La solitude des machines: Digital Art and the Ontology of Indeterminacy
The article explores the paradox of digital art, which is both programmed and indeterminate, arguing that digital art is not a medium but an ontology. It discusses works like Google Will Eat Itself (2008), which uses Google ads to buy Google shares, and Every Icon (1997), a grid of 32 pixels that will take 5.85 billion years to display all combinations. The text references Bernard Stiegler, Andy Warhol's Empire (1964), Roman Opalka's 1-∞ series (1965-2011), Jim Campbell's Photo de ma mère (1996), and Gustav Metzger's Machine, Auto-Creative and Auto-Destructive Art (1962). It introduces the concept of 'machine solitude' through works like The Outland (2009) and Capture (2009), a fictional rock band that produces an overwhelming amount of music and merchandise. The article concludes that digital art's self-consuming nature leads to a new relationship between aesthetics and ontology, a 'world without us'.
Key facts
- Google Will Eat Itself (2008) is an automated system that uses Google ad profits to buy Google shares.
- Every Icon (1997) by John F. Simon Jr. is a grid of 32 pixels that will take 5.85 billion years to display all combinations.
- Roman Opalka's 1-∞ series (1965-2011) involved numbering canvases daily, digitizing existence.
- Jim Campbell's Photo de ma mère (1996) uses the artist's heartbeat as a variable to make an image appear and disappear.
- Gustav Metzger's Machine, Auto-Creative and Auto-Destructive Art (1962) anticipated the relationship between self-regulation and self-destruction.
- The Outland (2009) is a closed simulator that presents an inaccessible interiority, suggesting machine solitude.
- Capture (2009) is a fictional rock band that produces so much music and merchandise that the public cannot perceive it all.
- The article argues that digital art is not a medium but an ontology, and that it can affect the world beyond representation.
Entities
Artists
- Bernard Stiegler
- Andy Warhol
- Roman Opalka
- Jim Campbell
- Gustav Metzger
- Michaël Sellam
- Olia Lialina
- Dragan Espenschied
- John F. Simon Jr.
- Grégory Chatonsky
- Reynald Drouhin
- Gerhard Richter
- Jean-François Lyotard
- Quentin Meillassoux
- Gilbert Simondon
- Michel Serres
- Alain Badiou
- Martin Heidegger
- Frédéric Lordon
- Anne Sauvagnargues
- Emmanuel Kant
- Henri Bergson
- Jeremy Rifkin
Institutions
- Merz Akademie
- Éditions de Minuit
- Seuil
- Gallimard
- Puf
- La Découverte
- La Fabrique
- Galilée
- Éditions Elektra
Locations
- Taipei
- Taiwan
- London
- United Kingdom
- New York
- United States
- New Jersey
Sources
- artpress —