¿Arte?Art?
Brief description.
Technical, aesthetic and conceptual development
Good. I would like to start this work, writing or “work” by talking a little about it.
Art? Art? It is a static or dynamic image, whatever the person wants. It is developed completely with the “JavaScript” programming language, using the “p5js” library. It consists of simple figures and lines, nothing more than that.
To carry it out, I found myself in the task of educating myself and researching about “Computer art”, “Computer art”, “Multimedia”, “Media-art”, since we see ourselves crossed by all these concepts that Brea names us, in “Brief (and messy) anti-glossary - or dictionary of topics on electronic art”. But all these concepts come later.
The first thing that was done was to look for references in the field. Along the way I met Ben Laposky, Frieder Nake and Michael Noll. These 3 “artists”, if you have to call them that, were the ones who inspired me to do the work, taking from each of them some characteristic element. I hope I have been able to honor them, if that is the case.
As we had as reference authors who carried out their work with the technology of that time (1960s), it was decided to refrain from color, trying to generate some type of sympathy with the works of yesteryear.
The work, in addition to an academic interest, had its origin in some reflections based on 2 texts written by Jose Luis Brea: “Brief (and disorderly) antiglossary – or dictionary of topics – on electronic art” (2002) and “Redefinition of artistic practices (s. 21)” (2008). These writings generated two basic questions in me: What is Art? Am I an artist?
Brea, in “Redefinition of artistic practices” tells us: “There are no longer “artists”, as such. There are only producers, people who produce. There are also no “authors”, any idea of authorship has been overwhelmed by the logic of circulation of ideas in contemporary societies.”. What does Brea want to tell us with this statement? When saying “artists no longer exist”, does art exist? Because then we would have to think about what it means to be an artist. Is the person who makes art an artist? Or should they be called “producers”? This question crosses us as future “artists”. Because if that were the case, and there were no more artists, why is the degree called “Multimedia Arts”? These questions were present throughout the process of creating the work and I wanted to recreate those questions by having the user interact with the work, giving it a form and meaning different from mine, perhaps becoming the artist, perhaps.
By saying: “There are no <<works of art>>. There are work and practices that we can call artistic.”, it can be understood that art does not exist, or at least not as one conceives it. So, if there are no “works of art,” why did Brea previously devote an entire text to talking about different electronic artistic practices? It is interesting to think about art but without works, but work. Therefore there are no longer “artists”, but rather producers. And these producers do not “create” works, but rather work and practice practices that could be considered artists. In short, a reflection of a society that is constantly changing, and nothing seems to be clear.
Thank you so much.
Literature
BREA, José Luis. (2002). “Breve (y desordenado) antiglosario –o diccionario de tópicos- sobre el arte electrónico” en La era postmedia. Acción comunicativa, prácticas (post)artísticas y dispositivos neomediales. Salamanca: CASA Editorial, pp. 4-8.
BREA, José Luis. (2008). “Redefinición de las prácticas artísticas (s. 21)” en El tercer umbral. Estatuto de las prácticas artísticas en la era del capitalismo cultural. Murcia: CENDEAC, pp. 106-113.