A different way of seeing

6.2 A different way of seeing!

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Many artists today are described as working in the same spirit as scientists with ideas to define new realities, incorporating the ideas of communication, interactivity and Foresta (1991) describes how the ´collective definition of reality.

Art and Science are jointing in defining a potential new paradigm of global dimensions. For perhaps 20 years now, artists have been experimenting with communications technology, trying to create new environments for interactive work, over coming long distances and cultural differences to see whether it is in fact possible to redefine creative reality´. ¹²²

Figure 15: Interactive virtual space

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Figure 15 illustrates an interactive virtual space suggestive of the possibility ¹²³ that two people in differing locations can be linked in a virtual space, which poses questions on the definition of reality and perception of experience.

Foresta, D. (1991), p141.

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Ibid, p143.

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Foresta (1991) describes how ´electronic space already destroys geography through transmission, gravity and the horizon through the elimination of the proscenium stage, time through editing´. The proscenium is a metaphorical vertical plane of space in a theatre, which is observed by the audience observes from a more or less unified angle during a theatrical performance. It can be considered as a social construct which divides the actors and the world on the stage from the observers in the audience. By questioning the traditional view of the observer of reality, we are able to question and constantly redefine the definition of the real, Therefore, electronic space can be undefined is geographically undefined, historically independent and potentially able to exist outside of the usual linearity of time. Each individual perspective on reality can be seen to be connected to multiple additional realities, resulting in a multidimensional virtual experience:

´The manipulation of the real, through its passage into the virtual, is the surrealist´s dream, and the recreation of space is one of the most important underlying psychological concepts of these new means of creation.´ ¹²⁴

In the world of realtime reporting, it is often difficult to distinguish the truth (post-truth from a post-Trump perspective) from the conspiracy. A good personal example of this the enduring personal interest in the work of the philosopher Walter Benjamin (introduced in section 3.3). As an art student in the 90´s at the Central St Martins Art School, where his essay entitled The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction was given equal importance to Contemporary Art as The Ways of Seeing by John Berger. Instead of being from the early 70´s in parallel to the work of John Berger, was actually from the mid 30´s! And the

Foresta, D. (1991), p143.

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writer had died during the Second World War in Portbou in Southern Spain, prior to the invention of photocopy machines, personal printers, digital photography, animation, video editing, three-dimensional printing etc that had dominated the interests of author and her contemporaries at art school in the 90

´s. Benjamin wrote that:

´even with the most perfect reproduction, one thing stands out: the here and now of the work of art - its unique existence in the place where it is now.´ ¹²⁵

This has extreme contemporary relevance, that the artists of the moment are inextricably linked to the moment that is represented in their artwork. The best artists will also be revolutionary and visionary in their approach, connected to the future both of through their vision and concept, but also by their process and selection of materials. Tyson clearly closely bridges the past and the present within his artworks. Benjamin states that:

´even if the circumstances into which the technological reproduction of the work of art may be introduced in no way impair the continued existence of the work otherwise…The genuineness of a thing is the quintessence of everything about it since its creation that can be handed down, from its material duration to the historical witness that it bears. …Nothing else, admittedly; however, what starts to wobble thus is the authority of the thing. We can encapsulate what stands out here by using the term aura. We can say: what shrinks in an age where the work of art can be reproduced by technological means is its aura.´ ¹²⁶

Benjamin, W. (1936), p231.

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Benjamin, W. (1936), p232-233.

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An aura can be described as a distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround a work of art or a place. Benjamin described how:

´Imperialistic war is a rebellion on the part of a technology that is collecting in terms of human material the claims that society has absented from its natural material. Rather than develop rives into canals, it diverts the human stream to flow into the bed of its trenches; rather than scatter seeds from its aeroplanes, it drops incendiary bombs on cities; and in gas warfare it has found a new way of eliminating aura.´ ¹²⁷

This text expresses a predominately Post-modern Realist perspective by contrasting the vision and beauty of working with Nature to build Landscapes with the reality of human civilisations to continually destroy and remove the magical essence of the natural world. As a German Jewish philosopher who died during the Second World War at the hands of a fascist regime, who wrote these lines when faced with his own mortality and potentially that of his race, is a wake up call to artists to face the reality of our times. Not be complacent and focus on pretty Landscape paintings without depth of meaning, political comment or indeed significance. We need to be bold and face the uncomfortable truths of our time, embrace the vision for the future offered by science whilst honouring the historical realities of our intellectual ancestors.

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Tyson explores some of the most fundamental preoccupations of our shared human experience in his work, taking the universe and our place in it as his subject. Gilmore and Howarth (2017) describe how his fascination with infinity, the nature of being and the origins of life serve to map the artists daily existence, to consider universal equations whilst reveal an at once acting as a

Ibid, p258.

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space to consider ubiquitous questions whilst simultaneously presenting a kind of emotional headline of the day. Keith Tyson explains: ¹²⁸

´there are lots of abstract ideas that I read about, or think about in science, or physics, that are impossible to visualise. I love the idea of trying to visualise ten dimensions, or an infinite number plane. So in this one (October, 2006; ´The shattered Integer Plane Repairs´) I imagine the whole number plane as a sheet of glass. So, between every number there is an infinite number of numbers, and if it was smashed and put back together and it didn´t quite fit, what would it be that was shining through? Working on that I end up with this form.

The ´Pop´ element, its formal nature, happens by default. It just intuitively had to be that way´.¹²⁹

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6.3 Responding to new technologies and

In document Contemporary Landscape Painting (sider 104-108)