Laruelle: Against the Digital by Alexander R. Galloway (original) (raw)

Technology and Culture, 2016

Abstract

as they happen.” PAMAL has three interconnected axes: on conservation/ restoration/archeology of media; Digital Art Vanishing Ecosystem, which seeks through artistic experimentation to reenact and develop work with a particular interest in the glitch (the MCD issue has a number of interesting discussions on bugs and glitches); and a third, which is curatorial and exhibition theory and practices. The archaeology of media field is beneficiary of the long life expectancy of a generation of pioneers, many of whom are living and active in their 80s and 90s and in a position to “push back” on the young historians, curators and theoreticians trying to write multiple narratives of our art, science, technology fields of practice. By coincidence, the exhibition Primary Codes ran 15 June–16 August 2015 at Oi Futuro Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with staging of early work by Frieder Nake, Paul Brown, Harold Cohen and Ernest Edmonds—all four early pioneers in computer arts and still very active; these four artists have plenty to say on how the archeologists of media misinterpret or misread developments in which they were players. As pointed out by Kittler, Huhtamo, Grau and others, many of the underlying cultural imaginaries have long histories, particularly as they are tied to emerging recording and transmission technologies in the 19th century. Yet often current artistic work is driven by a sense of ahistorical immediacy (e.g. the current déjà vu of Oculus Rift). As I have argued elsewhere, we are seeing the development of what might be called the “hard humanities,” where historians and theoreticians find themselves not only articulating narratives of the past but also being asked to be prescriptive on future cultural change and innovation. In this we benefit not only from the pioneers still alive and able to challenge our interpretations but also the creation of hybrid spaces where artists, historians, theoreticians and curators work elbow-to-elbow, if not linking arms. b o o k s

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