Theatres of/as Art and Artificial Life
Symposium:
- ISEA2011: 17th International Symposium on Electronic Art
- More presentations from ISEA2011:
Session Title:
- VIDA: New Discourses, Tropes and Modes in Art and Artificial Life Research
Presentation Title:
- Theatres of/as Art and Artificial Life
Presenter(s):
Venue(s):
Abstract:
Panel: VIDA: New Discourses, Tropes and Modes in Art and Artificial Life Research
Staging artificial and hybrid lives is the stuff of the ancient human pursuit called theatre. This art form has left us a legacy of puppets, automats, effigies, corporeal and intangible agents which inhabit and compellingly bring to life un- or other-worldly spaces. Consequently, theatrical creations and metaphors provide useful frameworks for setting current art and artificial life endeavours into a broader cultural perspective, serving as sounding boards for our notions of liveliness. For Gilbert Simondon, “The living entity maintains within itself a permanent activity of individuation; it is not just the result of individuation, like the crystal or molecule, but it is the theatre of individuation.” (L’Individu et sa Genese Physico-biologique).
Theatre is thus posited as a locus of constant emergence, identified with live being and with being alive. Notions of boundaries, of open and closed systems, of dynamic models and more or less autonomous, in vivo projections, are common to theatre and artificial life research. Evolving definitions of theatre which accommodate contemporary live arts and artifacts, that engage (with) living processes beyond the confines of static institutional architectures, can nurture and productively inform the ways we think about art and artificial life. My panel presentation will focus on a number of VIDA projects, reading them through the lens and terms of theatre to enrich interpretations of their manifold meanings. In this way, I hope to underline the conceptual originality of these recent experiments in art and artificial life, while indicating their genealogical connections to the more archaic cultures and practices of theatre.