An increasing number of contemporary artists engage in the practice of science and technology, and some of them even actively participate in the practice of science, for instance as an artist-in-residence or artist-in-the-lab. This course will address the consequences of this engagement for art, art history and art theory. The course will touch upon the question what it means that artists are now able to work with materials that have never been traditional art materials; these are materials other than all kinds of new media or other technological innovations already used by artists for some decades. Science and technology have always provided the means for artists to work with – from silver point and oil paint to all kinds of synthetic materials and imaging software. What we have always seen and will see is that artists constantly want to and try to incorporate new technological means for artistic representational purposes; this incorporation or rather transformation of technological innovations into artistic instruments or means is part of the historical transformation of art itself. Many of today’s multimedia art forms are even unthinkable without modern technology. In this course, what we will consider as new art materials, or perhaps better non traditional art materials, are materials which application in art is so new and unexpected that the application is more problematic and has far more reaching consequences than the use of for instance new digital imaging software. We will discuss the use of living material, biological material or even animals as material and means for art. There are a number of so-called bio artists who work with living material. The application of living material as an art material pose questions and problems to artists and to art historians and theoreticians to which they do not always have an answer or solution. This in contrast to the far more unproblematic incorporation by artists of innovative technological developments that we saw in art history so far. To understand the contemporary relationship between art and science, the course will also introduce an historical perspective on the relationship between art and science
Timetable
Thursday, 13.00-15.00 h.
Lipsius building, room 204
Method of Instruction
Seminar
Course objectives
The aim of this elective is to acquire knowledge of and insight in contemporary art practices that engage in science and technology. The student is able to grasp the discourse and to position her/himself within this new field of art. S/he can delineate a field of research and formulate a problem/thesis to research. S/he is able to write a well structured paper with apparatus, in which the aforementioned thesis has been researched.
Required reading
Anker, Suzanne and Dorothy Nelkin (2004). The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age. New York: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
Examination
Contributions to class discussion, presentations and paper
Information
Prof.dr. Rob Zwijnenberg, email: r.zwijnenberg@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Pallas Secretary’s Office, tel. 071 5272166, pallas@hum.leidenuniv.nl