useless nanotechnology 81
MICHAELLYNCH
5 Probing the art/science binary: Notes on the experimental
achievement of shared perception 101
DIRKVOMLEHN
vi Contents
6 From heterogeneity to hybridity?: Working and living in
arts-based research 125
BERNHARDBÖHM
7 Artworks in and as practices: The relevance of particulars 142
YAËLKREPLAK
8 On the discrepancy between objects and things:
An ecological approach 164
FERNANDODOMÍNGUEZRUBIO
PARTIII
Implications 195
9 Re-programmed art: Overcoming obsolescence and opening up
programmed and kinetic artworks 197
SERENACANGIANO,DAVIDEFORNARIANDAZALEASERATONI
10 Back to the future: Bogomir Ecker’s Tropfsteinmaschine as a
thought experiment in stone 216
JOHANNEMOHS
11 Epistemics and aesthetics of experimentation: Towards a
hybrid heuristics? 236
HANS-JÖRGRHEINBERGER
Index 250
fi
List of gures
3.1 Nina Hebting: Audiovisual installation, BA project 66
3.2 Nina Hebting: Audiovisual installation, BA project 67
3.3 Sarah Tenthorey: Presentation at exhibition, MA project 70
3.4 Sarah Tenthorey: Presentation at exhibition, MA project 71
3.5 Sarah Tenthorey: Presentation at exhibition, MA project 72
3.6 Sarah Tenthorey: Close up, presentation of MA project 73
4.1 Section ofelectronmicrographofbrain tissue. Across-section
of a rendering of brain tissue of a laboratory rat that had been
subjected to an experimental lesion. Labels in the margin refer
to degenerating axon profiles (d.g.), intact axon profile (a),
intact dendrite (d), post-synaptic density (p.s.d.),
mitochondrion (mit), and staining artifact (s.a.) 84
4.2 K. Eric Drexler, A Molecular Differential Gear, 1997 88
4.3 Assembly of NanoKid. Chemical diagram showing ‘coupling
of NanoKid’s upper and lower body to form NanoKid’ 90
4.4 Model of nanocar on gold surface (left); scanning tunneling
microscope image of an array of nanocars (small light clusters
of spots) on a surface that has an uneven ‘ridge’ running
through it. Nanocar molecules synthesized by James Tour and
Yasuhiro Shirai and imaged by Andrew Osgood and
Kevin Kelly 92
5.1 Optometric consultation room and standard vision chart 105
5.2 Transcript 1a 107
5.3 Transcript 1b 108
5.4 Transcript 2a 110
5.5 Transcript 2b 111
5.6 Deus Oculi by Jason Cleverly 113
5.7 Transcript 3a 113
5.8 Transcript 3b 115
5.9 Transcript 4 – Anne and Megan at Hendrickje Stoffels 117
7.1 Images of the piece and of the hanging of the artwork 147
7.2 Excerpt 1 151
7.3 Excerpt 2 152
viii List of figures
7.4 Fragment of transcript 155
7.5 View of the exhibition 157
7.6 View of the exhibition 158
8.1 Left: the fear inducing prow-board in its prime. Right: an
example ofa ‘crepuscular object,’a worn-down prow-board in
an ethnographic museum 166
8.2 The different material components of the Mona Lisa 171
8.3 Left: Mona Lisa’s ‘cracked’ smile. Right, detail of the 11 cm
crack reaching the forehead of the Mona Lisa 172
8.4 Left: the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. Right: the recently restored
copy at El Prado 173
8.5 Portrait of a man in red chalk, by Leonardo. Red chalk on
paper. 33.3 cm x 21.3 cm 174
8.6 Paris’s climatic conditions versus ideal object-sustaining
conditions for oil paintings 178
8.7 Top: inside the ceiling, infrastructure designed to transform
natural light into ‘aesthetic light.’ Bottom left: zenithal
aperture on top. Bottom right: cross-section of the full
architecture of containment 179
8.8 CrowdsswarmingtheSalledesÉtats infrontoftheMonaLisa 180
8.9 Testing the new LED light 182
8.10 Left: Mona Lisa under ultraviolet light: the pink spots show
some of the retouches made to the painting over the years.
Right: back of the poplar panel, with brace inserted 186
8.11 Map of forces acting on the panel and their resulting
movements. Bottom left: measuring variation with a specially
designed device called the ‘Jocondometer.’ Bottom right: new
Bluetooth-equipped crosspiece 187
9.1 Martin Fröhlich, Between Time and Space, 2015 206
9.2 Giorgio Olivero, Fabio Franchino (ToDo), Magnetic
Drawbot, 2015 207
9.3 Yvonne Weber, Topografia della luce, 2015 208
9.4 Giovanni Anceschi, Strutturazione cilindrica virtuale a due
cilindri, 1965–1966 209
9.5 Giovanni Anceschi, Serena Cangiano, Davide Fornari,
Esacono, 2015 210
10.1 The engine room in the basement of the Gallery of
Contemporary Art in Hamburg 220
10.2 Sketch of the positioning of the Dripstone Machine in the
Gallery of Contemporary Art in Hamburg 221
10.3 The biotope in the entrance hall of the Gallery of
Contemporary Art in 1996 222
10.4 Dripstone experiment in a refrigerator from 1987 224
10.5 Bogomir Ecker, Prognose. Tropfsteinmaschine 2068–2119, 1995,
ink and oil chalk on paper, 30 x 21 cm 228
List of figures ix
10.6 Plates of aluminum with schematic depictions of the operating
instructions for the Dripstone Machine 231
10.7 Bogomir Ecker in the engine room 233
11.1 Paul Vanouse: Latent Figure Protocol pET-11a.6.08.09,
commonly referred to as “Chicken and Egg.” Photography/
lightbox, 2009 243
11.2 Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand: Camera Lucida:
Sonochemical Observatory 244
11.3 HannesRickli:Videogramme,HelmhausZürich2009.Viewof
Installations: Tub gurnard (front); honey bee (middle);
RemOs1 (back); common mosquito, ormia (left); African
tilapia (right) 245
11.4 Title page, Journal for Artistic Research (JAR), Issue 1 (2011) 247