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| TechArt | |
|---|---|
| Name | TechArt |
| Focus | Intersection of technology and art |
| Country | Global |
TechArt
TechArt refers to practices at the intersection of Leonardo da Vinci, Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, Steve Jobs, Nikola Tesla-inspired engineering, and contemporary artistic production; it encompasses works exhibited at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, and Guggenheim Museum and curated by figures associated with MoMA PS1, Serpentine Galleries, Whitney Museum of American Art, V&A, and Hammer Museum. It draws on histories linked to events like the World's Columbian Exposition, Documenta, Venice Biennale, and Ars Electronica while engaging technologies developed at organizations such as Bell Labs, MIT Media Lab, CERN, IBM Research, and Xerox PARC.
TechArt spans cross-disciplinary practices where creators deploy tools developed in contexts including Silicon Valley, Shenzhen, Tokyo, and Berlin to produce works shown at venues like MoMA, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and festivals such as South by Southwest, SXSW Sydney, Sónar, and Burning Man. It incorporates research lines from laboratories such as MIT Media Lab, Fraunhofer Society, Max Planck Society, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and references historical figures like Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Nam June Paik, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and Harun Farocki. Practitioners often collaborate with corporations including Google, Microsoft, Apple Inc., Intel, NVIDIA, and Amazon as well as with academic departments at Harvard University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, and Yale University.
Roots can be traced to proto-technology artists and engineers associated with Edison Laboratories, Bauhaus, Dada, and exhibitions curated by Alfred Stieglitz and Solomon R. Guggenheim. Mid-20th-century developments involved figures and organizations such as Nam June Paik, John Cage, Fluxus, Brooklyn Museum, Guggenheim Foundation, Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, and events like Documenta 5, Venice Biennale 1968, and Expo 67. Late 20th- and early 21st-century growth accelerated through associations with Ars Electronica Festival, ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Walker Art Center, Serpentine Galleries', and collaborations with NASA, European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN, and tech companies like Apple Inc. and Google X. Influential exhibitions and publications by curators such as Hans Ulrich Obrist, Nicholas Bourriaud, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Beryl Graham, and organizations like New Museum charted conceptual shifts linked to movements in postmodernism, cybernetics, and new media art.
Techniques include algorithmic composition pioneered in contexts like Bell Labs and MIT, interactive installation practices associated with Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and Golan Levin, robotic sculpture linked to Stelarc and Hito Steyerl, generative visuals using platforms from Adobe Systems and Processing Foundation, and immersive experiences facilitated by Oculus VR, HTC Vive, and Magic Leap. Media span digital fabrication via MakerBot, Stratasys, and Ultimaker, bioart experiments involving labs such as Eugene Thacker-adjacent collectives and institutions like BioCurious and Genspace, sound art practices related to Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Stockhausen, as well as projection mapping employed in projects linked to teamLab and festivals such as Royal de Luxe appearances and Sónar showcases. Techniques draw upon programming languages and environments like Python (programming language), JavaScript, C++, Processing (programming language), OpenFrameworks, and tools developed at MIT Media Lab and ICREA labs.
Practitioners associated with TechArt include historical and contemporary figures displayed at institutions like Tate Modern and MoMA: Nam June Paik, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Olafur Eliasson, Jenny Holzer, Marina Abramović, Hito Steyerl, Stelarc, Golan Levin, Christiane Paul, Casey Reas, Ben Fry, Victor Burgin, John Maeda, Esther Dyson, Ellen Sandor, Theo Jansen, teamLab, Random International, James Turrell, Anish Kapoor, Bill Viola, Laurie Anderson, Trevor Paglen, Lawrence Malstaf, Julian Oliver, Sarah Sze, Harun Farocki, Tomas Saraceno, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Eva and Franco Mattes, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Eva Hesse-adjacent practitioners, and collectives such as Blast Theory, Graffiti Research Lab, Knowbotic Research, The Yes Men, Critical Art Ensemble, Art+Com, and Do It (instructions)-style projects. Movements often invoked include Fluxus, Conceptual art, Cybernetics, Generative art, Net.art, Post-Internet art, BioArt, and Relational Aesthetics.
TechArt has influenced public programming at institutions including Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, British Museum, De Appel, Kunsthalle Basel, and Walker Art Center and shaped curricula at Rhode Island School of Design, Royal College of Art, Goldsmiths, University of London, Columbia University School of the Arts, and School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Its works circulate through commercial galleries such as Gagosian Gallery, Pace Gallery, David Zwirner Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, and auction houses like Sotheby's and Christie's. Critics writing in outlets like Artforum, Frieze (magazine), The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Le Monde debate TechArt’s role relative to exhibitions at Venice Biennale, Documenta, and Manifesta, while policy discussions at bodies like the European Commission, UNESCO, and National Endowment for the Arts address funding, public access, and preservation.
Debates involve collaborations with corporations such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, NVIDIA, and Microsoft over sponsorship and surveillance implications highlighted by scholars at Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Oxford, and Yale University. Ethical questions arise in bioart and human-subject work associated with BioCurious, Genspace, and artists connected to Tomas Saraceno and Stelarc; data-driven pieces provoke scrutiny from legal frameworks like General Data Protection Regulation and oversight bodies including European Data Protection Board and Federal Trade Commission. Debates also reference controversies linked to exhibitions at MoMA PS1, Serpentine Galleries, Tate Modern, and incidents involving protests at Venice Biennale and legal challenges adjudicated in courts such as the European Court of Human Rights and national courts in United States, United Kingdom, and Germany.