This article discusses the relationship between art, technology, and human content in an age of telematic networking and digital media. It questions whether there is still "love" or meaningful human experiences in artistic works that are highly technological and interactive in nature. The author argues that in telematic art, meaning is created through the interaction between the user and the system, rather than being fixed by the artist. The content of such works is constantly changing. Overall, the article examines how telematics is shaping new forms of art, communication, and cultural paradigms.

1. Is There Love in the Telematic Embrace?
Author(s): Roy Ascott
Source: Art Journal, Vol. 49, No. 3, Computers and Art: Issues of Content (Autumn, 1990),
pp. 241-247
Published by: College Art Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/777114 .
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2. Is There Love in the
TelematicEmbrace?
By Roy Ascott
he pastdecadehas seen the two power- doubt, but the question in human terms, work but because content is embodied in
ful technologies of computing and from the point of view of cultureand cre- data that is itself immaterial, it is pure
telecommunications converge into one ativity,is: Whatis the content? electronic difference,until it has been re-
field of operationsthat has drawninto its This question, which seems to be at the constitutedat the interfaceas image, text,
embraceotherelectronicmedia, including heart of many critiques of art involving or sound. The sensory outputmay be dif-
video, sound synthesis, remote sensing, computersand telecommunications,sug- ferentiated furtheras existing on screen, as
anda varietyof cyberneticsystems. These gests deep-seated fears of the machine articulatedstructureor material, as archi-
phenomena are exerting enormous influ- coming to dominatethe humanwill and of tecture, as environment, or in virtual
ence uponsociety andon individualbehav- a technological formalismerasing human space.
ior; they seem increasingly to be calling contentand values. Apartfromall the par- Such a view is in line with a more gen-
into questionthe verynatureof whatit is to ticulars of personal histories, of dreams, eral approachto art as residing in a cul-
be human, to be creative,to think and to desires, and anxieties that informthe con- tural communicationssystem ratherthan
perceive, and indeed our relationshipto tentof art'srich repertoire, question, in
the in the art object as a fixed semantic
each otherandto theplanetas a whole. The essence, is asking:Is therelove in the tele- configuration-a system in which the
"telematic culture"that accompaniesthe matic embrace? vieweractivelynegotiatesformeaning.3In
new developmentsconsists of a set of be- this sense, telematicnetworking makesex-
haviors, ideas, media, values, and objec- n the attemptto extricatehumancontent plicit in its technology and protocolswhat
tives thataresignificantlyunlikethose that fromtechnologicalform, the questionis is implicitin all aestheticexperiencewhere
have shaped society since the Enlighten- made more complicatedby our increasing that experience is seen as being as much
ment. New cultural and scientific meta- tendencyas artiststo bring togetherimag- creativein the act of the viewer'spercep-
phors and paradigmsare being generated, ing, sound, and text systems into interac- tion as it is in the act of the artist'sproduc-
new models and representations reality
of tive environments exploit state-of-the-
that tion.4 Classical communications theory
are being invented, new expressivemeans art hypermedia and that engage the full holds, however,that communicationis a
are being manufactured. sensorium,albeit by digital means. Out of one-waydispatch,fromsenderto receiver,
Telematics is a term used to designate this technological complexity, we can in which only contingent "noise" in the
computer-mediated communications net- sense the emergence of a synthesis of the channelcan modifythe message (oftenfur-
working involving telephone, cable, and arts. The question of content must there- ther confused as the meaning) initiatedat
satellite links betweengeographicallydis- fore be addressedto what might be called the source of transmission.5This is the
persedindividualsand institutionsthatare the Gesamtdatenwerk-the integrated model that has the artist as sender and
interfacedto data-processingsystems, re- data work-and to its capacity to engage thereforeoriginatorof meaning, the artist
mote sensing devices, and capaciousdata- the intellect, emotions, and sensibility of as creatorand owner of images and ideas,
storagebanks. It involves the technology the observer.2Here, however,more prob- the artistas controllerof context and con-
of interactionamong human beings and lems arise, since the observerin an interac- tent. It is a model that requires, for its
betweenthe humanmind andartificialsys- tive telematic system is by definition a completion,the vieweras, at best, a skilled
tems of intelligence and perception. The participator. a telematicart, meaningis
In decoder or interpreter of the artist's
individualuser of networksis always po- not somethingcreatedby the artist,distrib- "meaning" or, at worst, simply a passive
tentially involved in a global net, and the uted throughthe network,and receivedby receptacleof such meaning. It gives rise to
world is always potentially in a state of the observer. Meaning is the product of the industryof criticism and exegesis in
interaction with the individual. Thus, interactionbetween the observer and the which those who "understand" or that this
across the vast spread of telematic net- system, the contentof which is in a stateof work of artexplain it to those who are too
worksworldwide,the quantityof datapro- flux, of endless change and transforma- stupid or uneducatedto receive its mean-
cessed and the density of informationex- tion. In this condition of uncertaintyand ing unaided. In this scenario, the artwork
changed is incalculable. The ubiquitous instability,not simply becauseof the criss- andits makerareviewedin the samewayas
efficacy of the telematic mediumis not in crossing interactionsof users of the net- the world and its creator.The beauty and
Fall 1990 241

3. truth of both art and the world are "out In the contextof telematicsystems andthe where the metaphorof verticality is em-
there"in the world and in the work of art. issue of content and meaning, the parallel ployed insistently in its monuments and
They are as fixed and immutable as the shift in art of the status of "observer"to architecture-emblems often as not of ag-
materialuniverseappearsto be. The canon that of "participator" is demonstrated gression, competition,anddominance,al-
of determinism decrees prefigured har- clearly if in accountsof the quantumprin- waysof a tunnelvision. The horizontal,on
mony and composition, regulated form ciple we substitute "data" for "quanta." the otherhand, is a metaphor the bird's-
for
and continuity of expression, with unity Indeed, findingsuch analogiesbetweenart eye view, the all-over, all-embracing,ho-
andclarityassuredby a culturalconsensus and physics is more than just a pleasant listic systems view of structures,relation-
and a linguisticuniformitysharedby artist game;the web of connectionsbetweennew ships, and events-viewing that can in-
and public alike. models of theory and practice in the arts clude the ironic, the fuzzy, and the
andthe sciences, overa wide domain,is so ambiguous.This is preciselythe condition
he problem of content and meaning pervasiveas to suggest a paradigmshift in of perceptionand insightto which telema-
within a telematicculturegives added our world view, a redescriptionof reality tic networkingaspires.
anda recontextualization ourselves. We
of Perhapsthe most powerfulmetaphorof
poignancy to the rubric "Issues of Con-
tent" underwhich this presentwriting on begin to understand that chance and interconnectedness the horizontalem-
and
chaos and indeterminacy,tran- bracein art before the adventof telematic
computersand artis developed:"issue" is change, and transformation, imma-
scendence the mediais to be foundin the workof Jackson
open to a pluralityof meanings, no one of terial and the numinous are terms at the Pollock.'l Here the horizontal arena, a
which is satisfactory.The metaphorof a
semantic sea endlessly ebbing and flow- center of our self-understanding and our space marked out on the surface of the
ing, of meaning constantlyin flux, of all new visions of reality. How then, could earth, is the "ground"for the action and
there be a content-sets of meanings- transformation that become the painting
words, utterances,gestures, andimages in containedwithin telematicartwhen itself. Pollock created his powerfulmeta-
a state of undecidability, tossed to and fro every
into new collusions and conjunctions aspect of networkingin dataspaceis in a phors of connectedness by generating
within a field of human interactionand state of transformation of becoming?
and fields of intertwining,interweaving,bran-
The verytechnologyof computertelecom- ching, joining, colliding, crossing, linking
negotiation, is found as much in new municationsextends the lines of energy.His space is inclusive and
science-in quantum physics, second- gaze, transcends
order cybernetics,6 or chaology,7 for the body, amplifies the mind into un- inviting, his imagery carries a sense of
example-as in art employing telematic predictableconfigurations thought
of and anonymityof authorship embracesthe
that
creativity. viewerin the creationof meaning.Nothing
concepts or the new literarycriticismthat In the recent history of Westernart, it in painting could be more emblematicor
has absorbedphilosophyand social theory
was Marcel Duchamp who first took the prophetic of the network consciousness
into its practice. This sunrise of uncer-
metaphor the glass, of the window onto
of emergingwith the telematic culture.
tainty, of a joyous dance of meaning be- the world, and turnedit back on itself to
tween layersof genre and metaphoricsys-
revealwhatis invisible. We see in the work his provenance telematicculture,as
of
tems, this unfolding tissue woven of a known as TheBride
StrippedBare by Her spiritualor transcendent its force as
in
multiplicity of visual codes and cultural Bachelors, Even, or The
Large Glass, a the Navajo sand painting to which it, in
imaginationswas also the initial promise field of vitreous
of the postmodernprojectbefore it disap- reality in which energy turn, owes allegiance, is perhaps more
and emotion are generatedfrom the ten- readilyunderstood we areable to see the
if
peared into the domain of social theory, sion and interactionof male and female,
ubiquitousspreadof computercommuni-
leaving only its frail corpus of pessimism natural and artificial, human and ma- cations networks across the face of the
and despair.
chine.9 Its subject is attraction Charles
in earthas constitutingwhatin manyesoteric
In the case of the physicists, the radical
Fourier'ssense,10or, we might even say, traditionsof both East and West would be
shift in metaphorsaboutthe worldandour
love. The Large Glass, in its transparent called a "subtlebody"12-a psychicenve-
participation its creationand redescrip- essence,
in
tion mean that science's picture window alwaysincludes both its environ- lope for the planet, a telematicnoosphere,
ment and the reflection of the observer. in Teilhardde Chardin'sterms,13or what
onto realityhas been shattered the very
by Love is containedin this total embrace;all Gregory Bateson would have described
process of trying to measure it. John that
Wheeleruses this analogy succinctly: escapes is reason and certainty.By as "mind-at-large."14 Peter Russell de-
participatingin the embrace, the viewer scribes the emergence of a planetary
Nothingis moreimportant aboutthe comes to be a progenitorof the semantic consciousness:
quantumprinciple than this, that it issue. The glass as "ground"has a func-
As communications networks in-
destroysthe concept of the world as tion andstatusanticipating of the com-
that
crease, we will eventually reach a
"sittingout there,"withthe observer putermonitoras a screen of operations- point where the billions of informa-
safely separated from it by a 20- of transformations-and as the site of in-
tion exchanges, shuttling through
centimeterslab of plate glass. Even teractionandnegotiationfor meaning.But the networks at any one time, can
to observeso minusculean object as it is not only throughthe Glass thatwe can
createcoherencein the global brain,
an electron, he must shatter the see Duchampas propheticof the telematic similarto those found in the human
glass. He must reach in. He must mode. The very metaphorof networking brain. 15
install his chosen measuringequip- interaction in a field of uncertainty,in
ment. It is up to him whetherhe shall which the observeris creatorand meaning This suggests equally the need for a re-
measureposition or momentum... is unstable, is implicit in all his work. descriptionof human consciousness as it
the measurementchanges the state Equallypropheticin the Glass is the hori- emerges fromthe developingsymbiosis of
of the electron. The universe will zontal bar that joins the upper and lower the humanmind and the artificialthought
neverafterwards the same. To de-
be partsof the workand serves as a metaphor of paralleldistributed processing(PDP).16
scribe whathas happenedone has to for the all-aroundviewing, the inclusive, If one of the greatritualsof emergence
cross out that old word "observer" all-embracing scope of its vision. This into a new world-that of the American
andputin its place "participator." In standsin opposition to the vertical, head- Indian Hopi-is centered aroundthe sa-
some strangesense the universeis a to-toe viewing of Renaissancespace, em- cred sipapu that connects to the Under-
participatory universe.8 bodied in the Westernpictorial tradition, worldof powerandtransformation, ourso
242 Art Journal

4. emergenceinto the new worldof telematic tion but is in the process of changing it. not primarilya thing, an object, buta set of
culturesimilarlycalls for celebrationat the The transformation entirely consistent
is behaviors, a system, actually a system of
interface to those PDP systems that can with the overarchingambitionof both art systems. Data constituteits lingua franca.
link us with superconnectivity,mind to and science throughoutthis century: to It is the agentof the datafield,the construc-
mind, into a new planetary community. make the invisible visible. Even now, it tor of dataspace.Whereit is seen simply as
Andjust as the Hopi seek to exploitthe full must be recognizedthatour humancogni- a screenpresentingthe pages of an illumi-
measureof theirexpressivemeansby join- tive processes (whetherinvolvinglinearor natedbook, or as an internallylit painting,
ing image, music, chant, and dance into a associative thought, imaging, remember- it is of no artisticvalue.Whereits consider-
holistic unity, so we too now seek a syn- ing, computing, or hypothesizing) are able speed of processingis used simply to
thesis of digital modes-image, sound, rarely carried out without the computer simulate filmic or photographicrepresen-
text, and cybernetic structure-by which being involved.19 greatproportion the
A of tations, it becomes the agent of passive
to recontextualizeour own world, thatnu- time that we are involved in communicat- voyeurism.Whereaccess to its transforma-
minous whole of all our separaterealities. ing, learning, or being entertainedentails tive power is constrainedby a typewriter
The emergingnew orderof artis thatof our interactionwith telecommunications keyboard,the user is forced into the pos-
of
interactivity, "dispersedauthorship";17 systems.20Similarly,with feeling and sen- ture of a clerk. The electronicpalette, the
the canon is one of contingencyanduncer- sing, artificial,intelligent sensors of con- light pen, and even the mouse bind us to
tainty. Telematic art encompasses a wide siderablesubtletyarebecomingintegralto past practices. The power of the com-
array of media: hypermedia, videotex, human interactionwith the environment puter's presence, particularlythe power
telefacsimile, interactivevideo, computer and to the monitoringof both internaland of the interface to shape language and
animation and simulation, teleconferenc- externalecologies. Humanperception,un- thought, cannot be overestimated.It may
ing, text exchange, image transfer,sound derstoodas the productof active negotia- not be anexaggeration saythatthe "con-
to
synthesis, telemetry and remote sensing, tion ratherthanpassive reception,thus re- tent" of a telematicartwill dependin large
virtual space, cybernetic structures, and quires, within this evolving symbiosis of measureon the natureof the interface; that
intelligent architecture.These are simply human/machine, telematiclinks of consid- is, the kind of configurationsand assem-
broadcategoriesof technologiesandmeth- erable complexity between the very div- blies of image, sound, andtext, the kind of
odologies that are constantly evolving- erse nodes of the worldwideartificialreti- restructuring and articulationof environ-
bifurcating, joining, hybridizing-at an cular sensorium. ment that telematic interactivity might
acceleratedrate. yield, will be determinedby the freedoms
At the same time, the status of the art T elematic culturemeans, in short, that and fluidity availableat the interface.
object changes. The culturally dominant we do not think, see, or feel in isola- The essence of the interfaceis its poten-
objet d'art as the sole focus (the uncom- tion. Creativity is shared, authorshipis tial flexibility; it can accept and deliver
mon carrierof uncommoncontent) is re- distributed, not in a waythatdenies the
but images both fixed and in movement,
placed by the interface.Insteadof the art- individualherauthenticity powerof self-
or sounds constructed,synthesized, or sam-
work as a window onto a composed, creation,as rathercrudemodels of collec- pled, texts written and spoken. It can be
resolved, and orderedreality, we have at tivity might have done in the past. On the heat sensitive, body responsive, environ-
the interfacea doorwayto undecidability, a contrary, telematiccultureamplifiesthe in- mentally aware.It can respondto the tap-
dataspaceof semanticand materialpoten- dividual'scapacityforcreativethoughtand ping of the feet, the dancer'sarabesque, the
tiality. The focus of the aesthetic shifts action, for more vivid and intense experi- direction of a viewer's gaze. It not only
from the observed object to participating ence, for more informed perception, by articulates a physical environment with
subject, fromthe analysisof observedsys- enabling her to participatein the produc- movement, sound, or light; it is an envi-
tems to the (second-order)cyberneticsof tion of global vision through networked ronment,an arenaof dataspacein which a
observingsystems:the canonof the imma- interactionwith other minds, other sensi- distributed art of the human/computer
terial and participatory.Thus, at the inter- bilities, other sensing and thinking sys- symbiosis can be actedout, the issue of its
face to telematic systems, content is cre- tems across the planet-thought circulat- cyberneticcontent. Each individualcom-
ated rather than received. By the same ing in the medium of data through a puter interfaceis an aspect of a telematic
token, content is disposed of at the inter- multiplicity of different cultural, geo- unity such that to be in or at any one
face by reinsertingit, transformed the
by graphical,social, andpersonallayers.Net- interfaceis to be in the virtualpresenceof
process of interaction,back into the net- working supports endless redescription all the otherinterfacesthroughout net-the
work for storage, distribution, and even- and recontextualization such that no lan- work of which it is a part. This might be
tualtransformation the interfaceof other
at guage or visual code is final andno reality defined as the "holomatic" principle in
users, at other access nodes across the is ultimate.In the telematic culture,plur- networking. It is so because all the data
planet. alism and relativism shape the config- flowing through any access node of the
A telematic network is more than the urationsof ideas-of image, music, and networkare equally and at the same time
sum of its parts, more than a computer text-that circulatein the system. held in the memory of that network:they
communicationsweb. The new order of It is the computerthat is at the heartof can be accessed, throughcable or satellite
perception it constitutes can be called this circulationsystem, and, like the heart, links, from any part of the planet at any
"global vision," since its distributedsen- it worksbest when leastnoticed-that is to time of day or night, by users of the net-
sorium and distributed intelligence- say,when it becomes invisible. At present, work (who, in orderto communicatewith
networkedacross the whole planetas well the computeras a physical, materialpres- each other, do not need to be in the same
as reaching remotely into galactic space ence is too much with us; it dominatesour place at the same time).
and deep into quantumlevels of matter- inventory of tools, instruments, appli- This holomaticprinciplewas well dem-
togetherprovidefor a holistic, integrative ances, and apparatusas the ultimate ma- onstratedduring the Venice Biennale of
viewing of structures,systems, and events chine. In our artisticand educationalenvi- 1986, when the "Planetary Network"
that is global in its scope. This artificial ronments it is all too solidly there, a projecthad the effect of pullingthe exhibi-
extension of human intelligence and per- computationalblock to poetry and imag- tion from its ratherelite, centralized, and
ception, which the neuralnets of PDP and ination. It is not transparent, is it yet
nor exclusive domainin Venice and stretching
sophisticatedremote-sensingsystems pro- fully understoodas pure system, a univer- it out over the face of the globe;21the flow
vide,18not only amplifies humanpercep- sal transformative matrix.The computeris of creative data generatedby the interac-
Fall 1990 243

5. the traditionaland costly annual issue of
printed directories), through its acceler-
ated developmentas a consumerand mar-
keting tool, to a games machine, a refer-
ence library,a dating service, and now an
instrument the new art.
of
Earlier, in 1983, for the exhibition
"Electra"at the Musee d'ArtModere de
la Ville de Paris, the interfacefor the inter-
national telematic project La Plissure
du texte (a planetary fairy tale created
by means of a "dispersed authorship"
through electronic networking) involved
little morethanthe orthodoxcomputerter-
minal and keyboard.22A data projector
carriedthe text to a public dimension, dra-
matizing its electronic presence, which
was at once ephemeraland concrete.With
many participants on line throughout
America,Europe,andAustralia,this was a
perfect vehicle to involve both artists and
public in the layering of texts and in the
Figure 1 View of the "Laboratory semantic ambiguities, delights, and sur-
Ubiqua" (planetarynetworkingand computer-
mediatedsystems), Venice Biennale, 1986. prises thatcan be generatedby an interac-
tive authorshipdispersed throughout so
many culturesin so many remote partsof
the world. Like most telematicprojectsof
the early 1980s, however,the project was
limited to the text for technical and finan-
cial as much as for conceptualreasons.
A more elaborate and complex multi-
mediainterfacewas createdfor the project
Aspects of Gaia: Digital Pathwaysacross
the WholeEarth as part of the Ars Elec-
tronicaFestival of Art and Technology in
Linz, Austria,in 1989.23The transmission
of digital image and sound by file transfer
and the computerstorage of telefacsimile
materialvia modem, by this time econom-
ically feasible, invited the creation of a
more dramaticand engaging environment
for public participation. Invitationsto par-
ticipate in the project were e-mailed,
faxed, or airmailedto "artists, scientists,
poets, shamen[sic], musicians, architects,
visionaries, aboriginalartistsof Australia,
native artistsof the Americas." The sub-
ject of the projectwas the many aspects of
the earth,Gaia, seen froma multiplicityof
spiritual, scientific, cultural, and myth-
ological perspectives. An energizing
Figure 2 Roy Ascott, Organe etfonction dAlice aux pays des merveilles, 1985, streamof integrateddigital images, texts,
videotex. Fromthe "Les Immateriaux" exhibition, CentrePompidou,Paris, 1985. and sounds (a Gesamtdatenwerk) would
then constitutea kind of invisible cloak, a
digital noospherethat might contributeto
tion of artistsnetworkingall overthe world teriaux"at the CentrePompidouin Parisin the harmonization the planet. In access-
of
was accessible everywhere (fig. 1). Set 1985 can be cited for its effective use of a ing the meridiansat variousnodes, partici-
withinthe interactive environment"Labo- domesticterminalinterfacing public vid-
a pantsbecame involvedin a formof global
ratoryUbiqua," a wide rangeof telematic eotex service (fig. 2). It involvedthe use of acupuncture,their interactions endlessly
media was involved, including electronic the FrenchnationalMinitel system as the and
transforming reconstituting world- the
mail, videotex, digital-image exchange, network for on-line interaction between wide flow of creativedata.
slow-scanTV, andcomputerconferencing. artists "in" the exhibition and the large Congruentwith the structuralform of
Interactive videodiscs, remote sensing populationof Minitel subscribersdistrib- the Brucknerhaus (site of the festival) as a
systems, and cybernetic structureswere utedthroughout greater
the Parisregion. In metaphor of curving space-time, the
also included. this case the culturalinterfacehad devel- public-interface installationin Linz was on
On a simplerand publicly more access- oped fromits humblebeginningsas an on- two levels, reflectingthe layeringof mate-
ible level, the telematicprojectdevised by line telephone-directory terminal (in- rial thatthe projectwas intendedto gener-
Art Acces for the exhibition "Les Imma- stalledfree for PTT subscribers place of
in ate. The upperlevel investigatedthe poten-
244 Art Journal

6. tial of the digital screen seen on the of La Plissure du textefor "Electra"andof
horizontal,large-scaleformat,ratherthan the "PlanetaryNetwork" and the "Labo-
the more familiarverticalmonitorpresen- ratoryUbiqua" in Venice. It is a process
tation (fig. 3). Giving the public a bird's- that is at the center of much research,de-
eye view of images networkedin from all velopment, design, production, and pre-
overthe planet(fig. 4), the largehorizontal sentationin many fields of artisticand sci-
screens were set into "informationbars" entific endeavor.24 is also a process that
It
aroundwhich viewers could sit-on high can include the client, consumer,user, or
stools, as if at a cocktail bar-gazing not viewerfromthe very start.In the telematiz-
into an alcoholic haze but into pure ation of the creative process, the roles of
dataspace.The networkedimages that ap- artistand viewer, designer and consumer,
peared were then changed by means of become diffused; the polarities of maker
acoustic sensors fed to appropriatesoft- and user become destabilized. This will
ware(in the formof small microphonesset lead ultimately,no doubt, to changes in
on the counter top of the bar) or were status, description, and use of culturalin-
modifiedwith line and color by means of a stitutions:a redescription(and revitaliza-
mouse manipulatedby the viewer across tion, perhaps) of the academy, museum,
the countertop. Thus, interaction voice
by gallery, archive, workshop,and studio. A
and gesture led to the creationof new im- fusion of art, science, technology, educa-
ages that could then be retrievedby the tion, and entertainmentinto a telematic
computer and stored pending their even- fabric of learning and creativity can be
tual insertion back into the planetary foreseen.
network.
The interfaceon the lowerlevel involved
a railwaytrackcurvingthrougha long, low
Figure 3 Roy Ascott, Aspects of Gaia To theof an that such a global vi-
sion
objection
art is
(upperlevel), 1989, computer-mediated emerging planetary
tunnelthatflankedthe building, carryinga interactiveinstallation.Fromthe "Ars uncritically euphoric, or that the pros-
flatbed trolley (upholsterednot unlike an Electronica"exhibition, Linz, Austria, pectus of a telematic culturewith its Ges-
analyst'scouch), which enabled each par- 1989. of
amtdatenwerk hypermediated virtualre-
ticipant to glide effortlessly through a alities is too grandiose,we shouldperhaps
darkenedacousticalspace, looking up at a remindourselves of the essentially politi-
series of flickering LED signs scrolling digital sound and image, electroacoustical cal, economic, and social sensibilities of
texts drawnfrom the networkof inputs all and mechanical structures, and software those who laid the conceptualfoundations
over the world. This was Gaia's womb, a design-was achieved "remotely" by of the field of interactive systems. This
kind of telematic, neolithic passageway computer-conferencenetworking among cultural prospectus implies a telematic
(fig 5). their widely dispersedgeographicalloca- politic, embodying the features of feed-
The design and productionof the inter- tions. The same telematic process of de- back, self-determination, interaction,and
face as a whole-involving the collabora- sign andconsultationthroughinternational collaborative creativity not unlike the
tion of artistsandtechniciansworkingwith networkswas involved in the preparation "science of government"for which, over
Figure 4 Miles Visman, computer-generated
image for the Aspects of Gaia projectby
Roy Ascott. Fromthe "ArsElectronica"exhibition, Linz, Austria, 1989.
Fall 1990 245

7. interactiveinstallation.Fromthe
Figure 5 Roy Ascott, Aspects of Gaia (lower level), 1989, computer-mediated
"ArsElectronica"exhibition, Linz, Austria, 1989.
150 years ago, Andre Marie Ampere hyperreality-wherein interaction with where imagination, desire, and will can
coined the term "cybernetics"-a termre- otherswill undoubtedlybe experiencedas reengage the forces of space, time, and
invigorated and humanized by Norbert "real," andthe feelings andperceptionsso matterin the battlefor a new reality.
Wiener in this century.25 Contraryto the generatedwill also be "real."The passage
rather rigid determinism and positivism fromreal to virtualwill probablybe seam- The digital matrix that brings all new
thathave shapedsociety since the Enlight- less, just as social behaviorderived from electronic and optical media into its
enment, however,these featureswill have human-computer symbiosis is flowing un- telematicembrace-being a connectionist
to accommodate notions of uncertainty, noticed into our consciousness. But the model of hypermedia-calls for a "con-
chaos, autopoiesis, contingency, and the very ease of transitionfrom "reality" to nectivecriticism."The personalcomputer
second-order cyberneticsor fuzzy-systems "virtuality"will cause confusion in cul- yields to the interpersonal
computer.Serial
view of a world in which the observerand ture,in values, and in mattersof personal data processing becomes parallel distrib-
observed, creator and viewer, are inex- identity.It will be the role of the artist, in uted processing. Networks link memory
tricably linked in the process of making collaborationwith scientists, to establish bank to memory bank, intelligence to in-
reality-all our many separaterealitiesin- not only new creativepraxesbut also new telligence.Digital image and digital sound
teracting,colliding, re-forming,and reso- value systems, new ordinancesof human find their common ground, just as a syn-
nating within the telematic noosphere of interaction and social communicability. thesis of modes-visual, tactile, textual,
the planet. The issue of contentin the planetaryartof acoustic, environment-can be expected
this emergingtelematiccultureis therefore to "hypermediate"the networked sensi-
VW ofthese"real"in the phenomenol-
ithin
tus the
separaterealities,the sta- the issue of values, expressedas transient
hypotheses rather than finalities, tested
bilities of a constellation of global cul-
tures. The digital camera-gathering still
ogy of the artworkalso changes. Virtual within the immaterial, virtual, hyper- and moving images from remote sensors
space,virtualimage, virtualreality-these realitiesof dataspace.Integrityof the work deep in space, or directed by human or
are categories of experience that can be will not be judgedby the old aesthetics;no artificialintelligenceon earth, seeking out
sharedthroughtelematicnetworks,allow- antecedentcriteriacan be applied to net- what is unseen, imaging what is
ing for movement through "cyberspace" work creativitysince there is no previous invisible-meets at a point between our
and engagementwith the virtualpresence canon to accommodateit. The telematic own eyes and the reticularretinaof world-
of others who are in theircorporealmate- process, like the technologythatembodies wide networks, stretchingperceptionlat-
riality at a distance, physically inaccess- it, is the product of a profound human erally away from the tunnel vision, from
ible or otherwise remote.26The adoption desirefor transcendence: be out of body,
to the Cartesiansight lines of the old deter-
of a headset, DataGlove, or other data out of mind, beyond language. Virtual ministic era. Our sensory experience be-
wear can make the personal connec- spaceanddataspace constitutethe domain, comes extrasensory,as our vision is en-
tion to cyberspace-socialization in previouslyprovidedby myth and religion, hanced by the extrasensory devices of
246 Art Journal

8. telematic perception. The computerdeals world process of autopoiesis, planetary tal imaging of moder supercomputers
invisibly with the invisible. It processes self-creation. through common silicon, which serves
those connections, collusions, systems, them both as pigment and processorchip,
forces and fields, transformations and he technology of computerizedmedia is more than ironic whimsy. The holistic
transferences, chaotic assemblies, and and telematic systems is no longer to ambition of Native American culture is
higher orders of organizationthat lie out- be viewed simply as a set of rathercompli- paralleled by the holistic potentiality of
side our vision, outside the gross level of catedtools extendingthe rangeof painting telematic art. More than a technological
materialperceptionaffordedby ournatural and sculpture,performedmusic, or pub- expedientfor the interchangeof informa-
senses. Totally invisible to our everyday lished literature.It can now be seen to tion, networkingprovides the very infra-
unaided perception, for example, is the supporta whole new field of creative en- structure for spiritual interchange that
underlyingfluidity of matter,the indeter- deavorthat is as radically unlike each of could lead to the harmonizationand cre-
minate dance of electrons, the "snap, those establishedartisticgenres as they are ative development of the whole planet.
crackle,and pop" of quanta,the tunneling unlike each other. A new vehicle of con- Withthis prospectus,howevernaively op-
and transpositions, nonlocal and super- it
sciousness, of creativity and expression, timistic and transcendental may appear
luminal, that the new physics presents. has enteredour repertoire being. While in our current fin-de-siecle gloom, the
of
It is these patterns of events, these new it is concerned with both technology and metaphorof love in the telematic embrace
exhilarating metaphors of existence- poetry, the virtual and the immaterial as may not be entirely misplaced.
nonlinear, uncertain, layered, and dis- well as the palpableand concrete,the tele-
continuous-that the computer can re- maticmaybe categorizedas neitherartnor
describe. With the computer,and brought science,while being allied in manywaysto
togetherin the telematic embrace,we can the discourses of both. The furtherdevel- Roy Ascott, Gastprofessor founding
and
hope to glimpse the unseeable,to graspthe opment of this field will clearly mean an head of the LehrkanzelfiirKommunika-
ineffable chaos of becoming, the secret interdependence artistic, scientific, and tionstheorieat the Hochschulefiir ange-
of
orderof disorder.And as we come to see technological competencies and aspira- wandteKunstin Vienna,is also head of
more, we shall see the computerless and tions and, urgently,on the formulation a fine art at GwentCollege of Higher Educa-
of
less. It will become invisible in its imma- transdisciplinary education. tion in Wales.He is currentlyguest editing
nence, but its presencewill be palpableto So, to link the ancient image-making a special issue of thejournal Leonardo
the artist engaged telematically in the processof Navajosandpaintingto the digi- on art and telecommunications.
Notes
1 The neologism "telematique"was coined by Si- 10 Charles Fourier (1772-1837). His "system of ligence Debate (Cambridge:MIT Press, 1988).
mon Nora and Alain Minc in L'Informatisation de passionateattraction"(elaboratedin Theoriedes 20 Koji Kobayashi,Computers and Communications
la societe (Paris: La Documentation Frangaise, quatres mouvementset des destinees generales (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1986).
1978), 2. [Paris:Bureauxde la Phalange, 1841], 7) sought 21 Roy Ascott, "Art,TechnologyandComputerSci-
2 The Germanword "Gesamtkunstwerk" used was universalharmony. ence," in XLIIEsposizioneInternazionaledArte
by RichardWagnerto referto his vision of a "total 11 ElizabethFrank,JacksonPollock(New York:Ab- (Venice:Biennale di Venezia, 1986), 17. The in-
artwork"integrating music, image, and poetry. beville Press, 1983), 8. ternational commissionersfor the 1986 Biennale
3 HumbertoR. Maturanaand FranciscoJ. Varela, 12 David V. Tansley,SubtleBody (London:Thames wereRoyAscott, Don Foresta,TomSherman,and
The Treeof Knowledge:The Biological Roots of and Hudson, 1977), 9. TomasoTrini.
Human Understanding (Boston: Shambhala, 13 Pierre Teilhardde Chardin, The Future of Man 22 Roy Ascott, "La Plissuredu texte," in FrankPop-
1987), 4. (New York:Harperand Row, 1964), 9. per, ed., Electra (Paris:Musde d'ArtModere de
4 RolandBarthes, "FromWorkto Text," in Image- 14 Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind la Ville de Paris, 1983), 18.
Music-Text, trans.StephenHeath(New York: Hill (San Francisco:ChandlerPress, 1972), 9. 23 Roy Ascott, "Gesamtdatenwerk: Konnektivitit,
and Wang, 1977), 4. 15 Peter Russell, The AwakeningEarth (London: Transformation und Transzendenz," in Kunst-
5 C. E. ShannonandW. Weaver, Mathematical
The Routledge, 1982), 9. forum 103 (September/October 1989): 18 (project
Theoryof Communication (Urbana:Universityof 16 JamesL. McClelland,DavidE. Rummelhart, and by Roy Ascott in collaboration with Peter Ap-
Illinois Press, 1949), 4. the PDP Research Group, Parallel Distributed pleton, Mathias Fuchs, Robert Pepperell, and
6 Heinz von Foerster, Observing Systems (New Processing, vol. 1 (Cambridge: MIT Press, Miles Visman).
York:Intersystems, 1981), 5. 1986), 10. 24 Stewart Brand,TheMediaLab (New York:Viking
7 James Gleick, Chaos (New York: Heinneman, 17 The term was first proposed in Roy Ascott, Penguin, 1987), 21.
1987), 5. "Art and Telematics: Towardsa Network Con- 25 NorbertWiener,Cyberneticsor Controland Com-
8 J. A. WheelerandW. H. Zurek,Quantum Theory sciousness," in Art Telecommunications,ed. munication in the Animal and Machine (Cam-
and Measurement (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Heidi Grundmann(Vancouver:Western Front, bridge:MIT Press, 1948), 22.
UniversityPress, 1983), 6. 1984), 10. 26 VPL Research, Inc., of Californiademonstrated
9 See Michel Sanouillet, ed., Salt Seller: The Writ- 18 PaulJ. Curran,Principlesof RemoteSensing(New "shared virtual reality" and "walk-throughcy-
ings of Marcel Duchamp, (Marchand du Sel) York:Longman, 1985). berspace" at Texpo '89 in San Francisco, June
(New York:Oxford UniversityPress, 1973), 7. 19 Stephen R. Graubard,ed., The Artificial Intel- 1989.
Fall 1990 247