Page 75 - Studio International - September October 1975

behavioural sciences we mean Construction project.: It only community to experience a work
cybernetics, learning theory and acquired the prefix 'Edinburgh' which puts them at the level of the
Interview cognitive psychology. Meta when it was set up there. This man in the street, since Meta
Filter makes use of concepts from
Filter does not employ any of the
project could be set up in any
between learning psychology, which is town if certain social conditions specialized languages of art and
only a small part of the existed. no special knowledge of art is
Steve Willats behavioural sciences. It seemed J.W. In any form of participatory required on the part of its users.
necessary for me as an artist to art there is a more radical J.W. When you talk about the
and extend my language and to division of labour between the artist taking note of the
develop informational tools artist and the spectator than language of his audience do you
John A. Walker beyond those inherited from the occurs in the interaction with mean their familiarity with life-
past. If one attempts to change traditional artworks. One codes?
the goals and functions of art and criticism which has been levelled S.W. Yes. People code their
the area of society in which it against participatory art is that worlds — the way they dress, the
J.W. Meta Filter appears to operates then such issues as the the artist relinquishes too much kind of house or car they choose,
address a central problem of our languages people use, how they control over what happens. Does how they decorate their homes —
society caused by the fact that acquire information and change this criticism have any validity? in accordance with their
different groups interpret the their attitudes become relevant. S.W. cannot predict exactly how aspirations. What may seem to
world in different ways. It seems These issues have been studied by someone will respond to the them simple decisions actually
healthy to have a pluralistic communication theorists and situations I present them with, involve complex social
society but the resulting variety of their findings would seem but in constructing my works 1 mechanisms. By using such life-
interpretations is a source of pertinent to the artist because he take this fact into account. Hence codes an artist manipulates
conflict. Since the operators of is also concerned with I exercise far more control than languages which are immediately
Meta Filter try to reach an communication. those who use traditional artistic meaningful to the audience from
agreement in relation to their J.W. Scientific theories can be strategies. The use of task- which the codes were derived, in
perceptions of the world can one tested experimentally, whereas in orientated or participatory contrast to the specialized art
say that its aim is to overcome art there is no equivalent method techniques and the references to codes which the audience would
pluralism ? for measuring the success or learning theory means that one is have to learn. This change in the
S.W. No. The work accepts failure of an artwork. By what entering the world of engineering the artist/audience relationship
relativism and is a product of a criteria does one measure the — that is, the engineering of imposes new responsibilities on
pluralistic social setting. It does success or failure of your works ? human response. One could argue the artist: he is required to specify
not attempt to legislate a S.W. In this instance any test that this is what artists have been his audience, to undertake
particular viewpoint to its must be measured against the concerned with all along. research, to engage in
audience: instead, it directs the intentions of the artist. When a However, although reconnaissance even before an
audience's perception towards a work is transferred from one set sophisticated technology is artwork is conceived. Mind you,
context and provides them with of criteria to another, that is, pertinent to the artist he is not we are talking about two kinds of
the means to internalize that away from the original intentions concerned with extending the work here: firstly, works like Meta
context in whatever way is of the artist, then we no longer behavioural sciences but with Filter, a neutral mechanism which
meaningful to them. In this sense have a measure. We can only rely furthering the realm of art. To do is loaded with references by its
the work has a 'floating base line'. upon intelligent hunches in so he needs a methodology and audience; and secondly, works
What is agreed between the two estimating the subsequent effect tools. By adopting those provided like the West London project,
operators will vary from couple to of artworks on the future by the behavioural sciences he is which brings itself to bear on the
couple and one response is not behaviour of an audience. able to exercise more considered world of its audience directly by
preferable to another response. However, I have done some control than hitherto. functioning within it. (See Studio
This does not mean however that research on the success rate of J.W. In your writings you have International, January 1973,
the work is a pointless exercise. In traditional methodologies of art attacked avant-garde art for being pp. 26-8).
directing attention to a particular and they compare unfavourably inward-looking and in your own J.W. In reality we read life-codes
way of perceiving a person's with those employed in my work you have attempted to look directly, whereas in Meta Filter
world the work presents them projects. outwards, to reach an audience the codes are mediated by
with a question mark. The two J.W. It seems to me that there is a normally ignored by photography. Doesn't this
parties construct in stages a joint problem in understanding a work contemporary artists. is this the complicate the interpretative
picture of that part of their world such as Meta Filter. For example, major reason for adopting process?
which is in question. not much is gained by looking at artistic strategies which differ S.W. It is true that coded
J.W. The photographic images the physical exterior or indeed by markedly from those used by the behaviour is read indirectly via
employed in Meta Filter are cool examining the electronic circuits artists of the past ? photographs, but human beings
and neutral in tone. Would the which make up its interior. One S.W. Yes. The methods developed excel in making inferences about
work operate in the same way needs to operate the machine for for Victorian drawing-rooms and reality from limited data. I don't
with more loaded images, say at least a couple of hours before salons are now inadequate. They think therefore the photographs
images of violence or of one begins to appreciate its were developed within a rarefied constitute a barrier. Each snap
immigrants? structure. world of art institutions and in was chosen with great care in
S.W. It is doubtful if it would. S.W. I agree, Meta Filter is not social groupings with a vested order to minimize the distortion
The neutralism of the immediately available to its interest in art. Such methodologies inherent in photography. To cope
photographs is deliberate — it audience in the way that a are totally inappropriate to a with reality human beings have to
enables the operators to overcome painting on a wall is because it context in which people have a reduce its variety to a set of
their inhibitions. In this sense the involves a process through time. low priority for art and in which simple representations, thus
work is more subtle than it might But this has the advantage that the specialized languages used by producing a symbolic world from
at first appear, because there are the operators can self-pace their contemporary artists are which complex actions can
no situations which are not cognitive re-orderings in the unknown. In such situations the be initiated. Meta Filter
loaded. Meta Filter makes loaded course of internalizing their artist has to consider the formalizes this natural process.
situations acceptable by conceptions of the work The language of his audience, J.W. I take it that your aim is not
presenting them in an abstracted, physical machine is not seen as whereas previously he could take merely to reinforce people's
generalized form. important except as a means of it for granted because he existing life-codes but somehow
- J.W. How did you obtain the achieving a set of re-orderings. functioned in a world in which his to change them ?
terms in the thesaurus? J.W. You have been producing audience had sufficient S.W. Yes. I hope to initiate
S.W. The words in the thesaurus works involving a high degree of motivation to attend to his work. changes in the way they perceive
are those commonly used to spectator participation for some My aim is to externalize art from these codes so that they can make
describe our perceptions of other years now. One drawback of such this confined situation. inferences from them to other
people; they simply derive from projects, it seems to me, is that J.W. But Meta Filter is to be coding structures and also re-
our general vocabulary. they are 'one-off.' If a work is displayed in an art context. Is order their codes according to
J.W. I wondered whether they time-based, only participants have there not a contradiction here? needs and priorities they have
were derived from the textbooks direct experience and knowledge S.W. Not really, because Meta developed. A person's social
of the behavioural sciences, of it. The rest of us have to be Filter will be shown in various reality is, to an extent, pre-
because these sciences do seem to content with documentation. contexts of which the art gallery determined. The purpose of my
be a great source of inspiration S.W. I don't agree, because my is but one. For example, f plan to works is to make people aware of
for your work. Am I wrong in works can be re-established. For house it in an articulated lorry the relationship of codes to needs,
seeing the behavioural sciences as example, the Edinburgh Social and set it up in residential to enable them to re-order their
a kind of subject matter? Model Construction project was neighbourhoods. It may be coded worlds.
S.W. That is a mistake. By the originally called 'Social Model salutary for the members of the art

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