Page 58 - Studio International - November 1970

It might conceivably represent an unconscious
longing for precisely the experience Burn-
ham's position excludes. 'Software', he writes,
`is about experiencing without the mental cues
of art history'. But of course! It is 'about'
experiencing! It does not occur to Burnham
that many others have experiences that are not
about experiences and that such experiences
rarely need the mental cues of art history that
only the art historian, the academic, and the
intellectualistic need to have an experience at
all. It seems almost certain when Burnham
writes of 'conceptual and process relation-
ships which on the surface seem totally devoid
of the usual art trappings' that he secretly
harbours resentments of which he knows very
little, in relation to what he calls 'the usual
art trappings'.
It is curious that cyberneticians, notably
W. Grey Walter, have had cause to recognize
the aspects of aesthetic experience inherent in
their discipline via their unexpected expe-
riences with their hardware. Such empirical
experiences, clearly described and then
4
Agnes Denes Dialectic Triangulation: A Visual Philosophy carried over from previous art experiences'. analysed, bear much more conviction than the
5
Allan Kaprow This doctrine, with its traditional emphasis on indirect ratiocination applied to a number of
Work, a Happening 1969 art history as the source of knowledge about transactions, such as those in this exhibition,
(Photo credit 1, 4, 5: Shunk-kender)
art, is in direct conflict with the testimony of which are for very various reasons of great
buttress an adaptation of an ancient philo- most artists, who seize the moment of insight interest. Quite aside from the natural delight
sophical paradigm, the triangle. Her Dialectic and recognize its novelty; its flight from all any visitor to a science fair has in being
Triangulation comes curiously near to the traceable sources; its final and utter myste- invited to press the buttons all by himself,
metaphysical speculations of Kandinsky riousness. What Burnham calls the 'art expe- there is the added pleasure of exercising the
(whose own triangular dialectics dealt with rience' more than once in his writings is, I mind. The Aristotelian principle of potentia is
the same basic philosophical categories) and suspect, inaccessible to him and many of the active throughout the exhibition, and potentia
to non-computerized philosophical specula- others who wish to substitute the intellectual never fails to excite the curious mind. Burn-
tion of the traditional order. Applied science excitement of other kinds of experiences for ham's relentless campaign to somehow induce
and technology: the remarkable Vision Sub- this rare but eternally renascent aesthetic the world to reject 'art trappings' in favour of
stitution System, developed for the blind, in emotion. By associating the 'object' with the cybernetic processes seems a waste of valuable
which the system takes in images on a tele- art, as though the object impeded the phan- rhetorical energy. Exclusion is not in the least
vision camera, translates them into vibrations tasm that is the art in an object, they are able necessary. As John Cage and most sages in
which are conveyed to the skin of the subject's to see progress by the dissolution of the object. history have always tried to emphasize.
back. And the dazzling Colour-in-Colour But the object was never the object of art. Any Burnham's worry that the wrong kind of atten-
machine which translates into full colour any more than the word adjacent to the word was tion will be paid to his various interests is too
two- or three-dimensional object that can fit its the object of poetry. much with him (all those scornful references
8 in. by 10 in. format. He protests too much. He might take it for to 'art authorities' who fail to see the possi-
FEEDBACK: granted that lively intelligences would be bilities for artists in technology are suspiciously
Although many of the exhibits Burnham stimulated by Software, which is enough. The defensive).
selected admittedly have dubious connections various didactic points he wishes to make are The wrong kind of attention is inevitable, but
with aesthetics, and some have none at all, he already legitimized precisely by the history of so is the right kind. This very Software
returns again and again to the problem of art. the arts of the twentieth century. No one would exhibition begins with the wrong note, but
In the Software texts, as well as in his previous reproach the participants for exploring the that doesn't detract from the rightness of the
writings, Burnham reveals a fixed notion of realm of synesthesia in this day and age. No show itself. The caricature of sagaciousness
what art was, in that era before electronics. one would object to the stimulation of sensory that introduces the show is signed by the
According to him, it was something inherent awareness, which after all is a tool in many Chairman of the American Motors Corpora-
in an art object. It was, as he says, 'a dialectic crafts, used by mimes and actors, circus tion, sponsors of the show, and underlines the
or a series of dialectical syntheses tied into a acrobats and architects alike to sharpen their gross inequities never to be banished from the
single object'. This object he associates with a performance. Even the voyeurism, exemplified realm of intelligence (as well as the paradox of
myth of the art object, which has now been in Les Levine's listening device for overheard the contraries 'systems' can contain) :
bypassed in favor of the myth of the anti- telephone conversations, is a point worth `Software', writes the chairman, 'is an exhibi-
object or conceptual object—software. More- making, especially in a political context. His tion which utilizes sophisticated communica-
over, the art object in his eyes, was something oranges and lemons, all in the same basket, tions technology, but concentrates on the
apprehended largely through historical eyes are all right, even if they are forced into a interaction between people's electronic and
that had been thoroughly conditioned. system which seems not quite complete. Why electromechanical surroundings. This is the
For Burnham, the only value inherent in the then does he, and certain others, persist in same exploration, in human factors, which we
bypassed art was the value deposited by past associating all these sensory and intellectual use in the engineering design of our auto-
experience and knowledge. As he says, 'for adventures with some elusive but resonant mobiles as a human environment I' q
sophisticated viewers, contexts are implicitly term called art ? DORE ASHTON